On a random walk today around YouTube, wandering through highlights of pop culture from decades past, from off-the-wall Spike Jones to early Rosemary Clooney ballads to lovely scenes of Jean Arthur at her comedic best, I came upon a gem of pop culture at its most sublimely weird that stopped me in my tracks. What happens when you cross the inimitable Betty Boop with an utterly politically incorrect celebration of drug use? You get something like this.
Yes, I know it isn’t right to celebrate drugs. And of course we should all tell our children not to try this at home. But after a week of watching generally far too literal minded computer animation, of work that overly focuses on the merely commercial – on mere realism for its own sake – I find that the sheer lunatic inventiveness of this little film delights me and gladdens my heart. It brings me back to the ground truth of animated art, and reminds me why this is a medium like no other.
After watching it, you may never again look at a laughing typewriter in quite the same way.
And maybe with a Freudian sore tooth/masturbation reference?
What is it with gas in early cartoons? It sort of has a life of its own. I have a DVD of Felix & Friends with an episode titled “Bold King Cole”. Felix saves the braggart king from his own released hot air and a lot of ghosts who perhaps died from more-serious dangers. The vapors talk and possess suits of armor. The king appears to fear nothing as much as his own false airs. Without them, all he can do is beg for mercy. At the conclusion, Felix and the king find joy and friendship in their shared sense of bravado.
Spirits are practical because they allow characters readily and without any detailed explanation to do ridiculous and dramatic things – hallucinations, emotional turns, dangerous acts. And they can affect all of the characters at once for even more drama.
In this case the drug was a part of the king’s essence. Such cartoons are really noble in that, while the action may be violent and extreme, the cartoonist must explore all extremes of an issue, not only a predetermined outcome. The reigning aim is that the main characters maintain their popularity for another show in a realm where people are like toys. It is kind of like a big laboratory where the most-humorous lunacy creates a sense of ultimate progress, wouldn’t you say?
Very good observation! From the point of view of an animator, I can see how the combination of hallucinogenic subject and gaseous/mutable characters would be irresistible. Yes, I agree – it really is a great big playground for exploration.