The story of Philippe Petit, the Frenchman who walked on a tightrope between the Twin Towers in 1974, has been told on film in the excellent 2008 documentary Man on Wire. Petit's amazing feat also became a Caldecott Award-wining children's story by Mordecai Gerstein and has now been adapted into an animated short film for kids by director Michael Spon. Narrated by Jake Gyllenhaal, the film opens on a fairytale note. “Once there were two towers side by side,” Gyllenhaal begins as the colored line drawings come to life and we're introduced to Petit, who had previously astonished Paris by tightrope walking between the steeples of Notre Dame. The short is packaged with several other short animated movies on the DVD “The Man Who Walked Between the Towers… And More Inspiring Tales,” out on Aug. 30.
