Metamorphoses (film)

"Winds of Change (film)" redirects here. For the Canadian/American film, see Winds of Change (upcoming film).

Winds of Change
Produced by	Terry Ogisu Takashi Hiro Tsugawa
Written by	Ovid Takashi
Starring	Peter Ustinov - Narrator (US Version)
Music by	Alec R. Costandinos
Distributed by	Sanrio (Japan) Sony (US)
Release date(s)	May 3, 1979 (1979-05-03) (United States) October 27, 1979 (1979-10-27) (Japan)
Running time	80 minutes
Language	English Japanese

Metamorphoses (星のオルフェウス, Hoshi no Orufeusu^?, "Orpheus of the Stars") is a Japanese animated film, originally released by Sanrio in the United States on May 3, 1979. The film is a retelling of stories from Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid, set to rock music by Arthur Simms and Pattie Brooks. In all of its five parts, the protagonists are portrayed in the form of a recurring boy and girl.

The movie was Sanrio's second animated release in the US (following their adaptation of The Mouse and His Child the previous year). Over 170 animators, all employed in Hollywood, worked on it for three years.

Metamorphoses tried to be the rock era's answer to Fantasia, but its original run was critically reviled and closed as soon as it opened: according to many of its crew, a lot of problems with the production, music and plotting were to blame.

A year later, it was reissued under a new title, Winds of Change, with seven minutes trimmed away from the first cut of 89 minutes. This time, the music was composed by Alec R. Costandinos, and narration provided by Peter Ustinov was added.

The five parts—"Actaeon", "Orpheus and Eurydice", "The House of Envy", "Perseus" and "Phaëton", in the original order—were re-arranged and slightly renamed for the new version; only the third and last parts remained unmoved. In the Winds cut, the first two were now "Perseus" and "Actaeon", and the fourth "Orpheus".

In addition, the boy was now called Wondermaker, and the girl played different characters in every segment. Greek gods Hades and Apollo were given their Roman names (Pluto and Helios respectively).

See also

• Hercules, a 1997 Disney film based on Greek myth.
• List of animated feature-length films

Sources

• Beck, Jerry (2005), pp. 166–7. The Animated Movie Guide. ISBN 1-55652-591-5. Chicago Reader Press. Accessed April 9, 2007.

External links

• Metamorphoses at the Internet Movie Database (under later title, Winds of Change)
• Metamorphoses (anime) at Anime News Network's Encyclopedia