Beautiful Talking Donkeys

5. Ya’foor

Muhammad’s Talking Donkey

From the book The Beginning and the End comes an interesting story called “The Conversation of the Donkey.” In it, Muhammad receives from God a gift of four sheep, four goats, ten pots of gold and silver and a black donkey that can talk. The ensuing “conversation” between Muhammad and the donkey goes something like this:

Muhammad addresses the donkey asking, “What is your name?” “Yazid Ibn Shihab,” the donkey answers. Then Muhammad says to him, “I will call you Ya’foor!” Then Ya’foor replies, “I obey.” Muhammad then asks, “Do you desire females?” To which the donkey replies, “NO!”

Interesting, to say the least. Due to the difficulty in finding an image of Ya’foor, pictured above is the donkey Buraq, another donkey closely related to the tales of Muhammad.

4. Benjamin

Animal Farm (1945), by George Orwell, is an allegorical novella about a group of farm animals (mostly pigs) meant to symbolize Soviet politics. In other words, it’s one fairly boring topic allegorizing another. Nevertheless, it has its place in history and, supposedly (I admit I’ve never read it), there’s a talking donkey named Benjamin. The following is from the Cliffs Notes character description of him:

“Donkeys are known for their stubbornness, and Benjamin stubbornly refuses to become enthusiastic about the rebellion. While all of his comrades delight in the prospect of a new, animal-governed world, Benjamin only remarks, ‘Donkeys live a long time. None of you has ever seen a dead donkey.’ While this reply puzzles the animals, the reader understands Benjamin’s cynical yet not-unfounded point: In the initial moments of the rebellion, Animal Farm may seem a paradise, but in time it may come to be another form of the same tyranny at which they rebelled. Of course, Benjamin is proven right. Although pessimistic, he is a realist.”

3. Nestor

The Long-Eared Christmas Donkey

For anyone who hasn’t seen this show, it’s basically a mash-up of Dumbo and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, and it is worth checking out for sure. Nestor is a gray, stop-motion donkey with freakishly long ears who is rejected by all the other donkeys. After his mother is killed (okay, there’s a little Bambi in there too) he wanders to Israel and finds Joseph and Mary, whom he helps travel to Bethlehem where Baby Jesus is born.

Like the classic holiday hit A Charlie Brown Christmas, this movie seems to strike the perfect balance between secular and spiritual. And there’s plenty of talking donkeys to get your fix. The narrator of the story is a talking donkey named Spieltoe, and is mildly amusing. “You never knew Santa Claus had a donkey?’ he asks with a drawl, “who do you think pulls his snow plow?”

2. Leroy

From the movie The Muppet Musicians of Bremen, Leroy is a talking donkey who, more impressively, plays the tuba. The movie is an adaptation of the German folktale, The Town Musicians of Bremen, first recorded by the Brothers Grimm. The Muppet version is set in the rural bayou of Louisiana, and the music is New Orleans-style jazz. Leroy is the first protagonist introduced but is later joined by Rover Joe, the hound dog (who plays the trombone), Catgut the cat (the trumpet) and T.R. the rooster (vocals and tambourine), with various rats and Kermit the Frog serving as MC. Together the animals escape their abusive, criminal owners and embark on a quest for freedom as a traveling band. This show alone is enough to demonstrate Jim Henson’s unique and enduring genius, as both a craftsman and a storyteller, and in no small part due to Leroy the Donkey.

1. Donkey

Shrek

He’s positive, sensitive, talkative, his favorite food is waffles, and he even flew for a brief moment with the help of some pixie dust. Yes, the one and only Donkey from the Shrek tetralogy hardly needs any further explanation. In 2001, Donkey, voiced by veteran Eddie Murphy, and the rest of Shrek gang announced, with a bang, the arrival of DreamWorks Animation as a power player in the computer-animated family film genre. Up until that time this extremely lucrative industry had been dominated, if not monopolized, by the Pixar studio. Yet critics and fans alike hailed Shrek for its fresh jabs at fairytale conventions, hurled openly at Pixar bedfellow Disney, and it was enough for Shrek to win the inaugural Academy Award for Best Animated Feature.