"...and the tree was happy."
THE GIVING TREE is not one of my favorite works by Shel Silverstein. In part because, as the man himself put it, "It's just a relationship between two people - one gives and the other takes," but also because some of the ways in which the book has been interpreted and co-opted makes me squirm. Give me LAFCADIO. Give me the songs, the cartoons, the crime stories. Give me the album that will likely never see the light of day. But THE GIVING TREE? Someone else can take it.
But then I watched the 1973 animated short film of the book, which Shel narrated and scored, and suddenly my eyes were fresh and my prejudices fell away. Maybe it's how Charlie O. Hayward brought the static pictures to moving life, showing how the apples fall, the branches are cut and the boy who takes morphs into the old man who just wants a place to sit down and rest. Maybe it's Don Sykes's skills editing the scenes together into a film just under ten minutes. Maybe it's the imprimatur of Bosustow Productions, founded by ex-Disney and UPA animator Stephen Bosutsow and later run by his sons Ted and Nick (the latter who co-produced the film with Shel.) Or maybe it's Shel's narrative style, his signature yips and yowls displaced by something more subdued, more full of pathos and even regret. Whatever the reason, the end result is a real stunner. I've wanted to see it for years and now, thanks to the glories of YouTube (at least for the time being), we all can.
Isn't it curious that what I always thought was the best line in the story -- "...but not really" -- was left out of this? Seems odd, since it's the one time the tree shows a little bark, so to speak.
Posted by: tod goldberg | May 19, 2008 at 05:43 AM
Watching that brought back a lot of memories. We used to watch this almost every year in Sunday school class and I've always loved it.
Posted by: Andrea | May 19, 2008 at 02:58 PM
Thank you for sharing Shel's video. What a lovely respite from the day! I remember when Shel died. I was in San Francisco working as a radio news anchor at KOIT-FM, and I read his poem "Hug 'O War" from Where the Sidewalk Ends, on-air, in his memory. Keeping his messages alive show they are timeless, and yet needed now more than ever.
Posted by: Vickie Jenkins | May 20, 2008 at 08:05 PM
Thank you for sharing Shel's video. What a lovely respite from the day! I remember when Shel died. I was in San Francisco working as a radio news anchor at KOIT-FM, and I read his poem "Hug 'O War" from Where the Sidewalk Ends, on-air, in his memory. Keeping his messages alive show they are timeless, and yet needed now more than ever.
Posted by: Vickie Jenkins | May 20, 2008 at 08:11 PM
I agree. Give me crime stories. The video was very thought provoking and I appreciate The Giving Tree in a different way now. But, I'm still all for mystery/comedy/action. :)
Posted by: Melissa | May 21, 2008 at 12:29 PM