Review of The Happy Prince

"The Happy Prince" is a Canadian English-language film from 1974, so this one is slowly moving towards his 50th anniversary. The writer and director is Michael Mills and it is one of his most known works and this one he made right between his 2 Academy Award nominations. It is based on a story by Oscar Wilde and the cast includes Oscar winner Christopher Plummer and Oscar nominee Glynis Johns, both at an ancient age these days, especially the latter. Their work here only runs for 25 minutes and is a story about the unusual friendship between a swallow and a statue. There are several Christmas references in here, which makes it a mostly good watch for the holidays. I personally had problems here to get really emotional, mostly because the statue character did not do really much for me at all. But maybe it is just me. The story as well as retro animation were definitely on the strong side and this film is one piece of evidence that the 1970s weren't that bad either when it comes to animation, even if the Golden Age was long over already. I think that is all. Music, voice acting and some previously mentioned factors make up for some weaknesses with the characters. I give this television special a thumbs-up and recommend checking it out.