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Bill Cosby as Aesop

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.

1990/91 The Cat and the Old Mouse. Aesop's Fable. Introduced by Bill Cosby as Aesop. Plus a Sing-A-Long Cartoon. About 30 minutes. #40001. Freehold, NJ: ©1990 Trans Atlantic Video. Anaheim: ©1991 Diamond Entertainment Corporation. Gift of John Carlson, Christmas, '91. Extra copy for $2.50 at Nebraska City Mall, Nov., '92. Extra copy for $2.50 at Nebraska Crossing, Nov., '93.

This series uses the same Cosby framework as the earlier Lorimar tape but presents only one interrupted fable and adds a cartoon at the end. This tape features excellent animation work. The rhymed fable's words begin with the beginning of the animated portion of the tape. The fable takes some twelve minutes. A mouse school studies the cat. A wind-up, radio-controlled mouse is let loose into the cat's territory. There is good cat-and-mouse play. The cat uses a TV to monitor mice movements. One mouse gets drunk and almost caught. The cat hangs from a beam. An old mouse uses a vacuum cleaner to reveal the cat in flour-disguise. This tape helps to show that all of these Cosby fable tapes were originally French La Fontaine fable tapes. The closing cartoon is "The Golden State."

1990/91 The Eagle and the Owl. Aesop's Fable. Introduced by Bill Cosby as Aesop. Plus a Sing-A-Long Cartoon. About 30 minutes. #40002. Freehold, NJ: ©1990 Trans Atlantic Video. Anaheim: ©1991 Diamond Entertainment Corporation. Gift of John Carlson, Christmas, '91. Extra copy for $2.50 at Nebraska City Mall, Nov., '92.

This series uses the same Cosby framework as the earlier Lorimar tapes but presents only one interrupted fable and adds a cartoon at the end. A viewer watches for a long time in this almost twelve-minute story before coming anywhere near a recognizable fable. At the start, the owl cuts off the eagle's shaving water, and the eagle puts trash and a mouse down the owl's chimney. The two continue to trade annoyances. After going to court, the two decide to be friends for life and to spare each other's young. Asked to describe his, the owl says that they are beautiful and gentle. The eagle finds them unknowingly, and eats the ugly little birds. The monkey is judge.

1990/91 The Rat Who Retired from the World. Aesop's Fable. Introduced by Bill Cosby as Aesop. Plus a Sing-A-Long Cartoon. About 30 minutes. #40003. Freehold, NJ: ©1990 Trans Atlantic Video. Anaheim: ©1991 Diamond Entertainment Corporation. Gift of John Carlson, Christmas, '91. Extra copy for $2.50 at Nebraska City Mall, Nov., '92.

This series uses the same Cosby framework as the earlier Lorimar tape but presents only one interrupted fable and adds a cartoon at the end. This fable helps make it clear that what we are really dealing with here is La Fontaine's fables; here is one of his more famous, and all the words around are French. A long introduction motivates the man's withdrawal. He struggles with crowds, the phone, papers, the boss, solicitors, fuses, and his wife. He is fired from his job. When he withdraws, he finds a lovely cheese, soon laid out with lovely cheese furniture. The fable moves on to cats in fighter planes. The association of this person with a "man of God" is not well established. When the film returns after the fable, the standard moral "Give it your best" does not exactly fit this inserted fable. The fable lasts 10:40.

1990/91 The Hare and the Frog. Aesop's Fable. Introduced by Bill Cosby as Aesop. Plus a Sing-A-Long Cartoon. About 30 minutes. #40004. Freehold, NJ: ©1990 Trans Atlantic Video. Anaheim: ©1991 Diamond Entertainment Corporation. $2.50 at Nebraska City Mall, Nov., '92.

This series uses the same Cosby framework as the earlier Lorimar tape but presents only one interrupted fable and adds a cartoon at the end. Typically the animated introduction to the fable-world, with music but no words, is some six minutes long, while the fable takes less time--here less than five minutes. The animated introduction here includes a storm, frightened rabbits playing games with their shadows in their castle, mice helping to stop the flood there, and rabbits frightened of mice. Within the fable there is a great frog band with frog singers on the pods.

1990/91 The Oak and the Reed. Aesop's Fable. Introduced by Bill Cosby as Aesop. Plus a Sing-A-Long Cartoon ("Strolling through the Park"). About 30 minutes. #40005. Freehold, NJ: ©1990 Trans Atlantic Video. Anaheim: ©1991 Diamond Entertainment Corporation. Gift of John Carlson, Christmas, '91. Extra copy for $2.50 at Nebraska City Mall, Nov., '92.

This series uses the same Cosby framework as the earlier Lorimar tape but presents only one interrupted fable and adds a cartoon at the end. The animated introduction to the fable-world, with Nutcracker Suite music but no words, is over eight minutes long, while the fable takes about three minutes. The animated introduction here presents the bad-guy oak, the friendly reed who rescues a falling chick, and waterbugs working on a dam and defending themselves with ingenious animal artillery against a dive-bombing and fire-bombing bird. The fable itself is done in poetry.

1990/91 The Cat, the Weasel and the Little Rabbit. Aesop's Fable. Introduced by Bill Cosby as Aesop. Plus a Sing-A-Long Cartoon. About 30 minutes. #40006. Freehold, NJ: ©1990 Trans Atlantic Video. Anaheim: ©1991 Diamond Entertainment Corporation. Gift of John Carlson, Christmas, '91. Extra copy for $2.50 at Nebraska City Mall, Nov., '92. Extra copy for $2.50 at Nebraska Crossing, Nov., '93.

This series uses the same Cosby framework as the earlier Lorimar tape but presents only one interrupted fable and adds a cartoon at the end. A viewer watches for a long time in this story before recognizing a fable. The pre-fable section involves extensive conflict between the rabbit and the mouse. Ultimately the weasel takes the rabbit's house and argues that possession is nine points of the law. The cat arbitrator claims bad hearing, draws the litigants closer, and eats them both. Incongruously, the Cosby kids talk after the fable about the characters living happily ever after!

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