Old MacDonald Had A Farm

The classic animal sounds song but with a twist.
Join Old MacDonald as she introduces you to the usual farm animals you may have seen before, culminating in an increasingly outlandish cast of other creatures!
Usually the character of Old MacDonald is a man, but for our version of the song we wanted to update this tradition by having a female farmer.

Origin:

Old MacDonald is a traditional English folk song which has taken many forms over hundreds of years.
The earliest record of the song is from 1706 when Thomas d'Urfey wrote a version for an opera, the song was called "In the Fields in Frost and Snow"

In the Fields in Frost and Snows,
Watching late and early;
There I keep my Father's Cows,
There I Milk 'em Yearly:
Booing here, Booing there,
Here a Boo, there a Boo, every where a Boo,
We defy all Care and Strife,
In a Charming Country-Life.

By 1917, the unnamed farmer was called Old Macdougal in a version called ‘Ohio’ collected in a book of World War I era songs called Tommy's Tunes.
The song later became popular in America and in 1922 a version was published called ‘Old Missouri’ who had a mule, he-hi-he-hi-ho.
The farmer finally became Old MacDonald when the Sam Patterson Trio recorded the song in 1925.

The song is popular all around the world with the farmer having different names in other languages, such as:

In Afrikaans - Old Uncle Claus
In Egyptian Arabic - Grandpa Ali
In Chinese - Old Mr. Wang
In Czech - Uncle Donald
In Danish - Jens Hansen
In Finnish - Grandpa Piippola
In French - Mathurin
In German - Uncle Jörg
In Hebrew - Uncle Moses
In Italian - Uncle Tobias
In Japanese - Old man Mac
In Korean - Old Mr. Park
In Malay - Uncle Atan
In Persian - Kind old man
In Polish - Old Donald
In Portuguese - Uncle Manel or Mr. Lobato
In Russian - Grandfather MacDonald
In Serbian - Uncle Pera
In Spanish - Pepito or Uncle Juan
In Swedish - Per Olsson
In Ukrainian - Uncle Ivan
In Urdu - Abdullah

Video Credits:
Produced by Sarah Simi & Ed Hartwell (Woolly Vision)
Animation and Direction: Ed Hartwell
Art Direction: Sarah Simi
Puppets by Leeanne Bell, Caroline Bletsis, Ed Hartwell and Sarah Simi
Farm set by Leeanne Bell
Other set elements by Laura Gardener (Little Egg Designs), Leeanne Bell and Sarah Simi
Music performed by Gemma Storr
Recorded by Steve Pretty

Lyrics:
Old MacDonald had a farm
E-I-E-I-O
And on that farm she had a cow
E-I-E-I-O
With a moo moo here
and a moo moo there
here a moo
there a moo
everywhere a moo moo
Old MacDonald had a farm
E-I-E-I-O

And on that farm she had a…

pig (oink)
horse (neigh)
sheep (baa)
cat (meow)
dog (woof)
chicken (bock)
duck (quack)
mouse (squeak)
frog (ribbit)
rabbit (hop)
monkey (oo-ah)
elephant (toot)
wolf (awoo)
seal (arf)
spider (scurry)
crocodile (snap)
lion (roar)
whale (owoooo)
jellyfish (jiggle)
polar bear (growl)
dinosaur (stomp roar)
snake (hiss)
pigeon (coo)
penguin (noot)
pooing cow
pooing horse

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About Little Woolly Vision:
Stop motion animated nursery rhymes for young children. Old favourites with an original twist hand made with felt for extra woolly fun. Little Woolly Vision is the children’s division of Woolly Vision.

Woolly Vision is a British stop motion animation company specialising in making animation with wool, fabric and felt. Everything we do is made by hand and animated by hand.
Run by animator Ed Hartwell and writer and designer Sarah Simi our studios are based in London.