Aesop Said...

The first Aesop Fables sound cartoons ended with a little moral, claiming it was written by Aesop hundreds of years ago. In true Van Beuren studio fashion, the moral never had a lot to do with the actual cartoon which preceded it. But they can be amusing nonetheless.

One I like is at the tail of “A Close Call” (1929). A mouse recites the moral—“All’s well that ends well.” A nearby dog with a bandaged tail (An “end.” Get it?) has an ear that morphs into a hand and pulls out the stubby tail into a healthy long one.



Then the dog clouts the moralising mouse with the tail, laughs, and runs into the distance.



You can tell the animator worked on silent films a scant year earlier. He animates “Ha ha” on the screen, which really isn’t needed because you can hear the dog laugh.

Harry Bailey and John Foster get a “By” credit on this short.