Talk:Francis the Talking Mule

Gender?
If Francis was a female mule then wouldn't she technically be considered a hinny and not a mule? 129.74.91.57 (talk) 18:09, 27 May 2008 (UTC)


 * Over a year late, but for the record, Francis the character is a male mule, as mentioned many times (in the film Francis Covers the Big Town, it's even mentioned that "Frances with an e" would be a female name, and when queried further about his gender, Francis quips "Do I sound like a soprano to you?") Also, a hinny isn't a term used for gender but based on parentage (horse as father and donkey as mother, while it's reversed with mules). Both mules and hinnies, once bred, can be either gender, so Francis the character is a male mule and Molly, the actual animal used, is a female mule. -- Aleal (talk) 19:43, 15 August 2009 (UTC)

Categories
Probably needs to be moved to the fictional mules category Ealdgyth | Talk 19:33, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Relation to Mister Ed
The article says "With a plot device like the later series Mister Ed, Francis would usually only talk to Peter". My concern is with the word "later" here; while the Mr. Ed TV series came later than the Frances film series, the original Ed material were prose stories that started in magazines in the 1930s, predating all versions of Frances. However, I have not read these stories, and do not know if talks-only-to-one-person aspect of Ed is present in those prose stories or not. As such, while I know that a rewording is needed here, I'm not sure what the proper wording would be. --Nat Gertler (talk) 12:55, 23 April 2017 (UTC)

Useful sources
This Flickr album has a number of newspaper clippings that go over Francis, would make for good additional research. CaptainEek Edits Ho Cap'n!⚓ 03:03, 23 October 2020 (UTC)