Wow, it’s been too long since I’ve uploaded any content. They’re working me like Cinderella Rabbit at work, and after a particularly grueling day I tried searching for Little Grey Rabbit on youtube–just to see what would turn up and Surprise! Someone wonderful, furandpencils, has uploaded some episodes of the LGR animated series to youtube. Hugh Laurie doesn’t disappoint as Hare and Little Grey Rabbit’s voice actress is terrific too. I love the old-timey sounding theme music and I think the animation is beautiful too, so faithful to Margaret Tempest illustrations, and like a moving watercolor. Check out the first episode here: The Hare, the Squirrel, and the Little Grey Rabbit. I must admit that I was surprised at how they changed the ending of the first story. The book ending is very similar to Hansel and Gretel–Grey Rabbit shoves the weasel into his own fireplace where he perishes. In the cartoon she ties him up in his own sack for a lesson in empathy. I doubt this will prevent him from coming back–as Little Grey Rabbit thinks, but the writers must’ve wanted a less violent ending, and perhaps to keep the weasel on as a regular villain. It’s not something I would’ve thought as “too violent”, but it made me wonder if adaptions of Hanse and Gretel in the last sixteen years have altered the ending. After all, other adaptations of Grimm’s Fairytales have done so, for example retellings of Snow White eventually discarded the Wicked Queen’s punishment, and Little Red Riding-hood’s near death. Ah well, I’m just grateful to have the opportunity enjoy the LGR cartoon, and I hope it will be released on DVD someday.
Meanwhile, I have acquired a lot of new LGR material, read a few other books by and about Alison Uttley, and promise to upload some fresh content soon.
Sincerely,
Primrose
Rufus, aka the Little Red Fox (1954). It was the only Alison Uttley book, an audiobook at that, in my local library’s collection. I borrowed it many times and never forgot the humorous details like sycamore keys and the song of the Wicked Uncle. Yet, as much as I loved the stories and Uttley’s style, I was never curious about her other book mentioned on the back of the audiobook clamshell case: Little Grey Rabbit.
Little Grey Rabbit Scholar 