Disclaimer: this is one of “those” shorts. I’m amazed at how this isn’t in the Censored 11, but anyway: this review is going to have racist imagery and content depicting harmful stereotypes and caricatures. I don’t at all endorse these, I find them gross and wrong, but it would be just as wrong of me not to talk about them and act like everything’s fine. This is purely for informational/educational purposes, I mean no harm or ill intent whatsoever. If there’s anything I can do to make this easier to get through, and if I mess up and say something wrong, PLEASE tell me, your enjoyment is my priority. Thank you for bearing with me.
Release date: February 4th, 1933
Series: Merrie Melodies
Director: Rudolf Ising
Starring: The King's Men (Chorus), Max Maxwell (Yiddish)
Well, this is the 50th Looney Tunes short produced—5% of the way through! As you can tell by the title card, it’s... not a great way to celebrate the occasion. Several Chinese residents play music, while a pesky dragon puts the shindig in jeopardy.
Open to the streets of china, busy and bustling... with stereotypes. There are some gags of various people crossing the street, including an overweight man, mice carrying an outhouse (haven’t seen the Mickey facsimiles in awhile!), a man using his ponytail as a bell while riding his bike, another man driving a trolley labeled “Shanghai Express” with his hair as the connecting cable, and various men in a matryoshka of pots going “Ha-cha-cha-cha!”, referencing Jimmy Durante. Jimmy Durante would be a relatively popular reference point in Looney Tunes.
Two men greet each other, saying in a stereotypical African American voice (two stereotypes in one!) “Oh, hello there, Amos.” “Hello there, Andy! How is ya?”, referring to the radio minstrel show Amos ‘n Andy. Well... the background music’s good. That’s about the best thing I can say for this entire short.
Cut to a little boy in a boat, rowing down a river, aided by a swan who’s periodically feasting on some fish. I didn’t even notice it at first (because I was busy thinking about how offensive this cartoon was), but one final time the swan ducks its head beneath the water, and a fish comes up instead. The fish opens its mouth and quacking resonates deep within its gullet. Satisfied, the fish licks his lips. Well, there might be something funny about this cartoon after all! I love how creative that is. How morbid! The boy then launches into a rendition of “One Step Ahead of My Shadow”, complete in a disturbingly cringeworthy stereotypical voice.
A girl overhears his singing and pokes her head out from the balcony, and the two launch into a duet. Positives in this cartoon are sparse, but one of them is backgrounds. I’m in love with those trees (though I associate cherry blossoms more with Japan than I do China)! The backgrounds have certainly improved in the past few years, and they’ll continue to grow more beautiful.
The boy gets on land and pushes a swing up to the balcony where the girl is at. She hops on, and together the boy pushes the girl affectionately, running to opposite sides to push her while almost getting knocked over.
As if the stereotypes couldn’t get more dehumanizing, we cut to a man pulling a Chinese aristocrat on a rickshaw, neighing like a horse. Yeesh. More stereotypes abound as the aristocrat uses a pencil sharpener to sharpen his ridiculously long fingernails. They hit a rock and the aristocrat is sent flying, pulling the retractable part of the rickshaw with him and fashioning a stairway for him to hop back on. Once they reach their destination, somehow the racism gets even MORE dehumanizing with the aristocrat placing a feedbag around the man’s neck. This would make for a funny gag if it were not so blatantly racist and dehumanizing. Like what about some yokel farmer or something? Or even funnier would be a fancy assistant dressed in a limo driver’s attire. Funny gag with good potential, but it really isn’t funny at all, either.
There are some musicians inside playing some music, which the aristocrat hates. He declares that he’ll show them how to play the “American way” and plays a solo on his clarinet. He and a few unsavory backup singers sing the eponymous song, with some more racist gags like a guy’s teeth being used as a xylophone.
The lovebirds overhear the music and decide to join in the festivities... but so does a dragon. He melts the bars of his cage with his fiery breath and sneaks inside. The dragon corners the girl, and we get some neat closeup shots on the dragon baring its teeth. The boy comes to the aid of his sweetheart, brandishing a sword, but the dragon disarms him with ease, sending the couple running. The music score is nice and jazzy here—again, probably the best part of the cartoon.
With some quick thinking, the boy shoves a box of fireworks into the belly of the beast. Look at his eyes for the first second or so—I love that! The dragon bucks around uncontrollably as it expels fireworks into the room. One of them lands in a fish tank, turning the fish into skeletons.
The fish aren’t the only skeletons around. Eventually, the dragon explodes, and its bones reassemble to form a skeleton. The dragon heads for the hills as the boy and girl are commended for their bravery. Iris out.
I think you already know how I feel about this cartoon. An abundance of gross caricatures and stereotypes and blatant racism aside, it’s a flat cartoon. It’s not very interesting or funny. The music is good, and the backgrounds are pretty, and I like the animation of the dragon, but that’s about all I can say for this cartoon. Whew. Obviously, I don’t think I’ll be watching this one again anytime soon, and I don’t recommend it unless you’re deathly curious. I suppose it’d be good (not really GOOD, but you know) to watch for historical and educational purposes, but for entertainment, nada.
Here's the link--proceed with caution.
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