Treasury of Fables

The Rabbit Ears Treasury of Fables and Other Stories entertains and enlightens with these classic animal stories--read by your favorite stars and featuring original music by some of today's greatest artists.

The Three Billy Goats Gruff / The Three Little Pigs
Read by Holly Hunter
Original Music by Art Lande
Three billy goats encounter a greedy troll--and turn the tables on him--when they try to cross a bridge in the popular Norwegian classic The Three Billy Goats Gruff.
The big bad wolf huffs and puffs his way through the tale of the brave pig who outsmarts his fellow oinkers by simply working harder in the all-time favorite The Three Little Pigs.

Rumpelstiltskin
Read by Kathleen Turner
Original Music by Tangerine Dream
When the king orders a young woman to spin a room full of straw into gold, she turns to a mysterious elfin man for help . . . but will the price of his aid be her first-born child?

The Tiger and the Brahmin
Read by Ben Kingsley
Original Music by Ravi Shankar
"I shan't eat you if you let me out of the cage," the tiger tells the Brahmin before the holy man discovers that the tiger intended to eat him all along. Only the intervention of a clever jackal can save the Brahmin from his fate.

The Ugly Duckling
Read by Cher
Original Music by Patrick Ball
Rediscover the inner beauty in all of us with this beloved Hans Christian Andersen story of the outcast duckling who finds himself transformed into a beautiful swan.

Familiar fables find new meaning with celebrity performances. Holly Hunter and Art Lande perform "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" and "The Three Little Pigs" in an upbeat, playful style. Repeated tunes and the use of accents differentiate characters, and there's adult-pleasing humor in both stories. Tangerine Dream's dreamy strains are a melodic fit for the surreal "Rumpelstiltskin." Their score and Kathleen Turner's reading are measured and even until the climax, when the queen guesses Rumpelstiltskin's name. "The Tiger and the Brahmin" combines Ravi Shankar's sitar skills with a spicy reading by Ben Kinglsey. Patrick Ball begins with bright tones as Cher sets up the idyllic farmyard setting of "The Ugly Duckling." Musical and acting performances take on a sadder quality as the ugly duckling faces rejection and insults, sadder still when this soon-to-be swan faces a harsh winter alone. At story's happy end, the bright tones return. S.W. © AudioFile 2006, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine