Farmer Al Falfa is crating up duck eggs for the market, while the wolf is trying to get past the dog who's standing guard, to help himself to a nice, juicy duck in this early Aesop's Fables cartoon from Paul Terry.
I feel a great deal of pleasure in seeing Farmer Al Falfa, Terry's longest running character. He had first appeared in Terry's second cartoon, back in 1915, and he would show up in the early 1950s. He was never a great comic character, but there's certainly a pleasure in dealing with the familiar. By the time I was first watching Terry's cartoons -- from the Terrytoon studio -- his appearance was a sign of order in the universe, offering a sense that there were patterns, and if I could just figure them out, all would be well by the time I was an adult.
Little did I know then that Terry had given up in the late 1930s, and had concerned himself with making money with his studio, focusing on coming in on budget with his cartoons for 20th Century-Fox, innovating only as necessary.
He was still ambitious in 1922, when he made this cartoon. It's not very good.
I feel a great deal of pleasure in seeing Farmer Al Falfa, Terry's longest running character. He had first appeared in Terry's second cartoon, back in 1915, and he would show up in the early 1950s. He was never a great comic character, but there's certainly a pleasure in dealing with the familiar. By the time I was first watching Terry's cartoons -- from the Terrytoon studio -- his appearance was a sign of order in the universe, offering a sense that there were patterns, and if I could just figure them out, all would be well by the time I was an adult.
Little did I know then that Terry had given up in the late 1930s, and had concerned himself with making money with his studio, focusing on coming in on budget with his cartoons for 20th Century-Fox, innovating only as necessary.
He was still ambitious in 1922, when he made this cartoon. It's not very good.
