The Selfish Giant is an animated short film adaptation of the short story by Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde was an Irish writer and poet. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of London's most popular playwrights in the early 1890s...

. The story has symbolic religious themes and may be considered a work of allegory in Christian literature

Christian literature

Christian Literature is writing that deals with Christian themes and incorporates the Christian world view. This constitutes a huge body of extremely varied writing.-Scripture:...

. The film was produced in 1971 by the Canadian-based Potterton Productions and by Pyramid Films. It earned a 44th Academy Award

44th Academy Awards

The 44th Academy Awards were presented April 10, 1972 at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, Los Angeles. The ceremonies were presided over by Helen Hayes, Alan King, Sammy Davis, Jr., and Jack Lemmon. One of the major highlights of the evening was the appearance of Betty Grable, who was battling...

 nomination in the animated Short Subject category. One of the film's animators was Micheline Lanctôt

Micheline Lanctôt

Micheline Lanctôt is an actress, film director, screenwriter, and musician.-Biography:Lanctôt's post-secondary education was in music, fine arts and theatre at Collège Jésus-Marie in Outremont, and in art history before switching to film animation, which she...

.http://www.filmreferencelibrary.ca/index.asp?layid=46&csid1=38&navid=46 The King's Singers provided the vocals after having formed only a few years before.

The film first aired on Canadian television in November 1972 on CTV

CTV television network

CTV Television Network is a Canadian English language television network and is owned by Bell Media. It is Canada's largest privately-owned network, and has consistently placed as Canada's top-rated network in total viewers and in key demographics since 2002, after several years trailing the rival...

.

Plot

A giant erects a wall to keep children out of his garden, reaping the consequences of a continuous winter. After months of winter with no other seasons in sight, spring suddenly returns when the children slip into a hole in the wall and play in the trees, except for one corner of winter where a little boy is too small to climb into the tree. The giant's heart melts at the sight and, realizing how selfish he's been, he helps the child into the tree. He then tears down the wall and tells the children it was their garden to play in. Years pass and the giant enjoys playing with the children, but never sees the one special boy he first helped. One day when he had grown old, he again sees the little boy, who appears with wounds in his hands and feet. He has come to escort the giant to his garden, which is paradise.

External links

• BFI (UK): The Selfish Giant