Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971) on Netflix
G19711h 30mFamilyFantasyMusical
A shy Beatrix Potter watches her toy animals come to life as a ballet. Jemima Puddle-Duck, Pigling Bland, Squirrel Nutkin and Jeremy Fisher dance their tales in animal costume.
- Netflix3.0/5
- IMDb6.7/10719 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Trailer
Plot summary
Five of Beatrix Potter's tales are told as dances with no dialogue by ballet dancers in animal masks and full costume. Jemima Puddle-Duck, Pigling Bland, Jeremy Fisher, Squirrel Nutkin and the two bad mice, Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca, each have their story staged, with Peter Rabbit appearing among them. The young Beatrix Potter ties the pieces together from her room, where her imagination sets the animals moving. Music drawn from operas and other works carries the action, and the dances include Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca wrecking a collection of plaster food and a midnight pas de deux for Pigling Bland and Pigwig.
Cast
- Alexander Grantas Pigling Bland / Peter Rabbit
- Julie Woodas Mrs. Tittlemouse
- Keith Martinas Johnny Townmouse
- Ann Howardas Jemima Puddleduck
- Bob Meadas Fox
- Garry Grantas Alexander
- Sally Ashbyas Mrs. Pettitoes / Tabitha
- Brenda Lastas Black Berkshire Pig
- Lesley Collieras Hunca Munca
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Tales of Beatrix Potter (1971)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Reginald Mills was one of British cinema's great editors, having cut The Red Shoes in 1948 and other Powell and Pressburger films built around ballet. This Potter ballet is the only feature he ever directed.
- Beatrix Potter's publisher Frederick Warne refused Richard Goodwin and Christine Edzard flatly at first. The estate had already turned Walt Disney away, fearing he would distort the books, and only Edzard's sketches and ideas began to change their minds.
- The couple spent a year preparing the film before terms with the estate were settled, a gamble Goodwin admitted would have ruined them had Warne said no. Bryan Forbes put the price they finally paid for the screen rights at just £5,000.
- The film was green-lit almost by accident. Bryan Forbes, then head of production at EMI Films, had complete artistic control over anything budgeted under £1 million, so he could approve it although the EMI board was unenthusiastic and Nat Cohen had never heard of Beatrix Potter.
- There was no conventional screenplay. Christine Edzard, who also designed the production and the costumes, drew more than two hundred sketches, and the working script was assembled from them, juxtaposing five Potter tales including Jemima Puddleduck, Pigling Bland and Squirrel Nutkin.
- The animal heads worn by the Royal Ballet dancers were made by Rostislav Doboujinsky out of bicycle helmets, polystyrene and hand-sewn hair, with the eye holes covered in gauze. When the film was later staged, the masks had to be rebuilt from moulds of the originals with a wider field of vision.
- The film won its executive producer one of the biggest properties of the decade. John Brabourne said Agatha Christie granted him the screen rights to Murder on the Orient Express because she had liked The Tales of Beatrix Potter.
