Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s philosophical fable about childhood, death, and everything between has always been one of those books that everyone seemed to LOVE, but I just liked. That changed while watching Stanley Donen’s 1974 live-action film adaptation of Lerner and Loewe’s musical adaptation of the novel.
Everything here suggests a musical/film written for children but aimed at adults—just like the book. I think that was the thing I liked most about it: the way it captured the innocent, sinister wonder of the book. And who better to cast in a film with that tone than Gene Wilder (as the Fox)? (Bob Fosse’s Snake nails the duality pretty nicely, too.)
The music is not sophisticated, but the songs that come closest are those sung by the aviator-narrator, i.e., from a realist adult perspective. The Little Prince is perfectly embodied by Steven Warner in a superb child performance. His life on his tiny planet and subsequent cosmic quest for knowledge are depicted with well-used special filming techniques and act as a short origin for the character once he enters the narrative. The bulk of the film deals with his three Earthbound encounters: Snake, Fox, Aviator. These scenes are shot in Tunisia with a purposely exhausting sense of scope.
The film is clever, profound, and moving. It allowed me to interact slantwise with the book and come to a greater appreciation of its genius. Like the book, it is a deceptively simple film that interacts slantwise with our paved-over inner children. A far-from-classic take on the classic journey from innocence to experience, The Little Prince never sets forth its lessons like a Man-at-Arms speech wrapping up an episode of The Masters of the Universe. Harnessing the full power of story, it incarnates all of its wisdom, letting the child and the adult both see themselves in the result.