If the sight of professional acrobat and provocateur Philippe Petit balancing the Oscar on his chin at the Academy Awards left you wanting more of the puckish prankster, we’ve found another DVD for you.
I had already recommended the movie that brought Petit to the Oscar stage last month — “Man on Wire.” It’s a poetic and revealing documentary about a man with incomparable drive to both entertain and succeed.
But there’s another way to enjoy Petit’s unique worldview, one that can bring younger children on board. The animated short film “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers” is a fine tribute to Petit and the wondrous buildings destroyed by 9/11.
The film clocks in at only nine minutes, but it warmly captures the ambition Petit felt while juggling in New York parks and looking up at the newly finished towers. At times it even does a better job than the documentary in illustrating the challenges and near-failures Petit’s team faced as they strung the precarious cable between the spires of the World Trade Center.
“The Man Who Walked Between the Towers” is available at least two ways. It’s an extra on some versions of the “Man on Wire” documentary DVD. But it also plays as the headliner on a DVD packed full of other worthy shorts catalogued at Netflix, Blockbuster or the other mail-DVD services. Another favorite of mine in that collection is “Snowflake Bentley,” the true story of a modest Vermont farmer who learned how to photograph the remarkable crystal structures of everyday snowflakes.
