As You Like It. Dir. Alexei Karaev. Perf. Sylvestra Le Touzel. Shakespeare: The Animated Tales. 1994. DVD. Ambrose Video, 2004.As a break between an exam and a deeper consideration of the play, I showed my students the twenty-five minute animated version of As You Like It, and they were thrilled. They were thrilled not only at the break from discussion; they also got a kick out of the humor of the animated version. It is a lovely piece, and it does cover the basic plot (which can be confusing), freeing up class time for other, deeper (I hope) matters.
The best part of it is the way it deals with the "All the world's a stage" speech. It's marvelously inventive, taking images like the famous sketch of the Swan Theatre and the feel of Renaissance Woodcuts to show the seven ages of man. And, when Jaques finishes (after some marvelous memento mori iconography), we come back to the Forest of Arden—and no one's listening to him at all. Whatever he's said, they are still going to enjoy themselves completely!
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