The Small One (1978) on Netflix
A boy near Nazareth learns he must sell Small One, the old donkey too weak to carry wood. He takes the animal to market hoping to find him a kind master.
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- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.5/102,430 votes
- Rotten TomatoesNot available
Plot summary
In the countryside near Nazareth, a boy and his father own four donkeys. Small One is old and weak, and the wood they collect is more than he can carry, so the boy picks out the smallest sticks for him and helps carry the load. One evening the father says Small One must be sold, because the cost of his care has outgrown the work he can do. Devastated, the boy asks to take the donkey to market himself so he can look for a caring master. His father agrees, and sets the price at one piece of silver.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Small One (1978)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Eric Larson assumed he would direct The Small One, but studio management picked Don Bluth instead. According to story artist Burny Mattinson, the team left on Friday and returned on Monday to find their work tossed out, and animator Betsy Baytos said Larson "just shook his head and knew that he wasn't being appreciated".
- Veteran animator Eric Larson, one of Disney's Nine Old Men, headed a training program that hired 25 new artists between 1970 and 1977. Ron Husband was promoted to Disney's first African-American animator while working on The Small One.
- The Small One was edited in two places: the star at the end was given more lines so it would look less like a cross, and a merchants' song lyric about cheating a little on a sale became "we work a little harder if we must". The reason for the edits is not known but may involve Arab stereotypes.
- For The Small One, the animators recycled existing Disney animation: the Laughing Men from The Sword in the Stone (1963) and Mowgli from The Jungle Book (1967) were reused in the short.
