AllMovie

The animated feature La Bergere et le Ramoneur (Shepherdess and the Chimneysweep) was one of the most expensive French films of its time. Not exactly a children's story, the film is set in an imaginary kingdom, where the despotic ruler runs roughshod over the populace. The ruler eventually meets his match in the form of a wisecracking bird. Many of the sight gags have a grim and gloomy edge to them, but this doesn't make them any less funny. English-language prints of La Bergere et le Ramoneur boasted such voiceover talents as Peter Ustinov, Claire Bloom and Denham Elliot. The original French version (with voices supplied by the likes of Pierre Brasseur and Anouk Aimee) won an award at the Venice Film Festival, despite protests from animator Pierre (Le Petit Soldat) Grimault, who grumbled that the film had been taken away from him and radically altered before its release.