Several animated stories from "Metamorphoses", Roman poet Ovid's narrative of legends, are presented.Several animated stories from "Metamorphoses", Roman poet Ovid's narrative of legends, are presented.Several animated stories from "Metamorphoses", Roman poet Ovid's narrative of legends, are presented.
- Director
- Writers
- Star
Peter Ustinov
- Narrator
- (voice)
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaAll the characters don't have a spoken role.
- Alternate versionsPeter Ustinov's narration was not in the original theatrical release but added later.
- ConnectionsFeatured in Hewy's Animated Movie Reviews: Winds of Change (2015)
Featured review
If Fantasia was a Rock Music Greek Anthology
In the mid 1970s, Japanese gift company Sanrio decided to enter the animated feature market with their own rock musical epic inspired by Fantasia. The result was a massive collaboration between American and Japanese animation artists called Metamorphoses. Despite a lot of promise, the film was a critical disaster on its original 1978 release and was soon reissued a year later under the title Winds of Change and has since fallen into obscurity. Looking at the feature today decades after its original outing, it proves to be a modest effort in bringing Romet poet Ovid's stories into the world of animation.
Structured as an anthology film chronicling Ovid's tales of humans and gods, mainly Actaeon, Orpheus and Eurydice, The House of Envy, Perseus and Phaethon, they are all presented with an allegorical boy and girl in differing albeit similar roles. With all of this in mind, what does either make or break the feature is how all these stories are presented through these children and not different characters, making it somewhat difficult to suspend one's disbelief. It doesn't help that their designs look like parodies of 40s Disney characters, complete with stock cute faces and overly simplified broad body proportions. That being said, the art direction is gorgeously crafted and utilizes the dangers of each individual world through creepy shadows and frightening looking monsters. The casual cruelty from all the gods presented throughout each tale is reflected through themes such as the evil that lies within beauty and the consequences of being too trustworthy. While some could see the film as a parody of elitist intellectualism, others could find some value in having these tales being reintroduced to a modern public.
Now of course the soundtrack must be talked about, although it may depend if you watch the original 89 minute cut or the Winds of Change cut. Compared to the original intention to bring on music legends like the Pointer Sisters, Mick Jagger and Joan Baez, the alternate cut features a contemporary Euro disco score composed by Alec R. Costandinos, which is said to have accompanied the feature a lot better than the original cut where the music was written before the animation and was too deemed lengthy to work with. The feature is elevated not only by Costandinos' intense score, but also new disco songs performed by Arthur Simms and Pattie Brooks that make their sequences feel like the film might have been successful if it was cut down to experimental music videos. In addition, the flow of the feature is explained through narration by Peter Ustinov, which benefits the narrative while also being used a bit too much when it doesn't need to be there. It's hard to say if the original cut was worse than the Winds of Change cut, so all we can osi take it for what it is.
Metamorphoses is a fascinating mixed bag where its ambitious efforts are also muddled by some questionable artistic choices. I think this film can be viewed in the same lens as cult classic music odysseys like Rock & Rule and Across the Universe where the unconventional experience can at least be taken into admiration more than any form of narrative structure. If you're into bizarrely obscure rock opera fantasies of the past, this film might be up your alley in spite of its shortcomings. It might not work on all levels, but it's still worth your time for reasons beyond what it set out to do.
Structured as an anthology film chronicling Ovid's tales of humans and gods, mainly Actaeon, Orpheus and Eurydice, The House of Envy, Perseus and Phaethon, they are all presented with an allegorical boy and girl in differing albeit similar roles. With all of this in mind, what does either make or break the feature is how all these stories are presented through these children and not different characters, making it somewhat difficult to suspend one's disbelief. It doesn't help that their designs look like parodies of 40s Disney characters, complete with stock cute faces and overly simplified broad body proportions. That being said, the art direction is gorgeously crafted and utilizes the dangers of each individual world through creepy shadows and frightening looking monsters. The casual cruelty from all the gods presented throughout each tale is reflected through themes such as the evil that lies within beauty and the consequences of being too trustworthy. While some could see the film as a parody of elitist intellectualism, others could find some value in having these tales being reintroduced to a modern public.
Now of course the soundtrack must be talked about, although it may depend if you watch the original 89 minute cut or the Winds of Change cut. Compared to the original intention to bring on music legends like the Pointer Sisters, Mick Jagger and Joan Baez, the alternate cut features a contemporary Euro disco score composed by Alec R. Costandinos, which is said to have accompanied the feature a lot better than the original cut where the music was written before the animation and was too deemed lengthy to work with. The feature is elevated not only by Costandinos' intense score, but also new disco songs performed by Arthur Simms and Pattie Brooks that make their sequences feel like the film might have been successful if it was cut down to experimental music videos. In addition, the flow of the feature is explained through narration by Peter Ustinov, which benefits the narrative while also being used a bit too much when it doesn't need to be there. It's hard to say if the original cut was worse than the Winds of Change cut, so all we can osi take it for what it is.
Metamorphoses is a fascinating mixed bag where its ambitious efforts are also muddled by some questionable artistic choices. I think this film can be viewed in the same lens as cult classic music odysseys like Rock & Rule and Across the Universe where the unconventional experience can at least be taken into admiration more than any form of narrative structure. If you're into bizarrely obscure rock opera fantasies of the past, this film might be up your alley in spite of its shortcomings. It might not work on all levels, but it's still worth your time for reasons beyond what it set out to do.
helpful•00
- elicopperman
- May 27, 2023
Details
- Runtime1 hour 20 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.35 : 1
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