Aesop's Fables: Aesop, an ancient Greek storyteller thought to have lived in the 6th century, has been a staple of anime since the beginning with Early Anime such as Sanae Yamamoto's Tortoise and the Hare (1924) and Frog's Belly (1929). The 1983 TV series added the term "manga" to accentuate the children's-picture-book quality of the presentation, running through tales such as The Ants and the Grasshopper, The Sun and the North Wind, and The Thirsty Crow. Eight of the stories were combined to make the theatrical feature Aesop's Fables (1983, U.S. release 1985), with a framing device of young Aesop tricking his fellow villagers into believing that a wolf is attacking. When a real wolf comes, nobody believes him, and he is chased down a magic hole into a kingdom of animals. As he looks for a way out, he meets a tortoise, a hare, an ant, and other creatures who tell him their stories. Several of Aesop's fables were also used as part of the Shogo Hirata's Picture Book series (1995). See also Video Picture Book.

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Animation, Family