DVDs

Good presentation of 23 of the "Aesop and Son" episodes. To my surprise, nothing similar is offered now in 2020 on the web. In fact, I had to purchase a whole set of "Rocky and Bullwinkle" to get the complete set of "Aesop and Son," which numbers some 39 episodes over five years. In this offering, I enjoyed stories parodying FS, BF, DS, and LM. The general pattern includes the wise-ass son actually telling the fable and then the father making up something different. The fable is regularly a springboard. There are many typical cartoon surprises. The dog needs to buy back his shadow. The fox only wanted to be accepted socially. The mouse becomes king, only to get "crowned" – hammered – by a female mouse. The crow with borrowed feathers gets rejected by both a female peacock and a female crow. 

This is a mammoth production!  I selected one episode of "Aesop and Son" from each of the five years of the series.  "The Mice in Council" features Murphy Mouse, who gets saddled with carrying out his suggestion.  After various ploys, he actually gets the cat to put on the bell as a gift from an unknown admirer, but the ice cream vendor's bell confuses Murphy and leads to an attack by the cat.  In "The Hares and the Frog," the frog becomes an advisor to the frightened hare: every "top critter" needs a gimmick.  The hare's gimmick is wiggling his ears.  He overpowers everyone with this gimmick, until he experiences the skunk's "gimmick."  Further episodes were "The Jackrabbit and the Coyote"; "The Country Frog and the City Frog"; and "The Jackrabbits and the Mule."  Always fun!

Here are eight Van Beuren cartoons from about the 1930's, starting with "Close Call," "Dizzy Day," and "A Toytown Tale."  As generally is the case with Van Beuren "Aesop's Fables" cartoons, they are not really from traditional Aesopic material.  They are described in the cartoons themselves as "sugar coated pills of wisdom."  As is true of cartoons more broadly, there may be more going on underneath the cartoon's surface – politically and philosophically – than is immediately apparent.

There are, as in Volume 2, sixteen "Aesop's Fables" cartoons on this DVD.  There are also engaging bonus features, including, for example, a side by side comparison of a sequence from "Toy Time" with an earlier cartoon.  I tried "Gypped in Egypt" and "The Farmerette" and found them fun but harmless.  I had trouble accessing a number of the bonus materials. 

Might this dvd of 21 "Aesop's Fables" cartoons by Van Beuren Studios between 1929 and 1933 be related to the 2009 dvd "Aesop's Fables from the Van Beuren Studio, Volume 2"?  "Toy Time," as on our dvd "2004 Cartoon Craze," remains a classic as two mice frolic through a toy store, playing with toys and then using them to terrorize the attacking cat.  I also tried the first two cartoons on the disc.  "Happy Polo" breaks animals down into machines and has separable parts frequently coming together again.  A romantic interest between two mice is interrupted by an intruding cat.  Even goalposts take on characteristics of humans and machines!  "Summertime" has animals playing plants as orchestral instruments.  The animation in these cartoons is by our standards rudimentary.

To my surprise, the first disc in this two-disc set contains the three fables I am aware of Disney producing: TH, TMCM, and GA.  TH in 1935 has the whole expanded story, including the parade for Max Hare, the stop at the girls' school, and the finish by an extended neck.  Snails accompany Toby the Tortoise along the way and keep up with him.  Laughter is the response to Toby several times over.  "The Country Cousin," Disney's TMCM in 1936, moves straight to the fancy town mouse's home.  This version is strong on the country mouse getting tipsy.  This is a particularly good print of GA, done in 1934.  I have used sometimes inferior prints in presenting this fable in class.

Disc 2 provides a set of fascinating features using and commenting on the cartoons.  I especially appreciated "Leonard's Picks."  Others focus on nature and music.  A theme throughout Maltin's contributions is the way in which Disney presentations developed.  Some early offerings, like "Skeleton Dance" (1928) are still spellbinding.  Maltin encourages watching the make and remake of "The Ugly Duckling" in 1931 and 1939.  What a difference, both in technical development and even in story sense!

Though this DVD was sold as "Tortoise and Hare Disney's DVD," it contains over 76 minutes of a variety of "Silly Symphonies," including titles like "3 Little Wolves"; "Peculiar Penguins"; "Water Babies"; and "Father Noah's Ark."  The first Silly Symphony here is in fact Disney's 1934 "The Tortoise and the Hare," featuring Max Hare and Toby Tortoise in the "Big Race."  The second video was the big surprise to me: "Toby Tortoise Returns" from 1936.  The two characters are back, this time in a boxing match.  Max performs all of his tricks in the ring, many of them Disney's delightful fantasies, for example of Max's boxing gloves continuing to pound Toby while Max is doing other things.  Max's last ploys turn on him, including filling Toby's shell with water and especially filling his shell with fireworks.  The fireworks launch Toby in pursuit of Max, eventually driving Max into the ambulance he had ready for Toby.  A Mae West character and the girls from the school are part of the boxing match audience.  There is a typical slip-up in English on the back cover of the carton, speaking of "baller" where "ballet" is clearly called for.

As the promotion says, "This second volume of the revolutionary series boasts some of Disney's rarest cartoons, including over a dozen never before released on DVD or video."  Among the first disc's highlights is the never-before-released "Hell's Bells."  The advertising seems to claim that "Mother Goose Goes Hollywood" in its original unedited form is also here, but I could not find it on either disc.  Maltin and others highlight the stereotypes that we would find offensive today but were standard stuff in the 30's.  I enjoyed "Hell's Bells" and "Broken Toys." 

On Disc 2 of this second set, there are ten more cartoons.  The abundant commentary highlights the development that occurred over the history of these cartoons.  From the beginning, Disney's genius included the ability to break up bodies and machines and then reconstitute them.  "Cock of the Walk" here repeats a fable theme: the loser becomes the winner, here when a star-struck chicken finds a picture of the "winner's" children.  As I researched both pairs of Disney dvds, I discovered how expensive they are, roughly $130 and $200.  I did not know what I had! 

There seem to be two portions to each fable here: a short narration of the story, including a visual circle, like a lens, in which the fable is told.  There follows then a more elaborate song, in which the fable may be more perceptively portrayed.  Overall, an angelic female descends to teach the lesson in each fable.  Surprisingly, occasional overlays advertise a phone number.  The trademark throughout seems to be "The He Tre."  It is hard to feel scammed for $1.99!

Here are some 21 brief and very creative presentations of La Fontaine's fables.  The disc which they make up is a favorite of mine!  The premise is that Jean Bastian, who did indeed produce a book of La Fontaine's fables, is drawing at his desk.  As he works on the coloring of each fable's illustration, the fable takes life in his atelier.  There are great touches of imagination here, as when MM finishes with a cracked pot and puddle in the middle of Jean's rug, or when a small statue falls at the end of 2P as is smashed in the floor, or when finally FG ends with grapes growing around Jean's atelier!  Those wanting a first sample of these short videos might do well to watch WL.  I am so happy that I noticed the book in this antique store's window.  I returned later when they were open and had a chat with the grandson (?) of Jean Bastian, former owner of the store.  I bought Jean's book – which I cannot find right now! – and the DVD.    

Here is a surprising assortment of teaching helps from letter forms antonyms to all sorts of word games and tests.  I believe I have seen, somewhere in our collection, the same digitized 91 Word document pages of standard fables, including a short introduction quoting four lines of Latin.  The pdf files on fables are doublets of each other: one a fill-in-the-blank quiz on one of the fifteen fables, and the other the appropriate answers.  We can say to Aesop with Dr. Seuss "My, the places you will go!"

This dvd should not be confused with the several Van Beuren dvd's with similar titles.  It offers ten colored cartoons from the 1940's.  "Wolf! Wolf!" in 1944 brings together several traditional stories and rhymes, including "Little Bo Peep."  I do not find fables involved here or elsewhere in this dvd.  This story involves contemporary elements significantly, particularly wartime elements like periscopes and cannon.  There is also an emphasize on contemporary jazz, which can lure the lost sheep into the wolves' lair.  I also enjoyed "Cheese Burglar" (1946).  Though it has nothing to do with fables, it has fun with Herman the Mouse.  62 minutes. 

Here, more simply packaged is a DVD already in the collection in a larger jewel case with a date of 2006.  Since the front cover is identical with the jewel case, I will show the back cover here, appropriately smaller.  As I wrote on that version, produced later but viewed earlier by me, to my surprise, the title cartoon "Foney Fables," second among the seven cartoons here, features several fables.  It was directed by Fritz Freleng in 1942.  In GA, the cicada answers the ant's critique of being lazy by pulling out a series of war bonds.  He will not starve!  By the way, I noticed this time through that there is no reference at all to music as the grasshopper's activity.  He just rests.  BW interrupts the series of reinterpreted stories several times.  The last time has us encountering not the obnoxious laughing boy but a laughing wolf picking his teeth.  The wolf in sheep's clothing meets a second wolf in sheep's clothing already working this herd.  The goose who laid golden eggs has converted to aluminum eggs, to help the war effort.  By the way, Mother Hubbard's dog turns her in to the authorities.  It turns out that she has been hoarding food!  Good color.

Primitive colored cartoons from Russia, Germany, Czechoslovakia, and Italy, besides GA from Greece.  The dvd dives right into the first story without introductory material like a T of C.  This extended version of GA offers some different elements not usually found in the classic fable.  the fun-loving grasshopper in spring makes a violin and plays with a whole orchestra of insects, while animals love his frequent dance parties.  During one of their parties, ants make noise by working.  The grasshopper and other animals mock them this time and often in the future.  The grasshopper's sister feels sorry for the ants and invites one into the party.  The grasshopper makes fun of the ant and trips him.  As the weather turns, other animals leave the grasshopper's party to prepare for winter.  The grasshopper never does any chores.  When he runs out of food and shelter in winter, the grasshopper carries his sister and his violin.  When they come upon the ants' home, he trusts that the ants will take them in.  His sister says "They won't help us now."  Soon the grasshopper realizes "I deserve to be left out."  The two walk away from the ant home without even knocking on the door, and the ant is never even aware of their plight.  The two grasshoppers spend the winter cold and hungry.

Rammie starts by warning children not to go off with strangers – and finishes by urging them not to run out onto the road between parked cars.  In between Rammie tells nine fables in various pastoral settings in the Derbyshire Dales countryside.  Some fables may be so animated in their telling that the motivation gets obscured.  Does the fox really invite his good friend the stork because he wants others to know his great soup and then decide to make sport of his friend?  The mischievous boy in BW is never allowed to have fun again!  The video segment turns amateurish in an attempt, for example, to simulate the panic of fearing an approaching wolf.  Rammie's big message tends to be "Reading is fun!"

To my surprise, the title cartoon "Foney Fables," second among the seven cartoons here, features several fables.  It was directed by Fritz Freleng in 1942.  In GA, the cicada answers the ant's critique of being lazy by pulling out a series of war bonds.  He will not starve!  BW interrupts the series of reinterpreted stories several times.  The last time has us encountering not the obnoxious laughing boy but a laughing wolf picking his teeth.  The wolf in sheep's clothing meets a second wolf in sheep's clothing already working this herd.  The goose who laid golden eggs has converted to aluminum eggs, to help the war effort.  By the way, Mother Hubbard's dog turns her in to the authorities.  It turns out that she has been hoarding food!  Good color. 

One of the three fables here is a set of three fox fables: FC, FG, and FS.  In FG, the fox jumps and jumps.  In FS, the fox's offering is a pond, and the stork's is deep inside a hollow tree trunk.  Both the whole film and TH are labelled as "Second Edition."  All three videos feature music and narration in rhyming couplets, the music often too strong for the vocation narration.  In LM, the mouse is wandering at night and happens into what he thinks is a "graveyard."  It is, the lion's leftovers!

I may well have seen this film when I was in early grade school.  It is a photographic video with narration, using largely posed animal footage.  The tortoise can stand the rabbit's boasting no longer.  The owl asks the fox to lay out a difficult course, and we watch its key points, including the hollow log and the creek.  The tortoise plops more than once along the way.  The hare's friend the raccoon awakens him, just a little too late.  Unfortunately, the film cuts off in the middle of the pronouncement of the moral!  It is curious that the DVD producers reverse the title of the film on their DVD.

Here are eleven stories listed on the jacket and jewel-box.  In both the introduction and BS, the music tends to overwhelm voices.  Very simple animation and announced morals.  In AD, the ant thanks the dove face-to-face, and the dove gives the ant further food after the river rescue and before the bite that saves the dove.  The donkey prays to God for a different master, from herb seller to tile maker to tanner.  He understands his mistake too late.  BS has a demonstration that converts the four boys on the spot. 

This DVD is done by the same firm that did the DVD "Aesop's Fables: Animated Moral Stories" in the same year.  Here are eight stories listed on the jacket and jewel-box.  Again, there is rudimentary animation.  Particularly with actions like speaking, the animation here seems primitive by comparison with what one sees, for example, in the late "Silly Symphonies."  I enjoyed four stories here.  "A Friend in Need" picks up the key episode in the cycle of stories of four friends, the liberation of the turtle caught in a net.  "The Clever Idea" comes from the fox and saves two crows, who had twice lost their eggs to a serpent.  The animator here has particular fun with the snake's movement.  In "The Talkative Tortoise," the tortoise himself, not identified as particularly talkative, comes up with the idea.  He dies when he responds to people's question "Does he think he can fly?"  In "The Lion, the Fox, and the Ass," the fox brings the ass to the old lion twice and eats his ears and his brain as a way of claiming the reward for his part in the capture.  He outwits the lion, as he outwitted the ass by promising an eager bride.  Good musical background and good, varied voices.  

Here is a feature film using the voices of Jay Leno, Dannuy Glover, and others.  Special features include "How to Draw a Character" and "The Making of Tortoise vs. Hare."  I thoroughly enjoyed watching the whole animated feature.  It pits the families, now neighbors, against each other in the "Mount Impossible Adventure Race" fifteen years after Walter Tortoise beat Murray Hare.  Murray keeps running into the dreaded "Slow and steady wins the race" statement.  The adventure race has many twists and turns, including a surprise winner.  The start and finish are provided by two stork sports announcers, Rex and Bob, who report throughout.  Good fun, based on the fable.  Part of a trilogy including "Goldilocks" and "Three Pigs and a Baby."

This DVD offers vigorous tellings of eight Aesop's fables along with two others.  The fables are GA; BW; TMCM; FG; GGE; LM; SW; and TH.  The two other tales are "The Old Hag's Long Leather Bag" and "The Little Old Lady and Her Pig."  The stories are accompanied by a wild proliferation of images of various sorts.  The tellings are vigorous and include a variety of voices, all presumably from Deane.  There is a written moral at the end of each fable followed by a vocalized slide "The end."  The first day's cry in BW brings his mother and sister.  The next cry brings men and boys with pitchforks.  In TMCM, the city cousin drives a car with a windup key in its trunk.  The cat attacks once, and the country mouse says good-bye.  Here is one more evidence of how much people love Aesop's stories and keep them alive with their lively presentations.

Winner of "The Best Pre-School Animation 2001 -  BAFTA."  The first two episodes both deal well with sensitive matter: being a fat pig and have – as frogs do – 3004 children at once!  Rhyming couplets. 

Two of the five stories here seem to me to be fables.  There are extras, including an interview with Boris Kulikov on his development of the classic fable, including architecture and costumes from various periods and introducing a fly who appears several times during the fable.  The shepherd boy is bored with the sheep's "munch, munch, munch."  They do not want to play.  For the first day's trick, he reports one wolf, which people seek but do not find.  The second day he reports two wolves.  On the third day there are three wolves, and they are thinking "lunch, lunch, lunch."  There is no report of losses after the third incident.  In fact, one can see most of the sheep up in the tree!  There is also Marcia Brown's classic "Stone Soup," mistakenly reported on the clamshell as narrated by her.  As in her book, there are three soldiers and they convert selfish townfolk who at first hide their food from them.  This fable has distinctly French settings and names.  The disk advertises having been done with Russian resources and help.

This set of 24 sculptures is a real labor of love.  Through them I have become a good friend of Nancy, and I have come to realize that these sculptures represent some of the humane wisdom by which she has lived and about which she has created.  Nancy's career demonstrates a combination of passion and whimsy that fits Aesop perfectly.  I have sought to find the benefactor who brings these 24 sculptures to Omaha.  They would be a perfect ornament to this collection!  I have since come to see the sculptures firsthand.  They are an artistic triumph!

This DVD offers six Silly Symphonies, including "Three Little Wolves"; "Peculiar Penguins"; "Water Babies"; and "Father Noah's Ark."  Though both the disc and the packaging say that English is an option, I could not engage it.  Several random subtitles appeared without my asking for them.  The paper insert for a large jewel-case came with the disc, but without the jewel case. 

It has taken me a long time to get to cataloguing this unassuming disc.  The long wait has only reinforced my surprise at finding the immense treasure-house here!  From the fable world, I find at least four important books.  First is "An Argosy of Fables" by Frederic Taber Cooper in 1921 with colored illustrations by Paul Bransom.  Next is Percy Billinghurst's "A Hundred Fables of La Fontaine" from 1898.  Then there is a version of Benjamin Rabier's presentation of La Fontaine in French, featuring some fully-colored and some duochrome illustrations.  Finally there is Fredk. Colin Tilney's "The Original Fables of La Fontaine" from 1913.  Do not judge a book – or a disc – by its cover!

This pair of DVD's present the delightful and awe-inspiring silhouette films of Reiniger, from early silent films into the more developed silhouette films of the 1950's.  Among the latter is the only fable I find among these offerings, "Der Heuschreck und die Ameise," apparently produced in London in 1953/54.  As the accompanying booklet by Absolutmedien points out, Reiniger adapts this story quite substantially.  The ant dismisses the grasshopper in summer and in winter.  As he lies dying in the snow, a mouse and a squirrel carry him into their home and revive him.  He immediately starts fiddling.  The ant hears and stops by to enjoy interaction.  Though the mouse and squirrel reject her, the Heuschreck accepts her in.  "You worked all summer; now you can dance in winter!" 

Storytellers do lively presentations here with the help of a guitarist and a small audience of children.  The fifth of the eight tales is "Bone Day," a lively retelling of DS with plenty of musical participation.