Video Cassettes

1985 Aesop's Fables. Magic Window. Produced by Simon Nuchtern and Carmen Ventura. Edited by Arshes Anasal. Burbank, CA: RCA/Columbia Pictures Home Video. Turner Program Services. 60 minute animated video cassette. $4.99 from Galaxy of Games II, Hamden CT, through Ebay, March, '99. One extra copy in a slightly larger clamshell for $5 from Barry Rieger, Buffalo Grove, IL, through Ebay, April, '99. Two extra copies in more usual cardboard slipcases dated with an 1989 copyright, one of them for $3.25 from Dr. Rob Tingle, Easton, MD, through Ebay, Feb., '00, and the other for $1.40 from Charles Evans, Bogalusa, Louisiana, Sept., '00. Little Aesop, perhaps ten years old, likes mischief, like tying together dogs' tails. He himself tries the "Wolf!" trick when he starts his first job as a shepherd. The wolf chases him into a dark woods, where he falls through a hole into a new world. There he meets Skitter the Country Mouse, Silkwing the Flower Elf, and Hayhee the ass. Their adventures include an invitation to a City Mouse meal, where the master of the house is a cat. As the three travel, they run into a tortoise and hare arguing. The three soon get work along the way delivering salt; Hayhee's second load is cotton. They meet a fiddling grasshopper who entertains the whole pondside, all of whom join in ridiculing the ants who keep chanting "No time, no time!" Hayhee finds a lion's skin and plays dead when a bear approaches the foursome. In winter, the ants accept an apology and give the travelers food and warm clothing and send them on their way across Terror Mountain, where Winter becomes the North Wind and Spring becomes the Sun to play out a bet. Spring gives Aesop storytelling power and brings him home. As Silkwing reminds Aesop on arriving back home, the animals back here cannot talk. She has lost her wings and will live with him forever. There is a clever attempt here to weave a number of fables into a continuous narrative. Part of the price is to make Aesop into a small boy who, with friends, needs to learn lessons before he can return to his mother. I enjoy the attempt, though I am sorry to see fables turned into a fairy tale. The prose on the slipcases of the extra copies has little Aesop meeting not a Flower Elf but a Flower Elk. That kind of mistake makes me wonder about the claim "Duplicated, Packaged and Printed in USA."

1971/86 Aesop's Fables. Starring Bill Cosby. About 30 minutes. #127. Irvine, CA: Karl-Lorimar Home Video. One extra. The best of the tapes I have. A delightful composition of animation and photography. Wonderland (where you have to take your shoes off!), songs, the personality of "Mr. Aesop," two main fables, and a little wisdom about life (especially about having a dream) work together to make a good film. In fact, the integration of the two fables with each other and with the other elements is superb. "The Turtle Who Wanted To Fly" (8:30 long) begins with springtime in the pond. Romantic interest leads the tortoise, on the advice of the hare, to want to impress a female tortoise with his flying. The eagle will give the tortoise only a start. Stealing feathers becomes a major portion of the story. The tortoise has good wings and actually flies for a bit before he loses the feathers, slides into the pond, and learns to be just a slow tortoise. Proud to be himself, the tortoise promptly challenges the hare to a race. The hare stops just short of the finishline in order to get the victory celebration, including dinner, going. Dinner includes many kinds of carrots. The hare: "The tortoise is as good a runner as a flier." Bad weather, spans without bridges, rivers, and overnight make the race an ordeal for the tortoise. An over-filled belly gives the hare his own ordeal. Good antics along the way. The tortoise gets the girl; in fact we soon see a whole tortoise family. The second fable takes 9:30. The box lists the copyright as 1986, the tape as 1971.

1971/91 Aesop's Fables. With Bill Cosby as Aesop. About 26 minutes. Fairlawn, NJ: Alpha Video Distributors Inc. Gift of Greg and Kathy Grant, Summer, '92. Seems to be exactly identical with the Lorimar tape listed under 1971/86. Thus it contains "The Tortoise and the Eagle" and TH. Explicitly declared as public domain work not authorized by the original copyright owners. There is a crazy "Chipmunks Christmas" advertisement at the end.

1967 Aesop's Fables I-III. Metal master tape and two videotape copies of three sixteen-millimeter films. No author, illustrator, or reader acknowledged. Living Prose Series. In collaboration with Lumin Films. McGraw-Hill, Inc. Gift of John Carlson, Dec., '95. See my comments under "Films."

1987 Aesop's Fables I: The Tortoise and the Hare and Other Tales. Fully animated. Rewritten for today by Victor J. Tognola. Illustrated by Adelky. No. 1562. ©1987 Children's Video Library, Inc. Unknown source. Nine stories are offered here: "The Lion and the Three Bulls," "The Fox and the Wolf," "The Crow and the Eagle," TH, "The Snake and His Tail," "The Two Dogs and the Meaty Bone," AD, OF, and "The Little Fish and the Big Fish." With this acquisition, I have what looks like the full set of three of the tapes in this series.

1987 Aesop's Fables II: The Lion and the Stag and Other Tales. Fully animated. Rewritten for today by Victor J. Tognola. Illustrated by Adelky. No. 1563. ©1987 Children's Video Library, Inc. $5.95 from Chet Burtch, Fresno, CA, through Ebay, June, '00. Extra copy with a jacket in poor condition. Originally copyrighted apparently by Blue Lion and SSR-RTSI in 1981. See my comments on Volume III. The first fable of nine here, "The Lion and the Stag," is again highly dramatic. The lion weeps over losing the hare while he has chased a stag in vain. The "II" in the title appears only on the tape itself. Now I have the first tape in the series still to find, though I cannot be sure whether there is a fourth too!

1987 Aesop's Fables III: The Hen with the Golden Eggs and Other Tales. Fully animated. Rewritten for today by Victor J. Tognola. Illustrated by Adelky. No. 1564. ©1987 Children's Video Library, Inc. $2.25 from Rachael Houdroge, Portland, OR, through Ebay, March, '00. Originally copyrighted apparently by Blue Lion and SSR-RTSI in 1981. I suspect that there may have been an Italian original behind this now-English presentation. While the voice-over narration is in English, I suspect that there may have been an Italian original behind this presentation. The first fable of nine here, "The Lion in Love," has lots of Italian songs and, I think, some Italian muttering and cursing. It is unusual that the title fable does not come first. The presentations are highly dramatized, as here when the lion sings arias or the girl laughs at the toothless lion. The animation work is simple. In the second fable, the kid rather than the wolf plays the flute before the wolf's dinner. The "III" in the title appears only on the tape itself.

1986 Aesop's Fables of Contentment & Kindness. The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse; The Lion and the Mouse. Golden Book Video. About 25 minutes. ©1986 Dolmatch. Racine: Western Publishing Company. One extra copy. Simple, even rudimentary animation. The framework is provided by three monkeys, who appear before the first fable, between the two, and after the last. TMCM (about 10 minutes) presents little Mike bored in the country telling his mama that he needs to go see the world. The train takes him to town, where he meets cousin Max fresh from being chased by a cat. They eat well--chocolate and cheese!--in Max's well furnished hole. Mike is frightened at night by an "owl" clock and next morning by traffic and a ringing bell. They sneak past the sleeping cat only to be chased. A woman attacks with a broom. Mike is happy to return to Mama. The monkeys moralize variously, even contradictorily: "Sometimes things are better than you may think, and we should all appreciate what we have. Follow your heart but be prepared for the consequences. Mike had to find out for himself that country life wasn't such a bad thing after all." In LM (about 10 minutes), Malcolm is bringing cactus fruit home to his sick mother. He is followed and then chased by a fox into a hollow log, which the fox rolls over the cliff. Malcolm staggers home. His sister Amanda goes back ahead of him to get the cactus fruit; by now the fox has it on a string. Amanda jabs him in the foot. In running off, Amanda runs onto a lion. Malcolm begs the lion to spare her. The lion does not laugh but yields since they would not make much of a meal. Amanda soon announces that the lion has been caught. After being released by them, the lion apologizes.

1986 Aesop's Fables of Patience & Honesty. The Wolf and the Lamb; The Boy Who Cried Wolf. Golden Book Video. About 25 minutes. ©1986 Dolmatch. Racine: Western Publishing Company. One extra copy. Simple, even rudimentary animation. The framework is provided by three monkeys, who appear before the first fable, between the two, and after the last. About ten minutes each for the two fables. In WL there is lots of flute-playing before a rabbit ever shows up. There is wonderful lamb-dancing and leaping. I think this version of the story misses the "creative suggestion" character of the lamb's asking the wolf to play the flute, since the wolf has been holding the flute for a long time before the lamb is caught. Flattery helps lead to the wolf's downfall. Moral: "One thing at a time." In BW Nathan begins by falling into a river. There he thinks he sees a wolf. He goes to town and brings the people back, but the wolf is nowhere to be found. The mayor has come out without putting on his pants. The next day Nathan wonders what to do for excitement. Now he runs into town crying "Wolf!" The mayor is soon up a tree, falls, and is laughed at. The next day Nathan plays his trick again. The mayor cuts his moustache in half. "Your joke wasn't funny!" When the wolf does show up, Nathan runs through town: there is a great chase and great desperate screaming. The chase is going on as the fable ends.

1986 Aesop's Fables of Pride & Perseverance. The Hare and the Tortoise; The Vain Crow. Golden Book Video. About 25 minutes. ©1986 Dolmatch. Racine: Western Publishing Company. One extra copy. Simple, even rudimentary animation. The framework is provided by three monkeys, who appear before the first fable, between the two, and after the last. TH features Scamper McRabbit and Thelma Tortoise. Scamper plays a sports announcer. There is a strong element of sports-TV parody all the way through the tape, including slow motion at the end. The tape's narrator clarifies early that "tortoise" is the same as turtle and "hare" as rabbit. Scamper stops for some of the mice's egg-salad at their picnic. Scamper has racing car sounds for his movements. Thelma hums along her way. A rain storm drives the hare to a tree. Scamper catches up to Thelma six times along the way! Scamper gets chased by a fox, loses direction, and finds his way to a bunny fast-food counter. There are many puns along the way. Moral: "Be sure but steady." About ten minutes. In "Vain Crow," King Zeus announces that he will appoint a king of the birds. The crow sleeps as attention goes to the owl and the eagle. The crow notices ducks' feathers in the river. He picks them up and is soon stealing feathers, especially peacock feathers, in funny ways. The crow dreams of himself as king. At the contest itself, the crow shows up late, looks stupid, and gets initial admiration. Zeus declares him the king of the birds. The peacock recognizes his own feather. All gang up and strip away all his feathers. Moral: The crow lost by not being himself, by trying to be what he was not. About ten minutes.

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!

1991 Aesop's Fables: The Ant and the Grasshopper; The Wind and the Sun. Golden Book Video. About 25 minutes. ©1986 Dolmatch. Racine: Western Publishing Company. $2.25 from Tina Pardi, Sumter, SC, through Ebay, Oct., '99. Extra copy for $2 from Edward Price, Pennsauken, NJ, through Ebay, June, '00. This tape seems to reproduce a 1986 original that I have not found.