I came across some wonderful films by Bulgarian animator Donyo Donev today. They're great illustrations of story structure and also of the stock characters of wise (or not so wise) fools in folklore. 

This one shows a circular story, called "Intelligent Village."

I thought it was going to be the Bulgarian story of "The Village of No Cats," in which Clever Peter tricks a village overrun by mice into paying him to bring in stray cats. It starts that way, but turns instead into a circular story. It also illustrates one of my favorite story structures:

Somebody wanted ___________,

But__________,

So__________.

Donev did a series of films about three fools. This one is called "The Three Fools Pedagogues." 

Somebody wanted? Among other things, the three fools wanted to teach the baby music. 

But? But the baby was really too little for the music lesson.

So? They moved on to the dancing lesson. 

And much more. 

I came across these videos by following a link on the Facebook page of the House of Humor and Satire, which is in Gabrovo, Bulgaria. I'm hoping to get back there someday!