Starring Steven Warner, Richard Kiely, Gene Wilder, and Bob Fosse
Directed by Stanley Donen
Music by Fredrick Loewe; Lyrics by Alan Jay Lerner
We head into Thanksgiving week with this sweet family musical. French nobleman Count Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote the children's book The Little Prince in 1942 as a critique of how strange the adult world can be. This would be the first English language film version of the book; it's also one of the few times Fosse got to dance to his own choreography on-screen, and is the final collaboration between Lerner and Loewe before the latter retired. How does the whimsical story of a pilot (Kiley) who befriends the odd young royal (Warner) of the title look nowadays? Let's begin with The Pilot (Kiley) explaining about how adults didn't take him or his artwork seriously as a child and find out...
The Story: He takes to the skies to get away from the straight-laced adult world that can't accept his whimsical drawings. While testing an experimental plane, he makes an emergency stop in the Sahara Desert for repairs. He encounters a little blonde boy in a blue jacket who claims to be the Prince of a very small planet, one that the Pilot figures out is an asteroid. The boy left his beloved Rose (Donna McKechnie) to explore the solar system and other planets. All he finds are bombastic adults who focus so much on their own petty problems, they ignore him.
He eventually came to Earth, where he first met the Snake (Fosse) and the Fox (Wilder). They both teach him valuable lessons about life and love he passes onto the Pilot. The Pilot's not sure to make of his stories at first, but they eventually become good friends...which makes it harder when the boy becomes ill from a snake bite, and the Pilot could lose him...
The Song and Dance: This whimsical fantasy is a bittersweet delight. Too bad Kiley was generally a stage star and very rarely did movies. He brings both masculine strength and a surprising sensitivity to the role of the Pilot. Bob Fosse and Gene Wilder are the stand-outs as the Prince's two very different animal friends. Fosse's knock-kneed dance style and his natural oily charm made him a perfect snake; skittish and gentle Wilder makes a very sweet fox, too. There's also those stunning Sahara backdrops, especially during Fosse's number and when the Pilot first encounters the Prince, too.
Favorite Number: We open with a montage of the Pilot as a boy, trying to convince everyone in turn-of-the-century France he drew a boa constrictor eating an elephant. No, all the adults keep saying, "It's a Hat." This becomes a montage of the Pilot growing into a "respectable" adult who claims "I Need Air" when he wants to get away from staid adult responsibility. He tries to convince the Little Prince "I'm On Your Side" after he refers to flowers as vulnerable. We see why the Prince believes flowers to be much stronger when the Rose dances for him and admonishes him to "Be Happy."
The Prince encounters a very adult King (Joss Ackland) and Businessman (Clive Revill) who admonish him that "You're a Child" and have no understanding of so-called grown-up matters. The Pilot isn't sure he does, either, as he admits "I Never Met a Rose." He and the boy come together to find an oasis and appreciate the desert and each other in the joyous "Why Is the Desert." Fosse's "A Snake In the Grass" is probably the purest distillation of his style you'll get on film outside of Cabaret, knock-knees, bowler hat, and all. Wilder and the Prince also have a joyful romp in the grass when the Prince gets the shy Fox to come "Closer and Closer and Closer."
What I Don't Like: The movie is strange and meandering, much like the book it's adapting. If you want something more linear and less dreamy, this isn't the place for you. Also, the songs, while charming, aren't nearly as memorable as those for Camelot or My Fair Lady. The whimsy and some of the preachier moments with the Prince and all those annoying old men on the planets can seem dated and a little obnoxious now.
The Big Finale: Lovely children's musical deserves to be far better-known. Check it out with your favorite little prince or princess this holiday weekend.
Home Media: The DVD is currently out of print, but it is available on streaming.
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