Grandpa tells the boy how the harmony of Happy Valley was disrupted by a gold rush in this well-executed Aesop's Fable.
Paul Terry was first associated with Aesop's Fables in the 1920s, when he was producing and directing a cartoon a week for van Beuren. Those were random collections of gags with a fortune-cookie-style moral at the end. Some time after van Beuren went out of business, Terry revived the brand for his own studio. These were stories that tried to teach Important Lessons to their audiences. In this case, it's that money doesn't make you as happy as running a successful farm does.
The art is crisp, the pacing of well-executed gags is fine. If I don't enjoy this one because it is aimed, as all of Paul Terry's cartoons were, at small children, I can acknowledge the undoubted competence of the people who worked on this one.
Paul Terry was first associated with Aesop's Fables in the 1920s, when he was producing and directing a cartoon a week for van Beuren. Those were random collections of gags with a fortune-cookie-style moral at the end. Some time after van Beuren went out of business, Terry revived the brand for his own studio. These were stories that tried to teach Important Lessons to their audiences. In this case, it's that money doesn't make you as happy as running a successful farm does.
The art is crisp, the pacing of well-executed gags is fine. If I don't enjoy this one because it is aimed, as all of Paul Terry's cartoons were, at small children, I can acknowledge the undoubted competence of the people who worked on this one.
