7 min.; dir. Manny Davis

This Terry Toon short was inspired by Aesop’s fable “The Fox and the Grapes,” and is a sequel of sorts to 1950’s “Aesop’s Fable: Foiling the Fox.” Watch as the trickster Dingbat entices Foxy Fox to read the fable, which says the fox tried “in vain” to get the grapes. This fires up the Fox and several classic hilarious gags ensue as he tries and fails to retrieve the grapes that Dingbat has nailed to the top of a tree. Unlike in the fable, he is successful at getting them in the end, only to find that the grapes are sour.

14 min.

Direction and animation: Lotte Reiniger; production: Fantasia Productions Ltd., London

A stop-motion “filigree ballet” in color by famed silhouette animation pioneer, Lotte Reininger, based on the 1864 comic operetta, “La belle Hélène” by Jacques Offenbach, this short film retells the tale of the judgement of Paris and of his abduction of Helen in the style of a burlesque parody.

Reininger’s gorgeously wrought version stays true to the spirit of the opera — there is no dialog, the music of the operetta accompanies the animation (though not in the video version above) — and it displays many humorous touches, including the gods as capricious meddlers, a caricatured depiction of Menelaus as an old man, and Helen sailing away in pursuit of Paris on a giant goose.

More:

Lotte Reiniger

https://www.lottereiniger.de/filme/helen_la_belle.php

https://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.3/articles/moritz1.3.html

10 min; United Kingdom

produced by Philips and Pearl & Dean; directed by Digby Turpin

Won the 1958 BAFTA Award for Best Animated Film

This is an animated marketing short produced by the electronics conglomerate Philips, which tells the story (in a distinctive modern design style) of the development of the telecommunications industry. It begins back in ancient times when only Zeus could communicate over long distances, and both Zeus and Hermes make regular appearances throughout the film, watching approvingly as humans invent different mechanisms and technologies for transmitting messages: the telegraph, the telephone, the radio, the television, RADAR, and finally, satellites. The short concludes by noting that we have now “caught up with the gods” and ends with a nod to the company that has made much of this possible, Philips.

6 min; Italian, no subtitles

This short animated film is preserved in the historic archives of the Italian bank Intesa Sanpaolo. This interpretation of Aesop’s classic fable was produced by the Association of Italian Savings Banks (Associazione fra le Casse di Risparmio Italiane) and served as a kind of “public service announcement” to promote the idea of saving and budgeting to the Italian people.

In this modernized re-telling, the anthropomorphized insects work industrialized agricultural jobs and sell their goods at market, then deposit their earnings in the bank. Meanwhile, the grasshopper parties at a nightclub. In the end he is unable to buy Christmas gifts for his family and is left out in the cold.

Release date: August 13 (205th Popeye cartoon)

Features Popeye’s nephews and Bluto

More: https://popeye.fandom.com/wiki/Greek_Mirthology

After being ordered by Emperor Nero to find a victim to be tossed to the lions, Yosemite Sam tries to capture Bugs Bunny.

More:

https://looneytunes.fandom.com/wiki/Roman_Legion-Hare