Title: The Ring
Director & Animator: Alan Platt
Year: 2000
Country: New Zealand
"The Ring" is a 2000 New Zealander stop motion short film by Alan Plat. It depicts the story of the cycle of 4 operas "Des Ring Des Nibelungen" (The Ring Of The Nibelung), by German composer Richard Wagner.
The operas cycle, which lasts approximately 16 hours, it is condensed here to 29 minutes. Orchestration was done by the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra, which director Alan Platt gave great value for the making of the short film "the music is the real teller of the tale, and that's what it becomes in our film".
"The Ring" presents its story in a friendly way for children so that they could be introduced to the magic world of operas, using animated clay figurines of gods, giants, dwarfs, mermaids and dragons.
Director Alan Platt further says: "We can make the giants appear enormous against the tiny, evil-looking dwarves. Instead of the usual cumbersome Wagner soprano we can have a beautiful, sexy heroine. And the fiery dragon has all the exaggerated horror of the old picturebook fairytales.
Wagner would have loved it too."
