Suki the Elephant (subtitled: The Best Video EVER)

Lela's favorite book is the Little Golden Book "Animal Tales," a collection of short stories.  The stories aren't particularly interesting or well written, but they are endearing and I'm fond of them because I remember them from my own childhood.  Lela likes to read this book in the car and this afternoon she was reading so enthusiastically that I pulled over the car and secretly filmed her.  This is possibly the best video I have ever shot.

She is reading the story of Suki, the Saggy Baggy Elephant.  Suki is a happy little elephant who likes to dance through the jungle, but whenever he dances he shakes the whole jungle and he kicks over trees and bushes. He meets a variety of animals, starting with a parrot who makes fun of his saggy-baggy skin and big ears.  Then, a tiger and an alligator threaten to eat him and he becomes sad and hides in a cave, which is a perfect spot to huddle and cry until a lion approaches the cave, growling, "I am so hungry I could eat an elephant!" Eventually, poor baby Suki is saved from the lion and from eternal self-loathing by a herd of grown-up elephants who love him and show him that it's cool to have saggy-baggy skin and big ears.

Here's my best transcription of Lela's interpretation of the story:


"I'm a elephant" said a flower
"I'm a ----- elephant" said a parrot
I'm a elephant said a parrot

lions and tigers sniffing and sniff and sniff and sniff and sniff
as soon as he saw the elephant right on the corner
the tiger and the tree, they are good friends [unintelligable]
he's going to drink some water with the parrot

The alligagor [sic] said, "I AM AN ALLIGAGOR.  I want to eat elephants.  I have sharp teeth and I want an elephant."

He knocked down a whole tree and he kicked and he kicked and kicked and he knocked over the whole tree!

And then Suki became sad and he hide in his cave
and a lion came and he wants to eat elephants

and to the lion he said, "I'm a...."


Here it is again.  And if you want to see it on full-screen so that you can see the illustrations she is describing, go to:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rqkohguCn2Q

Note: This video was shot March 14, 2012.  It is out of order on the blog because I'm still several months behind but I couldn't wait to post this.