BOOTLEG FILES 604: “Petroushka” (1956 animated short based on the Stravinsky ballet).
LAST SEEN: A copy is on YouTube.
AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: As part of a VHS anthology of John David Wilson’s animated films.
REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: It seems to have fallen through the cracks.
CHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE: It is possible.
At least two generations of television-weaned cartoon lovers identify some of the greatest works of operatic and symphonic music by linking the landmark melodies to the knockabout mayhem of Bugs Bunny, Tom and Jerry, Heckle and Jeckle, Woody Woodpecker and Tex Avery’s menagerie. Of course, not every animation studio believed that the only way to approach classical musical was by having cartoon characters dancing on pianos or flooding an opera house. Disney did include comic highlights in his groundbreaking feature “Fantasia,” but he also mixed in segments of compelling artistic wonder – including an interpretation of Igor Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” tied to the rise and fall of the dinosaurs.