Book that changed my life

Reserach so far has yielded that there has been a musical (watched that), an opera (watched that), an animated series (too cutesy, could only watch the first few minutes of that) and a film (with Gene Wilder in it!) The boy playing the prince is adorable, but very serious. The relationships between him and pilot, and the fox are the highlights of the book for me.
Here's a clip of it:



Already I've got an idea of what I want my outcome to 'feel' like. The original book illustrations by Mr Saint-expurey himself are lovely, but not what you'd expect. They are literally doodles done with an ink pen


I want to make sure I have the guts to draw such a recognisable character MY way, but at the same time this whimsical kind of drawing works very well for that story. I think over-drawing this or doing something too rigid and structured would be a mistake. The story is charming and has an ageless quality to it, so I need to make sure my work communicates that.

I know I want it narrated, rather than having words on a screen. Since the point is not to advertise the book per se, but to explain the effect it had on me, it would make it more personal to have a voiceover, even if it's not my voice.
NOTE TO SELF: Must therefor book recording equipment from Ben Dolman. The little dictaphone I used for the Girish project worked really well. If I do it in a quiet room then the quality should be fine.
In terms of talking, I only have about 30-40 seconds of screentime and I dont want to clutter it, so less is definitely more.

Already I'm thinking about music too, since I can't use existing stuff (which is a shame because I can think of some great tracks that would be perfect) I really care about getting the soundtrack right, and I learned in the Chicago project that a good soundtrack can make or break your piece, and does half the work for you! It's a very quiet, gentle story, with not so much a 'tune' as an ambience - it's set in space after all. Something light, gentle and ... a bit 'tinkly'. Like Mais e Menos by O Teatro Magico.