1992 The Tortoise and the Hare. Children's Animated Classics Library. Goldstar Video. Freehold, NJ: Little Red Schoolhouse. $1 at "Every Thing's a $1," KC, May, '93.
Three sections. The two Aesopic sections handle their fables differently from their usual tellings. The first section is TH, produced in 1976 by ACI Media. It lasts about eight minutes. The boasting hare is laughed at when the elephant stops him in mid-leap. The hare suggests the race to the tortoise. Taunting questions "Afraid?" and "Lazy?" get the tortoise angry. The rabbit decides to take a nap. Helping the tortoise, the elephant sucks up dust and blows it out straight. The confused, sleepy tortoise runs back to the starting point. The middle tale is introduced as a "European Folk Tale" from Hungary: "The Enormous Lie." After the king believes all sorts of outrageous fibs from a farmer's son trying to win his daughter, the young man finally says "I came to ask you to be my dad's swineherd" and the king cannot believe him. The king gives him his daughter. The third is TMCM, about seven minutes in length, produced in 1976 by ACI Media. The town mouse drives a car; they have an accident on the way into town. The country mouse gets his tail caught in an electric socket. They watch TV while they eat. The country mouse runs from a cat on TV--all the way home. Simple animated cartoons throughout.
2010? The Tortoise and the Hare. Disney DVD. Buddha Video. Intercontinental Video Limited. Six Disney Silly Symphonies, including "The Tortoise and the Hare" and "Toby Tortoise Returns." $9.14 from David Deng, Singapore, through Ebay, Nov., '02.
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.
1993 The Tortoise & the Hare CD-ROM. Production Manager George Fleischman. Produced in USA. Interactive Publishing Corporation. $10 at the Omaha Computer Swap Meet, May, '98.
This is a simple presentation of TH on cartoon slides with the text on the screen highlighted phrase by phrase while it is read. A listener can also click on any word to have it said or on any object to see and hear the word. The reading is enhanced with simple musical background and some sound effects. The speed of the presentation is so slow that it is burdensome to any but those who are learning to read. The text is copyrighted by National Textbook Company, the producers of Tina la Tortuga y Carlos el Conejo/Tina the Turtle and Carlos the Rabbit (1972/90). An audio cassette is included with the same sound track (listed separately under 1993) and so are crayons to color the printable black-and-white slides. To get the CD-ROM running, I followed the sequence Start/Run/D:/OK and double-clicked on the "go.bat" icon. Richie and Tina are very good friends, but Richie wakes up one day in a very bad mood and cannot stop taunting Tina with the things she cannot do while he can. Tina gets angry and demands a race. Throughout these interchanges there is a great little frog observer. There is also a wonderful expression on Richie's face after the lost race. Tina announces to him: "You go far little by little."
