Ewenn Congar

**Ewenn Congar** is an animated short that takes place in France. It is an episode part of the anthology series "*Animated Tales of the World*".

## Summary

Set in Northwest France, life was very difficult for a father and son to live in this land. The son tells his father to study art in order to get a good job and take care of him, but his father says that attending school costs a lot of money and the son's father cannot afford it. Ewenn then makes a suggestion to his father to sell one of their cows in order to earn money to attend school. Upon selling one of the cows, Ewenn then becomes a good artist in class, but his father still had to make sacrifices by selling some of the livestock to earn money until there was no more livestock left. Ewenn decides to leave his father in order to earn more money. Upon leaving, a mysterious man riding a horse asks him to know if he could read and write. Ewenn then pretends to be poor to go to school and then decides to work with the magician. The magician then takes him to a workshop far away from the farm.

Inside the magician's workshop is a collection of birds and horses in which Ewenn must take care of them while he is away and shouldn't touch anything else in his workshop in order to earn money. The next day, Ewenn worked hard in feeding taking care of the birds and horses. As a result, Ewenn receives a great meal. However, he hears a princess singing who wants to escape the magician's castle. Ewenn suddenly arrives in the hedge maze to find the princess who wants to be saved. He then suddenly finds the princess who wants to escape the castle. The princess then tells him that he found the center of the maze as Ewenn says that he prepare to rescue her. The princess explains that her name is Ines, the daughter of the King of Spain, and the magician kidnapped her in his castle and the blue mare that Ewenn fed every day is actually Ines who was cast a spell by the magician.

Thanks to the magic fountain, this turns the princess into a human, but only for a few moments before she turns into a mare and the others who heard her song were trapped in the maze. Upon seeing the people captured in the maze, the magician arrived and turned the prisoners into birds and horses. Ewenn then makes a plan to save the princess and the prisoners as the princess says that it is time to return to the stable. Ines is then transformed back into a mare again while trying to find a way to break the spell. Ewenn suddenly finds the magician's hidden library in which he reads a book of spells to learn the magic words hoping to find a way to break the spell and save Princess Ines. By the time the magician was supposed to return, Ewenn learned many powerful tricks, but didn't find a way to turn a pale blue mare back into a princess. Ewenn then leaves the hidden library and meets the magician in the stable.

The magician then tells him that he is pleased that he did his hard work and obeyed his instructions. For his reward, Ewenn can only take one reward: a treasure of gold or one horse. Realising that the magician turned the prisoners into horses and birds, Ewenn decides not to accept the gold and escape from the magician's castle. Upon escaping the castle, Ewenn uses a magic spell to turn Ines back into a princess again as the magician realises that Ewenn is using magic from his library, despite his warnings. Princess Ines then thanks him for turning her back into a princess again. The two suddenly hear the magician who warns Ewenn that he will find him the next time he uses his magic from the library. Ines then tells him to go to her father's castle, but Ewenn says that it is too dangerous because of the magician's wrath.

Back at his father's home, Ewenn tells his father that he never received any money far away from home, but Ewenn found a way to make him and his father richer again. Ewenn decides to leave his father again but not too far this time. Meanwhile in a faraway village, Kordic, the man who sells cows for money, prepares to sell the cow that Ewenn's father has. Ewenn's father decides to sell the cow for 30 pieces of gold. The next day when Kordic went to show the cow to his wife, his wife was upset that he spent thirty gold for a cow that disappeared. The cow is revealed to be Ewenn who is transformed into a cow and Ewenn tricked Kordic into him being paid 30 pieces of gold for his father.

Though his father enjoyed receiving pieces of gold from Kordic, Ewenn still needed to defeat the magician. Ewenn suddenly transforms into a donkey as a plan to defeat the magician. However, the magician suddenly appears and attempts to steal Ewenn who is transformed into a donkey. The magician gives his father money as he forces Ewenn to go faster. He suddenly arrives to the blacksmith where the magician tells the blacksmith to put horseshoes on the donkey. The magician tells him that the horseshoes will prevent his spell from being undone and Ewenn will remain as a donkey as punishment whenever he has the horseshoes on. The blacksmith prepares to put horseshoes on Ewenn, but he kicks the bucket of horseshoes. Two children were able to free Ewenn who is transformed into a donkey and the blacksmith realises that the donkey is actually Ewenn in disguise.

Ewenn then shows the children more magic by transforming into a rabbit as the magician transforms into a dog in an attempt to capture him. The magician tries to eat him, but Ewenn transforms into a bird to escape. The magician suddenly transforms into an eagle to capture Ewenn. Ewenn then sees the King of Spain's castle and then transforms into a blue ring to escape from the magician. The king of Spain suddenly fell ill and the magician transforms back into his human alias in order to enter the king's castle. The guard says that the king is ill, but the magician enters the castle himself, telling them that he is a doctor. The king of Spain is suddenly healed and thanks the magician (still in his doctor disguise) who gave him medicine and he asks him whatever he wants. The magician then tells the king that he would like to have a gold ring as a souvenir from the castle.

That night, Ewenn warns Princess Ines that the magician is still in the castle as he tells him that he tricked the magician once and explains to her that there must be another way to trick the magician again. That night, Princess Ines congratulates the magician for healing the king by giving him the blue ring. The blue ring is actually revealed as Ewenn in disguise as Ines transforms her into a grain of wheat. The magician suddenly transforms into a cockerel to eat Ewenn. Ewenn transforms into a fox that eats roosters. Princess Ines also transforms into a fox as they both kill the magician in his rooster form. Ewenn Congar and Princess Ines transform back into their human forms as they tell the king of Spain that they both defeated the evil magician in his rooster form. Ewenn Congar and Princess Ines were married, turned the rest of their lives together into pure magic, and lived happily ever after.

## Voice Cast

* Prunella Scales - The Narrator

* Gary Baker - Ewenn Congar

* Jonathan Adams - Ewenn Congar (Senior)

* Clive Russell - The Magician

* Caroline Carver - Princess Ines (singing voice provided by Michelle Flynn)

* Michael N. Harbour - Kordic / The King of Spain

* Gavin Muir - Passerby / The Blacksmith / Royal Guard

* Julie Higginson - Kordic's Wife