The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1980)
producers: Cosgrove Hall Productions Ltd
animation: stop-motion animation
run time: 30mins
In 1376, the city of Hamelin is freed from a plague of hungry rats by a mysterious
Piper who plays a tune and leads the vermin on a mery dance out of town and
straight in to the river. But the greedy city Governers refuse to pay their agreed
fee, so the Piper wreaks a terible revenge. He plays his pipe once more, only
this time he leads all the children of Hamelin away to a magical mountain portal,
from which they never return...
"The Pied Piper" is a classic tale, often told, but never so well as in this
Cosgrove Hall film. The production takes its cue from Robert Browning's poem
of the same name, written in 1888, and it's a stirring adaptation. The thronging
streets of Hamelin play host to a wave of gnashing, thrashing vermin who are
led away by an elfin Piper. This stranger takes his cue from "Chitty Chitty Bang
Bang"'s Childcatcher. He moves with malevolent grace, twisting his fingers and
pointing his toes and unsettling all with his strange and beautiful manner. In the
hands of animators Barry Purves and Marj Graham, each of the myriad puppets
is imbued with its own unique character. This is fabulous stuff, and it's narrated
with real gusto by Robert Hardy. As the children are led away to Koppelberg Hill,
the music swells and kaleidoscope colours dance overhead before they
disappear, leaving just one lame boy behind in a lonely spotlight.
The quietest scene is the best of all. The Piper, having fulfilled his pledge to
rid the city of its scourge, settles down to rest by the riverbank. And there, as
he sits swaddled in his warm cloak, we watch him rest through to morning.
The sky behind him fades to lushious purple and welcomes in the night.
Now he is silhouetted against the stars. As the soft violet of dawn spreads
across the sky, a line of geese pass overhead and the Piper wakes and
stretches. We are observing melancholic magic here. It is the calm
before the storm that is the Piper's revenge.
"The Pied Piper" is surely one of Cosgrove Hall's finest achievements.
For students it's an animation masterclass, and they like everyone else
will tell you it's also a haunting, beautiful film that lingers long in the
memory....
Founded in 1976 by Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall, Cosgrove Hall Films was part of Thames Television until 1993 (when Thames lost its weekday ITV London licence to Carlton Television). Its ownership later transferred to Anglia Television, (and, following the series of 1990s takeovers, ITV plc). Its first series was Chorlton and the Wheelies, the lead role being named after the district of Manchester where the company was based (the other characters were placed on wheels as this made the stop-frame animation easier). The show, sold worldwide by Thames, was never shown in Israel after a graphic designer mistakenly put a Star of David on the front of a talking spell-book instead of a Pentagram. The book spoke with a Germanic accent and therefore was considered offensive.
One of their early employees was Bernard Sumner who went on to be an integral member of Manchester rock bands Joy Division and New Order.
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