A Wish for Wings That Work
A Wish for Wings That Work: An Opus Christmas Story is a children's book by Berkeley Breathed that was published in 1991. It was made into an animated television special that same year. The book and special feature characters from Breathed's comic strips Bloom County and Outland.
 Cover | |
| Author | Berkeley Breathed |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Berkeley Breathed |
| Cover artist | Berkeley Breathed |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's |
| Publisher | Little Brown & Co |
Publication date | 1991 |
| Pages | 32 |
| ISBN | 0-316-10691-7 |
Plot
The story centers on Opus the Penguin (a main character of all three of Breathed's comic strips, and at the time appearing in Outland.) Opus is downhearted because, as a penguin, he cannot fly. He orders a machine and assembles it; when it comes time to test the machine by jumping off a three-mile-high cliff, Opus decides to do something less dangerous, and goes home to make anchovy Christmas cookies. He does not give up on his dream though, and makes a Christmas wish to Santa Claus for "wings that will go!" On Christmas Eve, Santa is making his usual delivery when he loses his reindeer and crashes into a lake. Opus jumps in and uses his natural swimming skills to pull Santa out. To thank Opus for his daring rescue, a group of ducks pick him up and take him flying through the air.
TV special
| Opus 'n' Bill: A Wish for Wings that Work | |
|---|---|
 2007 DVD cover | |
| Directed by | Skip Jones |
| Produced by | Peggy Regan |
| Written by | Berkeley Breathed |
| Based on | A Wish for Wings That Work: An Opus Christmas Story and Outland by Berkeley Breathed |
| Starring | Michael Bell Joe Alaskey John Byner Tress MacNeille Alexaundria Simmons Andrew Hill Newman Frank Welker Robin Williams (as Sudy Nim) |
| Music by | Thomas Chase Steve Rucker |
| Edited by | Larry C. Cowan |
| Distributed by | Amblin Television Universal Cartoon Studios |
Release date | December 18, 1991 |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
On December 18, 1991, an animated special based on the book aired on CBS.[1][2] It was directed by Skip Jones and was produced by Peggy Regan for Steven Spielberg's Amblin Television for Universal Cartoon Studios.[3][4] It was released on DVD on November 6, 2007.
- Voices
- Michael Bell as Opus
- Joe Alaskey - Truffles, The Ducks
- John Byner - Bill
- Tress MacNeille - The Chicken
- Alexaundria Simmons - Ronald-Ann
- Andrew Hill Newman - Santa Claus
- Frank Welker - Additional Voices
- Sudy Nim - The Kiwi
Critical reception
Lisa Horowitz of Variety gave the special a positive review, saying that it "crams a lot of action and intelligence into its half-hour." She also praised the animation and vocal performances.[2]
Breathed, who was credited as the writer and executive producer of the special, was disappointed with the overall results. Asked in a 2003 Washington Post interview where a copy of the special could be found on VHS or DVD, Breathed replied
Hopefully in the rubbish pail. We can do better than that and we will with an eventual Opus film... but I'm glad you enjoyed it. I presume your family was on speed when they watched it. I would imagine it helps.
In a 2007 interview, Breathed said that the reason he disliked the special was simply "unspectacular ratings" and that his humor "wasn't meant for television, even if it was done right." He also blamed his own "lack of writing experience, as [he] wrote the script. And the director was way over his head." Breathed said that he had wanted Sterling Holloway to provide the voice for Opus.[5] According to a 2011 Breathed interview, the director inserted numerous inappropriate jokes into the special's background scenes.[6]
References
- A Wish for Wings That Work (TV Short 1991) - IMDb, retrieved 2020-12-08
- Variety Television Reviews 1991-1992. Taylor & Francis. March 1994. ISBN 0-8240-3796-0.
- DataBase, The Big Cartoon. "A Wish For Wings That Work". Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDB). Retrieved 2012-11-16.
- A Wish for Wings That Work - About the Animated Special, Amblin Entertainment, archived from the original on 2020-12-08, retrieved 2020-12-08
- Plume, Ken (2007-05-22). "Interview: Berkeley Breathed". FRED Entertainment. Archived from the original on 2011-11-15. Retrieved 2020-12-08.
- Zahed, Ramin, Animated People: Berkeley Breathed, Animation Magazine, 16 March 2011. Retrieved 20 July 2017. "[T]he director, who was fired, managed to sprinkle a profane cornucopia of inappropriate flotsam around in the show.... Find a moldy DVD and check out the opening credit sequence: Watch the snowy hills during the pan. Some of them aren’t hills. And that train track isn’t really going into a train tunnel. Unless it’s Sigmund Freud’s. It’s pretty funny now. Imagine how funny it was when we finally spotted it during final mixing, six days before network broadcast. Keep in mind, this was a Steven Spielberg production of a family Christmas show. I tried but failed to imagine Steven believing me when I tried to disclaim authorship of a woman’s snow anus in the countryside. Or the sign in the window of the store that said “For sale cheap: Santa’s Balls.” Too late to change! This was the pre-digital age. We courageously let it go without telling anyone. I’m glad I’m telling this in a trade magazine and I can feel safe that it won’t be going out on the Internet thing."