The Ballad of Paul Bunyan

Now let’s talk about the Ballad of Smokey the Bear! Wait- I already review that film with a little miracle with a gorilla of a threat of the close size. What I meant to say, “Let’s talk about the Ballad of Paul Bunyan”.

Uncle Fred tells the Ballad of Paul Bunyan. A bully giant of a gorilla brute named Panhandle Pete is running/ ruling the lumberjack business. (OK, this one is less hairy)

Two of his workers named Watson Stump and Kelly found a “giant” baby at Contrived Convenient Currents. (It’s a clean current this time around.) The workers became two uncles to raise the giant baby named Paul Bunyan.

As Paul grew, while Watson and Kelly is barely notice from their absence for 20 years, Paul found a meteor. There was something very magical about the meteor, something very special that Paul can make an axe out of. So Paul discards his homemade football, and start carving his axe with his bat. (OK, the last part was Homer Simpsons’ origin of the Wonder Bat in reverse. He did make an axe with the meteor though.)   

Paul decided to challenge Panhandle Pete to a contest to be the chief Easter Bun… I mean the best giant lumberjack.

The contest is probably the most entertaining of the film.to see two giants fight in different challenges with Log Roll, Arm Wrestling, and Log Chop.

There isn’t much to spoil in this version, but Paul Bunyan wins, and made the Niagara Falls.

“Niagara Falls. Slowly I turn, step by step, inch by inch….”

-reacted by Moe of Three Stooges, Abbot of Abbot & Costello, people in Hardcore Kid’s review of Top Cat (including Linkara, and me dressed as supposedly Harvey Finevoice, but end up looking like Elroy Blues.), etc..

Paul Bunyan isn’t that interesting of a good nature character, as of Panhandle Pete. Somehow we spent more time with Watson and Kelly than the title character, and most they did on-screen was giving him a clothing at certain age.

I hate to compare it to Disney version, as it kept boosting their favors’, but their Paul Bunyan is told better. The Ballad was told by different people who were involved in different era of Paul. First was during Paul’s childhood with the entire town raising him, second was during his start of his career, and third was at his competition with Virgil with his chainsaw that he realistically (to an extent given the giant size) lost the battle, as have most legend. Just to show technology can beat the old ways of progress. Paul has lost, but he still continues his life with his bully, Babe. Speaking of Babe, that bull was only seen as a statue in this version. So timeline with the legend, Niagara Falls was the first thing made by Paul before he made Babe? On a side note, it’s funny that in the Disney version that some of the residence was voiced by Dallas McKennon, who voiced the first Tony the Tiger, while one of background music is sung by the Mellomen, and the voice of Paul Bunyan is one of them as Thurl Ravencroft, the second voice of Tony the Tiger.

Now if you want a funny version, you’ll obviously guess I choose the Simpsons version with Homer Simpsons as Paul Bunyan.

The Rankin Bass’ version of Paul Bunyan, you may like it in an OK sense, unless you’re a strict environmentalist that would hate the sight of anything involve harming trees, even the behind the scenes of the animation process with the large amount of papers to sketch out every frame of a scene, then you may hate this film and story. As shown as minority.

Let’s switch from a tall tale to what should be a short story to be made shorter with the Swiss Family Robinson.