The Tales of Beatrix Potter

Curiously mesmerizing, Reginald Mills' 1971 children's ballet feature film based on Beatrix Potter's fairytales and illustrations features the animal-inspired (yet oddly Victorian) performances of dancers in lifelike costumes of field mice, rabbits (Peter Rabbit to be specific), foxes, pigs, geese, and other pastoral critters, all wearing waistcoats or peasant dresses. Granted, it gets off to an excruciatingly dull start (a hedgehog doing ironing and other household chores for 10 minutes), but the remarkable stage design (some scenes could pass for outdoor locations, others for indoor rooms, but hugely oversized from a mouse perspective) and the enchantment of the swan-like (and frog-like, and hare-like) choreography becomes quite spellbinding as several fables are depicted without a word of dialogue. Keep in mind though that The Tales of Beatrix Potter is for kids more than for ballet aficionados, which is to say that the dancing, while fascinating, also feels a bit under-rehearsed. Although extra-less, the disc boasts a very handsome transfer and excellent Dolby Digital stereo sound. Recommended. (R. Blackwelder)