Fablio le Magicien présente La Tortue et les deux Canards

Abstract

This is an extra copy of this book. Here is the original French book behind an English version that I have. The little tortoise Pététée is seven months old and quite a terror of a child. She decides to leave home, eager to go anywhere that is more exciting. In the city, she meets Dig and Ding, two ducks willing to fly her to America. In this version, their stick is tied to circles they put around their necks. She descends into the middle of a bull-fight in Andalusia, where she waves her red hat as she says good-bye to Dig and Ding. They rescue her and fly her to Egypt. Soon they are in America, where Pététée falls into a rugby match and is mistaken for the ball. A kick takes her into the middle of an Indian pow-wow. She will be either tortured or eaten! Dig and Ding are again involved in her rescue. The moment of tragedy comes when they fly over some native tortoises on an island. These greet her as queen of tortoises flying by, and Pététée answers by claiming respect proper to a queen--and so, of course, she falls. In this version she seems to fall into and then to be shot out of a volcano and to have an astronaut adventure. Finally she is returned to her parents. Everything is good which ends well. The story moves where it can to rhyming poetry. The cartoon pictures are evidently movie stills.