A Yarn About Yarn

An early silent animated short from the Aesop's Film Fables line, A Yarn About Yarn takes a playful look at a village stitched from the everyday material of work. The story follows anthropomorphic threads, spools, and needles that come to life when a kindly craftsman tells a fable to keep the loom humming and the workshop in cheerful rhythm. A boastful skein tries to outshine its neighbors, only to learn that cooperation and steady effort make the whole threadwork run smoothly and on time. The characters perform brisk gags, bold shapes, and quick visual punch lines typical of the mid 1920s, while percussion and sparse intertitles guide the pacing without chatter. It delivers a compact moral without dragging in extraneous twists, and its charm endures in tiny theaters and archives.

Produced in 1925, this short is directed by Paul Terry and presented as part of the Aesop's Film Fables series. It reflects the era's brisk storytelling, limited dialogue, and emphasis on visual gags to carry the lesson for new audiences.

Box office data for this short is not readily documented and reliable grosses from the era are scarce. As a compact silent animation, it likely played in program blocks alongside other shorts rather than as a stand alone hit historically.

There's no record of major awards for A Yarn About Yarn. As a 1925 production, it predates many competitive categories, and Paul Terry's work on the piece is usually discussed in the context of early animation history rather than award lists in any archive.

Reception to the short is not well documented in modern archives, but the piece clearly aligns with Aesop's moral storytelling. It emphasizes cooperation over vanity, and the value of steady work. Viewers of the era would have recognized the simple lesson conveyed through lively textures and rhythm.