SHAKESPEARE COMEDIES: THE ANIMATED TALES (1992)

Cast

Plot

One part of a highly acclaimed series of abridged Shakespearean tales, which can be used either as an introduction to the bard's work, or (due to the skilful animation) can provide a fascinating alternative interpretation. For those that don't remember; Twelfth Night, Malvolio is the malevolent in the fancy trousers, and the eligible Olivia is in love with Viola (a girl dressed as a boy) who is in love with a man who thinks she's a man. As You Like It revolves around the relationship between perennial pessimist Jaques and Rosalind, a feckless but wise optimist. Hilarity ensues... A Midsummer Night's Dream involves two sets of couples (Hermia and Lysander, and Helena and Demetrius) whose romantic cross-purposes are complicated still further by their entrance into the fairyland woods where the King and Queen of the Fairies (Oberon and Titania) preside. The Taming of the Shrew tells the tale of Petruchio, a poverty stricken gentleman who, seeking a rich wife, ends up with Katharina, a wild, hell-raising 'shrew'. Their courting is a war of wit and determination in this send-up of male chauvinism. A Winter's Tale follows the complications that arise from King Leontes' and his Queen's friendly attentions to the visiting King of Bohemia. Despite a trial at which the Oracle from Delphi declares the Queen guiltless, the King banishes her. Their young son, Mamillius dies of grief but the Queen's newborn baby daughter, Perdita, is snatched from death by a Bohemian shepherd who raises her his daughter. There's a time lapse of sixteen years between the Queen's banishment and the story's long-delayed happy ending...