Fairy Tale Spotlight: The Small One [Book and Film Review]

[The main plot of the story is given, but the ending is not spoiled.]

"The Small One: A Story for Those Who Like Christmas and Small Donkeys" is a book written by Charles Tazewell in 1947. An audio version was recorded to vinyl record by Bing Crosby soon after the book's publication. In 1978, a Disney featurette would be released for the book with some minor changes and additions to the original story.

I originally saw the film for this book when I was very young. I liked it. It had solid animation done by Don Bluth, and the story was fun and touching. I was not, however, really driven to tears by it until I was much older, when I was mature enough to understand the connotations. It remains to this day one of Disney's best films, in my opinion.

The book was a little harder to come by, because it was so old, but I managed to obtain a first edition hardback. There were some differences between the book and the movie. I liked them both though.

Now, I just cannot spoil the story, but I will explain the setup. A boy has made friends with an aging donkey he calls Small One. Sadly, the donkey is so old and feeble that he cannot pull his weight in work anymore, and the boy's father tells him that Small One must be sold. In the movie, the father is very understanding of the boy's plight, but in the book he is cold and rather uncaring about the boy's feelings on the matter. This is one of the very few differences between the two versions.

The main progression of the book chronicles the boy's attempt to sell the donkey, hopefully to someone who will treat him well. A tanner is out of the question, even though it would be the simplest solution. But the difficulty in selling an old donkey to someone is that nobody really has a use for him, certainly not for a full piece of silver anyways.

The story also features a very charismatic auctioneer that is fun in both the film and the book. In fact, I think Disney really appreciated the character. His lines are almost word for word from the book. That is not to say that he was a particularly good person, but he was entertaining and fun to see and hear. It made the character come across as realistic on both accounts.

Disney included a set of three greedy merchants that were obsessed with making money in any manner that was available to them. This was not in the book at all, but it was still a funny addition to the film. It, at the very least, padded the movie out a bit. The book gets straight to the point, more or less.

I cannot spoil the ending. It's just too good to do so. I'd feel terrible if I did. I recommend seeing the film or reading the book if you can. The reason the ending is so good is because it shows precisely how God works in reality, despite the story being fictional. And there's one more thing that was the most surprising: Disney made a great Christian film. They just did. It's like running across a unicorn. It may never happen again.

Disney's "The Small One" is available on Amazon Prime for purchase. It's real cheap. I greatly recommend it.

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