6 min; Japan; silent film; dir. Sanae Yamamoto

This is the earliest animated version of Aesop’s most famous fable: Disney would go on to create his Oscar-winning short of the same name ten years after Yamamoto, in 1934, and Bugs Bunny would appear in the Merrie Melodies series short “Tortoise Beats Hare” in 1941, to name just two later iterations of this animated classic.

Yamamoto’s silent film is one of the earliest extant examples of Japanese animation. It was produced as “edutainment” for children, likely on behalf of a governmental organization (they were frequent sponsors of animation during this time). Its version of the fable was inspired by a Japanese children’s song (by Wasaburo Ishihara) that recounts the story and that became popular in the mid 1920s (and that is still sung today!). In the film, “the lyrics of the song ‘The Hare and the Tortoise’ are represented as musical notes coming out of the characters’ mouths” (Japanese Animated Film Classics). It is animated in simple line-drawn and paper cut-out style, and has a playful air, both in the dance-inspired movements of the characters and in its whimsical, natural backgrounds.

More: https://animation.filmarchives.jp/en/works/view/42154

Sanae Yamamoto: Cartooning In The Wild

7 min.; no dialogue; France; directors: directors: Margaux Latapie, Grégory Diaz, Florian Cazes, Marie-Charlotte Deshayes-Ducos, Clément Petellaz, Baptiste Ouvrard, Jimmy Natchoo, Guillaume Mellet

This short CGI film was created by students at ESMA (Ecole Supérieure des Métiers Artistiques) and clearly evokes the 2000 blockbuster film, Gladiator. In it, a Roman winemaker named Marcus recalls his former life as a gladiator through a series of interspersed flashbacks. The film is a somber meditation on the PTSD that afflicts Marcus as a result of his experiences, though it also depicts the fighting scenes in a style inspired by popular video-games – violent but largely bloodless. It ends on a positive, sentimental note that suggests a life of meaning and care can be enjoyed even after the harm of trauma.

4 min.; Canada; dir. Evelyn Lambart

This artful cut-out animated short retells the fable of Aesop, in which a small mouse proves that “the weak and small may be of help to those much mightier than themselves,” according to the National Film Board of Canada. Lambart made another Aesop-inspired film in 1980, “The Town Mouse and the Country Mouse.”

6 min.; dir. Gerald McDermott; no words

The award-winning children’s book writer and illustrator Gerald McDermott created this interpretive film, subtitled “the myth of Daedalus and his son, Icarus.” This retelling depicts the pair’s imprisonment by King Minos, the youth’s flight, and his tragic descent into the sea in a distinctive cutout style that recalls the art of Henri Matisse. It also features some psychedelic light play and a postmodern soundtrack which accompanies the imagery. Joseph Campbell served as an advisor on the production. The story was published as a book by the same name in 1980 by McDermott, but it featured different artwork.