The Dove
and the Ant (ありとはと / Ari to Hato,
1959) is a short animation adapted from the tale of the same name from Aesop's Fables (イソップ寓話). It was released in the United States in 1962 by Coronet Instructional Films under the title The Ant and the Dove. The Japanese translation of this fable traditionally
puts the ant first in the title, but in English it is more common for the dove
to be named first. Coronet went with the literal translation of the Japanese title, but I prefer to use the standard English title of the fable.
A narrator
tells us that this story takes place in a forest. With a cheerful soundtrack melody in the background, a
cute little ant wearing a hat is rolling a coin back to his hole. Exerting some
effort (“Yoisho! Yoisho!”), he rolls
the coin into a long tunnel that looks like it has been decorated with graffiti
by a child. He eventually adds the coin
to a pile of loot in his living room and goes back outside in search of more treasures.
The ant
encounters a snail and takes a ride on its back. The snail climbs a tree stump where the ant
discovers a dragonfly. The dragonfly
takes the ant for a ride. They pass by
the dove and the ant calls out a greeting “Hato-san
konnichi-wa!” Suddenly, he slides
off the dragonfly and lands in the water.
The ant cannot swim and calls for help.
The dove hears the ant’s cries and flies to help. Along the way, the dove picks a leaf which
she drops near the ant. The ant crawls
on the leaf and floats to safety. The
ant calls out his thanks.
No worse for
his adventure, the ant returns to collecting treasures. The next day, a hunter is spotted in the
forest. He shoots at a tree and has an
apple fall comically onto his head. Curious
and concerned, the ant follows the hunter’s every move. He suddenly realises that his friend the
dove, who is sleeping in the tree, is in danger of being shot. He grabs some tweezers and runs up the body
of the hunter. The cry the hunter makes
when the ant plucks one of his leg hairs startles the dove who flies to
safety. The ant is relieved and skips
his delight as the hunter leaves disappointed.
The tale ends happily. The final
curtain is of grass, with a ladybug in the foreground for good measure.
This
animation was produced by Shinichi
Kanbayashi (神林伸一) and directed by Kazuhiko
Watanabe (渡辺和彦). The technique
used is stop motion using cutouts and 2D puppets. The Gakken version adds more wildlife to the forest
scene (the snail, the dragonfly), likely in order to teach children about
forest wildlife. Insects are a popular
theme for all ages in Japan, and preschoolers learn about them at an early
age. My children’s nursery school in
Tokyo had a pet beetle in the classroom, for example. No credit is given onscreen for the narrator,
but I had the impression that one female voice did both the ant and the
narration. It is a sweet film, suitable
for a preschool audience. The “shots”
fired by the hunter are only implied not actually heard, so it is unlikely that
children would be disturbed by this tame portrayal of hunting.
2016 Cathy
Munroe Hotes
