Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7423 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-05-23
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Animated, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 83 minutes

Synopsis
Animated adaptation of Geoffrey Chaucer's classic collection. Features ten tales, including: 'The Squire's Tale', 'The Miller's Tale', 'The Knight's Tale', 'The Wife Of Bath's Tale', 'The Merchant's Tale' and 'The Franklin's Tale'.

Customer Reviews

'If any of you are too delicate, this is what people are like.'
I have to start this review by admitting that I've never had any contact with the Canterbury tales until now, not having studied them at school.

What has surprised me most about the tales presented here is that they are still accessible and entertaining to a modern audience. Recurring themes are corrupt clergy, courtship and class conflict. This is all overlaid with a healthy dose of bawdy comedy (it can be quite entertaining to play spot the innuendo as there are little nudges hidden in many of the tales) and sometimes a bit of romance.

A mixture of clay and normal 'cartoon' animation of varying styles means that the individual tales are given their own tone and cadence reflecting the storyteller; sometimes slapstick comedy (e.g the Miller's tale with spitting image lips and a northern twang to the voices), sometimes flowing, bold coloured, minimalist graphics and Queen's English for the Franklin's tale of chivalry and valour.

The only reason I decided to leave one star off relates to the quite concerning rating given to the DVD relative to the content, tone and themes presented here. I certainly don't see it as PG material because many of the stories depict or hint at sexual activity;

The Wife of Bath's tale involves rape (although it's only hinted at in the cartoon, not knowing why the knight has been hauled to court+threatened with execution makes the story incomprehensible) and I pity any parents having to explain concepts like that to an 8-10 year old, not to mention sitting through the fairly graphic sex scene near the end...

Parents should also be advised that many of the stories incorporate drinking, terrible manners, toilet humour and frequently misogyny; although this is generally comedic it may once again call for an explanation of why the travelers are laughing at people hitting their wives or moaning on about women being awful. Quite yucky 'body horror' at some points, too.

One can't fault Geoffrey Chaucer for including these kinds of distasteful scenes - they are simply a reflection of the England he lived in. I certainly wouldn't want to watch a heavily bowdlerized version of such well-told vignettes but I do think that this should really carry a 12/12A rating because it just isn't suitable for anybody below the age of about 10 (PG ratings refer to scenes not suitable for children under 8).

Great fun and in the spirit of Chaucer - but schools beware
I enjoyed this and it is certainly in the rumbustious spirit of Chaucer - but I bought it for a school English dept and it has taken us to some places where more timid hearts might prefer not to venture. I definitely wouldn't put it anywhere near OfSTED. Ageism and homophobia are both inescapable, and the sexuality of older people in more than one of the tales made Year Nine boys raucously uncomfortable. They won't forget it though, and I hope they won't forget Chaucer either. The rivalry between Miller and Reeve and the similarity of their stories is wittily and imaginatively handled.

On a more mundane note, the tales are not in the order they appear on the sleeve and are annoyingly grouped within the sub-menu so that you can't find a specific tale without having worked out how to locate it within the menus first.