The King and the Mockingbird (French: Le Roi et l'Oiseau, lit. 'The King and the Bird') is an animated fantasy film directed by Paul Grimault. Prior to 2013, it was released in English as The King and Mister Bird.
Begun in 1948 as La Bergère et le Ramoneur (lit. "The shepherdess and the chimney sweep", loosely based on the fairy-tale of the same name by Hans Christian Andersen), the film was a collaboration between Grimault and popular French poet and screenwriter Jacques Prévert. However, the film suddenly stopped production and was released unfinished by its producer in 1952, without the approval of either Grimault or Prévert. Through the course of the 1960s and 1970s, Grimault obtained the rights to the film and was able to complete a new version as they originally intended. The film was completed over 30 years after production commenced.
The film is today regarded as a masterpiece of French animation and has been cited by the Japanese directors Hayao Miyazaki and Isao Takahata as an influence. It was released in the United Kingdom dubbed into English in cinemas in 1984 and subsequently on VHS, but then had poor availability in English until 2014. After being re-released in France in 2013, it was re-released in cinemas in the United Kingdom, and the first English-friendly DVD release was made there in April 2014.
While the completed version has not been released on home video in North America, it was available for streaming on The Criterion Channel.
A low-budget English-language release of the 1952 version, titled The Curious Adventures of Mr. Wonderbird, is in the public domain and available free online. In that version, Peter Ustinov narrates and voices the main role of the bird.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
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