The Royal Albert Hall's live musical production of the assertively whimsical The Butterfly Ball in 1975, for many of you who don't know, was an adaptation of a children's book titled The Butterfly Ball and Grasshopper's Feast. The book of poems appears to have attracted a multitude of musical/artistic talents, including Alan Aldridge who illustrated the book as well as the Beatles Illustrated Lyrics. The live production of The Butterfly Ball was written, produced, and directed by none other than Tony Klinger, the producer of The Who's applauded documentary, The Kids are Alright. To top it off, most of Deep Purple were involved with the lavish music in some capacity. Roger Glover produced the music for the studio recordings, and Ian Gillan and David Coverdale offered their voices for a few of the songs. Did I mention that Twiggy also offers her vocal talents? And Vincent Price narrates as well so you know it's quite an interesting show, especially considering it's a children's musical.

On the other hand, adult buyers should beware, this is indeed a children's musical equipped with grown people dressed in animal costumes. No, Deep Purple isn't wearing them, but there are many interjected sequences of people dressed up as animals (strangely enough, no grasshoppers and rarely any butterflies), which will definitely come across as a tad creepy and a little off-putting to the average viewer. I suppose the animal people are inserted to interpret the music somehow, but frankly, this reviewer didn't understand what was happening in most of these animal skits. I do know that The Butterfly Ball's main objective is clearly to inject the hippie philosophy of peace and love into the minds of impressionable young children, but the movie represents this philosophy in a sort of Mr. Rogers on a bad acid trip, creepy way. I hate to compare The Butterfly Ball to a bad acid trip, but I fail to describe it in any other way.

The next time I put on this DVD, I might consider turning off the set, but keeping the sound on. The music is seriously enjoyable, and how can it not be? But the visuals are entirely laughable, and may even give small children nightmares for weeks. I know I certainly haven't been sleeping well lately since my journey to The Butterfly Ball with Twiggy and the gang.