The Man Who Walked Between the Towers
Tags: psychedelic

Plot synopsis:
The Man Who Walked Between The Towers follows the French street performer Philippe Petit in an illustrated children's book made by author Mordicai Gerstein. Philippe Petit had an idea to walk a wire between the twin towers and acted upon it with much planning and setting up. He had once walked a wire on the Notre Dame where he lived in Paris, France. Early on an August morning, since the towers were not quite finished, Philippe Petit and his friend dressed up as a construction worker and went up the south tower. They got a 440 lbs of cable into the elevator. Took it to the top 10 floors and waited until nightfall. Then they carried everything up 180 stairs into the roof. At midnight, two more friends came to help and tied a line through an arrow and shot it across to Philippe 140 feet away. It missed and landed on a ledge who crawled down the ledge of the tower to get the arrow. To the line he attached a stronger line, whom his friends pulled back and he tied it to a cable that was 5/8 of an inch thick. The cable was so heavy that it took them 3 hours to secure the line from across the two towers. By past dawn of August 7, 1974, they had tightened it between the towers. Philippe then put on his black shirt and tights and picked up his 28-foot balancing pole and started walking on the wire. He felt, "Alone and absolutely free", as author Mordecai Gerstein writes. The bystanders notice someone walking between the two towers and quickly notify the police. Officers rushed to the roof of the towers and yelled to Philippe, "You're under arrest!" For almost an hour Philippe walked, danced, and leaped back and forth between the wire. He even laid down to rest. When he felt completely satisfied, he walked towards the tower and held out his wrists towards the handcuffs. They brought Philippe to court and the judge sentenced him to perform in the park for the children of the city. This he did happily. Though during his performance some kids jerked his wire and Philippe fell but caught himself. Now the towers are gone but the memory remains of August 7, 1974 when a man walked between the towers.

Review: OK, but not really my thing.. I'll immediately put up my hand and admit I only watched this because Jake Gyllenhaal narrated it. To be honest, if he hadn't and I could turn back time, I wouldn't have chosen to see it. Jake manages to put emotion and a sense of "awesome!!" into what Phillipe tries to do, but this is essentially a cartoon, and the animation ain't all that. I guess as someone brought up on Pixar I would say this, but while this style of drawing would look brilliant in a book, on film it...doesn't. However, the plot, based on the true story of someone who attempted to walk between the Twin Towers, is short but sweet. Jake's breathless will-he-won't-he attitude actually had me wanting to know whether he WOULD or not. If Jake ever gets bored with acting, he should take up voice-overs, or narrate children's books or something because he has a very radio-friendly voice. I would suggest people watch for Jake, but otherwise, only if you REALLY want to watch a French dude tight-rope walk.. Nice Way to Introduce Kids to the Event. The Man Who Walked Between the Towers (2005) *** (out of 4) The title here is the same title to the children's book, which discusses Philippe Petit's historic and now legendary walk between the two Twin Towers.This animated film lasts under ten minutes and it basically has someone reading the book to you while we get animated shots from the book. I must admit that this isn't the greatest thing ever made but I do think it would be the perfect way to introduce a kid to the events of that day. Both MAN ON WIRE and THE WALK wouldn't entertain young kids so this animated short would be perfect for them. The animation itself is rather raw but I liked that about it. It seems there are a couple versions of this out there with different narrators. Jake Gyllenhaal narrated one version but the one I've got has someone else.. A Walk to Remember. "The Man Who Walked Between the Towers" is a an animated short film from 10 years ago. The director is Oscar nominee Michael Sporn and he made this one already during the later stages of his career. He died last year. It is based on a book by Mordicai Gerstein, but even more based on actual events. Philippe Petit made this daring back in the 1970s and he we are told what it was exactly that he did and how police came to get him. I must say the animation looks certainly a lot older than 21st century. If you have a further interest in the story, you may want to check out the Oscar-winning documentary "Man on Wire" or wait for Robert Zemeckis' 2015 movie "The Walk", in which Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Petit. In any case the fact that the Towers do not exist today anymore made this walk an even more memorable achievement back then. No greatness here, but a solid cartoon that is mostly worth the watch because it's not fiction and I recommend it. Especially to fans of the actor Jake Gyllenhaal, who narrates this story here the very year he scored an Academy Award nomination for "Brokeback Mountain".. A "Welcome to the skyline" performance. (Warning: contains spoilers. Do not read if you haven't seen the film/read the book yet.)When I first heard about this story/cartoon, I wasn't so sure about it at first. But then I watched it on youtube, and wow... It was absolutely fantastic. The plot involves a real historical event with Philippe Petit and is plan to stretch a tightrope between the Twin Towers, and walk across them. He stuns people in the city below in a positive matter. But the stupid police tried to get him off, but Philippe stayed on for a full hour, until he felt completely satisfied. He was taken to court, and thankfully his only sentence was a free performance in the park, which tried to end things on a positive note. The narrator gives an excellent job of telling the story, and it gave me that sort of suspense I never thought I'd have from a children's book. It was a stunning performance, and I think it really gave the Twin Towers a good beginning to their existence. However, the only thing I'd wished was that the actual Twin Towers would've been drawn a bit better. Regardless, the story was fantastic, most of the illustrations looked nice, the narration was excellent, and it gave me some extra information on the actual event I never knew. Overall, I give it a 9 out of 10.