Audio-Visual

2006? "Beasts and Citizens" Forty Fables of La Fontaine." CD. Translated and red by Craig Hill. Recording by Point One Audio, Lincoln, MA. Concord, MA: Palm Press. Unknown source. It is pleasant to hear the translator read his own work, work we have in several copies, including an advance copy provided to me so that I could offer a review. The complete fables edition was by Arcade Publishing in 2008. The CD jewel case includes a simple leaflet offering a T of C of the fables read and their place in La Fontaine's twelve books. It refers to illustrations; I wonder if something has been lost from the simple foldout. Craig Hill is not an excited reader. Rather, as he is a careful translator, he is a careful reader. I find his title telling, especially since, of the first fables that I read, FK is particularly well done – and particularly telling for us in the United States these days! The rhymes often fortify the sense well. I can find no references to this disc online, but reviews mention the illustrations in the published edition, and the references to illustration here may well be pointing there.

1980 "The Crow and the Pitcher." Use with the book. Society for Visual Education, Inc. $1.39 from Barb Daniels, Lebanon , OR , through eBay, March, '04. This tape presents with several voices exactly the words of the book of the same title and year. The tape runs just over five minutes. There are a few sound effects. The tape has been well used. The pitcher answers back when the crow says that she wants the water. In fact, the artist works hard to give the pitcher strong facial expressions. The not-so-swift pitcher opines that tossing pebbles to get water makes no sense. The pitcher is smart enough to notice at the end of the story that he is stuck with all the pebbles! I also have the book.

1980 "The Fox and the Crow." Use with the book. Society for Visual Education, Inc. $1.39 from Barb Daniels, Lebanon , OR , through eBay, March, '04. This tape presents with several voices exactly the words of the book of the same title and year. The tape runs five minutes. There are a few sound effects. Vocal quality is good on this tape. The "caw" is particularly good here. This fox does the flattery of the female crow well. He starts with compliments on general beauty and feathers, and then moves on to the crow's eyes and her virtues. Only then does he move on to her voice. The crow moves down closer to hear his flattering whispers. I also have the book.

1980 "The Fox and the Grapes." Use with the book. Society for Visual Education, Inc. $1.39 from Barb Daniels, Lebanon OR , through eBay, March, '04. This tape presents with several voices exactly the words of the book of the same title and year. The tape runs just under five minutes. There are a few sound effects. The tape has been well used. The vocal quality is sometimes poor. At one point in his leaping he touches the grapes. He tries to leap at them ten times. The fox admits at the end that the grapes look and smell good but claims that they do not taste good. "Good-bye, sour grapes," he says at the end. The narrator says that the fox hated something because he could not get it. I also have the book.

1991 "The Mice's Thanksgiving." The Broadway Local Theater. American Radio Company. Garrison Keillor narrator. November, 1991. Recorded by Rev. Edward W. Bodnar, S.J. 10:15. A great rendition of TMCM. The voices and vocal effects are excellent. Some great wit. An uptown express sewer carries the mice during TV commercials! The "Voice of Reason" and the "country mouse" are especially good characters. Keillor is a great narrator. "It's not the city but me, isn't it?" "You're the mousiest guy I ever knew." A trap gets Randy, and with a punishing pun Keillor has him buried in a mausoleum.

1988 [Korean]. (Aesop's Fables). For use with two volumes of Aesop's Fables published 1990 and 1989, respectively, by Mun Gong Sa in Seoul. Bibliographical information on cassette in Hangu. $2.10 on street near Eastgate in Seoul, June, '90. Good orchestral music backs up spirited and varied reading in Korean, complete with good animal voices.

1971? Background and three cells for an animation of TH. $15 from 1vegaseller through Ebay, March, '21. The seller identified this scene with Bill Cosby's Aesop, but I am unsure of that identification. As someone unacquainted with animation techniques, I find the working together of the various cell layers fascinating! The background here is so similar to that in my other group of cells that I wonder if they may not have come from the same film.

1985? 6 hand-painted animation cells from Filmation for “The Tortoise and the Hare.” $30 from beachparking through Ebay, July, ’21. I have searched but not yet found the Filmation cartoon in which these cells were included. There is a researcher’s project for the future! It is sometimes hard to picture how this single “cell” picture would be included in a motion-picture cartoon. If you look closely, you can see the movable overlay on the colored background. There is very nice work with color here!

365 Successful Fables: Each volume has an accompanying disc, which I will keep with the pamphlet. The first four tracks of each disc present the stories a paragraph at a time with alternating Chinese and English. The next four use only Mandarin. Tracks 9 through 12 present the four stories in English. Track 13 is a vocabulary and pronunciation exercise. The speakers tend to exaggerate throughout. There are plentiful sound effects along with a generous musical background. For further comments on individual stories, consult the books of this series. 2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Mice and the Cat. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 2 The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Mice and the Cat"; "The Parasol and the Travellers"; "The Bird Learning to Neigh"; and "The Frogs and the God." 2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Golden Ax and the Silver Ax. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 4 The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Golden Ax and the Silver Ax"; "The Lion and the Three Bulls"; "The Dog, The Rooster and The Fox"; and "The Maid and the Rooster." 2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Opportunistic Donkey. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 6 The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Opportunistic Donkey"; "The Ant and The Dove"; "The Lion and The Bear"; and "The Fox Without a Tail." 2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Greedy Dog. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 7 The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Greedy Dog"; "The Two Roosters and the Eagle"; "The Doctor and His Patient"; and "The Monkey and The Fisherman." 2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Treasure in the Grape Grove. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 8 The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Treasure In the Grape Garden"; "The Wolf and The Egret"; "The Host and His Friend"; and "The Crow and The Fox." 2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Fox and the Food. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 9 The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Fisherman and the Fish"; "The Fox and The Food"; "The Snobbish Monk"; and "The Wolf and the Lion." 2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Fox and the Crane. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 10 The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Fox and the Crane"; "The Donkey and the Horse"; "The Deer and the Hunter"; and "The Farmer and the Eagle." 2008? 365 Successful Fables: The Businessman and the Golden Lion. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 11. The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: "The Businessman and the Golden Lion"; "The Bird's Beauty Pageant"; Father and his Daughters"; and "The Fox and the Cicada." 2008? 365 Successful Fables: The North Wind and the Sun. Paperbound. Taiwan: 365 Successful Fables: You Fu Culture Co. Ltd. $10 from Jeremy Weiss, Sleepy Hollow, NY, through eBay, Sept., '12. FW 12. The four fables presented and illustrated in this volume are: WS; "The Emperor and the Minister"; "The Donkey, the Dog and the Master"; and "The Lion and the Hare."

1995 A Call to Character Tape One: A Family Treasury of stories, poems, plays, proverbs, and fables to guide the development of values for you and your children. Colin Greer & Herbert Kohl, editors. Performed by Frankie Faison and Karen Allen. Made in USA. NY: Harper Audio: HarperCollins Publishers. $3.99 from Book Express Online through Bibliofind, August, '97. See my comments on the book of the same title and year, from which these selections are taken. I was disappointed that only a few fable materials are taken: on this first tape only the morals from student fables collected by Kohl (34; e.g. "Better to be old than bold!") and two other short materials on the second tape. The tape itself made delightful listening as I drove across Nebraska to attend Sarah FitzSimmons' wedding! The selections represent a noble effort to engage parents and their children in the discussion of values well depicted in classic literature. The tape may include a little too much preaching outside the literature itself. Still, it was a pleasure to hear!   1995 A Call to Character Tape Two: A Family Treasury of stories, poems, plays, proverbs, and fables to guide the development of values for you and your children. Colin Greer & Herbert Kohl, editors. Performed by Frankie Faison and Karen Allen. Made in USA. NY: Harper Audio: HarperCollins Publishers. $3.99 from Book Express Online through Bibliofind, August, '97. See my comments both on the book of the same title and year, from which these selections are taken, and on Tape One. I was disappointed that only a few fable materials are taken: one selection on the first tape and two short materials here: Aesop's "The Lion and the Boar" (269) retold by Ann McGovern and, in the section on responsibility, "Fable" reported as anonymous (333). This latter is really Perry #36 with an oracle instead of the old man here asked whether what two young people hold in their hands is dead or alive.

2001 A Precious Life/The Magic of Patience. Illustrated by Rosalyn White. Paperbound. Oakland: A Jataka Tale Coloring Book: Dharma Publishing. $3 from the publisher, Dec., '04. This CD-Rom -Rom, produced together with a coloring book containing the texts, presents the stories in two booklets with these same titles published earlier. There are several voices--not always successful--with music and good sound effects. In "The Magic of Patience," the Great Being, who is a buffalo, lives within a jungle with a mischievous monkey. The monkey plays constant tricks on the buffalo, but the buffalo remains patient with his pranks and foolishness. A forest sprite asks the buffalo why he puts up with this creature whom he could easily crush. The buffalo answers that the monkey is doing him a favor by teaching him patience. The sprite asks how he can learn patience, and the buffalo answers that you need a real rascal. Gentle and kind creatures will not help. The sprite goes off, and it turns out that the monkey has overheard the conversation. He asks the buffalo for forgiveness. In "A Precious Life," the Great Being, who is a deer, shows mercy to the prince who had tried to hunt and kill him. In fact, the deer revives him after a terrible accident at a ravine during the pursuit. The deer carries him out of the ravine. Offered whatever he wants, the deer asks the hunter to renounce hunting animals. The hunter henceforth realizes that any animal he encounters might be a Great Being.

2010? Aesop and Son DVD Video Disc. World Wide Unique Media. $6.99 from Joe Gibson, Meriden CT, through Ebay, Dec., '11. One extra copy for $6.99 from the same source, Feb., '14. 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.