Cartoon Discussion Of The Week (4/05/09) - Small Fry

[Marty26]

Per request of one of our posters in the CDOTW Suggestions Box (http://forums.goldenagecartoons.com/showthread.php?t=12138), this week's CDOTW will be for Max Fleischer's 1939 Color Classic short Small Fry:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXrCMDoQbtQ

This is a really weird cartoon. The fish live at the bottom of a lake, and yet there's no water in their houses (and why doesn't water start rushing in when they open their doors?). There are several fairly risky jokes, such as Small Fry trying a cigarette in the pool hall despite being only a child. His mother worries sick about him, but then starts lashing out at him when he comes home. And, of course, there's the obvious weirdness of his time in that cave during his initiatation/hazing at that Pool Hall. Even the ending, despite his mom's catchy closing song, is weird because of the way she pulls her skirt up to reveal her underwear as she walks back into the house.

Nonetheless, I like it. I wonder if Fleischer was planning on making Small Fry into a regular character, because the way he's represented in this short definitely suggests that he was intended to be more than just a one shot (he also appeared in an earlier cartoon called Educated Fish).

Anyway, discuss!

[Steve Siegert]

It's been a while since I've seen this one. The last time I saw it was on the "Weird Cartoons" DVD, which I now know was an edited version. The opening was cut, and the cartoon began with the scene in the pool hall. Actually this is the first time I have seen the complete version. IMO, this is one of Fleischer's best Color Classics, and it certainly is weird. I certainly would not recommend showing this one to children.

[jonmayo15]

Thanks, Marty.;)
I've always loved this short. It was the first thing I ever saw done by Fleischer and I could tell that it wasn't Disney. My favorite thing about it is the music score. It's just excellent and perfectly fits the pace of the short. Beautiful animation and nice colors(if you can see a good copy) keep the visual aspects completely alive. It's still my favorite Color Classic.

[J Lee]

"Small Fry" is a return to the dark surrealism that the Fleischers -- and especially the Willard Bowsky unit -- loved to put into their cartoons in the 1930-35 period. It was also the first Color Classic done at the new Miami studio (given that the first Popeye done in Miami by the Bowsky unit was the equally surreal "Wotta Nightmare", you have to wonder if picking up and moving 1,500 miles south didn't bring out a little unease in the unit that was translated into what showed up onscreen).

[Marty26]

On a side note, Oceansoul should be happy that I'm finished doing post-64 WB cartoons for now. ;)

[tristar]

This cartoon scared me when I was a toddler. But I love it now!:p Yeah, this is one of the best CC's.

[Jeffitarian]

Love the song in this cartoon. Nice and jazzy.

[Mr. Semaj]

One of the Color Classics that was in semi-regular rotation on The Disney Channel.

An amusing effort with a message that is more relevant now than ever.

[Ray Pointer]

While has been one of my favorites as well, I must make some honest, objective comments. There is an awkward, crudeness about SMALL FRY especially for a 1939 release. It appears as of it was used as a training exercise for cel painters since there are places where there is bad painting, and some painting errors. The is also the impression by the quality of drawing and animation timing that this may have been begun in New York and picked up in Miami. The song had been recorded in 1938 by Bing Crosby, and was featured in the 1938 movie, SING YOU SINNERS.

As for "risque" matters in the cartoon, the picking up of the cigarrette by "Tommy Cod," as he is known as in THE EDUCATED FISH is not risque. There were several movie portrayals of delinquent juveniles smoking cigarettes including Mickey Rooney in BOYS TOWN (1938). This is not by the definition of the word, "risque'". It was the sexual innuendo content of the early BETTY BOOP cartoons that was seen as "risque." Likewise, the showing of a red slip is no more risque' than the cigarette. I seriously doubt that any man in the audience found any sexual excitment in seeing such things.

What is interesting about this cartoon on another level is that while it is similar in structure to THE EDUCATED FISH, it is far more dark and potentially menacing with the danger sequence. This theme became a format used five years later in many of the LITTLE LULU cartoons with their somewhat surrealistic dream sequences designed to teach LULU a lesson of some sort.

[Marty26]

That's why I said "risky" rather than "risque." Although, to be fair, I understand jokes about kids trying cigarettes weren't really considered outrageous in those days. Heck, they probably didn't become censorship fodder until about the early-90's. As even as late as 1989, shows like You Can't Do That On Television anabashedly had such jokes.

[FleischerFan]

Agree with most here that "Small Fry" is one of the best of the Color Classics.

But since I started reading this thread, I can't get the song out of my head! Arrrggghhh!

[Ray Pointer]

That's why I said "risky" rather than "risque." Although, to be fair, I understand jokes about kids trying cigarettes weren't really considered outrageous in those days. Heck, they probably didn't become censorship fodder until about the early-90's. As even as late as 1989, shows like You Can't Do That On Television anabashedly had such jokes.

"Risky"...risque'...tomato, tomahto, patato, patahtoe.... A kid trying to smoke a cigaretee (under water yet?), and a red slip showing? Again, what's so "risky" about these things? They were part of every day life, no more "risky" than today's existence, which is for more risk ladden than it was 70 years ago. Perhaps there is a tendency to try to read too much into things from a later day perspective, which still does not seem to relate to these issues making them that "risky" compared to current issues.

[J Lee]

Actually, if you want something slightly naughty from an early 1939 Fleischer cartoon, the end gag to "So Does an Automobile" qualifies more than anything here.

[Studio Toledo]

"Risky"...risque'...tomato, tomahto, patato, patahtoe.... A kid trying to smoke a cigaretee (under water yet?), and a red slip showing? Again, what's so "risky" about these things? They were part of every day life, no more "risky" than today's existence, which is for more risk ladden than it was 70 years ago. Perhaps there is a tendency to try to read too much into things from a later day perspective, which still does not seem to relate to these issues making them that "risky" compared to current issues.
That's usually my feelings about it as well. There's a tendency today for people to read too much into these things than they need to, and that's where you get all the comments and questions pooping up at places like YouTube. It's annoying to read these when you watch something you've seen before and never gave a second thought to.

[Ray Pointer]

Actually, if you want something slightly naughty from an early 1939 Fleischer cartoon, the end gag to "So Does an Automobile" qualifies more than anything here.

What is "naughty" about giving birth? The act of "conception" was not depicted.

[Studio Toledo]

What is "naughty" about giving birth? The act of "conception" was not depicted.
Again, people read through the context these days. So what if it is? I see nothing wrong with it.

[J Lee]

What is "naughty" about giving birth? The act of "conception" was not depicted.

Ray, what does an automobile have to do to "give birth"? Which is why the word "slightly" was in my original comment.

The gag's not in the league of Clampett's Daffy-and-the-doorknob from "The Henpecked Duck"-- which is so overt you can't help but get the reference -- but the play on words from the song's title is in league with Avery's having Bugs step out from under the birds in "A Wild Hare"; nothing scandalous, but an interesting double-entendre, considering how de-sexed Betty's cartoons had become over the previous five years.