| A Wish for Wings That Work | |
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Book front |
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| Author(s) | Berkeley Breathed |
| Illustrator | Berkeley Breathed |
| Cover artist | Berkeley Breathed |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Children's |
| Publisher | Little Brown & Co |
| Publication date | 1991 |
| Pages | 32 |
| ISBN | 0316106917 |
A Wish for Wings That Work: An Opus Christmas Story was a children's book by Berkeley Breathed that was published in 1991. It was made into an animated television special that same year. The story is 30 pages long, and contains large color pictures every other page, and small black and white ones over the writing.
Contents |
The story centers on Opus the Penguin (who was at the time one of the main characters in Breathed's comic strip Outland). Opus is downhearted because as a penguin, he cannot fly. He orders a machine and assembles it; when it comes time to test the machine by jumping off a three mile high cliff, Opus decides to do something less dangerous, and goes home to make anchovy Christmas cookies. He does not give up on his dream though, and makes a Christmas wish to Santa Claus for "wings that will go!". On Christmas Eve, Santa is making his usual delivery when he loses his reindeer and crashes into the lake. Opus jumps in and uses his natural swimming skills to pull Santa out. To thank Opus for his daring rescue, a group of ducks pick him up and take him flying through the air.
| A Wish for Wings that Work | |
|---|---|
DVD cover |
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| Directed by | Skip Jones |
| Produced by | Peggy Regan |
| Written by | Berkeley Breathed |
| Starring | Sterling Holloway Joe Alaskey John Byner Tress MacNeille Alexaundria Simmons Andrew Hill Newman Frank Welker Robin Williams Dustin Hoffman |
| Music by | Thomas Chase Steve Rucker |
| Editing by | Larry C. Cowan |
| Distributed by | Amblin Television Universal Television |
| Release date(s) | December 13, 1991 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
On December 13, 1991, an animated special was released. It was directed by Skip Jones and was produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblimation animation studio for Universal Cartoon Studios. It was then given a DVD release for the first time on November 6, 2007.
Lisa Horowitz of Variety gave the special a positive review, saying that it "crams a lot of action and intelligence into its half-hour". She also praised the animation and vocal performances.[1]
Breathed, who was credited as the writer and executive producer of the special, was disappointed with the overall results. His displeasure with the special was shown in a 2003 Washington Post interview where someone asked where a copy of the special can be found on VHS or DVD. Breathed's response was:
Hopefully in the rubbish pail. We can do better than that and we will with an eventual Opus film.. but I'm glad you enjoyed it. I presume your family was on speed when they watched it. I would imagine it helps.
In a later 2007 interview, Breathed claims that the reason he dislikes the special was simply "unspectacular ratings" and his humour "wasn't meant for television, even if it was done right." Another reason was his "lack of writing experience" and the director was way over his head. He stated that he wanted Sterling Holloway to provide the voice for Opus.
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