https://youtu.be/GoMAXHSFrB4

“Aesop and Son” was an interstitial series of shorts that appeared on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show from 1959 to 1962, and in syndication for a long time thereafter. A total of thirty-nine five-minute episodes were produced, in which the ancient fabulist Aesop appeared as a character who attempts to teach a lesson to his son using a twisted version of one of the fables or a loose variation thereof. After hearing the story, the son sums up the fable’s moral with a witty pun.

“Aesop and Son” was very similar to the better-known segment “Fractured Fairy-Tales” that was also featured on The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. While Aesop’s fables had been a huge source of inspiration to animators since the 1920s (see Paul Terry’s “Aesop’s Fables” series, Disney’s “The Grasshopper and the Ants,” and Warner Brothers’ “Tortoise Beats Hare” featuring Bugs Bunny, for just a few examples), the approach to the material and the animation style of “Aesop and Son” were quite distinct, largely due to the fact that these were produced for TV rather than for movie-theater screenings. The animation is less polished and low-budget, but the wordplay and clever writing, which incorporates satire and the kind of subversive humor that would become extremely popular in the 1960s and 70s, appealed to audiences of both children and adults.

“Aesop and Son” (and The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show more generally) thus marks a turning-point in animated depictions of the ancient world. After this, attention would turn to “historicizing” portrayals of the past (see “Asterix the Gaul” and “The Roman Holidays”) or to portrayals based on fantasy and mythological motifs, and the fables of Aesop would receive little attention, with one exception: a 1971 made-for-TV movie that combined live-action and animation and featured Bill Cosby as Aesop.

A youtube playlist with about half the episodes here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke1MLr9HEls&index=19&list=PLd2ne922MKldmA2BDMgYGl90OBwItl29I

More: https://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Other_Studios/W/Jay_Ward_Productions/Rocky_and_His_Friends/Aesop_and_Son/

This flash animated series is based on the wildly popular manga of the same name (produced between 2008 and 2012) by Mari Yamazaki. It tells the story of a Hadrianic-era Roman architect named Lucius who accidentally travels through time to a modern-day Japanese bathhouse, where he learns about modern building techniques and technologies. Inspired by these innovations, he returns to ancient Rome and builds his own spa. The series was produced as six episodes for Japanese television in 2012. A live-action film was also made by Fuji TV in 2012 and its success led to the production of a sequel, Thermae Romae II, in 2014. An additional online-only animation episode was also released in 2014 in collaboration with the toothbrush brand Reach.

More: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-04-26/thermae-romae-gets-collaboration-anime-short-with-reach-toothbrushes

Disney

Winner of the 1933-34 Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film

influence on Bugs Bunny

https://youtu.be/_5RJgqsQNT8

Disney

Bugs Bunny, sequel to 1941’s “Tortoise Beats Hare”

This is the second in a series of five twenty-minute films based on Greek heroic mythology that were written by Aleksei Simukov and directed by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya between 1969 and 1974, at the end of her long animation career in the former Soviet Union (see also “Return from Olympus,” “Labyrinth: The Deeds of Theseus,” “Perseus” and “Prometheus”). They were produced by Russian state animation studio Soyuzmultfilm on behalf of the Ministry of Education and are considered the most important movies about Greek myth ever made in the USSR.

Plot summary: Two young boys happen upon an old man and wrecked ship on the shore. They imagine themselves sailing off for an adventure, and the old man tells them that this was the Argo and that he is Jason. He then recounts his journey in flashback, recalling the heroes who accompanied him, their encounter with the Symplegades, the Sirens, and — somewhat oddly — the Stymphalian birds, before they reach the kingdom of Aeetes and his daughter Medea, who helps him retrieve the golden fleece.

 The romantic connection between Jason and Medea is present but minimized here — she is instead fulfilling a prophecy through her aid of the hero. She is also depicted as a strong protagonist with quite a bit of agency. This image accorded well with the ideals of Soviet feminist ideology, which expected women to dedicate themselves to the betterment of the state through (their often masculine-coded) work, while also serving as the heroines of the home, making sacrifices for their families and creating a home-life that would “increase productivity and improve quality of work.” While we don’t see Medea in the guise of mother in this film, at the end the aged Jason does allude vaguely to their fraught future together when he responds to the two boys (who recall his two sons with her) when they ask, “What happened next?” by saying, “For me, Jason, there was no more ‘then’.” He then falls through the hull of the ship and dies, but not before offering a prayer on behalf of the Argo and restoring its divine protection for another generation. This dramatic turn is an allusion to his ignominious end, as he was struck by a rotting chunk of wood that fell from the ship, just as Medea prophesied after killing their sons. 

This is the last in a series of five twenty-minute films based on Greek heroic mythology that were written by Aleksei Simukov and directed by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya between 1969 and 1974, at the end of her long animation career in the former Soviet Union (see also “Return from Olympus,” “Argonauts,” “Labyrinth: The Deeds of Theseus,” and “Perseus”). They were produced by Russian state animation studio Soyuzmultfilm on behalf of the Ministry of Education and are considered the most important movies about Greek myth ever made in the USSR.

This is the fourth in a series of five twenty-minute films based on Greek heroic mythology that were written by Aleksei Simukov and directed by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya between 1969 and 1974, at the end of her long animation career in the former Soviet Union (see also “Return from Olympus,” “Argonauts,” “Labyrinth: The Deeds of Theseus,” and “Prometheus”). They were produced by Russian state animation studio Soyuzmultfilm on behalf of the Ministry of Education and are considered the most important movies about Greek myth ever made in the USSR.

This is the third in a series of five twenty-minute films based on Greek heroic mythology that were written by Aleksei Simukov and directed by Alexandra Snezhko-Blotskaya between 1969 and 1974, at the end of her long animation career in the former Soviet Union (see also “Return from Olympus,” “The Argonauts,”  “Perseus” and “Prometheus”). They were produced by Russian state animation studio Soyuzmultfilm on behalf of the Ministry of Education and are considered the most important movies about Greek myth ever made in the USSR.