My Favorite The Happy Prince Adaptations
I decided to post my favorite adaptations based on Oscar Wilde's titular story, so yeah...
1. Potterton Productions/Reader's Digest (Canada, 1974)
- Unlike the radio drama version, this is the first and only animated version of the story, directed by Michael Mills and starring the late Christopher Plummer as the Happy Prince and the Narrator and the late Glynis Johns as the Little Swallow. This version is so heartbreaking, just like in the book, and yet, the ending scene where the Leaden Heart of the Prince (later, he is now revived) and the Swallow both ascend into the heavenly realm (a bright sun usually) and live happily in the Garden of Paradise. I suggest that you get some onions and a box of tissues and watch this heartwarming adaptation to make your eyes shed tears.
2. Channel 4 Schools and CASE Television Productions (UK, 1996)
"From the creator of Fourways Farm brings you a new melodious and singing fairy tale to life"
This is my favorite 'lost' and rare adaptation of the story, but turning it into an operatic musical with PUPPETS! starring the famous LGBT singer Jimmy Somerville (falsetto) (known for his singles "Smalltown Boy" and "To Love Somebody"), William Dazeley (baritone) as the Happy Prince, and Nigel Hawthorne (known for his role as King George III in "The Madness of King George") as the Narrator.
It's a fantastic story, and some of the operatic musical animated puppets are so flawless that they sing along with this beat. A swallow's amazing voice describes Egypt, and the prince asks him to be his messenger to pick up the precious jewels and gold leaf to give to the poor people. His sapphire eyes are gone, but he is only a statue, and he is powerless to do anything because he had a good heart for the little Swallow. The Prince's operatic voice is lovely because it describes his past about his palace walls, where sadness is not permitted. It's beautiful to hear their voices, and I'm confident in the storytelling, adaptation, and magic due to the musical rhythm.
The Prince's sapphire eyes would serve as his "eye irises," allowing him to see what his townspeople were up to. Despite his smile, the Prince reveals that he is grief-stricken. Doomed to watch over the town, he has been forced to witness countless examples of man’s inhumanity to man. He begs the swallow to help him carry out an exercise in wealth redistribution. The swallow obligingly plucks precious stones from the Prince’s sword hilt and eyes and delivers them to the deserving poor.
And yes, this animated musical has puppets and uses a stop-motion technique.
I believe this was Jimmy Somerville's voice acting debut.
3. Tomorrow Studio (明日工作室) (Taiwan, 2005)
This is the first animation to be created with CGI. The animation's style most likely resembles the Korean 2000s CGI animation and Japanese 2000s CGI games, films, and OVAs, and it is a direct-to-DVD animation that is part of the multimedia book (the book is bilingual: English and Traditional Chinese, which allows the Chinese readers to learn English). The story's plot is quite faithful to the original one. After the little Swallow removed the last Sapphire from his eye and gave it to the little match girl, the little bird returned to the Prince, but the Swallow wanted to stay with him forever (because the Prince was now completely blind), and the Prince said to his dear Swallow, "Little Swallow, even though I lost my eyes, I did not lose my heart. You have a kind heart; just use your heart, you can see everything you want."
After that, the Prince transforms into a human for a short time and ascends to the sky, where he and the little Swallow play with clouds and imagination. Later, the Prince told the little swallow to peel off the gold from his body. After Swallow delivered the last piece of gold, he kissed the Prince and died on his feet. Following this, the mayor ordered his men to pull down the statue, and the foundry worker melted the shabby statue of the Prince, leaving only his leaden heart, which they threw in the dust heap. The rainbow appears, indicating that God has asked the angels to bring the "most precious things in the city."
Once they reached heaven, the Prince was fully human again, and the little Swallow was brought back to life; the best gift for the Happy Prince was a pair of beautiful angel wings that allowed him to fly.
4. My Pingu TV/English Fairy Tales (India, 2017)
Happy Prince in English | Stories for Teenagers | @EnglishFairyTales Parental Guidance:Some material of this video may not be suitable for c
- This is also my favorite adaptation, but with a familiar plot based on the original story. At the start, meanwhile in Heaven, the God told the angels that they should not be unhappy, and God asked his angels to fly down to the "heart of the city" and find the precious things that he asked for. Unlike the other adaptations whose titular character is still growing up living in the palace, his flashbacks were once of a little Happy Prince or when he was just a kid. Nearly at the end, when the angels brought the two precious things and brought them to God. As God told his angels to keep them in his garden, however, the Prince's statue form still remains rather than a human form, and the little bird revives.
5. Adisebaba Animation (Turkey, 2018)
- Unlike the original ending, the townspeople improve the statue of the Prince, including his little friend Swallow, implying that the Prince and the Swallow will reunite in the afterlife rather than pulling him down and melting him in the furnace. Near the end, the Prince's eyes had changed from being brilliant emeralds or jades, not sapphires, to diamonds, and the newly upgraded statue was now covered in gold leaves. The Swallow gives the Prince a cheek hug before he dies rather than kissing him on the lips in the original version because Adisebaba needs to make this story kid-friendly. The following morning, when the townspeople notice the dead Swallow beneath the statue, a playwright suddenly tells them to be as happy as he is. As a result, the Swallow was buried next to the statue, and the statue of the Prince was upgraded. However, I really like the adaptation of the story.
6. Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child (USA, 1999)
- This story takes place in New York City, where the statue of the city's former mayor stood; everyone calls him "Happy" because he is happy indeed, of course. In place of the swallow, there is Pidge, the sardonic and astute street pigeon who met Mayor Prince. Before winter arrives, though, she will be departing New York City for spring break and heading to Miami Beach with her fellow pigeons. However, the mayor instructed Pidge to deliver the large ruby to the owner's ailing child and the Irish maid. The first sapphire will be given to a hotel employee who aspires to be a performer, and the second will be given to the flower vendor. At last, she peeled the fine gold leaves from his body and gave them to the poor. She begins to die as a result of the bitterly cold and lethal winter after delivering the last piece of gold.
The next morning, the new city mayor and his councilors see the shabby statue of the city's former mayor and notice a dead bird on his feet. He has declared that dead birds are not permitted in his clean city. As a result, workers began removing the statue, along with Pidge, from the park, where it will be melted into scrap metal. After melting the statue, one of the foundry workers attempted to melt the lead heart, but it appears to be endless, and it cannot burn the heart three times. They toss the heart and Pidge into the scrap heap, and the Prince's heart is healed. Pidge then merges with the heart and becomes a spirit-like Phoenix, and the two spirits ascend into heaven (the sun), where they will always watch over the city forever. Cyndi Lauper is soooooo super talented at voicing Pidge a lot.
