ReFrederator Blog

More literary license is taken today with another scrambled classic from Ub Iwerks. “Don Quixote” is a very loose adaptation of Cervantes’ 17th century masterwork, and when I say “loose” you know I mean “upside-down-mixed-up-with-a-lot-of-booby-hatch-jokes-thrown-in”. In this edition, the would be knight is an escaped mental patient whose delusions, truth be told, are not a lot loonier than the gooney reality in which he lives. He thinks windmills are humanoid giants with four arms, when, in fact, they are living beings with big frowny faces and, when necessary, knees (on which to spank their enemies!) As if to prove the point that our hero is not that all that nuts, we end on the spectacle of Quixote and his keeper fleeing the clutches of Iwerks’ ever present homely old maid (did he make ANY cartoons without the banana nosed spinster character?)

Technically, this is one of the most impressive ComiColor entries. The use of the limited color pallet is very pleasant, several tricky double exposures are nicely handled and, best of all, Iwerks inventively employs an early multiplane camera process for impressive tracking shots (this was several years before Disney introduced his more complex version of the same sort of gizmo.)

I’m thinkin’ you shouldn’t put away that library card just yet — Book Report Week continues tomorrow.

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Dave Kirwan