Perri is a 1957 film from Walt Disney Productions, based on Felix Salten's 1938 book of the same name. It was the company's fifth feature entry in their True-Life Adventures series, and the only one to be labeled a True Life Fantasy. In doing so, the Disney team combined the documentary aspects of earlier efforts with fictional scenarios and characters.
Plot
The story's title character is a young female squirrel who learns about forest life, and finds a mate in Porro, a male squirrel. In the film, there are seasons called the Time of Beauty, Time of Peace, and Together Time.
Instead of the European forest in which Salten set his work, a nine-man camera crew led by Paul Kenworthy and Ralph Wright shot Perri in Utah's Uinta National Forest and Jackson Hole, Wyoming (for the winter sequences). Some 200,000 feet were shot during production; only 8,000 were used in the finished product.
True Life regular Winston Hibler not only continued as the series narrator, but for this film also served as a screenwriter, songwriter and producer.
Upon its release, Perri was generally well-received by critics and audiences. Along with all of the other True Life Adventures, it premiered in December 2006 on Disney DVD as part of the Legacy Collection.
Production Details
- Directed by N. Paul Kenworthy Jr., Ralph Wright
- Produced by Winston Hibler
- Written by Ralph Wright, Winston Hibler
- Book by Felix Salten
- Narrated by Winston Hibler
- Score by
- Paul J. Smith
- Songs: George Bruns, Winston Hibler, Ralph Wright, Paul J. Smith, Hazel "Gil" George
- Song arrangements: Carl Brandt
- Orchestrations: Carl Brandt, Franklyn Marks
- Editing by Jack Atwood
- Studio: Walt Disney Productions
- Distributed by Buena Vista Distribution
- Release date: August 28, 1957
- Running time: 75 minutes