- Director
- Writers
- Stars
Photos
Mel Blanc
- Li'l Eightball
- (uncredited)
- …
Clarence Straight
- Mule
- (uncredited)
- Director
- Writers
- Burt Gillett(uncredited)
- Kin Platt(uncredited)
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Featured review
A Short Journey Begins With a Single Cartoon
A frustrated Italian cart driver gives his mule to a small Black boy. The boy then spends the rest of the cartoon trying to persuade the mule to get up and do something in the first of three "L'il Eightball" cartoons from Walter Lantz.
Lantz had just retired Oswald the Lucky Rabbit -- although he still appears as "presenting" the cartoon -- and was searching for a new star. With Burt Gillett, newly hired from Disney as his director, he tried an African-American character, and produced three cartoons that, had they been from Schlesinger's Studio.... well, the "Censored Eleven" cartoons would be at least 14. As a result, this one is hard to find. This raises a minor, but interesting point: the Italian cart driver is just as stereotyped as L'il Eightball. Lantz himself was Italian. What did he think of the stereotype?
Pushing aside such issues as how a cartoon made for release to children n 1939, with no thought about how it would strike a sociologically-minded audience of adults eighty years later -- if we can -- how does this one stack up? Depending on your take, either it flails about, trying to find a voice, or it has a lot of different jokes of all sorts for everyone.
Lantz knew he had to find a star character to lead his cartoons. He would soon find one with Andy Panda, and enormous success with Woody Woodpecker. Sticking a lot of gags of different sorts into this cartoon was a way of giving different senses of humor something to enjoy, and that's good. However, it resulted in inconsistencies for the lead character, and that's bad -- and even in 1939, there were some audience members who were annoyed by the stereotype.
Lantz had just retired Oswald the Lucky Rabbit -- although he still appears as "presenting" the cartoon -- and was searching for a new star. With Burt Gillett, newly hired from Disney as his director, he tried an African-American character, and produced three cartoons that, had they been from Schlesinger's Studio.... well, the "Censored Eleven" cartoons would be at least 14. As a result, this one is hard to find. This raises a minor, but interesting point: the Italian cart driver is just as stereotyped as L'il Eightball. Lantz himself was Italian. What did he think of the stereotype?
Pushing aside such issues as how a cartoon made for release to children n 1939, with no thought about how it would strike a sociologically-minded audience of adults eighty years later -- if we can -- how does this one stack up? Depending on your take, either it flails about, trying to find a voice, or it has a lot of different jokes of all sorts for everyone.
Lantz knew he had to find a star character to lead his cartoons. He would soon find one with Andy Panda, and enormous success with Woody Woodpecker. Sticking a lot of gags of different sorts into this cartoon was a way of giving different senses of humor something to enjoy, and that's good. However, it resulted in inconsistencies for the lead character, and that's bad -- and even in 1939, there were some audience members who were annoyed by the stereotype.
helpful•60
- boblipton
- Jul 7, 2018
Details
- Runtime7 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1
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