Customer Reviews

Paul Bunyan (Rabbit Ears Storybook Classics)

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I remember reading "Paul Bunyan" stories in grade school. I find this video rendition a bit less charming than other Rabbit Ears stories, but I have to admit that it's very well done. One of the things that the Rabbit Ears series does very well is to match the actor/reader to the story, and Jonathon Winters--who is himself rather larger than life--is certainly the perfect choice to narrate the stories of Paul Bunyan and his giant blue ox, Babe.

What's particularly amusing is the political correctness of this video. After all, the Paul Bunyan stories are really meant to glorify the clear cutting of forests and to promote the idea that the frontier is something to be tamed and used by white settlers. (One of the stories concerns Teddy Roosevelt ordering Buyan to clear the Dakota territory for white settlers.) Rabbit Ears was clearly uneasy with the politics of these stories, and the ending has Paul Bunyan feeling sorry for his deeds and planting new forests. This is a nice environmental message for children, but it distorts what loggers actually did--rather like Disney's Pocohontas ending with the English and the Indians deciding to live together in peace and mutual understanding. Nice sentiment, but that's not quite what happened.

Still--a triumph of storytelling if not of history.

This version of some of the tales about Paul Bunyan is the finest I've heard. Jonathan Winters is a master at this type of story telling and he is in peak form here. Our 8-year old boy and 5-year old girl were enthralled with this story and frequently asked us to rewind the tape so they could hear the parts missed while laughing. I've lost track of the number of times we've listened to this tape. My only regret is that there weren't even more stories included. The accompanying music is also excellent.

What happened to just looking at history for what it was? This book ends with Paul feeling sorry for cutting down all those trees and going off to plant new ones. How very PC. While now we know that maybe it wasn't such a great idea to clear cut and rape the land, at the time these legends emerged it was seen as a sign of progress. I would have much preferred simply enjoying the rough and ready, log chopping, flannel covered, pancake eating fun. That era is gone forever, and books like this detract from it rather than pay tribute to the hard work and ingenuity required to build our nation. Add an addendum if you must at the end of story, explaining how and when the logging was done and how we now do things differently, but don't change the original story.

I also felt the text itself was somewhat patronizing with its contrived language and overuse of hyperbole.