The first time I ever heard Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf, I was a little kid. I was, of course, watching the Disney cartoon about it. It was one of those brilliant old cartoons they don't make anymore. All the animation was done by hand and the characters were beautiful and well-developed. The voice over narration was humorous and rich, and the entire effect was exhilarating. I could really feel myself falling for the characters. They all seemed so well drawn by the music. I had never heard anything like it.

When my parents made me listen to the Peter and the Wolf record they have, at first I was a little bit disappointed. I had expected not to like it as much because there wasn't a cartoon there. It took me a few minutes to get into it, but to my surprise it was even richer in some ways. Without the aid of the visuals, you could really delve into the sound of everything more. I really came to understand Prokofiev's brilliance very quickly. The wolf still sounded sinister, the grandfather still sounded old and crotchety, the bird still sounded flighty. The music alone was enough to draw out the characters in vivid details.

When I watched the Peter and the Wolf cartoon again, I was able to see it with even more vivid clarity. It was somehow more brilliant now that I had heard the music by itself. Rather than simply having music to accompany the cartoon, I now had a cartoon that paralleled the brilliant work of music. At the time, I wasn't sure what was better – the animation or the music. As I have grown older, of course, my tastes have turned more towards the music than the animation, but I can still appreciate the way that cartoon looks with the same childish sense of wonder.

Recently, I got to play Peter & the Wolf for my own kids. It was great to watch their reactions. They were raised on Pixar movies – the new style animation with the bubbly, computer generated characters. Although this animation has its own advantages, it misses out on some of the depth of character typical of the old style of animating. I was glad to see them wowed by the same cartoon that had wowed me as a child. It is always nice to be able to relive the childish wonder that you had in the eyes of your own children.