The White Cat, Fool and the Flying Ship

Rabbit Ears World Tales #4

by Rabbit Ears, Emma Thompson (Read by), Robin Williams (Read by)

Rabbit Ears Treasury of World Tales Volume 2 entertains and enlightens with these classic stories read by your favorite stars and featuring original music by some of today's greatest artists.

The White Cat
Read by Emma Thompson
Original Music by Joe Jackson

The king makes increasingly difficult demands of his three sons, who must travel the kingdom in search of his requests. The youngest prince soon befriends an enchanted cat-queen who helps him to meet all of his challenges. Their friendship turns to love as the prince releases her from an evil spell and discovers that she is in fact a beautiful princess.


The Fool and the Flying Ship
Read by Robin Williams
Original Music by The Klezmer Conservatory Band

A proclamation was sent through the lands of long-ago Russia that anyone who could build a flying ship would win the hand of the Tsar's daughter. but when a country bumpkin and his oddball friends show up to claim her, the dumbfound Tsar quickly has second thoughts. This hilarious Russian folktale is a delightful treat.

1st story read by Emma Thompson ; original music by Joe Jackson ; 2nd story read by Robin Williams ; original music by The Klezmer Conservatory Band.

Description: 1 audio disc (56 min.) : sound, stereo

Genres: Audiobook

Audio CD

First published January 1, 2000

About the author

Rabbit Ears Entertainment, LLC is an entertainment company committed to the creation of family programming that reflects a deep respect for the intelligence and sense of humor of today’s audiences. Our classic children’s stories are brought to life by the world’s most respected narrators, musicians, and illustrators. Narrated by Hollywood’s top celebrities, scored by renowned musicians, and illustrated by well-known artists, our programs have earned a reputation for achieving the highest degree of artistic quality. The resulting books, videos, and audio products have earned many prestigious awards from design, educational, and entertainment organizations.

Believing that quality entertainment can inspire children with an appreciation for literature, art and music, Mark Sottnick and Doris Wilhousky established Rabbit Ears from their kitchen table in 1985. Based on the belief that quality sells and that adults want the very best for their children—and are looking for books and videos that they can enjoy sharing with their children—Rabbit Ears stories endeavor to enhance development and to encourage creative thinking skills.

The high-quality profile of Rabbit Ears’ products is evidenced by a list of 60+ titles and relationships with major Hollywood personalities including Meg Ryan, Mel Gibson, Meryl Streep, B. B. King, Whoopi Goldberg, George Winston, Jack Nicholson, Garrison Keillor, and many others. Likewise, relationships built with companies such as Random House, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan/McGraw-Hill further enhance Rabbit Ears’ prestigious reputation. In January of 1997, through a cooperative effort, CBS aired Rabbit Ears’ first live action movie-of-the-week, a special called "Keeping the Promise."

In the 1990's Rabbit Ears Radio was distributed nationwide by PRI (Public Radio International), one of the two main public radio networks in the United States, winning the National Education Association Advancement of Learning Through Broadcast Award in 1995. The success of Rabbit Ears has been resoundingly affirmed by the countless prizes awarded to our stories in the children’s video, audio, and book categories, including:


2 Grammy Awards
18 Grammy Award nominations
21 Parents' Choice Awards
A Parents' Choice Award for the Entire Storybook Classics series
7 Action for Children's Television awards
A National Education Association Award
The Humanitas Prize

Reviews

[Ronyell]

Finally! Rabbit Ears have managed to put out audio CDs of their fantastic series after being gone from television for over nine years! “Rabbit Ears Treasury of World Tales: The White Cat and the Fool and the Flying Ship” is audio CD that contains two stories that came from around the world that are narrated by famous celebrities along with brilliant music from well known musicians and it will be an instant treat for both children and adults!

Since I already summarize these two stories in my past reviews, I will just briefly summarize each story:



The White Cat
Told by: Emma Thompson
Music by: Joe Jackson
In this tale, the youngest son of a king tries to complete several difficult tasks set out from his father in order to inherit the kingdom. Of course, along the way, he meets up with a beautiful white cat and the young prince’s adventures soon begin!



The Fool and the Flying Ship
Told by: Robin Williams
Music by: The Klezmer Conservatory Band
In this tale, a goofy country bumpkin along with his crew of superhuman companions go off to the Tsar’s palace in a flying ship in order to complete several difficult tasks ordered by the Tsar.

Oh my goodness! This is absolutely my most favorite audio CD out of the whole Rabbit Ears Treasury series! I loved this audio CD because the narrations on both stories are truly inventive and creative and both narrators, Emma Thompson and Robin Williams, both bring excitement and humor to the stories they each narrate. In “The White Cat,” Emma Thompson narrates the story with such elegance and grace that the story comes off as being extremely soothing for both children and adults to listen to and Emma Thompson also brings tension and drama to this story when she uses a raspy voice to voice out the evil troll. Joe Jackson’s music is truly elegant and beautiful and it greatly brings true elegance to the story. In contrast,” The Fool and the Flying Ship” has a more hilarious and raucous tone thanks to Robin Williams! Robin Williams gleefully narrates this story with such energy that children and adults will be rolling around laughing for ages! Robin Williams’ biggest highlight in his narration was when he was voicing the Fool himself as Robin Williams uses a Russian accent to voice out the high pitched voice of the Fool. The Klezmer Conservatory Band’s music goes well with Robin Williams’ raucous narration as they are both full of hilarity.

Overall, “Rabbit Ears Treasury of World Tales: The White Cat and the Fool and the Flying Ship” is a brilliant audio CD for children and adults who love listening to stories from around the world and who love the talents of Robin Williams and Emma Thompson. I would recommend this audio CD to children ages five and up due to the story “The Fool and the Flying Ship” having some jokes that might be aimed at older children.

*~A Little Side Note~*
There is no book to go with this audio CD and many people who grew up with the Rabbit Ears series might be a bit disappointed, even though the narration is still top notch in this audio CD.

Review is also on: Rabbit Ears Book Blog

[Dolly]

This is a fun audio CD with two stories with somewhat similar themes. The tales show how one son is able to obtain the elusive goal despite setbacks along the way.

The narrators are very different, however. Emma Thompson makes the first story seem very English and very proper, whereas Robin McLaurin Williams uses his comedic talent with voices to portray numerous characters.

Overall, with the different narrators and the additional music, it's a very good production. There's only one disc, so it's fairly easy to listen to both stories in a single night. We really enjoyed listening to these stories together.

[Heather]

With an obscure folk tale about a cat and a silly story read by Robin Williams, what’s not to love? A great pick for kids that the adults might like as well.