Aesop's Fables (film series)

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Aesop's Fables
Aesop-title.jpg
Aesop's Fables closing title
Directed by Paul Terry
John Foster
Mannie Davis
Frank Moser
Harry Bailey
Jerry Shields
Produced byPaul Terry
Amedee J. Van Beuren
Color processBlack and white
Production
companies
Distributed by Pathé
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Aesop's Fables (previously titled Aesop's Film Fables and Aesop's Sound Fables) is a series of animated short subjects, created by American cartoonist Paul Terry. [1] Produced from 1921 to 1934, the series includes The Window Washers (1925), Scrambled Eggs (1926), Small Town Sheriff (1927), Dinner Time (1928), and Gypped in Egypt (1930). Dinner Time is the first cartoon with a synchronized soundtrack ever released to the public.

Contents

History

Farmer Al Falfa in Amateur Night on the Ark (1923) Amateurnightontheark.jpg
Farmer Al Falfa in Amateur Night on the Ark (1923)

Terry was inspired to make the series by young actor-turned-writer Howard Estabrook, who suggested making a series of cartoons based on Aesop's Fables . Although Terry later claimed he had never heard of Aesop, he said that Estabrook's idea was worthwhile. Terry immediately began to set up a new studio called Fables Studios, Inc. and received backing from the Keith-Albee Theatre circuit. [2]

The series launched on June 19, 1921, with The Goose That Laid the Golden Eggs. On that same day, Van Beuren announced that the pictures would be distributed exclusively by Pathe. [3] Only the earliest films are loose adaptations of the actual fables and later entries usually revolve around cats, mice, and the disgruntled Farmer Al Falfa. Terry had developed Farmer Al in the previous decade, and this series would be his most prolific appearance. Cartoonist Milt Gross worked briefly on the series as scriptwriter and animator. [4]

Each short concludes with a moral that usually has nothing to do with the actual cartoon itself. Terry staffer Mannie Davis once remarked that the morals were even "funnier than the whole picture itself"[ citation needed ] and Terry said "the fact that they're ambiguous is the thing that made 'em funny".[ citation needed ] Morals include "Go around with a chip on your shoulder and someone will knock your block off" or "Marriage is a good institution, but who wants to live in an institution?"

The series proved to be enormously popular with the public during the 1920s. Walt Disney admitted that his earliest ambition was to produce cartoons of comparable quality to Paul Terry. With the popularity of Al Jolson's part-talkie The Jazz Singer in 1927, as well as the huge success of the first all-talkie Lights of New York in 1928, producer Amadee J. Van Beuren realized the potential of sound films and bought Fables Studios to produce sound animation films. [5] Van Beuren, now owner of the newly-named Van Beuren Studios, [5] urged Terry to add the innovation to his films. Terry argued that adding sound would only complicate the production process, but ended up doing so anyway, and the series would now be renamed Aesop's Sound Fables.

Released in October 1928, Dinner Time is the first cartoon with a synchronized soundtrack ever released to the public, [notes 1] but the film was overshadowed by the release of Disney's Steamboat Willie on November 18 of the same year. Fables Studios did not cease production of silent cartoons until the release of Presto-Chango on April 14, 1929. The series also includes The Window Washers (1925), Scrambled Eggs (1926), Small Town Sheriff (1927), A Close Call (1929), The Iron Man (1930), Good Old Schooldays (1930), Dixie Days (1930), Western Whoopee (1930), Laundry Blues (1930), Circus Capers (1930), Gypped in Egypt (1930), College Capers (1931), Cinderella Blues (1931), The Wild Goose Chase (1932), and Silvery Moon (1933).

In 1929 Terry quit, starting his own TerryToons Studios, [6] and John Foster took over the series under the Van Beuren Corporation, formerly Fables Studios, Inc. The series finally came to an end in 1933, when the studio's veteran animators, fed up with the hours of unpaid overtime imposed by Van Beuren, decided to attempt unionization. [7] These meetings were led by animator Harry Bailey, who had also become senior studio manager after John Foster's departure, and who had recently been introduced to socialist ideas by comic book artist Otto Soglow, for whom he had adapted several of his comics into animation. [8] [9] However, one of the studio's leading animators, George Stallings, decides to denounce his colleagues to Van Beuren in exchange for taking over the studio from Bailey. In retaliation, Van Beuren decided to fire all the employees who had attended union meetings, with the exception of conductor Gene Rodemich, bringing Aesop's Fables and Tom and Jerry to an abrupt halt, as well as canceling new series in production, such as the animated adaptation of the Amos 'n Andy series and another unnamed animated series centered on the Lucky Leo and Lily Lion characters. [10] The Internet Movie Database (IMDb) lists 447 titles from 1920 to 1929 under the production company name of Aesop Fables Studio, [11] and 198 titles under Van Beuren Studios from 1928 to 1934. [12]

Filmography

1921

1922

1923

1924

1925

1926

1927

1928

1929

1930

1931

1932

1933

1934

Legacy

Aesop's Fables provided inspiration to Walt Disney to found the Laugh-O-Gram Studio in Kansas City, Missouri, where he and Ub Iwerks co-created the Laugh-O-Grams and the Alice Comedies. Even into 1930, Disney wanted his cartoons to be funny as the series. [13] [14]

See also

Notes

  1. From May 1924 to September 1926, Max Fleischer had released the series Song Car-Tunes made in DeForest Phonofilm but only the music, not dialogue, is synched to the bouncing ball gimmick.

References

  1. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons . Checkmark Books. pp.  18-20, 49–50. ISBN   0-8160-3831-7 . Retrieved May 16, 2020.
  2. Maltin 1987, p. 129.
  3. Crafton 1993, p. 191.
  4. "National Film Preservation Foundation: Happy-Go-Luckies (1923)". www.filmpreservation.org. Retrieved 2025-02-12.
  5. 1 2 "Animation from Van Beuren Studios". Turner Classic Movies . Retrieved August 25, 2018.
  6. "Aesop's Fables Theatrical Cartoon Series". Big Cartoon DataBase. Archived from the original on January 17, 2013. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  7. Development, PodBean. "May 7 - Popeye The Union Man | Labor History in 2:00". laborhistoryin2.podbean.com. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  8. Development, PodBean. "May 7 - Popeye The Union Man | Labor History in 2:00". laborhistoryin2.podbean.com. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  9. "Early NY Animator Profiles: John Foster |". cartoonresearch.com. Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  10. "Michael Sporn Animation – Splog » Another Vince Cafarelli Miscellany" . Retrieved 2025-02-04.
  11. "Aesop's Fables Studio [us]". IMDb. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  12. "Van Beuren Studios [us]". IMDb. Retrieved November 13, 2012.
  13. "Walt Disney's Laugh-O-grams, 1921-1923". Silent Film Festival. Retrieved April 29, 2020.
  14. Maltin 1987, p. 36.

Bibliography