Rabbit Ears Treasury of Animal Stories: How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin, How the Game Got His Hump, How the Leopard Got His Spots, The Monkey People

 

Title:  Rabbit Ears Treasury of Animal Stories: How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin, How the Game Got His Hump, How the Leopard Got His Spots, The Monkey People

Author:  Rabbit Ears

Genre:  Animals / Folktale / Manners / Respect / Africa / Colombia
Year Published: 2007

Year Read: 2009

Series: Rabbit Ears Treasury

Publisher:  Listening Library (Audio)

Source:  Purchased

Content Rating:  Ages 7+ (Some Rude Behavior)

“Rabbit Ears Treasury of Animal Stories” is one of the first audio CDs released from Rabbit Ears Entertainment (or Rabbit Ears Productions as I fondly love to call it) and this audio CD features four stories called “How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin,” “How the Camel Got His Hump,” “The Monkey People” and “How the Leopard Got His Spots.” Each story is narrated by a famous celebrity during the 80s and 90s and it will be an instant treat for anyone who is a huge fan of Rabbit Ears stories!

Since I have already reviewed some of these stories on separate reviews, I will just briefly summarize each story:

How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin
Told by: Jack Nicholson
Music by: Bobby McFerrin
When a rude rhinoceros eats the Parsee Man’s delicious cake, the Parsee Man starts to take revenge on the rude rhinoceros.

How the Camel Got His Hump
Told by: Jack Nicholson
Music by: Bobby McFerrin
When an arrogant camel refuses to do his share of work, it is up to the Djinn of all Deserts to set the camel straight.

The Monkey People
Told by: Raul Julia
Music by: Lee Ritenour
When an old man comes to a village full of lazy people and shows them monkeys cut out of leaves doing all the chores, the people learn the hard way about the importance of hard work.

How the Leopard Got His Spots
Told by: Danny Glover
Music by: Ladysmith Black Mambazo
When all the animals moved to the forest to hide from the Leopard and the Ethiopian, the Leopard and the Ethiopian must learn to camouflage themselves in order to eat to survive!

Oh my goodness! Imagine my surprise when I first heard about this animal series coming out on audio CD! I was so excited about listening to Jack Nicholson, Danny Glover and Raul Julia narrating these fantastic tales that I remembered from my youth! Each story was extremely interesting to the next story and the narrators and the musicians have both done an excellent job at narrating and providing appropriate music to each story. Out of all four stories featured on this audio CD, my favorites were “How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin” and “How the Camel Got His Hump” which were both narrated by Jack Nicholson and both had music by Bobby McFerrin. In both stories “How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin” and “How the Camel Got His Hump,” Jack Nicholson narrates both stories in an extremely silky voice that soothes you to the bone as you hear him narrate these stories and anyone who has seen Jack Nicholson in “The Shining,” will definitely be surprised at how calm he sounds in narrating these stories! Bobby McFerrin is truly magnificent in providing music for each story as he mainly uses his voice to create music for each story which brings so much creativity to the stories. Another story that I enjoyed on this disc was “How the Leopard Got His Spots” as I loved the way that Danny Glover narrates this story in an African accent which brings creativity to this story and Ladysmith Black Mambazo’s music is truly wonderful as they vocally sing in African tones.

Again, there is no book to go with this audio CD; however the narration and the music provided in this audio CD will help many fans still love this audio CD. 

All in all, “Rabbit Ears Treasury of Animal Stories” is a true treat for fans of the fantastic Rabbit Ears series and who love Jack Nicholson, Danny Glover and Raul Julia and I am sure that many children and adults will love this audio CD for many years to come! I would recommend this audio CD to children ages seven and up since the “Just So Stories” might be too complicated for younger children to understand.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

The Elephant’s Child by Rudyard Kipling

Genre: Animal / Drama / Humor

Year Published: 1986

Year Read: 2007

Series: Storybook Classics

Publisher: Rabbit Ears Books

“The Elephant’s Child” is the first “Just so” story introduced in the Rabbit Ears Storybook Classics series and is easily one of Rabbit Ears’ finest videos since it won a Grammy Award in the late 80s. Jack Nicholson’s silky narration, along with Bobby McFerrin’s harmonic music and Tim Raglin’s colorful illustrations makes “The Elephant’s Child” a worthwhile treat for the whole family to enjoy.

Jack Nicholson’s narration is extremely silk and sarcastic as he narrates an Elephant’s Child’s efforts to find out what the crocodile has for dinner. Jack Nicholson’s best vocal performance would have to be for the Elephant’s Child and the Bi-Colored-Python-Rock Snake. With the Elephant’s Child, Jack Nicholson uses a high pitched and childlike voice to reinforce the adolescence of the Elephant’s Child’s nature and with the Bi-Colored-Python-Rock-Snake, Jack Nicholson makes a snake sound each time he reaches a word that contains the s-syllable. Bobby McFerrin’s music is lovely as he makes harmonic sounds using his voice and his ability to create various sounds from his mouth to make music. Bobby McFerrin’s music creates a mesmerizing atmosphere to the story as his voice sounds like it is so far off the distance. Tim Raglin’s illustrations are brilliant and colorful, especially of the forest where the Elephant’s Child lives in as the trees are green and pink. The illustrations that stood out the most was the illustration of the Elephant’s Child having no trunk as his nose looks like a little stub on his face.

Parents should know that there is quite a bit of violence on this video, mainly of the Elephant’s Child being spanked throughout the video. There is also a bit of violence when the Elephant’s Child encounters the crocodile, but you probably can guess what is going to happen without me spoiling the ending for you. Parents should reassure their children that violence is not always the answer to solve your problems and you should not spank your child just because he or she is curious about the world. Just try to explain to your child about the trials of the world in terms simple enough for your child to understand.

The Elephant’s Child” is a great piece of work from Rabbit Ears Productions and it surely has enough humor and action that will satisfy any child for many years to come. I would recommend this video to children ages eight and up due to some advanced vocabulary that younger children might not understand and some violence that might worry some small children.

1986 New York International Film and TV Festival – Finalist Certificate

1986 Parents’ Choice – Honor Certificate

1987 Grammy Award – Best Recording for Children

1987 Action for Children’s Television (ACT) Award

1987 American Video Conference (AVC) – Finalist

1987  Parents’ Choice – Gold Seal for Recording

 

 

Also reviewed at: Rabbit Ears Book Blog