The Tales of Beatrix Potter

The Tales of Beatrix Potter (US title: Peter Rabbit and Tales of Beatrix Potter) is a 1971 ballet film based on the children's stories of English author and illustrator Beatrix Potter. The film was directed by Reginald Mills, choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton (who danced the role of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle), and featured dancers from The Royal Ballet. Issue 58122. The musical score was arranged by John Lanchbery from various sources, such as the operas of Michael Balfe and of Sir Arthur Sullivan, and performed by the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House conducted by Lanchbery. It was produced by Richard Goodwin with John Brabourne as executive producer. The stories were adapted by Goodwin and his wife designer Christine Edzard.
The Tales of Beatrix Potter is the only feature film directed by Mills, who is best remembered as a film editor. Mills edited The Red Shoes (1948) and other films directed and produced by Powell and Pressburger that incorporated ballet.
==Release==
The film was given a Royal premiere in front of Queen Elizabeth II on 1 April 1970.
==Reception==
===Box office===
The film was one of the most successful of the Forbes regime at EMI Films. It was one of the most popular movies in 1971 at the British box office. By June 1972 it earned EMI a profit of £18,000.
===Critical===
A 1971 review by Roger Ebert was favourable: "The stories are told simply and directly and with a certain almost clumsy charm. Instead of going for perfection in the dancing, the Royal Ballet dancers have gone for characterizations instead. The various animals have their quirks and eccentricities, and they are fairly authentic: The frog dances like a frog, for example, and not like Nureyev." Ebert rated the film with four stars (out of four). 
Anthony Nield wrote in 2011, "Tales of Beatrix Potter is one of British cinema's true one-offs, a film quite unlike any other. Ostensibly aimed at children, this adaptation of Potter’s various animal-centric stories was mounted by the Royal Ballet and choreographed by Sir Frederick Ashton. The tales are rendered as a series of dances, loosely interconnected by the author as a young girl (played by Érin Geraghty) and her active imagination. There are no words, only music and movement as the performers of the Royal Ballet—in full animal costume—interpret her stories' simple narratives."
==Awards==
The film's designer, Christine Edzard, was nominated for BAFTA awards for Best Art Direction and for Best Costume Design.
==Legacy==
John Braborne says Agatha Christie let him have the screen rights to Murder on the Orient Express because she liked Tales of Beatrix Potter.
The same team made a movie based on Hans Christian Anderson stories, Stories from a Flying Trunk (1979).
In 1992, Anthony Dowell, then Director of The Royal Ballet, produced a stage version of the film.
==Home media==
The film was released to DVD in 2004 and 2009. A digitally restored version was released as a Blu-ray DVD in 2011, in commemoration of the film's 40th anniversary.
==References==
==External links==
* 
* 
Category:1971 films
Category:Ballets created for The Royal Ballet
Category:Beatrix Potter
Category:British children's fantasy films
Category:Films shot at EMI-Elstree Studios
Category:Films based on children's books
Category:Films without speech
Category:Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer films
Category:Peter Rabbit
Category:Films about rabbits and hares
Category:Films about owls
Category:Films about squirrels
Category:Films about mice and rats
Category:Films about hedgehogs
Category:Films about frogs
Category:Films about ducks
Category:Films about foxes
Category:Films about pigs
Category:EMI Films films
Category:1970s English-language films
Category:1970s British films
Category:Films produced by Richard Goodwin (producer)