Working for Scale
Blub, blub! Today ReFrederator takes the plunge with an all Underwater Week of classic cartoon goodies.
We dive right in with today’s wonderful offering “Small Fry,” a 1939 Color Classic from the Fleischer Brothers, Max and Dave. Like so many thirties cartoons, this one is named after and framed around a contemporary song, in this case a ditty written by Hoagy Carmichael and Frank Loesser, introduced in a Bing Crosby movie, “Sing You Sinners.” (Yeah, I know — Friday’s cartoon spotlighted a Crosby tune too. But, heck, conservatively speaking, 94 percent of all the song hits from the thirties and forties were introduced by Bing Crosby, so cut us some slack!)
A little short on story, but long on charm, this one tells the tale of a tough little fish, Tommy Cod, and his loving momma. The Fleischer team seems to take particular delight in the mundane, but unlikely underwater activities of their scaly cast; much cigarette smoking, a water faucet simply suspended in the middle of the kitchen — and watch what happens when Mom ‘pours’ a glass of milk!
On a personal note, “Small Fry” was always a special favorite when my kids were growing up — a big hit whenever it popped up on TV or video. A few years ago, my wife and I delighted our family when we told them about a rustic cafe we stumbled onto in the middle of Nowhere, Wisconsin. We were sitting at a table next to a wall festooned with dusty fishing gear, a beat up guitar, and an ancient tambourine. Impulsive devil that I am, I took the tambourine off the hook and flipped it over. Penciled inside were all the lyrics to “Small Fry!”
Okay, okay, enough exciting true life adventures. Tomorrow it’s back to the briny deep with some more submerged silliness courtesy of RKO/Van Beuren.
![[large][black] FReDERATOR badge](http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3502/3317571331_e33068a3c8_m.jpg)
»
On May 8th, 2006 at 12:00 am
If the Fleischers did one thing great during the early thirties, it was surreal nightmare images. Maybe this later cartoon was made for younger viewers, but there was no feeling of menace in the cave in the Big Fry Club.
I was a bit thrown off by not having the fish swim at all. When Tommy couldn’t push through the bigger fish to see the poster, I expected to see him float up and over the grownups.
I noticed that Mae Questel voiced Tommy.
On May 8th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Oh yeah, the early Fleischer stuff was so far out, so weird… just terrific! And admittedly, the later films, like the Cartoon Classics, have only a touch of that dark, spooky vibe… but I always loved the off handed goofiness of some of them like “Small Fry.” Good point — the fish, for the most part, walk, don’t swim (the Mom even sings “you got your feet all wet, you’ll be the death of me yet…) Little throw away touches like that seem rather endearing to me.