An Assemblage of Asses Trivia Quiz

Answer: C S Lewis

'The Last Battle' was the final book of the 'Chronicles of Narnia', which began with 'The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' in 1950. In the story, Puzzle the donkey is talked into dressing in a lion's skin and pretending to be Aslan, the lion hero of the earlier books. Fortunately, Puzzle realises he has been duped and joins forces with the Pevensie children, Lucy, Edmund and Peter, to defeat the devious ape, named Shift.

Answer: Muffin

The original puppet, operated by strings, dated from the 1930s but came to prominence in the early days of children's television. Beginning in 1946, the shows were broadcast live, with Annette Mills (sister of the actor John Mills) playing the piano and singing songs. Mills died in 1955, and the BBC series came to an end, transferring to ITV, the commercial station, for a couple of years.

Answer: The Donkey Serenade

The film was based on an operetta created by Rudolf Friml and Otto A. Harbach. Friml also wrote the music for Rose-Marie and The Vagabond King, which are possibly better known. The film changed the plot completely, but kept the music reasonably intact. 'The Donkey Serenade', however, didn't feature in Friml's operetta, but was adapted from another of his works, called 'Chanson'.

Answer: Barrels

Dating from 1981, 'Donkey Kong' was created by Ninendo. As the name implies, the title character is an ape, who has kidnapped a girl (later given the name of Pauline). Jumpman is the hero who comes to her rescue, having to negotiate various platforms while being bombarded with barrels by the ape. Jumpman later became Mario, the hero of numerous video games.

Answer: Pin his tail on

The game might seem dated in these days of computers and video games, but a quick internet search shows that you can still buy 'pin the tail on the donkey' kits. A picture of a tailless donkey is attached to a wall, with each child having to pin a tail in the appropriate position.

This might sound easy, but the child is blindfolded first, then spun around until dizzy, so it is more of a challenge than it might seem.

Answer: Nina and Frederik

The duo originally met when they were children, when Frederik's father was the Dutch Ambassador in Denmark, Nina's home country. They met again as adults, and formed a duo with Frederik playing guitar and both of them singing. They were very popular for a while, with their own show on British television in the early 1960s, and their version of 'Little Donkey' became their biggest hit record. Frederik was unhappy in the limelight, and the couple retired, with their marriage ending in divorce in 1976.

Answer: Animal Farm

All these books have primarily animal characters. 'Black Beauty' is a horse, and there are numerous others in the story, 'Watership Down' has rabbits and 'The Wind in the Willows' has various animals. 'Animal Farm' was written by George Orwell as a satire on the Russian Revolution, with pigs being the leaders of the revolution on the farm. Benjamin is portrayed as an educated and wise member of the farm, one of the few characters able to read, and the one who understands that life tends to continue in much the same way for those at the bottom of the heap, irrespective of who is in power.

Answer: Richard Strauss

'Esel' is the German word for donkey, and is where we derive our word for an easel, used by artists as a support. The work was completed by Karl Haussner and is fairly obscure, apart from a recording featuring Peter Ustinov. That said, of the options given only Strauss lived into the twentieth century, with the others long gone. Beethoven died in 1827, Mozart in 1791 and Pachelbel even earlier, in 1706. Better known works by Richard Strauss include 'Der Rosenkavalier' from 1911 and 'Also Sprach Zarathustra', a tone poem from 1896. Neither of these involved donkeys, though.

Answer: Man of La Mancha

The original story dates from the early seventeenth century, when it came out in two instalments, ten years apart, in 1605 and 1615. The hero, Don Quixote, has given us the word 'quixotic' to describe someone who is not down to earth and something of a dreamer or idealist.

The stage show was given the name 'Man of La Mancha', as the novel was placed in that region of Spain, and the best known song from it is 'The Impossible Dream'. Among the singers to have recorded the song are Frank Sinatra, Glen Campbell and Susan Boyle.

Answer: Quick Draw McGraw

The cartoon series was one of Hanna-Barbera's creations - they also brought us 'Wacky Races', 'The Flintstones' and 'Yogi Bear'. Quick Draw McGraw was a horse, who acted as the sheriff for an unspecified town in America's Wild West. Baba Looey was his deputy, given a sombrero to wear and a Mexican accent in the films, and called a burro rather than a donkey.

Despite being the deputy, Baba Looey was frequently the more sensible of the two main characters.