1930? Aesop's Fables: Fly Hi. RKO Pathé. Produced by the Van Beuren Corporation. By John Foster and Harry Bailey. Synchronization by Gene Rodemich. Black-and-white eight-minute film short transcribed onto video tape for John Carlson. Gift of John Carlson, Nov., '98.
"Fly Hi" is a nice play on words, as two romantic flies say hi to each other musically over the phone, meet at her place, and then listen to music played by an insidious German-accented spider. After playing classical music for them on two pianos -- with four hands, of course -- the spider chases them, but is arrested by fly-paper. The film seems to rejoice in being a "talkie." There seems to be a simple pleasure in hearing music and voices. As the male fly goes to visit the female, the flowers and bugs along the road join in on his song. The film has nothing to do with Aesop that I can figure out!
2007 Aesop's Fables: Classic Cartoon Collection Featuring Three Classic Cartoons. 30+ minutes. From Encyclopedia Brittanica in the 1960's. Manufactured by P.C. Treasures, Oxford, MI.
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!
2008 Aesop's Fables: Animated Moral Stories. DVD. 60 minutes. 11 fables. Manufactured by Ananth Electronics, Mumbai. Super Audio (Madras). Unknown source.
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.
2009 Aesop's Fables: 21 Classic Cartoons. Alpha Video Classics: Alpha Home Entertainment.
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.
1993 Aesop's Fables: 1993 Calendar. Illustrations by Rodney McRae. Printed in Korea. Petaluma, CA: Pomegranate Calendars & Books. Gift of Roseanne FitzGerald, Dec., '92. Extra copy gift of Mary Keane, Feb., '93.
What a great find! The calendar is based on the book Aesop's Fables by McRae, first published in Australia in 1990. The twelve fable illustrations, conveniently brought together on the back cover, are lively and colorful. The back cover's blurb is right to speak of McRae's folk-art style as exciting. It is! Part of the excitement is that there are really many folk-art styles here. I enjoy particularly April's Mycenean "The Heifer and the Ox" and August's "The Farmer and the Fox" from Africa.
