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16mm Films

1930? "Jungle Fool." Black-and-white Pathegram Home Movie. 635. Aesop's Fable cartoon. $8 from James Kelly, Panama, NY, through Ebay, Oct., '99.

I am surprised that 16 MM was once considered the medium for home movies.

 

1940? "Barnyard Olympics." Black-and-white Aesop's Fable Hollywood cartoon. $10 from Glenn Hershberger, Ocala, FL, through Ebay, March, '99.

Though I have not watched this, I think it is a Paul Terry film that I have seen on a VHS collection of Terry material.

 

1965? "The Ant and the Dove (An Aesop Fable)." 8 minutes, ¾ reel. Black and white. #1473. Produced by Gakken Film Company, Tokyo. Chicago: Coronet Films. $11.50 from Bonnie Bellmer, Chillicothe, OH, through Ebay, May, '99.

The zip code on the address for Coronet films helps to date this film, which I would otherwise have guessed came from much earlier.

 

1965? Three Fox Fables. Color ("stunning color," writes the seller). Animation by Roy Toy. EBC films. $9.01 from Don Stier, Brick, NJ, through Ebay, Oct., '99.

This film belonged formerly to the Memphis City Schools.

 

1967 Aesop's Fables I. No author, illustrator, or reader acknowledged. Sixteen-millimeter. Living Prose Series. In collaboration with Lumin Films. McGraw-Hill, Inc. Gift of John Carlson, Dec., '95. Also on a metal master tape and two videotape copies.

This film of about twelve minutes starts with a song: "Long ago in ancient Greece/stories didn't grow on trees./Good ol' Aesop was most able/when he'd fabricate a fable./Look and listen and you'll see/Aesop's Fables one-two-three." The visual technique involves camera sweeps and zooms on still watercolors (?). Many of the character-animals in the three fables are given classical proper names. The stories are told rather expansively. In LM, Miklos the mouse runs across Oedipus the lion. The morals include "When you step on somebody's nose, apologize right away and keep talking" and "When somebody says he wants to be friends, believe him." The moral for FC, which uses bleu cheese, warns that "you're better off if you keep your mouth shut." In GA, Aristotle the ant, who uses a pulley to move a peach-pit, has Zeus the grasshopper dance now for one crumb.

 

1967 Aesop's Fables II. No author, illustrator, or reader acknowledged. Sixteen-millimeter. Living Prose Series. In collaboration with Lumin Films. McGraw-Hill, Inc. Gift of John Carlson, Dec., '95. Also on a metal master tape and two videotape copies.

See my comments on the first film in the three-film series. In TMCM, the two mice manage to stuff themselves before the two dogs come. The film does a particularly good job of presenting FG, especially in its incremental development of Alexander's getting thirstier and angrier and wearier. AL brings back the earlier face-licking illustration effectively in the arena.

 

1967 Aesop's Fables III. No author, illustrator, or reader acknowledged. Sixteen-millimeter. Living Prose Series. In collaboration with Lumin Films. McGraw-Hill, Inc. Gift of John Carlson, Dec., '95. Also on a metal master tape and two videotape copies.

See my comments on the first film in the three-film series. This film skips the beginning song. The approach to BW is creative and sensitive. Many boring days of watching sheep without encountering any threat to them lead Paul to hope that a wolf will come. He cries out to test whether his voice actually gets to the villagers--but then says it was a joke when they arrive. His second bogus cry comes out of his love for excitement. The real attack of the wolf comes the same day. In WS, the wind goes around looking for trouble by asking everything that he meets if it would like to match strength with him. Near the end of the story, the wind aptly says to the sun "I still don't know how you did it!" In CP, the crow himself tells much of the story, using a bit of a brogue. The moral includes "Little by little will bring you what you want."