a charming group of colorful stills based on the 1939 first edition of Gramatky's classic work of children's literature. Morton Schindel was a filmmaker who brought popular children's picture books to the screen through his company, Weston Woods Productions. Reading to his two daughters, he was fascinated by the rapt attention they paid to the pictures that accompanied the stories. As a filmmaker, he was struck by the possibilities of what film and television could offer to bring these stories to children who might never have access to the books.
Remaining faithful to the original book and preserving the essence of its individuality was the philosophy at the heart of all Weston Woods' productions. To film them, Morton Schindel invented a new technique which he called "iconographic." As the story is told, the camera moves across the illustration, focusing on detail, capturing mood and action in its movements, much as a child's eye might.--"Books for Keeps," Sound & Vision Special, July, 1982. Having worked as a senior animator at Walt Disney Studios on the development of story boards and film shorts, Gramatky understood how to translate his stories visually. As the original book contained only a few full-color pages, when Schindel commissioned this new animated movie of the story, Gramatky colored half-tone photostats of his original illustrations with watercolor and gouache and signed the mounted photoreproductions in ink.