Peter & the Wolf

Peter & the Wolf (2006) is Suzie Templeton's stop-motion short you can watch online on iFILM. With no dialogue at all, it tells its story through Sergei Prokofiev's symphonic fairy tale — a boy, his grandfather and the woods beyond the gate.

Peter lives with his stern grandfather, who keeps the gate locked tight against the forest. The boy has no human friends — just a duck and a clumsy bird. Curiosity wins out, and Peter slips past the fence into a wider, colder world where a wolf is waiting. Each character rides its own orchestral instrument, the trick Prokofiev used to teach children how music works.

The half-hour film was animated frame by frame at the Se-ma-for studio in Łódź, Poland, and it took home the 2008 Academy Award for Best Animated Short. Templeton retells the classic darker and quieter than the usual children's version — closer in spirit to the Brothers Grimm. A fine pick for a family night with older kids. Stream Peter & the Wolf (2006) online on iFILM.