Aesop's Fables  >  Aesop's Artifacts >...> Films  >  8mm Films

8mm Films

 1940? "Barnyard Olympics." An Aesop Fable. 8 MM Home Movies. Lodi, NJ: Carnival Films AF6. $2 from Steve Haynes, Columbus, OH, through Ebay, April, '00.

I also have this film in a 16 MM version. I wonder if this one might be abridged. The box's cover shows an elephant watching a small animal emerge from the sole of a giant shoe. Is that image related to this specific film?

 

1940? "The Enchanted Fiddle." Aesop's Fables. 8 MM Home Movies. Lodi, NJ: Carnival Films AF1. $2 from Steve Haynes, Columbus, OH, through Ebay, April, '00.

I am sorry that I have not been able to watch each of these films. I am glad that my two Carnival Films have ID numbers. The collector in me wants to know how many there might be in the series.

 

1940? "The Mouse Catcher." Aesop's Fables. 8 MM Home Movies. Lodi, NJ: Carnival Films AF2. Unknown source.

The package here, except for the title stamped in two places, is identical with that for "The Enchanted Fiddle."

 

1950? "Aesop's Fox and Crane." Encyclopaedia Britannica. $5 from Historic-Arts, Hornell, NY, through Ebay, Feb., '00.

The bottom of EB's box says that this film joins TH and FG in the Encyclopaedia Britannica Films series of the world's most famous fables.

 

1960? "Punchey de Leon: Fox & Crow." Silent edition. Columbia Alltime Favorites. 8 MM home movie. FC-4253. Unknown source.

I need to wait until I can see this film to learn if there is anything related to fables in it. Stay tuned!

 

1960? "The Mouse and the Lion." A Fairy Fable Cartoon. Castle Films. Produced by United World Films, Inc. No. 532. 8 MM Complete Edition. $5.99 from Chris Sundblad, Bay Point, CA, through Ebay, Feb., '00.

This film is torn. Its box announces "Television and Theatrical Rights Reserved." I imagine that the reference to television helps to date it. This film comes in a box about 5¼" square. I also have a version, with the same title and number, in a box about 3¼" square.

 

1960? "The Mouse and the Lion." A Fairy Fable Cartoon. Castle Films. Produced by United World Films, Inc. No. 532. $9.99 from Baron Diamond Importers, Union, NJ, through Ebay, Jan., '00.

I cannot see the difference between this film, in its 3¼" box, and the adjacent one in its 5¼" box. This box has a seal reading "Headline Super 8 Black/White," but I do not know what that means. And its box does not say "Complete edition."

 

1960? "The Tortoise and the Hare." Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Cartoons. Walt Disney Home Movies. Super 8 Color. Unknown source.

The bottom of the box proudly proclaims "The old adage 'slow and steady wins the race' is clever adapted to Walt Disney's Academy Award Winner—The Tortoise and the Hare! I look forward to viewing the cartoon to see if it is the same presentation that I am aware of from the 1934 cartoon and books.

 

1960? "The Tortoise and the Hare." Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Cartoons. Walt Disney Home Movies. Super 8 Silent BW. Unknown source.

Do not be surprised: the bottom of this box says that the film is Winnie the Pooh and the Honey Tree, but some painstaking investigation convinced me that it really is a black-and-white print of The Tortoise and the Hare, and the early frames seem to be exactly the same as in the 1934 version. Banners proclaim "The Big Race." It is of course curious that without trying I have found both a colored and a black-and-white version of the Disney classic.