The Royal Ballet Company brings Squirrel Nutkin, Tom Thumb, Hunca Munca, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Jeremy Fisher, Pigling Bland, and Pigwig to the screen doing pirouettes and pas de deux in this filmed ballet production directed by Reginald Mills. The film more properly belongs, however, to choreographer Frederick Ashmore, composer John Lanchbery, and costume designer Rostislav Douboujinsky. This literal adaptation concerns the shy Beatrix Potter and how, when all of the toy animals in her room come to life, she emerges from her shell and begins to enjoy life. Sequences include a rowdy dance with Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca destroying a collection of plaster food, a midnight pas de deux between Pigling Bland and Pigwig, and a corps de ballet of dancing mice.
A costume drama / satire about financial skull-duggery, and confidence tricksters in both the upper and lower classes in Victorian London. A working class man impersonates a lord who is supposedly very rich and a financial wizard. As such he is invited to all the best peoples' parties.
Beginning in 1861 England, and moving through a number of years, a maid helps raise two children, a boy and a girl, all the time talking about her methods in doing so.
Romeo Montague and Juliet Capulet fall in love against the wishes of their feuding families. Driven by their passion, the young lovers defy their destiny and elope, only to suffer the ultimate tragedy.
Hiding out in an industrial wasteland from the murderous wrath of a regional ruler, a woman, disguised as a boy, gives wooing lessons to the edgy lad who proclaims he loves her.
A drama based on the novel by Charles Dickens which tells the story of Arthur Clennam who is thrown into a debtor's prison. There he meets a young seamstress whose father has been imprisoned for twenty-five years. A film originally released in two parts.
A short, stop-frame animation. The film uses puppets to tell Hans Christian Andersen's tale about the song of a nightingale heard by the little kitchen girl at the Emperor of China's palace.
During World War I, a Czech civilian is forced into the Austrian army. Everywhere he goes, everything he is ordered to do becomes a disaster for the Austrians. Is Schwejk astoundingly stupid or deviously defiant?
A magical blend of choreography, stop-motion and live action, Stories from a Flying Trunk captures the enchantment of three classic stories from Hans Christian Andersen. Conceived, written and directed by Oscar nominated Christine Edzard and featuring the dancers of the Royal Ballet, choreographed by Frederick Ashton.
The Kitchen contains household objects which come to life and hold an animated conversation.
The Little Match Girl updates Andersen's heart-rending tale to London's East End in the late seventies.
Little Ida is an inspired celebration of dance featuring members of the Royal Ballet.
This 37-minute 3-D Imax film adaptation from E.T.A. Hoffman's story is a straight narrative fantasy rather than a ballet. Little Clara receives a Christmas gift of a nutcracker doll and that night witnesses toys expanding in size and coming to life. The Nutcracker Prince takes Clara to his enchanted sugar castle where she meets pastry chef Sugar Plum who uses spun sugar to concoct the dancing Sugar Fairy.
The Tales of Beatrix Potter is a 1992 ballet adapted for stage by Anthony Dowell from the 1971 film The Tales of Beatrix Potter that was choreographed by Frederick Ashton that in turn was based on the children's books by Beatrix Potter.