A Midsummer Night's Dream (1959)

Genres - Fantasy, Children's/Family, Comedy  |   Sub-Genres - Comedy of Errors, Romantic Comedy  |   Run Time - 90 min.  |   Countries - Czechia  |   MPAA Rating - NR
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Synopsis by Hal Erickson

This 1961 adaptation of Shakespeare's magical comedy of errors was performed entirely by puppets. Let's qualify that: the puppets are of the stop-motion variety, expertly manipulated into "humanity" by Czech animator Jiri Trnka. The adaptation is faithful to the text, while the technique allows a wider range of visual delights than any previous movie Midsummer--and an eminently convincing man-to-jackass transformation for vainglorious amateur thespian Bottom. The English-language version of this Czech animated feature was directed and adapted by Howard O. Sackler, best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning play The Great White Hope. Richard Burton provided the narration for this version, which was issued in 1963 and is still in circulation.

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Keywords

fairy, mistaken-identity, wedding, fantasy, forest, king, puppet [doll], romance