Please help me find cartoon versions of great literature.
September 15, 2013 9:33 AM   Subscribe

My 5-year-old really like cartoon versions of literary classics. Help me find more.

Of course there's the Disney Peter Pan, Robin Hood, Jungle Book etc. stuff.

He loves this animated Moby Dick (he roots for the whale), and the Rankin/Bass Hobbit. We've also started the 1978 Lord of the Rings.

What are some others I might not know about?
posted by colin_l to Media & Arts (16 answers total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
Best answer: The Beeb did some animated Shakespeare, which I loved when I first saw them when I was 10-ish - they might still be a bit heavy for a five year old, but worth a look.
posted by Coobeastie at 9:36 AM on September 15, 2013 [2 favorites]


Best answer: A cartoon of Great Expectations, though that might be a bit advanced for him.

Charlotte's Web is a favorite of mine.
posted by xingcat at 9:48 AM on September 15, 2013


Best answer: Gullivers Travels is a classic, out of copyright and available on archive.org.
posted by alms at 9:56 AM on September 15, 2013


Well, there's always the Bugs Bunny version of Wagner.
posted by Ideefixe at 10:02 AM on September 15, 2013 [1 favorite]


How about some comics as well? I bought a ton of Disney Literature Classics a few months ago here in the UK from a cheapo book shop. There's everything from Shakespeare to Poe, and they're all pretty good as these things go. Probably not yet appropriate for a 5-year-old, but my 7-year-old really enjoys them.
posted by pipeski at 10:12 AM on September 15, 2013


It's not animated, but I bet he'd like Wishbone.
posted by phunniemee at 10:12 AM on September 15, 2013 [4 favorites]


Best answer: I linked to a ton of children's animated versions of Indian literature--the Ramayana, Mahabharata, Bhagavata Purana, etc.--in this blue post. The ones about Shiva and Ganesha are not as much what you're looking for, but the rest are on point, including the additional Little Krishna links someone added in a comment.

There's also Ramayana: The Legend of Prince Rama, a version of the Ramayana done in collaboration with folks in the Japanese animation industry, so it has an anime look. I haven't watched the whole thing, but it's currently available here.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 10:35 AM on September 15, 2013


Proust's Remembrance of Things Past
posted by lathrop at 11:00 AM on September 15, 2013


Best answer: Thinking back to my own childhood, I recalled the Three Musketeers cartoons shown on The Banana Splits. Someone has put a collection of them here on Youtube along with a collection of Arabian Knights [sic] cartoons from the same show. Looking back at them, I think they're still fun in spite of not being even slightly faithful to the original stories, but that led me to this version of the Three Musketeers, which may be the kind of thing you're looking for.
posted by Monsieur Caution at 11:01 AM on September 15, 2013


Best answer: This might be too dark for a five year-old but UPA made an incredible version of Edgar Allan Poe's The Tell-Tale Heart.
posted by Chenko at 11:17 AM on September 15, 2013


The Classics Illustrated series consists of comic book adaptations of classic literature targeted to young readers. The originals are collectibles, but you could probably find scanned copies online.
posted by vathek at 11:24 AM on September 15, 2013


Best answer: Also, just taking a list of classic novels and searching YouTube seems to work pretty well:

Little Women (Toei version)
The Count of Monte Cristo (Hanna Barbera)
The Secret Garden
The Velveteen Rabbit
The Hound of the Baskervilles
A Christmas Carol
Black Beauty (1/5), (2/5), (3/5), (4/5), (5/5)
The Story of Heidi
Treasure Island
The Call of the Wild (Toei)
The Snow Queen
and this combined playlist of Rankin Bass versions of Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, Swiss Family Robinson, and Tom Sawyer
posted by Monsieur Caution at 11:57 AM on September 15, 2013


The Famous Adventures of Mr. Magoo was a TV series that put the character in classic stories.

many of them are up on YouTube.
posted by 1970s Antihero at 5:47 PM on September 15, 2013 [2 favorites]


Daddy Long Legs and other titles from World Masterpiece Theatre.
posted by oceano at 10:46 PM on September 15, 2013


The Beeb did some animated Shakespeare, which I loved when I first saw them when I was 10-ish - they might still be a bit heavy for a five year old, but worth a look.
My little brother absolutely adored these when he was five-ish. He was a bit of a wild child and strongly identified with Caliban from The Tempest. He learned all the songs.
posted by Acheman at 8:43 AM on September 16, 2013 [1 favorite]


Journey to the Center of the Earth
posted by Kabanos at 10:55 AM on September 17, 2013


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