A Midsummer Night's Dream

Ditching all the language and half the plot, puppeteer Trnka and his animators aim to reproduce the play's ambience in visual and musical terms. A heroic undertaking, but nothing important really works. The puppets lack character (no facial animation), the prosaic sets contrast oddly with some wildly elaborate costumes, and as for Trojan's score, 'eclectic' is the word, though there are some very pretty choral passages. Trnka is more successful with his Disney-like interpolations - a pair of amorous snails, a posse of helpful acorns - and with peripheral characters such as an Arthur Lowe-ish Moonshine. (Circa 1970, Shakespeare was restored to the soundtrack via the voices of such British thesps as Richard Burton and Alec McCowen, under the direction of Howard Sackler.) BBa.