Original subtitles

[cheerful music]

*

- Oh. - [laughing]

- * Dancing through springtime flowers *

* And rays of summer sun

* Catching white snowflakes on your nose *

* Running through autumn leaves *

* That float from trees on high *

* With our love that is bigger than the sky *

* Guess how much I love you

* Guess how much I love you *

* Guess how much I love you

* Guess how much I love you *

* Guess how much I love you

* Guess how much I love you *

* Guess how much I love you

female narrator: It had been a lovely, warm summer,

and the beautiful wildflowers had grown tall--

so tall that Little Nutbrown Hare

and his father, Big Nutbrown Hare,

had a little trouble finding their way home.

- Keep coming, Little Nutbrown Hare.

narrator: But there's always a friend to help in the meadow.

- Blue Bird, how far now?

- I can see your home from up here.

You'll find it easily now.

Just a jumble of jumps in this direction.

Good-bye. - Thank you, Blue Bird.

- Good-bye.

[laughter]

narrator: And they had fun jumbling

all the way home.

It was only a few weeks later

that the bright summer colors of the flowers

were replaced by the beautiful golden shades of autumn.

- I thought you already had lots of leaves

in your autumn leaf collection, Little Field Mouse.

- Oh, you can never have too many leaves

in an autumn leaf collection, Little Nutbrown Hare.

- Excuse me. [grunts]

Coming through. - Oh.

- What is the hurry, Little Gray Squirrel?

- Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh.

I have to collect acorns

to stock before winter comes, you know?

And practice some new tricks too.

[grunts] Whoo.

[grunting]

- Oh, that was a clever trick.

- Come on.

It's a long way to the tree

with its extra-special, pretty autumn leaves.

And we need to be home before dark.

Wait, Little Field Mouse.

- Oh. [panting]

What is it, Little Nutbrown Hare?

- Do you know the way to the tree

with extra-special, pretty autumn leaves?

- Well, yes, I do.

We just walk through the woods

and then keep going until we...

um...

I don't know the way exactly, Little Nutbrown Hare.

But I'm sure we'll get there.

- If you think so.

But we need a plan to make sure

we can find our way home again.

Every time we go in a new direction,

I'll leave an acorn where it's easy to see.

- To show where we've come from.

How clever.

We'll just look for the acorns and find our way back.

- Oh, careful.

- Wah!

Oopsy, silly me.

[chuckles]

- Now, which way do we go?

- [grunting]

I'm almost sure that this...

might be the way.

- Wait.

[cheerful music]

*

- Hmm?

Huh?

Well, look at that.

An acorn just sitting here.

[grunts]

Whoa!

And another one.

- Maybe this way now.

- Little Field Mouse.

This is a nice leaf.

What about putting this one in your collection?

- Well, this is a nice leaf.

But see how this bit is much shorter than the others?

- Yes.

- Which means it's not quite

special enough for my collection.

- Oh!

What about this purpley-colored leaf, then,

Little Field Mouse?

- I've already got one that color.

Oh, what about...

this one?

- Oh, it's a bit spiky.

Thanks anyway, Little Nutbrown Hare.

I've got lots of leaves in my collection.

Now I only need very special pretty ones.

narrator: So the two friends kept walking through the woods,

leaving a trail of acorns

and looking for the tree

with its extra-special, pretty autumn leaves until...

- This is the most beautiful,

extra-special, pretty autumn leaf I have ever seen.

- Good enough to go in your collection,

Little Field Mouse?

- Oh, yes.

I knew if we found this special tree,

I'd find a leaf just like this one.

- Now we can follow our acorns home.

- Hello, you two. [grunts]

Look at all the acorns I've collected.

[grunts] Oh.

I found them lying on the ground

from the edge of the wood all the way to here.

It was like someone left them there.

[both gasp]

- Yes. We did.

- That was very nice of you.

- No, we left them as a trail

so we could find our way back home again.

- Oops.

[grunts] Oh, dear.

- Never mind, Little Grey Squirrel.

You didn't know.

- But without the trail of acorns,

how are we going to find our way home?

- It is getting a bit late...

and cold.

[leaves rustling]

- Hmm.

Ah-ha.

- Wait.

Little Nutbrown Hare has had an idea.

- Last summer, Big Nutbrown Hare and I

couldn't find our way home

because we couldn't see over the tall flowers,

just like we can't see over these trees.

- [gasps] What happened?

- Blue Bird flew up high

so she could see over the flowers

and told us which way to go.

- So all I have to do is learn how to fly.

That would be a really good trick.

[grunts]

Ha-ha-ha! - No. [chuckles]

Not how to fly.

You know all about trees,

mostly how to climb them.

And when you get to the very top,

you'll be able to see the meadow.

- And tell us the way home!

- [panting]

I can see it. I can see the meadow.

both: Hooray!

- This way. Follow me.

[laughter]

[cheerful music]

[laughter]

[panting]

*

- Whoa!

Little Gray Squirrel?

- Is there something wrong?

- Yes. A mist has covered the tops of the trees.

Look. I can't see through it at all.

- That means you can't see which way the meadow is?

- Bug Nutbrown Hare will be worried

if I'm not home soon.

- Oh.

Look, Little Nutbrown Hare.

This is one of the leaves you showed me

when we started.

- Are you sure? - Yes, I am sure.

I'm an expert on autumn leaves, you know.

- So you must have come this way.

- Now look for the leaf with the short bit.

[cheerful music]

*

Ah-ha. Here it is.

We must be close to the meadow now.

- Oh. I remember that leaf.

- Only... - Only what?

- Only there are no more leaves we know to look for.

And we're not back at the meadow yet.

- [sighs]

- Mm?

What are you looking at?

- Little Nutbrown Hare's ears.

- His ears?

- Yay! - What?

What does that mean?

- It means Little Nutbrown Hare's had another idea.

He's very good at ideas.

You do have another idea, don't you, Little Nutbrown Hare?

- Yes.

We need to look for...

a muddy puddle.

Little Field Mouse left her footprints in it.

- I remember!

- Well, we'd better hurry.

The mist is getting heavier.

[cheerful music]

*

- Here! Here!

Are these them? - Yes!

- [gasps] Look!

all: The meadow!

- [panting] - Yippee! We made it!

narrator: And so the three friends all worked together

and found their way back home.

- Tomorrow...

I'm going to collect even more autumn leaves.

[chuckles] Whee!

- And tomorrow I'm going to collect

even more acorns!

narrator: But Little Nutbrown Hare

wasn't thinking about tomorrow.

He was thinking how happy he was

to be home in the meadow.

- It does sound like you had a big autumn adventure,

my Little Nutbrown Hare.

I'm glad you made it back to me before dark.

- Guess how much I love you.

- Hmm. Let's see.

As much as all the acorns in the woods

laid from one end to the other.

- Yes, and as much as the tallest tree

Little Gray Squirrel can climb.

- And don't forget to add in some pretty autumn leaves.

- Oh, yes.

Some extra-special, pretty autumn leaves.

Mm.

[cheerful music]

*

narrator: One spring morning,

as the cool wind was blowing in the meadow,

Little Nutbrown Hare dozed sleepily with his father,

though he was about to discover

that spring can be full of surprises.

- [giggling]

- [chuckles]

Big Nutbrown Hare, wake up.

- [yawns]

Good morning, Little Nutbrown Hare.

What is it?

- [chuckles] - Ears.

- Oh, it looks like we might have a visitor.

I wonder who it could be.

- [chuckles]

- I think it might be another Little Nutbrown Hare.

- [chuckles] I'm Little Field Mouse Hare.

- Boo! - [squeaks]

[laughter]

- I like your new ears.

- All the better to...

tickle you with!

[laughter]

- Oh, no. You've lost your ears now.

[mysterious rumbling and warbling]

- [gasps] - What was that?

- I-I don't know.

- Let's ask Big Nutbrown Hare.

Big Nutbrown Hare?

- Oh. Good morning, Little Field Mouse.

- Did you hear that strange sound?

- What strange sound? [groans]

[mysterious warbling]

- That one!

It's sort of a crackling,

boinking sort of singing sound.

- Can you hear it, Big Nutbrown Hair?

- Hmm. Yes.

And I've heard that sound before--

at the end of last winter and the winter before that.

It's a sort of "good-bye to winter

and welcome to spring" song.

- Oh, is it?

- Yes. And it's nothing to be frightened of.

Maybe you two can solve the puzzle

of where it comes from.

- Yes.

I love puzzles.

Let's find the singer of the song.

- Ooh?

- It's perfectly safe.

And it seems like a good game to me.

- [chuckles] Come on!

- Okay. - Let's go.

- See you later. [chuckles]

- Oh.

If you look up and half close your eyes,

you can see all sorts of shapes.

- And colors too.

Hey, let's play "I Spy With My Little Eye."

- Okay. You go first.

- I spy with my little field mouse eye

something green.

- I know. I know.

New spring leaves on the old oak tree?

- [chuckles] That's right.

You guessed it.

[leaves rustling]

- [imitates wind whooshing]

[laughs]

Do you hear that sound, Little Field Mouse?

- Swish, swish.

I am the wind

dancing amongst the leaves in the trees.

- And I am a leaf swishing in the wind.

Let's play "I Hear With My Little Ear" this time.

- Okay. [chuckles]

But how do you play?

- Close your eyes first.

Then listen, and when you hear a sound,

you open your eyes to find what made it.

- I can't hear our spring song anymore,

but I can hear birds.

Wow. [chuckles]

And there they are.

- Look at me, Little Nutbrown Hare.

I can fly like a bird.

Whee! [laughter]

- The birds are all coming back to the meadow

because spring is here.

- Hooray! - Tweet, tweet. Tweet, tweet.

Whoo! [laughter]

[mysterious warbling] - [gasps] The spring song.

- I'm ready to solve the puzzle if you are.

- Yes. Especially if you hold my hand.

- [chuckles] Only if you hold mine.

[cheerful music]

*

- [sighs] - Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!

- What? - Whoo! Whoo! Whoo!

[laughter] - Good morning.

- Good morning, Little Gray Squirrel.

- What's all that noise about?

- We're singing a song.

- Oh, a song? [chuckles]

That's a very funny song.

- It's a song of spring.

- [inhales deeply] Mmm.

What's that lovely smell?

I remember it from last spring.

[both inhale]

- It smells delicious.

- I have a good idea.

Why don't we play...

"I Smell With My Little Nose"?

- Yes, let's. [giggles]

- [panting] How do you play?

- Well, someone chooses a smell--

- Me! Me!

- [chuckles] And then the others

close their eyes and guess what it is.

- Oh, I get it.

I'll lead you to a smell, and you have to guess.

- That's right.

both: Ready!

- [inhales] Mmm.

It's one of my favorite smells of spring.

Take a sniff.

[both inhale]

- Hmm.

It's a very sweet smell.

Is it a big, juicy berry?

- Or a flower?

- [chuckles] Yes, a flower.

Look. It's a hyacinth.

[mysterious warbling]

[gasps] What's that?

- Don't worry, Little Gray Squirrel.

It's only a "welcome to spring" song.

- And we're going to find the singer.

- Good luck. Wake me up again when you find out who it is.

[panting] Ah.

[cheerful music]

*

- Can you hear the sound? - No.

But I can hear the noisy river gushing.

All the snow is melting away.

- Yes. Look how fast it's flowing.

- [whistling]

- Another song.

- Hello, Blue Bird.

- Hello there.

It's good to see you both.

- Are you going to build a nest with those twigs?

- Yes, indeed.

To lay my eggs in.

- Oh, new babies. Hooray!

- Yes. What are you two up to?

- We're trying to solve a puzzle,

a singing puzzle.

But we can't hear the song anymore.

- It goes kind of like this...

Whoo! Whoo, whoo!

Whoo! [chuckles]

- I know that song.

Have patience.

You might be closer than you think.

[singing]

- Spring singer,

come out, come out wherever you are!

- Oh, it's hard being patient.

- Hello.

- Oh, Otter. [laughs]

Hello. - [chuckles]

Have you been singing a song?

- Oh, I don't think so.

[mysterious warbling]

- There it is. Did you hear it?

- I certainly did.

And I think if we follow this stream up the lake,

we might just find the singer.

[cheerful music]

*

- Look at the ice.

Our frozen lake is cracking.

- That's right, because it's melting,

Little Nutbrown Hare.

- But...why?

- Well, every spring, the winter ice cracks and melts

so the lake will be ready for us to swim in

when the summer comes.

- Oh.

[cracking]

both: Wow!

- I think we've solved the puzzle.

- Yes. The lake is singing.

Hooray! [giggles]

- And isn't it a beautiful song?

- I never would have guessed that cracking ice

could make a song.

narrator: With the puzzle solved,

the friends soon fell silent and watched the Sun set

over the beautiful lake.

But in the distance, a new sound could be heard.

- Little Nutbrown Hare?

- [chuckles] I hear with my little ear

Big Nutbrown Hare calling you home.

- [chuckles] Yeah, my favorite sound of all.

At first, I was a bit scared

because I didn't know what the sound was.

But solving the puzzle was fun,

not scary at all.

- You haven't told me.

What did you discover?

- That the lake is melting.

And it sings as it melts.

- Ah-ha.

- [shivers]

It's spring, but it's still chilly.

- [shivers] Shall we warm each other up?

[chuckles] [shivers]

- Guess how much I love you.

- As much as you love the sound of the singing lake?

- No. - No?

- Much, much more.

As much as I love the sound

of you calling me home every night.

It's my favorite sound of all.

- [chuckles] And I love calling you home.

[barking]