Skating Hounds

In a winter setting, somewhere way up north, a cat hears the sound of birds flying south comes out of a hillside home to investigate and finds it is snowing. While he cavorts in the snow, inside Farmer Alfalfa tries to play solitaire. Mice intervene and ruin the game. The cat is now covered in snow making him look like a live snowman. Coming back inside he shows the Farmer what has happened and the card game is history. It’s playtime! Grabbing a sled the two head back out and get ready for a ride down the hill. This doesn’t turn out well for the the farmer. At the bottom of the hill they both land on a frozen pond but the Farmer falls through a hole in the ice and ends up inside a big block of ice. His helpful cat moves the block to a convenient stove so the ice can melt but then leaves the farmer alone. That's when a polar bear and cubs investigate this strange object. Meanwhile back home the mice use the Farmer’s cards as para-sails and join in the fun. Back down on the ice the farmer, now fully thawed, demonstrate his skating skills as do a large number of animals. Two of there look a lot like Mickey and Minne Mouse. A hot dog vendor has set up shop providing opportunities for many food based gags to round out the story.

Farmer Alfalfa, Cat, Mice Dog hot dog vendor, Polar Bear and cubs, Skatung Pigs

A series of animated short subjects created by Paul Terry and actor-turned-writer Howard Estabrook. Estabrook suggested making a series of cartoons based on Aesop's Fables. Although Terry claimed he had never heard of Aesop, he felt that Estabrook's idea was something worthwhile. Terry immediately began to set up a new studio called Fables Studios and received backing from the Keith-Albee Theatre circuit.

The earliest films were loose adaptations of the actual fables. Later entries usually revolved around cats, mice, and the disgruntled Farmer Al Falfa. Each short concluded with a "moral" that usually had nothing to do with the actual cartoon itself.

In 1929, Terry quit to start his own TerryToons Studios and John Foster took over the series under Amadee J. Van Beuren's brand new Van Beuren Corporation, a renamed Fable Studios. The series finally came to a close in 1933.