The Swan

"Really impressed in the change in tone for each short film. Impressive effects, and not to mention the narration style dialogue delivery by Rupert Friend."

"Another short film based on a Roald Dahl’s story. This one is on bullying. It felt like reading a children’s book in film form- cos that’s what it is! This is the second I’ve watched out of the 4 Wes Anderson’s short films based on Roald Dahl’s stories. My favourite so far has been the Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. What’s yours? "

"Bleak and intense, but very well made. The train effect was very cool."

"This film was much more heartfelt than the other short films in this compilation, and that’s the only reason it got 3 stars instead of 2 for me. They relied too much on the narrator for this story—not even allowing the other boys to be the ones to say their lines and barely let them be on the screen—and the scenery didn’t try to make up the distance. I could see the argument being made that having Peter tell the story completely hammers home the idea that Peter was the victor or that it makes the change from Peter to Dahl more startling, but I’m not sure if that made up for how such a heavy reliance on the narrator made the whole story more distanced from the audience."