The Selfish Giant

Everyone probably has a few unforgettable stories in their lives, bits of literature that never quite leave us, though we may forget them for years at a time. For me, it's Hugh Lofting's stories of Doctor Doolittle, The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett, and Farley Mowat's Owls in the Family.

And then there's this one, Oscar Wilde's The Selfish Giant. I've been looking for this 1971 Canadian short film version on and off for the last several years, and was delighted to discover last Friday that someone finally put it up on YouTube. I've always loved the story of the Giant's redemption (though I couldn't have expressed that when I first saw it when I was six), and its images have stayed with me -- the Giant's odd whiskers, the disappointed children, the way Snow spreads her cloak over the Giant's garden, the Viking-god-like North Wind, Hail dancing on the roof of the castle, and the Little Child walking with the Giant at the end of the story.

The animation isn't as sophisticated as my children are used to, but the tale still succeeds in melting my heart a little. In my books it's a Christmas story because TV stations seemed to play it only at Christmas during my childhood (with Kraft foods commercials at the breaks).

If you've never seen or read The Selfish Giant before, or if you haven't seen it in years, enjoy.