Edgar Allan Pooh
. . . in the History of Animation. The fat hairy spider which kidnaps the RED-HEADED BABY doll, with its incessant Evil chortling, is far more frightening than any of the scare-mongers depicted in MONSTERS, INC. This villain's vicious venality goes well beyond mere arachnophobia-inducing loathing. Its visceral vice-grip on your vital organs suggests it's merely a vessel to convey the venom of a Real Life Victimizer through the theatrical venue into veins vibrating with the vicissitudes of very bad vibes. Exactly WHO (to paraphrase Martin Luther) is this Ancient Foe Warner Bros. is warning America against here? Would it be Herb Hoover, about to sic Ike Eisenhower and Dougie MacArthur, with their Legion of Imperial Storm Troopers, upon a defenseless tattered array of 60,000 U.S. World War One heroes, their wives and their children, simply requesting the bowl of soup denied them by the Mr. Potters running roughshod over normal Americans yearning for a nation free of Corrupt Capitalist Child Killers? (There STILL is not even a plaque on our National Mall's World War Two Memorial commemorating the thousands Ike had bull-dozed into the secret Mass Graves below in 1932.) Or could it be Putin's Puppet, the wild-haired bozo with an orange face and tiny fingers, hand-picked by the KGB to undo George Washington and Abe Lincoln's Nation? Elections have Consequences, especially when they're rigged by America's Foreign Enemies!
Horst in Translation (filmreviews@web.de)
"Red-Headed Baby" is a cartoon from 1931 that has its 85th anniversary this year already. It is a collaboration between Warner Bros and Schlesinger Studios and the director is the prolific Rudolf Ising. I initially thought it may be a problem with the title including a color and the fact that this is still a black-and-white production, but it turned out fine. It's still not a great achievement by any means, but for 1931, it is certainly convincing. The voice acting was good, shame the actors are not credited, the music was fine too, spirit was appropriate as this film came out during the Christmas holidays. The villain, a nasty spider guy, is interesting and so are the little Napoleon and of course the title character. I enjoyed the watch. Well done, guys. It is in terms of atmosphere and tone similar to some Betty Boop work, but I must say I liked this one here even more than most Betty stuff. Watch it.
MissSimonetta
The Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies wouldn't hit their stride until the mid-1930s, but this early cartoon will be of interest to film history geeks and fans of early sound cartoons.This is essentially a music video set to "Red-Headed Baby." The story is comprised of a theme so loved by Disney's Silly Symphonies theme: toys coming to life after night has fallen. It also uses the stock plot of the young lovers threatened by a lecherous villain, in this case an oddly-rendered spider.The gags are predictable, as is the ending. The title song is catchy as can be/ The short is cute enough, but I expect it will only be of value to those who are already enthusiasts of older cartoons.
MARIO GAUCI
Included on Warners' DVD of CIMARRON (1931), what I said about the latter that it is marred by the primitive technique of the time also applies to this "Merrie Melodies" cartoon when compared to the studio's heyday in this art form. As was the custom back then, its sole raison d'etre is to promote a current hit tune (for which it is named); this is set against a backdrop of a toy-maker's workshop, where his creations come to life at night, and he eventually joins the chorus at the end. Typical ingredients here are the fact that the titular belle is at once romanced by a toy soldier and coveted by a large spider (which the latter ultimately defeats, with the help of the other toys). In the long run, though certainly a harmless enough short in itself, both the style of animation and the overall approach is very dated and, frankly, too corny to be appealing.
AD
