1941-2: Mr. Bug Goes to Town

Introduction

Mr. Bug goes to Town, also known as Hoppity Goes to Town and Bugville, is the second and last animated feature film made by Fleischer Studios.

Synopsis

The movie starts off with showing outer space while the credits are shown. As the credits are shown, the space scene pans to show the edge of the Earth, then it zooms into show a city. It then pans down to show a house, which has a lawn and a brick fence around it. Beyond that, there is another part of a lawn, which has a broken fence with it. The scene then fades to show the broken fence area, which is being walked across quite often. There is a sign that reads, "No Trespassing", but no one seems to care. A man uses the sign to light a cigarette. He then tosses the match. It lands next to a box. It then pans to show houes that are made out of objects that human throw away. The panning then stops at a place called, "Honey Shop". 

Here, three bugs, one of which is a snail, are show drinking something. It then pans to show other people in the store. It ends with showing a bee carrying a cake, past a lady bug, who has two children. The bee goes behind the counter and says, "There, you go, Mrs. Ladybug." He sets down the cake. He somewhat suggestively asks Mrs. Ladybug if there will be anything else. Mrs. Ladybug says that the cake will be all. She asks Mr. Bumble where Honey is. Mr. Bumble calls for Honey. She yells back, "Yes, dad?" Mr. Bumble tells Honey to come out and show Mrs. Ladybug her new dress. It pans to show a doorway. Honey enters the scene. Mrs. Ladybug compliments Honey. Mr. Bumble says that Hoppity is coming back soon. Mrs. Ladybug is surprised. She says that Honey has changed quite a bit since Hoppity last saw her. Mr. Bumble says that Hoppity will find other things that have changed with the place because the humans have walked all over the bugs' home. A bee, who is in a scouts uniform, comes into the Honey Shop and tells Mrs. Ladybug that her house is on fire. The bugs all rush out to see the fire. There, the snail, named, "Mr. Creeper", says that there is nothing they can do and that it is the fault of the broken fence. Mr. Bumble agrees and is afraid that something will happen to his shop. Above, two bugs are listening in on a leaf. One of them suggests that they tell their boss about the situation. The other agrees. They fly to a pole on a brick wall. They knock on a door and the boss says, "Yes, who is it?" The two bugs say, "It's us, boss!" The one who suggested telling the boss says, "Swat the fly" and the one that agreed says, "and Smack the Mosquito." The boss opens the door and tells them to be quiet because he doesn't want anyone to know that the two are there. He then tells them to go away and then closes the door. Smack says, "Yeah, but Mr. Beatle, you told us to wise up when there was trouble at the lowlands..." Swat continues, "...and concerning Mr. Bumble and Honey." Mr. Beatle opens the door. He says, "Trouble? Uh, what sort of trouble?" Swat explains that there was a fire at Mrs. Ladybug's house caused by a human. Mr. Beatle puts on his hat and leaves with the other two while they continue to relay the situation. Mr. Beatle walks away and Smack tells Swat that it was smart of Mr. Beatle to get a lot of property up where he lives while the other bugs live in the lowlands.

Later, the three find themselves in the lowlands. They see a house that has been crushed by a shoe. Mr. Beatle then sees bugs coming by and pushes Smack and Swat into some grass. He then greets the bugs, one of which is Mrs. Ladybug. He explains that he came down to wish her his condolences. Mrs. Ladybug, who is crying, thanks Mr. Beatle. Mr. Bumble walks by and Mr. Beatle stops him. Mr. Beatle tells Mr. Bumble that it is fortunate that it was not the Honey Shop that was burned down. He says that this kind of thing could not happen in his estate. He adds that no human ever intrudes there. Mr. Bumble says that he believes that most of the bugs would like to feel safe and secure. Mr. Beatle agrees and says that Mr. Bumble should reconsider the offer of having Honey marry Mr. Beatle for Honey and Mr. Bumble to stay up in his house. Mr. Bumble declines the offer because he believes that Honey should follow her own heart and it doesn't tell her to go for Mr. Beatle. Mr. Bumble tells Mr. Beatle that Hoppity is coming back and then walks away. Mr. Beatle makes it clear that he does not like Hoppity. He then tells Mr. Bumble that he is walking right into trouble. He then walks into a blade of grass and falls over. He calls for Swat and Smack and they help him up. Mr. Beatle tells them that Hoppity is coming back and then leaves.

Meanwhile, on food cart nearby, in a lamp, a grasshopper wakes up from a nap. He then grabs his bag and jumps off. He then jumps to the lowlands, avoiding being crushed by humans. Once he is there, he says that the humans never stepped in there before. He sees all the destruction and is confused. He goes to the Honey Shop and the bugs greet him, revealing that he is Hoppity. He looks over to see Honey. He then walks over to her. Honey greets him and he greets her. He then greets Buzz, who was the bee scout from earlier. Buzz says that he is a Bee Scout now, so that he will grow up to be as brave as Hoppity is. Hoppity then salutes Buzz and Buzz salutes Hoppity back.

Meanwhile, with Mr. Beatle and his henchbugs, he is angry that Hoppity is coming back. A man enters the lowlands and drops a cigar. It nearly misses Mr. Beatle. It rolls down a small bump and stops just a little ways away from the Honey Shop. Mr. Beatle gets an idea. He blows on the cigar to make it light up more and then pushes it towards the Honey Shop.

Inside, Hoppity says that as far as he is concerned, there is still no place like home. The cigar is heard, hitting the Honey Shop. Hoppity smells smoke. The bugs start to panic and run outside. They see that the cigar has hit the side of the Honey Shop. One of the bugs calls the firebugs and they start hitting part of the Honey Shop that has nothing to do with the cigar. Mr. Bumble stops them and makes them go away. He hits the cigar and it releases smoke. Meanwhile, Hoppity is trying to get ride of the cigar, using a stick. However, his stick soon burns. Mr. Beatle appears telling Mr. Bumble that it is most unfortunate what happened. Hoppity sees a fire hydrant in the distance. He hops down to try to find something to carry the water in, but everything he finds has a hole in it. He notices Mr. Beatle's hat and takes it. Mr. Beatle thinks that he has been robbed. Hoppity runs and hops towards the fire hydrant, trying to not be run over by cars. Buzz notices the situation and uses his stinger to hurt the traffic officer, which causes an accident to occur. Gas starts to leak out of one of the cars. Hoppity thinks it is water, so he fills the hat with it and returns to the cigar. He uses the gas on the cigar and it blows up, somehow not harming the Honey Shop. Hoppity lands in the top of the Honey Shop, gets up, then tumbles down towards the crowd of bugs. He then is helped by Mr. Bumble because he is tangled up. Mr. Beatle says, "Hoppity and puts on his hat, not realizing it has a hole in it, which makes his head go through the hat.

Due to technical difficulties, I am unable to finish the synopsis.

Character

Hoppity

Hoppity is a protagonist that has a well-defined character. He likes helping, but can be misguided and overly optimistic. However, he can see when people are doing bad things.

C. Bagley Beatle

Mr. Beatle is a rich, businessman type antagonist, which I think was done well.

Swat and Smack

They are basically stereotypically bad henchmen. While they occasionally suceed in their goal, they more than often do not.

Honey Bumble

She is a character that is only there as a goal for Mr. Beatle and a driver for Mr. Hopper.

Mr. Bumble

Much like Honey, he exists as a goal and not much as a character.

Animation

The animation in this film is very similar to the last two. However, this time, it makes a bit more sense becuase there really isn't inconsistancy between the same species. It is only the bugs that look cartoony, while the humans look like cartoon versions of real people.

Music

I enjoyed the music quite a bit. However, I will probably not go out of my way to find the songs featured in this film.

Similarities

Due to technical difficulties, I am unable to do this section, but I do know that this film had some similarities. I suppose the big one would be A Bug's Life and Antz.

Conclusion

I would only recommed this movie for those who want to watch this for its historical value. I would not say this is the best film, especially considering the racism. While it is few and far between, they are there. They make reference to many races.

1939-40: Gulliver's Travels

Introduction

Gulliver's Travels is the second traditionally animated feature film, American animated feature film, and animated feature film adaptation of the novel of the same. This is also the fifth animated feature film in our 100 Years of Animation series. This also the first animated feature film in the project to use previous footage as a memory.

Synopsis

The film opens up with a live-action boat travelling through either the sky or fog as the credits roll by. 

After the credits roll, the scene becomes a painting. There is a paper by Lemuel Gulliver. It reads, "I, Lemuel Gulliver, give thee a faithful history of my most interesting adventure in the south sea. On the 5th day of November, 1699, having reached reached latitude 30 degrees-two minutes south - a storm of great fury suddenly," the rest is rolled up. The scene zooms out and a globe, a burning candle, and a feather pen are shown. lightning starts and the candle goes out. 

The scene then becomes traditionally animated. Waves are shown during a night storm. A ship is shown taking on water. There is a man holding on to a rope for the sail. He is carried out to sea. He grabs onto one of the boat's poles, but his grip is not strong enough to stay on in the rough seas. He tries swimming. He is eventually taken to an island, where he stands up and then falls onto the beach, tired. He goes to sleep.

Meanwhile, a man is walking, holding a lantern. He starts singing. Afterwards, he says that he doesn't like the song and that he would rather be in bed. He accidentally falls in a puddle. Later, he complains about how he doesn't want to be there. For some reason, he hears his echo and gets scared. He then continues. He trips on the man's hand, revealing that the lantern man is small. He looks around and then runs away. He then looks back and sees the man's arm. The latern man continues to run, this time much faster. He looks back and sees the man's body. He then runs away. He runs through a town. He runs into a castle, but is stopped by the guards, who are guarding the king's throne room. The guards tell the latern man that the king has vistors and that he is signing a wedding contract. The latern man says that there's a giant on the beach.

In the throne room, the king is at the contract and another king is there with his son. The king then signs the contract and the person holding it goes over to the other king. The other king takes the pen. The marriage contract is then shown. It reads, "King Little of Lilliput does this 5th day of November, 1699 give the hand of his daughter Princess Glory to Prince David..." It cuts to show the Prince David's father reading the contract and when he does, Princess Glory goes down to Prince David. David's father finishes what the contract says, "...son of Bombo, King of Blefuscu." He then signs the contract. It then cuts to the bottom of the contract to show both names of the kings. It then fades to show the two kings shaking hands. They look to see their children kissing. Two birds look and kiss too. King Bombo says that they did it. King Little agrees. A servant of King Little comes in and tells them that the arrangements are here. The latern man comes in and yells, "There's a giant on the beach!" He is thrown out by a guard. The servant is then joined by the baker and another servant. After them is several servants with trays that have stuff that is covered by cloth. The first thing is a bell made out of flowers with flowers surrounding it. King Bombo likes it. The servant explains what the flowers are. King Bombo sniffs the flowers. King Little claps his hands and the servant takes the flower arangement away. The next thing is the wedding ring. King Bombo inspects the ring and without saying a word, asks if it is 3 karats. King Little, also not saying anything says that it is actually 6 karats. King Bombo puts the ring down and the next thing arrives, which is the cake. King Bombo says that it is a masterpiece and asks if he can taste the cake. King Little allows King Bombo to do so. King Bombo does so and itentifies it as vanilla. 

With Prince David and Princess Glory, she is singing a song called, "Faithful". King Little starts to cry and says that he doesn't want to lose his daughter. King Bombo says that King Little is not losing a daughter, but gaining a son. King Bombo then starts to cry when he realizes it is his son that he is losing. Princess Glory finishes her song. King Bombo tells King Little that the song is lovely. King Little says that it will be played at the wedding. King Bombo says that the wedding song should be "Forever". King Little reminds King Bombo that Faithful is the song that is played at all Lilliputian weddings and that it is tradition. King Bombo agrees that the song is nice, but says that Forever should be the song used. They then continue to argue about the songs until King Bombo gets so angry that he declares war. He then walks out, angrily. King Little walks to his throne, sad. the lanter man, runs in yelling, "There's a giant on the beach." Prince David walks away.

With King Little, he is thinking about the situation and the latern man tries to tell King Little about the giant on the beach. With Glory, she starts to cry.

Outside the castle, a soldier and three spies are waiting for King Bombo. He comes down the steps and tells them that there will be war.

With Prince David, he sings Forever to Glory. During this song, King Bombo remembers the good times that he has had from that day with King Little. However, when his men look at him, he keeps his composure. After his song, David walks away. The soldier goes into a carriage and the three spies remain in Lilliput.

Back with King Little, he is still thinking about the situation. Eventually, the latern man called, "Gabby" gets the message across to King Little. He then tells Gabby to bring the giant to him.

The next 15 minutes are Gabby getting men, having them tie up the giant, and having them carry him to the castle.

When they get to the castle, Gabby gets King Little, who upon seeing the giant, runs back to his bedroom. Gabby then instructs the men to take stuff from the giant. Some of the things they take off him are his watch, telescope, and gun. It accidentally fires, waking up the giant. Everyone hides. King Little and Gabby look out onto the balcony. The giant breaks free of his restraints. the giant grabs Gabby, who tries to beg for his life. The giant then points out Gabby's small size. The giant tells Gabby that he will not hurt him. King Little tells the giant to put Gabby down. The giant asks who King Little is and he introduces himself. King Little then tells the archers to surround the giant. The giant puts Gabby down onto the balcony. King Little yells, "Ready! Aim!" Before he can say, "Fire!" King Bombo's troops attack. They are on boat. The giant gets up. This scares King Bombo's troops and they flee. Soon, the giant introduces himself as "Lemuel Gulliver". He adds that he is at King Little's service. King Little asks if Gulliver can fight. He says that he can take on anyone his size. King Little tells Gabby that Gulliver is on their side. King Little then tells the townspeople the same thing. They then celebrate. Soon, they are repairing his clothes, shaving him, cutting his hair, and shining his nails. 

Later that evening, in Blefuscu, King Bombo gives a letter to a pidgeon to send to his spies. The letter instructs the spies to get rid of Gulliver.

Meanwhile, there is a celebration on Lilliput. Elsewhere, the spies get the letter and try to think of ways to get rid of Gulliver. They eventually see the gun and decide to use that. After the celebration, Gulliver goes to a field, sings a bit, and goes to bed. 

The next morning, Gabby tells Gulliver of his dreams of being apart of the Navy. After talking to Gabby, he sees a fire, which was started by the spies after they noticed he was coming and quickly hid the gun and douced the light with straw and a cloth. Gulliver poors water on the fire and asks if anyone is in there. One of the spies almost gives them away, but the others pretend to be chickens. 

That evening, Princess Glory is sad and goes to a spot to rest. She hears Prince David and turns to see him. She walks towards him, but is stopped by Gabby who instructs guards to try to stop him. Gulliver stops the fighting by taking David and Glory a short distance away to explain the situation to him. After they do, Gulliver has an idea. He thinks that combining the two songs will make them work. 

Meanwhile with King Bombo, he gets a letter from the spies, which tells him that Gulliver is as good as dead. He sends a letter back that tells the spies that the army will attack at dawn. The pidgeon attempts to deliver it, but gets tired and takes a drink. He is spotted by Gabby, who grabs the letter and he warns the people that Bombo is attack at dawn. The army goes towards the beach. Gabby then uses the bell to call for Gulliver. He eventually comes and Gabby tells Gulliver what is happening. Gulliver then goes towards the beach to stop what is happening. 

Meanwhile, the pidgeon arrives at the spies' hideout without the letter. The spies want to know where the letter is. Eventually, Gabby is almost at the hideout and the pidgeon points to the voice. One of the spies detours Gabby and they capture him. The spies read the letter and get ready to shoot Gulliver.

Meanwhile, Gulliver arrives at the beach. He tells Little's army to stop and tries to tell Bombo's army the same, but they won't listen. He then makes them stop by taking their anchors and dragging them to the beach. While he is doing this, Prince David notices the gun and tries to stop it. He sucessfully stops it, but is crushed by rocks. This makes the kings stop and realize what they have done. Soon, it is revealed by Gulliver, Glory, and David that he is alive and that they have combined the songs. The war is over and the wedding happens.

Much later, both kings cristen a boat and Gulliver sails away. 

Characters

Lemuel Gulliver

He was a good protagonist. He seemed like a jolly fellow and was willing to help those he thought needed it.

King Little

He seemed to be a fairly good character, who was much more a coward than a fighter.

King Bombo

While he was kind of an antagonist, he was more justified than most villians. He definitely seemed to be more of a fighter than King Little was.

Spies

The spies definitely seemed like they were more meant to be comic relief than actual antagonists.

Prince David and Princess Glory

They seemed likey they were just your typical romantic couple. While they were a big part of the plot, they were not very active in it.

Animation

Much like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the character animation is inconsistant. Most of the tiny people and a pidgeon were cartoony, but Gulliver, David, Glory, and most other animals looked like their realistic counterparts. Well, actually, David and Glory look more like dolls than people.

Oddly, unlike most animation, the characters have five fingers instead of four.

The only notable effect is when it showed the previously used footage in a memory sequence, which I liked.  

Music

I quite liked the background music and the songs.

Similarities

The first similarity is with the New Gulliver, several aspects are similar between these two films.

The second similarity is with Prince David's outfit. His outfit is similar to Prince Charming's outfit from Disney's Cinderella.

The third similarity is with Romeo and Juliet. The two families coming together aspect as well as the balcony scene are both similar to that play.

The fourth similairy is with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. While the balcony scene is similar to Romeo and Juliet, it is also similar to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Conclusion

I quite liked this film and recommend it. Like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, if you don't like the inconsistant animation, then I suggest not watching this film.

1937-8: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

Introduction

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is the first American animated feature film, the first animated feature film by Walt Disney Productions, and the first traditionally animated film. It is adapted from the Grims' Fairy Tale. This movie was released around the 20th anniversary of animated feature films. Excluding the Academy Award Review of Walt Disney Cartoons, this movie was also the tenth animated feature film.

Synopsis

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs opens with a storybook with the title of the movie on it. It opens up and the first page is shown. It reads, "Once upon a time, there lived a lovely little Princess named Snow White. Her vain and wicked Stepmother the Queen feared that some day, Snow White's beauty would surpass her own. So she dressed the little Princess in rags and forced her to work as a Scullery Maid." The whole story could have been avoided if the Queen had just killed her before the story. Why did the Queen think that rags would change the beauty of someone? It's really stupid. Anyway, the page turns and it reads, "EACH DAY the vain Queen consulted her Magic Mirror. 'Magic Mirror on the Wall, Who is the fairest of them all?', Snow White was safe from the Queen jealousy."

The scene fades to show a castle. It then pan-fades to show a window on the castle. It then continues to pan fade until the Queen is shown walking towards her black mirror. She stops at the mirror and summons the slave in the mirror. Yes, slave. This is what she refers to him as. Once he, a face, appears, she statse her famously misquoted line, "Magic Mirror on the Wall, Who is the fairest of them all?" Unnessarly descriptively, the slave in the Magic Mirror is told that the fairest of them all is Snow White. The Queen is surpised at this result.

The scene then shows Snow White washing a step with some birds. She is humming. She then walks over to the well to get more water. She asks the birds if they want to hear a secret and they shake their heads to indicate, "yes". She then asks if they promise not to tell anyone and they shake their heads to indicate, "yes". She then tells the birds, while singing, that they are standing by a wishing well. She says that all they have to do is throw a wish into the well. She says that if you here it echoing, then the wish will soon come true. She says, "I'm wishing..." and an echo returns it. She continues "...for the one I love to find me..." and the echo returns with "to find me". She continues, "...today." The echo returns it. She continues, "I'm hoping..." The echo returns it. She continues, "...and I'm dreaming..." As she continues, a prince on a horse rides to a wall. She says, "...of the nice things..." the echo returns, "the nice things". She continues, "...he'll say." and the echo returns it. She then sings into the well and the echo returns it. As she is doing this, the prince climbs over the wall. She repeats the process until she reaches, "today". After she says it, the prince appears and sings it. Snow White is surprised to see him. He greets her. She says, "Oh." and starts running. He asks, "Did I frighten you?" As she is running he says, "Wait. Wait, please." She runs to a door and closes it. He says, "Don't run away." She looks out her window. He serenades her. As he does this, she walks out onto her balcony. It pans to show the Queen watching this, unhappily. She closes the curtains and it returns to the prince's serende. 

In the next scene, the Queen tells the Huntsman to take Snow White far into the forest, where she can pick some flowers. Here, he is to kill Snow White. This shocks the huntsman. She reminds the huntsman that he knows the penalty if he fails. She tells him that to ensure that he has actually killed her, he is to bring back her heart in a box.

In the next scene, Snow White is picking flowers and singing. She stops when she sees a baby bird, looking for its parents. While Snow White talks with the bird, the huntsman takes the opportunity to attempt to murder her. She screams, but he is unable to do it. He explains that the Queen is gone crazy because of her jealousy towards Snow White's beauty. He tells her to run away and she listens to him. She runs through a scary forest until she finds herself to frightened to move. She falls and cries on the ground. The light starts to shine in the spot, where she landed. Several animals look to see what's going on. After a whole scene involving Snow White getting acquainted with the animals, she is shown a small cottage. She looks to see if anyone is inside. There isn't anyone. She knocks on the door. No one answers. She opens the door and asks if anyone is home. There is still no answer. She then walks in. I think I should say something about this, but I don't think I need to. Anyway, she finds a small chair and sits in it. She notices six more chairs and thinks they are all for children. She notices how untidy and dirty everything is. She then believes that these seven children are orphans. She then cleans the house with the animals. She also sings a song. She does this because she believes this will let her stay if she cleans the house.

Meanwhile, in a mine, seven dwarves are mining for crystals, while singing. Eventually, it is quitting time. They do the shift ending responsibilities and walk home, singing the same song.

Back at the cottage, Snow White goes upstairs to see what's there. She sees seven beds all with the names of the "children" on them. She then says that she is feeling sleepy and falls asleep on Dopey, Sneezy, and Happy's beds. Soon, the dwarves arrive. They see that the light is lit at their house, which is the cottage. They enter the house to see that everything is clean and that the dishes are put away. They don't like this because they have gotten used to this. For some reason, the birds play tricks on the dwarves, making them think there's a monster. They send Dopey to investigate. He sees what he thinks is a monster, but is really just Snow White stretching. He then screams, in a voice that I don't think fits his character. Anyway, he returns downstair and Doc translates the movements of Dopey to say that there is a monster in the beds. They all go up to want to kill the monster, but when they get there, they find out that she is just a woman. She wakes up and they hide. The rest of the scene is then just them introducing themselves to her. Snow White remembers that she was cooking soup for the dwarves. She runs down to serve the dwarves. They run down to eat, but she stops them and tells them to wash their hands. The next scene is them doing that while singing. 

Meanwhile, back at the castle, the Queen asks who the fairest of them all is now. The slave in the Magic Mirror says that Snow White still is and after the Queen says that she has Snow White's heart in the box, the slave in the Magic Mirror says that the heart is a pig's heart. In his weird riddle-like way of conveying information, he reveals the location of Snow White. Anyway, the Queen is angry that Snow White is still alive. She goes down to her alchemy lab, where she gets a book to disguise herself. She makes a potion to turn her into an ugly peddler. She drinks the potion and is transformed into the ugly peddler. The Peddler then finds the perfect way to kill Snow White, which is a poison apple, which will send her into Sleeping Death.

Back at the cottage, the Dwarves and Snow White have fun and dance and sing around. At the end of the fun, Snow White sings a song about how she will be happy when her prince comes to save her. After she is done, it is 11:00 PM, which is bedtime. She tells them to go off to bed. Doc says that Snow White should sleep there and they will sleep downstairs. This then happens even though only three of them would actually need to sleep downstairs.

Back with the Peddler, she is putting the apple into the potion. She then takes it out and soon after, the potion seeps into the apple, making it pure red. She then checks to see if there is any way to break the spell. She sees that it can only be broken by love's first kiss, which is not to be confused with love's true kiss from Sleeping Beauty. The Peddler says that there is no way of that happening because the Dwarves will bury her. She leaves her alchemy lab with a basket of apples, cackling. She goes down to a boat and starts rowing away from the castle. She then stops when she reaches land and starts walking towards the cottage.

The next day, it is time for the Dwarves to go to work. Snow White says good-bye to each of the Dwarves by kissing them on the forehead. Grumpy warns her not to let anyone into the house. Later, she makes a gooseberry pie while singing. The Peddler arrives at the house. She asks what Snow White is doing and she says making gooseberry pies. The Peddler says that what men want is apple pies. She then offers Snow White an apple. She says they look delicous and the Peddler tells her to taste an apple. The birds see vultures nearby and realize the Peddler is the Queen. They start attacking her, but Snow White tells them to stop. The Peddler says that her heart is hurting and that she needs to be brought inside for some rest and water. Snow White does so. The animals then run to the mine and start dragging them towards the cottage. The dwarves think the animals have gone crazy.

Back at the cottage, the Peddler says that becuase Snow White has been so good to her, the Peddler will share a secret. She says that the apple is actually a magic apple and that if Snow White bites into it, her wishes will come true. 

Back at the mine, Sleepy believes the animals are acting this way because the Queen is attacking Snow White. The other Dwarves agree and start running towards their cottage.

Back at the cottage, the Peddler gives Snow White the apple and tells her to make a wish. She starts to make her wish, but it is cut with showing the race back to the cottage. It cuts back to the cottage and she finishes her wish. The Peddler tells Snow White to take a bite. She does so and is "killed". The Peddler walks out of the house as it starts to rain. She sees the Dwarves and runs. For some reason, the Dwarves assume the Peddler is the Queen and chase after her. The Peddler climbs up some rocks until she reaches a cliff. The Dwarves follow after her. The Peddler tries to stop them will a large rock, but the cliff is struck by lightning, causing her to fall and the Dwarves to be morally good or at least prevented them from having to make the moral choice between if they are going to kill her or not. The rock also falls on the Queen to ensure that she is dead.

Back at the cottage, the Dwarves mourn the death of Snow White, the princess they met less than a day before.

Text appears in front of changing seasons. It explains that the Dwarves could not bury her becuase of her beauty, so they put her in a glass and gold coffin. They also stayed by her side. Meanwhile, the Prince, who had searched for Snow White was told of her.

The scene then shows the Dwarves aproach the coffin and give her flowers. They then kneel. The prince arrives and walks over to her. He then kisses her, seemingly out of respect. He too kneels. However, to his and the Dwarves surprise, Snow White wakes up. The prince then carries her to the hourse and they ride into the distance, stopping to see the Prince's castle in the distance.

The scene then shows the last page of the book with the classic line, "...and they lived happily ever after." The book then closes.

Characters

Snow White

While Snow White is not the best protagonist, she is nowhere near the level of awful that Prince Achmed, from The Aventures of Prince Achmed, is. She is not the smartest person and is gullible, but she is definitely a sweet and kind person. However, I noticed that she is kind of bossy.

The Seven Dwarves

One of the weirdest things of this movie is that the title calls them, "Dwarfs" instead of the correct thing, which is "Dwarves".

Anyway, the Dwarves are not that complicated. They seem to keep their trait pretty consistantly. Although, Grumpy did sort of have a character arch in the film, where he started out as disliking Snow White and then by the time the mourning scene came around, he cried the strongest.

Queen/Peddler

While the Queen is not the best mother, she does actually pay attention to her step-daughter. She knows that Snow White likes apples and that she will help and old woman. 

In regards to her intellegence, in her Queen form, she seems to be more more stupid than in her Peddler form. The Peddler found out if there is an antidote, which most villians don't think about, which was really kind of awesome to see a villian do that.

She definitely deserves to be in the Disney villian line-up. She does not stray from her character and seems to actually get crazier as the movie goes on.

Her death scene marked the beginning of the Disney tradition of not having an on-screen death.

Prince

He is just your standard genaric, any male can fit into role, prince. I was glad to have had a least a little more of the character than just the scene where he shows up and kisses her. It was good to see some kind of relationship before that scene.

Animation

I quite enjoy the animation, but I do have one critism. It's inconsistant. The Dwarves, Vultures, Peddler, and a few of the animals looked more like a cartoony version and Snow White, the Queen, Prince, and most of the animals looked more realistic.

The background are beautiful. They definitely did not cheap out on them.

I definitely like the effects in the film, especially the transformation scene.

Music

The music, both background and songs, are fit the mood perfectly. I quite enjoyed them. My favorite song was Heigh-Ho. My least favorite was Someday My Prince Will Come for it making Snow White seem like she is dependant on her prince to rescue her.

Similarities

The first similarity is Cinderella. The fact that Snow White is a maid, the Queen is her evil stepmother, and Snow White talks to animals reminds me of that film.

The second similarity is Sleeping Beauty. The line, "Did I frighten you?" is similar to a line used by Prince Phillip in that film.

The third similarity is Romeo and Juliet. The fact that the prince is serenading Snow White on the balcony is similar to a scene in that play.

The fourth similarity is Once Upon a Time. The fact that the show focuses on Snow White and Prince David is one of the similarities. Another is when Snow White is picking the flowers. In the episode, Wish You Were Here, Emma is shown picking flowers and humming.

The fifth similarity is Bambi. Some of the animals, remind me of the animals from that film.

Conclusion

Much like The Adventures of Prince Achmed, this one is a bit more controvercial. The big con of the film is that it does use a rather primitive way of looking at relationships. If you are bothered by inconsistant animation, then I suggest not watching this film. I also do not recommend this film for little kids as some of the scenes might scare them. With that being said, there are still some good things about this. It holds five historical titles, which I listed at the beginning. It also has a pretty fun story if you can get past its primitive nature and inconsistant animation. If you like good villains, I also recommend this film for that respect. If you like the songs, I also recommend watching this film.

1934-5: The New Gulliver

Introduction

The New Gulliver is a Soviet Union film, which combines live action and animation. It is a retelling of a the classic, Gulliver's Travels, through the eyes of a boy.

While it is referred to as a drama, there are plenty of comedic moments and the end of the film assures the audience that the movie is not to be taken too seriously. After two movies, it was nice to see some comedy finally being considered. While I did not laugh at all the jokes, there were a few that made me giggle.

Synopsis

Noting the fact that I knew very little about this film before going into it, I was surprised to see the beginning of the film be in live-action. I knew that their would be integration, but I didn't expect it to be that much. Anyway, the opening shows a live-action body of water. Besides the model sets, the whole movie takes place in a live-action setting. It then fades to show the opening credits or should I say credits since there aren't any end credits. After the credits are shown, the movie shows campers leaving their camp and going towards a beach, The campers are singing a song along the way. For some reason, two of them are holding accordions. This may have been the first sign of the movie's ridiculous nature. When they get on the beach, the sea-scouts, as revealed in the song, are greeted by a group of waving campers. The sea-scouts stop at a boat. Through the next few moments, which feature the crowd and the sea-scouts, one boy is uncomfortably focused on. The camp councilor tells the kids they are there to celebrate the kids achievement of building a "yacht" out of broken boat parts. The group of kids who built the boat will be the ones who will go to an island called, "Adalara Island".  Two of the boys are singled out for being the best. One, Comrade Yudin (named after his actor, "Ivan Yudin"), is given the position of instructing the small group on their journey. The other, Comrade Konstantinov (named off his actor, "Vladimir Konstantinov"), is award Gulliver's Travels, which is noted to be the boy's favorite book. The kids board the Aptek, which is the boat, or as the captions call it, "Artek". It gets pushed into the water. One voyage and song later, the group reaches Adalara Island.The kids go up to the top of the small, rocky island. Here, the children eat breakfast. Comrade Konstantinov starts to read Gulliver's Travels. Another kid joins him. Soon, the whole group wants Comrade Yudin read Gulliver's Travels to them. He starts to and Comrade Konstantinov starts to fall asleep. 

In full sleep, he dreams that he is Gulliver. (Throughout the dream, I will refer to Comrade Konstantinov as Gulliver.) The main part of his dream starts with pirates in a storm. Somehow, Gulliver appears on the ship. One of the pirates asks Gulliver who he is and Gulliver responds, "Petya Gulliver". Gulliver helps steer the boat. Meanwhile, the captain does not like how lazy his crew is being. He seems to be more harsh to a young man, which Gulliver does not like. Gulliver stops steering and yells at the captain for hurting the boy. Gulliver goes down to the deck and punches the captain. The young man introduces himself as "Yanya". (He is played by Ivan Yudin.) He and Gullver shake hands. The two then have to fight off the pirates. At some point, Yanya throws a pirate overboard, where there is a giant fish, reading to eat the pirate. At some point, another kid joined the party. Anyway, the three move a canon towards the crew and threaten to shoot them if they do not stop. He requests that the pirates throw down their weapons. The crew does so. However, none of this matters as the ship, which was not being steered, runs into a rock, which causes part of it to explode. the pirates and Gulliver's group are put thrown out to see. Gulliver manages to grab onto a mast. He notices his suitcase, floating away. He yells out about it, explaining that his homework was in it. Yanya calls out to Gulliver for help. Yanya manages to get hold onto the mast as well. However, he looses grip and starts to drown. Gulliver dives after him, trying to save him. However, something goes wrong and Gulliver passes out.

Later, a document is shown explaining, to the chief of police, that a living mountain shaped like a man has been washed onto shore and is being guarded. Two men are shown with the document. One of the men gives it to a delivery man, who takes it and rides away. Gulliver starts to wake up. He repeats, "Drink." A group rummages Gulliver's body and takes his stuff. Near the feet of Gulliver, are soldiers and canons. Some guards link arms and make a barrier around Gulliver. Soon, the Chief of Police arrives by car. Two men who were on Gulliver's body use their capes to fly down to the top of the Police Chief's car. He gets out of the car. One of the men explains to the Police Chief that they found some stuff while rummaging. He also explains that Gulliver wants to drink. A newspaper salesman throws out some newspapers for the citizens of the island, which is revealed to be Lilliput. The newspaper salesman says that the mountain is living, but the Police Chief does not believe this. He says that it is the new Gulliver. He tells the other police officers to dispense the crowd. He then tells other officers to bring the items to Parliament. He starts to say that he wants Gulliver to be drugged, but stops himself and suggests that Gulliver get a drink. However, they still drug him with a drug that endures sleeping. They put it in the water and spray it in his mouth.

Later, in Parliament, the King is introduced. (Yay, another movie with a king!) He is next to the police chief and another guy, who is important. Scientists examine the large items and are fascinated by them. Three of them are examining the match box. One of them asks the Professor what he believes the match is. He licks it and says that it is poison. The other important guy says that the king is thinking and needs silence. The king is shown, sleeping. (I am going to call the other important guy the "Speaker" from now on.) The King wakes up and laughs. (He laughs quite a bit throughout the film.) Three of the cape wearing men from earlier enter the room and land near the king. The king greets the men, revealing that they are called, "Eagles". They agree the king. The Eagles shows the king a paper that reveals that Gulliver is moving. The Parliament starts arguing. The Police Chief tells the Speaker that Gulliver could be a good ally. The Speaker says that he could work with the workers to overthrow the rulers. The Police Chief says that he will take appropriate measures. One group in Parliament wants him dead, which the Police Chief likes. The other wants him to live. A fight breaks out. Eventually, the Police Chief stops the fight to say that the king is about to speak. The speaker starts a record player underneath the kings robe. The record starts and the king lip-sinks to a speech. One of the members of Parliament suggests they send Gulliver back to where he came from. Some members agree. The Speaker tells them to stop interrupting the king. He puts his fist down, but he does it on the record, which makes it crack. He starts the record again, but it gets stuck on the line, "cheating the nation". The Speaker stops the disc and says that the king has decided to make Gulliver a soldier. One of the members praises the king and so do the others. 

Later, there is a parade, which features Gulliver, who is starting to wake up. He is being moved on a movable platform. The parade stops when it reaches where the Police Chief and Speaker are. The Police Chief yells at Gulliver to wake up. They use many tactics to wake Gulliver up. None of them seem to work. Soon, the King arrives and attempts to wake up Gulliver. He does so by making the boy sneeze. This makes the king fly away to a nearby platform. Gulliver sees that he is in a world of little people. The King, Police Chief, and Speaker explain where they are and what they want from Gulliver. Gulliver does not want to be a soldier, but the Speaker thinks that all he needs is more convincing, so he gives him a parade and music.

Meanwhile, in an underground cave, Gulliver's Suitcase has washed up into the cave. A group of workers come and open the case. They find Gulliver's homework. There is a meeting of the workers. Here, the leader of the group says that they will begin their revolt the next day. One of the workers asks what if Gulliver is working for the soldiers. The leader says that if that is true, Gulliver will fall with the soldiers. The homework is brought back to camp for research on Gulliver. For some reason, it is says that the book belongs to Petya Konstantinov.

Back on the surface, there is a celebration of Gulliver, which is also a feast. There are several acts. Eventually, the exaggeratedly small midgets called, "Dwarfs" are shown. The Feast scene introduces the Queen. Anyway, the Concert Organizer brings a Dwarf to Gulliver per his request. He is fascinated with how small the Dwarf is. When that is done. They start to dance around. Apparently, at least one of the Dwarfs was not doing a good enough job because the Concert Organizer starts to whip them, which Gulliver does not like. He starts yelling at the Concert Organizer. The Police Chief corrects the action by saying that they do not hurt anyone. Gulliver demands to know how the folk are living. The final act is then presented to Gulliver. It is a woman singing about how the folk are supposedly living. It explains that they have a great life and don't have to worry about anything. Gulliver does not believe the song. The Police Chief and Speaker deny this and ask Gulliver to sing about what he believes the truth is. Gulliver (or should I say the woman who is dubbing for Gulliver) sings the song at the beginning of the film. This makes everyone freak out. The Queen even passes out, which she will do a couple more times in the film. The Police Chief attempts to use the orchestra to drown out Gulliver's singing. Soon, the King and Queen leave the scene back to their palace. Underground, the workers start to sing the song. Noticing no one around, Gulliver gets up and walks away and sits down near a wall.. In two barrels, the police chief and the member of the Parliament that suggested that Gulliver be killed agree that Gulliver needs to be killed. Gulliver decides to go to sleep.

Elsewhere, the Police Chief arrives at the underground factory, where they make weapons. The Police Chief tells the supervisor to make weapons to destroy Gulliver immediately. The Supervisor agrees. One of the workers hears the plan and says they need to warn Gulliver.

Back with Gulliver, Eagles watch him. One of the workers tries to wake Gulliver up by pushing his leg. For some reason, this works. Gulliver notices the worker and brings him closer to his face. The worker warns of the Eagles. Gulliver asks how the worker knows him. The worker says that they found Gulliver's exercise-book. The worker introduces himself as a worker in the underground factory. The worker warns Gulliver that the leaders want to kill him.

Meanwhile, the Police Chief tells two members of Parliament that weapons are ready to kill Gulliver. The police chief gets a call about the weapons. He says that at least 300 is too little.

Back with Gulliver, the worker tells Gulliver to be prepared the next day. One of the Eagles crashes through the window of where the Police Chief is. The two Parliament members are caught off guard and get scared. The Eagle tells the Police Chief that Gulliver knows everything. The Police Chief tells the Eagle to poison Gulliver and that they will be ready to attack the workers the next day. Soon, Gulliver coughs, which gives the signal to the workers to stop working. The workers start the revolt. They start by destroying the factory. They then attack the supervisor. Meanwhile, in the palace, the King and Queen are freaking out. They get word of the factory being destroyed and the police not being able to do anything about it. In the Arsenal, the workers are taking the weapons to use for their own purposes. The King and Queen start packing to leave.

Back with Gulliver, he is writing or drawing in the sand. A group of people show up, including the Speaker and the Police Chief. He claims they are celebrating the King's birthday and offer him a drink. At first, he does not accept, but after they explain it is tradition, he drinks it. He then falls over. However, he did not swallow it and secretly spits it out. He then pretends to be dead. The group leaves to face the rebels. 

Shortly after, a war ensues. Eventually, an announcement is heard that makes it seem like the Police Chief has almost won. The queen even begins unpacking. This announcement makes Gulliver get up and go towards the fighting. The royal group sees that Gulliver is not dead. Gulliver enters the water and pulls a rope, which somehow connects all the royal ships together. The rebels then use the bombs they set to blow up the royal tanks.

Back at the palace, the Concert Organizer arrives. Here, the king is hiding in his bed. The Concert Organizer tells the Police Chief that they have been defeated. The King runs away. The Police Chief decides to defect into the rebel group. The King runs up some stairs. The Queen is carried somewhere. The Speaker follows the King. The two reach the top of the staircase to find only a ledge. The two decided they have to go down to get out. Soldiers are on the staircase. The king jumps, but lands on a hand of a clock. The Speaker falls and crushes the Police Chief. Supposedly, they are both dead. Gulliver looks around and then plays a bugle. He sees the bell and grabs it. He starts shaking it and says, "I declare open the meeting of free lilliputs!" At some point during that, it cuts to Comrade Konstantinov back in the real world. The other kids laugh and he wakes up. He doesn't appear to be embarrassed. The movie ends with a shot of the water.

Characters

Comrade Konstantinov/Gulliver

Of the movies I've seen in this project thus far, this has been my favorite protagonist, mostly since he isn't a dick or an anti-hero. His character comes mostly from his wanting for everyone to be treated right.

The Police Chief and Speaker

These two are very clearly the villains of the story and definitely get what they deserve by the end of it. They also appear to be the real rulers of the land.

King

He is a completely idiot and I am pretty sure that was the point. He was able to be manipulated by the Police Chief and Speaker very well.

Animation

I was okay with the animation. While it is not the best animation that I've ever scene, it is also not as bad as the one from The Tale of the Fox. Unlike the last two movies, there weren't a lot of effects. The only notable one was when Gulliver is drowning or being passing out. It was fine, but the fact that I don't know what it was signifying is not a positive.

Similarities

The only notable similarity was that the animation style reminded me of the style used by Rankin/Bass Productions.

Conclusion

So far, this has been my favorite movie and I was so exited to write this review that I did it in only one day. However, there are a few negative things to consider before you decide to watch this. It does contain some high-pitched sounds, notably the speaking and singing of the Lilliputs. It is does get kind of slow. Much like the last movie, if you do not like the animation style used by what I referenced in the Similarities section. If you can get past these things, I recommend it for both the fact that I believe it is a good movie and the fact that it is historically significant.

1929-30: The Tale of the Fox

Introduction

So, there are two version of this film that I will talk about. While, they have pretty much the same story, it is important that you know about the differences between the two. The first one that I will talk about is the German version since that it the one I actually watched.

I think I should mention the fact that while I am counting this as the 1929-30 movie since it was completed in 1930, it was actually released in 1937 (German) and 1941 (French). It was originally, a French film.

I should also point out while this does have German/French speaking parts, I will not attempt to translate them like the last one, so I will be using only the English subtitles. I will translate the titles, though.

Synopsis

While the captions say that the English versions of the German title is, "Reineke the Fox", the translated version makes it "Reineke Fox". Anyway, the opening titles happen overlayed on a book. After they are done, A few animals appear at the top of the book. A voice says, "Silence! Hell's bells!" A fist appears and pushes the animals back into the book. The man whom the fist belongs to says, "What a hell of a row! What shameful behavior!" A small monkey walks in front of the book. The man continues saying, "This place is not a zoo! You are not at the zoo! You stand before a Court of Law" and should be ashamed with yourselves. I won't have you barking while the Court proceeds." He then talks to the audience saying, "I first have to introduce you individually." The book opens and the monkey is pushed away. The first character is Master Raven. Next is Lady Hen and Sir Cock. Next is Good Master Lampe, who is a rabbit. The narrator says that he does not know the distressing role he will play. Next to dogs, which are supposed to be witnesses are shown. Next, is the Wolf, Old Isegrim and his wife and child. Next, is The Badger, Reineke's distant cousin and the barrister in the country in which the story takes place. Finally, Reineke the fox is shown. He is the defendant.

The story begins with Reineke watching Master Raven, who is in a tree. According to the narrator, this scene is showing his first crime. Reineke greets Master Raven, who has a piece of bread in his beak. He compliments Master Raven. Reineke then requests that Master Raven sings. He does and by doing so, drops his bread, which Reineke catches. Eventually, Master Raven notices that the bread is gone, but it is too late. Reineke is already eating the bread. The narrator says that the moral of the story is that you should not sing with your mouth full. 

We are then introduced to the Royal Court. First, the Leopard, who is the High Chancellor of War. Next, the Donkey, who wears glasses and is the Royal Scribe. Next, the Bear, Master Brown. He is the Chamberlain. Next, the Lynx, who is the Executioner. Next is the queen, Lioness, who is King Lion's wife. She is shown knitting. However, Cat grabs her attention. Cat starts to play his lute. Cat starts singing. In song, he compliments Lioness. Cat then reveals that Cat is in love with her. Cat continues to serenade Lioness.

Elsewhere, we are introduced to King Lion. The story then really begins. King Lion calls for his scribe. King Lion says that he is sick of his kingdom harming each other. He then says that he is enacting a law that says that all animals must love each other. He then says that the law should be posted throughout the kingdom. 

Later, the Old Wolf does not like the message. Although, he tries to eat a flower, but it doesn't taste good, so he spits it out. Elsewhere, the Leveret, a rabbit, is happy with the proclamation and puts flowers around it. He then kneels and thanks God. Elsewhere, Reineke does not like the proclamation, so he rips it off where it was posted and runs away with it. 

Meanwhile, at a nearby town, the Dogs are guarding it. However, they are also playing a dice game. The two Dogs see something and it worries them. The spyhole is opened and a hand puts the proclamation up. 

Elsewhere, Reineke shows Lord Cock the proclamation. He reads it twice. The birds start to dance. Reineke notices Mummy (mommy) Hen. Reineke asks her to dance. She accepts and the two dance until she passes out. Reineke takes the opportunity to kidnap her. Lord Cock notices. The Dogs chase after Reineke. However, they could not catch him.

Back at the castle, complaints start piling up. They all seem to be about Reineke. Donkey, who has his arms full of complaint is asked, by King Lion, to read Sir Isegrim's complaint. Donkey lets go of the other complaints and takes Sir Isegrim's. 

Donkey then tells the tale of how in the winter, Sir Isegrim's wife complained and hit him with her broom, telling him that he needs to get food for his family. He then wonders off and finds Reineke cooking some fish. Sir Isegrim asks Reineke if he can have any, but Reineke says that the fish is too rotten, but he says that he will show him a place where he can get more fish. The two go to an ice fishing hole, where Reineke shows the Sir Isegrim how to fish with his tail. Sir Isegrim puts his tail in the water and daydreams about the fish that he will be given. However, the hole freezes, making his tail get stuck. Meanwhile, Reineke wakes up human farmers. They start to chase him. Sir Isegrim notices that his tail is stuck. While he tries to escape, Reineke runs back to the pond. Reineke hides in the snow near the pond. A farmer soon arrives. He tries to look for Reineke, but Reineke pops up and trips the farmer. He lands next to Sir Isegrim. The farmer starts hitting Sir Isegrim. Soon, Reineke does what he did to the farmer to another farmer. The second farmer starts to hit Sir Isegrim. One more farmer joins them. Sir Isegrim manages to escape, but it loses his tail in the process. 

Badger spins a different tale. He tells the tale of how Reineke left his cubs and wife behind to look for food. He searched for hours. Eventually, he spotted a fisherman with a carriage. Reineke played dead in the path of the fisherman. He notices Reineke and stops. The fisherman believes that he is dead and puts him in the carriage. In the carriage, Reineke started throwing the fish out as a path back to his home. However, Sir Isegrim starts eating the fish. He then stops when he eats the biggest fish.

King Lion is already thinking about his final judgment when Leopard shows another complaint. He says that the Lampe Family was praising God with a canticle. Reineke shows up, pretending to be a monk, and joins the choir. He takes control of the hymn. A rabbit shows up at the door. the rabbit and Reineke start singing. He then takes the neck of the rabbit. Leopard is watching this happen. The Leveret, which was the rabbit, was scared to death. Reineke stops when he notices Leopard. The Leveret ends up with the hymn paper in his mouth.

Leopard says that if he had not seen the crime, Master Hare would not be around. King Lion asks Master Hare if this is true. Stuttering, Master Hare says that it is. Badger interjects. He says that Master Hare is lying and that Leopard is wrong.

Badger then spins the tale of how Reineke was praying when he notices Master Hare playing around. Master Hare, who is playing bells walks up and Reineke keeps repeating, "O filius meus!", which means, "Oh, my son!" and tells Master Hare to stop ringing the bells. He then punishes Master Hare. Unlike the first story, which showed Reineke only doing good, this one shows him in a much less good light.

For some reason, Master Hare rips his complaint. He then faints after King Lion questions him. King Lion makes his decision. He says that Reineke is cleared of his charges. A few seconds later, chickens come in with the body of the deceased Mummy Chicken. It is revealed that she is just bones and a few feathers. While Lord Cock tells King Lion about the story of Reineke coming to the town and kidnapping his wife, Cat offers Queen Lioness some hors d'oeuvres, which are roasted chicks. Badger tries to defend Reineke, but King Lion stops him. Badger wants to continue, but Lynx ties some rope around Badger's mouth. Lynx takes Badger away. Master Hare is then trying to put his complaint back together. King Lion orders Master Brown to go to Reineke's house and bring him to the castle, dead or alive.

At Reineke's house, they are peaceful. One of his cubs, Gnat (we learn that later), is sleeping, but wakes up. Reineke's wife tries to bottle feed, but the baby wants her breast milk. The scene then shows her doing so.

Outside, Reineke's other two kids act out the apple scene from William Tell. A rabbit is put in place of Tell's child. The cubs shoot all around, but mostly miss, which scares the rabbit. Eventually, they stop because they see Master Brown. They shoot arrows at his butt, but he keeps going. Reineke's cubs tell their father about Master Brown. They quickly make Reineke look like he is alone in bed with an injury. Master Brown arrives. He shows Reineke the order to bring him back, but notices honey combs. Reineke says that if Master Brown wants more honey, he can give him some.

The next scene shows the two at a tree trunk. Reineke says that if Master Brown wants some honey, he will have to put his mouth in there and search for it. Reineke his Master Brown with a hammer and his is stuck. Reineke then goes to the farmers and tells them about Master Brown. They start hitting him. Master Bear manages to escape.

Back at the castle, King Lion and Queen Lioness are eating dinner. Master Brown shows up. He is bleeding, complaining, wailing, and crying. The King swings a bone and breaks the table. Queen Lioness is distracted with the Cat. She has a mouse on a string. He catches it. He then takes out a piece of paper, studies it, puts it away, and then starts playing his loot and singing. King Lion does not like this singing. King Lion notices Cat and tells him to come to him. He orders Cat to bring Reineke to him.

At Reineke's house, he is skinning a rabbit, likely the one from the arrow scene, who is still alive. Cat approaches. One of the cubs warns of Cat's arrival. The family quickly changes the room to show Reineke playing the harp with flowers on his head and around the room. Above there is a mouse, who is tied to a cage. The mouse is forced to play along. Cat loves the music that he hears coming from Reineke. When Cat shows up, Reineke and the mouse sing a song about a cat and a mouse. Reineke says that there are mice at Mouse Castle, which seems more like a bar than a castle. Inside Mouse Castle, there is a female mouse is on a trapeze, a band, and a female stripper mouse. Cat says that he wants to go there.

Reineke takes Cat to Mouse Castle. Cat enters and is greeted to a beating by lots of mice.

Back at King Lion's castle, Cat shows up. He is mangled, crippled, and half-blind. Cat reports what Reineke has done, while Queen Lioness begins to laugh. King Lion yells that he wants Reineke brought to him. The scene ends with a look back at the storybook and the narrator says, "To hang a thief, you have to catch him first.

There is a 25 second intermission before Act 2 starts. What's that? You didn't know there was a second act? Yeah, neither did I before watching this. They don't indicate that the first part is Act 1 at all.

Act 2 begins with the storybook again. The narrator recaps the first act. The narrator and the monkey are then shown next to a projector. The monkey then starts the projector.

King Lion orders Badger to bring Reineke to the court. At Reineke's house, the Badger attempts to convince Reineke to do so. Reineke says that he will because he does not think he is as bad as everyone is saying he is.

Reineke goes to the castle. Here, he is greeted by Donkey, who has a document that says that Reineke is to be hung.

In the next scene, Reineke is in the noose, about to be hung. He tries to think of a way out. There is a crowd of animals around the platform. A choir sings and nearby, King Lion and Queen Lioness are seated to watch the execution. Donkey says that Reineke is being hung because he is guilty of many crimes. Reineke says a poem-like final speech as crows wait to feast on his body. In the final speech, Reineke mentions a treasure that he has supposedly buried. King Lion interrupts asking about the treasure. Reineke thinks that King Lion is stupid. Reineke walks over to King Lion. Reineke says that Bear, who supposedly wants to be king, Cat, who supposedly wants to be marshell, and the Wolf, who supposedly would be the King's murderer, are conspiring against him. King Lion believes him and sends the three to the dungeon.

In the next scene, the King's staff are digging for the treasure in a desert mountain. King Lion imagines the treasure and starts digging. They do not find anything.

Meanwhile, at Reineke's house, Gnat is shown in his basket. His other two siblings are downstairs and he hears them roughhousing. The baby screams and the other two siblings hide. Gnat searches for his siblings and makes his way downstairs to pee, but is greeted by his siblings, who toss him around. Eventually, Gnat lands on one of his siblings' head and pees.

Outside, an army is waiting to take Reineke away. King Lion gives Leopard a horn that indicates when the war is over. King Lion sends Wolf to the Reineke's castle first. Wolf asks Reineke to come down. Reineke does not do that. A plank goes out and Wolf is swept into the moat. Wolf manages to escape and goes back to the King. Next, King Lion sends Master Brown. He requests that Reineke come down. Reineke does not do that. He goes downstairs and one of his older children lower the drawbridge, but starts to do it fast, which makes more planks go out, causing Master Brown to be sent into the moat. He too returns, but we do not get to know that until later. With the drawbridge lowered, the army walks across it, but it is then lowered even more and the troops on the drawbridge fall into the water. The rest of the army starts attempting to invade. The family is able to thwart the attack for a little while using tricks and contraptions, but eventually the contraptions start to fail and the army is able to enter. Meanwhile, Leopard gives Master Cock the horn. Gnat sees Master Cock and grabs a fly, which is on a hook, which is on some rope. Gnat sends down the bait and Master Cock falls for it. Gnat pulls until Master Cock is there, but loses his grip and Master Cock falls. Later, Gnat notices that Master Cock dropped the horn and blows in it, which makes the army go home and Leopard to be angry at Master Cock.

Wolf stays because he wants revenge. Reineke slips through a hole and Wolf follows. Reineke goes to a well and gets a drink of water, but accidentally falls into the well. The Wolf also sees the well and wants water, but when he is getting it, he notices Reineke inside. Reineke says that he is dead. He says that he is in paradise and says how great it is. Wolf wants to go, so he pulls Reineke out so that he can be in paradise. As Reineke leaves and old lady is about to fill a bucket when she gets scared and runs away. She comes back with a few other people to see that there is a wolf in their well. They get him out and he is beaten.

In the next scene, King Lion has arranged a duel between Wolf and Reineke because he thinks that Wolf can kill Reineke this way. The two fight, but Reineke wins. He does not kill Wolf, but leaves him wounded. King Lion then pardons Reineke because of his wit and courage. He also makes Reineke part of the council. Gnat is then shown soaking up his father's glory.

French vs. German

There are a few differences between the French and the German versions of this movie and I will explain them here. I will not do every small difference, but the major differences.

1. The name of the Movie. Translated from French, it is "The Fox's Novel", but translated from German, it is, "Reineke (the) Fox".
2. In the German version (GV), there is relative darkness before the film starts, but in the French version (FV), there is not.
3. While GV just goes straight to the storybook, FV has a scene where the Narrator and the Monkey are shown next to the projector, making the Act 2 opening make more sense in FV than GV. The opening credits in GV are overlayed on the book, but in FV, it is slides in the projector.
4. In GV, it is implied that the narrator is a live action human, but in FV, it is shown that he is puppet monkey, who looks like a judge.
5. In FV, the narrator introduces the story, but in GV, animals are shown misbehaving before the characters are introduced.
6. In FV, it is Sir Cock, but in GV, it is Master Cock.
7. In FV, he is "Poor Coward" and "Hare", but in GV, he is referred to as, "Good Master Lampe", "Master Lampre", and "Master Hare".
8. The introduction of the hare character is different. In GV, the introductions is treated like he is about to be apart of the trial, but in FV, it gives his personality.
9. In GV, they are just called, "Dogs", but in FV, they are given the names, "Renaud" and "Cerberus".
10. The dogs are referred to as just witnesses in GV, but in FV, they are sergeant majors.
11. In FV, Wolf's family is noted in the introduction, but in GV, they are not. In fact, Wolf's wife is named, "She-Wolf".
12. In GV, he is called, "Badger", but in FV, he is called, "Master Badger".
13. In GV, Badger is a distant cousin of Reineke. In FV, he is just Reynard's barrister.
14. In GV, he is called, "Reineke", but in FV, he is called, "Reynard" and "Fox".
15. Extended scene. There is a little bit more at the beginning of the Master Raven bread scene in FV than GV. This scene in FV makes him more like a hero than an anti-hero like GV makes it seem like he is.
16. In GV, it is almost exclusively narration with only a few voices used for singing. In FV, it is almost exclusively voices with only a few parts of narration for when it is necessary.
17. In FV, he sings, but in GV, he does not.
18. In FV, it cuts to Reynard during the singing, but in GV, it does not cut to Reineke.
19. In FV, the end of that scene is the narrator saying that the Raven would not be taken advantage again. In GV, it is the narrator saying the moral of the tale.
20. In FV, the next scene is Wolf's story. In GV, the next scene is introducing the characters of the royal court.
21. In GV, it is just said to be winter in Wolf's story, but in FV, it is stated to be New Years' Eve.
22. In GV, Wolf's wife tells him to get food, but in FV, She-Wolf says, "fish".
23. In GV, Wolf's children are shown in the scene, but in FV, they are not.
24. In GV, Reineke says the reason that he should not eat the fish is because they are not fresh. In FV, the reason that Wolf is stopped by Reynard is because Wolf is stealing the fish.
25. In GV, the wolf daydreams of fish, but in FV, he does not.
26. In FV, there is a close-up shot of Wolf trying to escape the ice, but in GV, there is not.
27. In GV, it shows Wolf going home and then shows the tail in the ice, but in FV, it shows the tail and then Wolf going home.
28. In FV, the home scene is longer, showing She-Wolf partially in a chest and some meat being taken from the fireplace with Reynard being shown taking the meat on the roof. It then shows him running away.
29. After the scene in the last point, FV cuts to the complaints, which are more clearly about Reynard than in GV, which made it unclear if the complaints were about Reineke or the King's proclamation.
30. In FV, the Queen is introduced using the hors d'oeuvres scene. She is mentioned to be charming, coquettish, and greedy. GV more shows these traits than tells them to the audience.
31. In FV, the hors d'oeuvres are called, "Ortolan brochettes", but in GV, they are roasted chicks.
32. In FV, the clerk reads the complaint and then accuses Wolf of making the story up. She-Wolf and the children are shown. Renaud and Cerberus are also shown. In GV, Donkey reads the story instead.
33. In FV, Master Badger tells about how good Reynard is and about his family. The movie uses the footage that was used in the German version as establishing Reineke's home when Master Bear showed up. 
34. In GV, Gnat is the runt, but in FV, he is just a new-born child.
35. In FV, it is stated that Reynard has four children in total, but in the GV, there appears to only be three.
36. In FV, Wolf is only once shown during the cart-chasing scene before he is shown with the big fish. In GV, he is shown twice.
37. In FV, when Wolf is shown with the big fish, their is a focus circle around him, but in GV, there is not.
38. In FV, it explains that Hare was drunk on wine as the reason he was acting so weird in Master Badger's version of the story. In GV, it is just that he was childish.
39. In FV, right after the decision is made, the decree is also made. In GV, the decree is right after Cat singing to the Queen scene.
40. In GV, there is an introduction to the royal court, but in FV, there is not.
41. In FV, the cat singing to the Queen scene is shown after the decree scene. In GV, it is right after the introduction to the royal court.
42. In FV of the cat singing to the Queen scene, the song comes before the knitting. In GV, it is the other way around.
43. In FV, the cat's song is longer than in GV. 
44. In FV, the proclamation shows that people who break the rules will be hanged, but in GV, it does not. (Well, it does, but it not pointed out by the captions.)
45. In FV, the rabbit is the first one to see the proclamation, but in the GV, it is Wolf.
46. In FV, there is a song scene after the rabbit reads the proclamation that is not in GV. In this scene, the pre-cat interior Mouse Castle footage is shown.
47. In FV, the next scene is Wolf's reading of the proclamation.
48. In FV, the next scene is the well scene, starting with Wolf getting a drink.
49. The "Heaven" scene is longer in FV than in GV.
50. In FV, the next scene is the Lady Hen's body being carried into the castle.
51. In FV, the next scene is the kidnapping scene, starting from when Reynard put the proclamation up near the dogs. The scene is a bit shorter than in GV.
52. In FV, he is called, "Captain Bear" and in GV, he is called, "Master Brown".
53. When the Captain Bear is coming Raynard's castle, instead of the William Tell scene and the scene that is in the French version has already shown, it goes straight to one of the older cubs telling Reynard about Captain Bear.
54. FV shows what is on the paper that the Cat takes out. GV does not.
55. Right after the cat is shown walking to Reynard's castle, one of the cubs is shown playing with a frog.
56. FV and GV have different songs when Cat comes to Reynard's castle.
57. In FV, it is called, "Mouseland", but in GV, it is called, "Mouse Castle".
58. In FV, it cuts to Cat and Reynard after the exterior pre-cat footage is shown, instead of having Cat ask to go there like in GV.
59. In FV, the Cat's beating is a lot shorter than in GV.
60. In FV, after the Cat is beaten up, it cuts to him at the castle. In GV, there is a small part showing the King and Queen alone before he shows up.
61. In FV, Lynx gets Master Badger from his prison cell. In GV, Badger is never in a cell.
62. In FV, there is no Act 2 or Intermission, which might explain why there was no "Act 1" card shown in GV.
63. In FV, Reynard says he will think about it that night and get back to Master Badger. In GV, he just says that he will go.
64. In FV, the fight, which is the ending of GV, is a dream. In the dream, Reynard is defeated, instead of being the victor in the ending of GV.
65. In FV, Reynard briefly explains the treachery before he leaves the noose. He later goes into detail like he does in GV.
66. In FV, Cat plays a different role in the conspiracy than in GV.
67. In FV, the digging scene is longer and they show that it was not the prisoners, but his staff, who does the digging. GV made this unclear.
68. In FV, the fantasy is not required for the King to start digging.
69. In FV, the extended scene allows for an explanation of why the battle starts.
70. In FV, the Gnat's pee scene is not shown, but is in GV.
71. In GV, all the soldiers fall into the moat, but in FV, one does not and is taken into the castle.
72. In FV, how Wolf falls is shown. In GV, it is not.
73. The trap scene is a bit different between the two versions. 
74. In FV, it is shown when the battering ram is introduced. In GV, it is not.
75. In FV, they say Sir Cock betrayed them, but in GV, it is just said that he ruined the plan.
76. Instead of Wolf staying behind out of revenge, the well scene happening, and the battle like in GV, the next scene is Reynard getting a seat on the council.
77. In FV, when Gnat is shown at the end, his diaper falls off and he throws it in the air saying, "That's all folks."
78. In FV, the book is closed by Reynard and the projector is shown again. The monkey stops the projector and bows. The man then takes the monkey away and puts up a sign that reads, "Fin".

Characters

Unfortunately, since the characters are so different in the two versions, I cannot really talk about them.

 The one that really remains consistent is Reynard/Reineke, who is a clever thief, who is more of an antihero than a hero.

Animation

While the animation is not the best, it is okay. I'll talk about what it reminds me of in the next section. I think the effects were well done. I really liked the special hitting effects.

Similarities

The animation is very similar to the style used in Fantastic Mr. Fox.

The trap scene reminded me of Home Alone, more so in the German version than the French Version.

Apparently, the Master Raven bread scene is a reference to a fable where the same thing happened.

Conclusion

If you like the animation of Fantastic Mr. Fox and the story I gave, then I suggest watching it, but if you really don't like that animation style, I would stay away from this one.

1925-6: The Adventures of Prince Achmed

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

100 Years of Animation is a series, where I will review animated movies from every year leading up to the 100^th anniversary of animated feature films, which will be on November 9, 2017. However, since some movies have been lost and in the beginning, not every year had at least one movie, so I will be skipping a few, which is why there won’t be 100 reviews.

Since the first movie was released on November 9, 1917, the years will go from November 9, one year to November 8, the next year.

Even though I don’t think I need to say this, this series will contain spoilers. This will be the only warning. I am not going to say it every video.

We start our journey with the 1925-26 movie, “The Adventures of Prince Achmed”, which is the oldest animated film. However, it is not the first. In fact, it is the third. The first two are considered, “lost”.

Anyway, I quite enjoyed The Adventures of Prince Achmed. However, this does not mean there are not flaws. The plot is rather primitive and there a plenty of illogical elements. The English dub is also not very good.

Let’s start with the plot. The film is split into five acts.

After introducing the characters, the first act focuses on the African magician or is he the sorcerer? The English dub calls him “The Sorcerer”, but the captions call him, “The Magician”. When one translates what is on the screen, one will find that they are the same thing in German. Let’s just call him the African Sorcerer. Anyway, the African Sorcerer conjures up a magic horse, but apparently, he needs to show off that he can make other animals before he can make the horse. He then conjures up a handle, which he attaches to the back of the horse. He then quickly tests the horse and it floats. He stops and conjures up clothes. I guess he was naked. I don’t know. It’s hard to tell. I guess it might just be outerwear.  Anyway, he magically puts them on. He then conjures a mirror, looks at himself, and then makes it disappear. He then pulls the handle that he pulled earlier to make it fly. He and the horse then fly away.

In the next scene, the Caliph, who is like the king, is having a birthday. After people preform for him, the Sorcerer appears with the magic horse. The Sorcerer explains that the horse can fly. He then gives a demonstration. I almost forgot. The movie feels compelled to remind us who the characters are, even though it has only been four minutes from the first time these characters were introduced. Anyway, the sorcerer grabs a flag and brings it down. The Caliph gives him gold, but the Sorcerer does not accept. I guess the Sorcerer just came to the Caliph to gloat that he can make a magical horse. Anyway, the Caliph offers the Sorcerer anything he wants that the Caliph has to get the horse. The Sorcerer sees Princess Dinarsade, the Caliph’s daughter. He wants her. However, her brother, Prince Achmed, intervenes. The Sorcerer somehow convinces Achmed to get on the horse. He tells the Achmed how to fly with the horse, but not how to get down. The Caliph sees his son flying away and makes his guards surround the Sorcerer.

In Act 2, the Sorcerer, who if you only watch the first act, might think is the main character, even though it is Prince Achmed, finds himself surrounded by guards and Achmed is flying away. The Caliph asks the Sorcerer how to bring the horse down. The Sorcerer tells the Caliph that Achmed must use the back handle. The Caliph asks if Achmed knows this. The Sorcerer shrugs. Meanwhile, with Achmed, he is still flying in the sky. He tries to bring the horse down, but nothing works. He goes through a storm. For some reason, they cut to the Sorcerer, who is imprisoned. They then return to Achmed, who might be in space. Achmed then finds the back handle and pulls it, which makes him go down. He then lands on a magical island in a part of the world called, “Wak-Wak”. That isn’t real by the way, but apparently, it’s a place in Magic the Gathering. More specifically, he lands on a palace’s balcony. The prince then enters, kisses some girls, and then leaves, even though the girls want him to stay. The movie tries to make it seem more magical than that or something, but that is exactly what he did. Oh, I almost forgot about the fact that he broke a hanging bed. I guess the purpose of the scene is to introduce Peri Banu, who is the ruler of Wak-Wak. After flying away from the palace, Achmed lands on an island either with a magic lake, on the Magic Sea, or just in the sea depending on which version of the story you are following, which is the translated, subtitles, or dub version. Peri Banu and a few of her subjects fly in with bird costumes. Achmed hides behind a bush. Like every good protagonist would do, Achmed looks at the naked women bathing. Again, like every good protagonist, Achmed steals Peri Banu’s bird costume. After the women are done bathing, Achmed reveals himself and Peri Banu’s servants fly off. Peri Banu runs away and Achmed chases her. After she stops. He asks her to come to his home with him. Yes, she’ll totally want to do that after you stole her bird costume and chased her. Peri Banu demands to have her bird costume back. She starts running again and he chases her again. She stops and faints. He then takes her and puts her on his horse. He then grabs the bird costume and then the two fly away. The narrator and the captions both confirm that what he did was kidnapping.

The horse later lands in China. Achmed puts Peri Banu and her bird costume next to a tree. Peri Banu wakes up and sees Achmed. He tells her to not be afraid of him. Depending on the story you follow, he tells her that he will serve her until the end of time or his death. Depending on which version you follow, Peri Banu either tells him that he does not know the demons of Wak-Wak or the power of the spirits of Wak-Wak. For the rest of the film, the narrator will refer to demons, which are featured in both the translated and caption versions of the story, as “spirits”. Peri Banu tells Achmed that they will kill him, but the narrator doesn’t seem too concerned. Again, there is a variation on the story. Achmed tells Peri Banu one of the following: “Allah’s mercy will protect us if you will be my wife,” “Allah's grace protects us when you become my wife,” or “Allah’s grace will protect us if you become my wife.”

Meanwhile, the Sorcerer has been looking for his horse. It then immediately cuts to the scene, where he is in chains from earlier. You can’t really search for something when your locked up, can you? Anyway, he summons a tiny version of the horse. It flies around in a few circles, then the Sorcerer, summons a window, which shows where Achmed, Peri Banu, and the horse are. The Sorcerer quite easily escapes the chains. Like, seriously, did they even try? He then transforms into a bat and flies out of his cell.

Back with Prince Achmed and Peri Banu, Achmed says, “We will find our way home and you will forget about Wak-Wak,” “We will find our home and you will be wak-wak,” or “We will find our home and you will forget about Wak-Wak.” Peri Banu starts crying. Achmed feels bad and gives her the bird costume, which I guess is supposed to symbolize that he is willing to let her go back home. That is apparently all Peri Banu needs for her to instantly be in love with him. She then tells him that she will follow him, which in both the caption and narrator version, she is showing a lot less excitement for than in the translated version. Achmed gets close to her and kisses her hand a bunch.

Meanwhile, the Sorcerer, who is still in bat form, lands nearby. He then transforms into a kangaroo and grabs the bird costume while Achmed and Peri Banu are kissing. The two notice and Achmed chases after the Sorcerer. The Sorcerer, being a Kangaroo, easily jumps over a pit, but Achmed, only being a human, does not. The Sorcerer then leaves the bird costume on a branch and heads back to where Peri Banu and the horse are. Shortly after leaving Achmed, the Sorcerer transforms back into his human self. He then summons a hat and puts it on. He then summons a box and brings it to Peri Banu. He bows and gives her the gift. She opens it and he says that it is a garment or robe from Achmed.

Meanwhile, Achmed tries to escape the pit, but a large snake appears. He then easily strangles the snake and it just happens to die in a way that allows Achmed to use the snake as a rope.

Back with the Sorcerer and Peri Banu, he looks at her, who is now wearing the garment. He then tells her that he is to take her to Achmed.

Back with Achmed, he climbs the snake up to the surface and then grabs the bird costume.

The sorcerer brings Peri Banu the horse and grabs her and the two fly away on the horse.

Achmed returns to find neither of the two there.

Act 3 begins with hands playing some bells. The emperor of China is then introduced and his design is borderline racist. The next character introduced is either the Emperor’s favorite or jester, depending on which story you follow. It is revealed that he was the one playing the bells. The Sorcerer comes to sell Peri Banu to the Emperor. The Sorcerer gets a lot of money. The Emperor has Peri Banu to sit besides him.

Meanwhile, with Achmed, he mourns his loss.

Elsewhere, the Sorcerer, who is riding the horse, lands somewhere and throws his bags of money on the ground. He then turns them all into creatures. He uses them to fly back to Achmed. The Sorcerer grabs Achmed. The Sorcerer and his creatures take Achmed away.

Back with the Emperor and Peri Banu, one of the following happens: She either pleases him, he likes her, or he smiles at her. He gives her a flower and wants a kiss, but she backs up. He grabs her and while wrestling free, she knocks his crown off his head. He puts on the crown, but is angry at her for knocking it off his head. He kicks her off the chair and yells for the guards. They and his Jester/Favorite come. The Emperor tells his Jester/Favorite to… wait, here’s the part where things get weird if you follow the different versions. For most of them, there is just a small difference in wording that really doesn’t matter to the story. However, this time, the wording is weird. So, in the captions, it reads, “Kill her or make her your wife!” The translated version is this: “Kill her or take her wife!”. The narrator says, “Kill her or take her to wife!” The captions is the only one that is correct. The translated version suggests that Peri Banu has a wife and he should take the wife or kill Peri Banu and the narrator version suggests that he should either kill Peri Banu or take her to the Emperor’s wife, which isn’t even a character that is shown. In fact, the previous scene suggests he doesn’t have a wife. Anyway, after that mess of a line, the Jester/Favorite kisses her.

Back with the Sorcerer, his creatures, and Achmed, they are above a dormant volcano, which is surrounded by fire. The Sorcerer and his creatures drop them off at the top of the volcano. The Sorcerer then turns the creatures into a boulder and puts it on Achmed. Reminding the audience of his original intention, the Sorcerer says that he will get Achmed’s sister. Achmed tries to fight under the boulder, but cannot. The Sorcerer somehow flies away. It’s possible that he did not turn all the creatures into the boulder, but that cannot be confirmed. Inside the mountain, a witch and her creatures notice Achmed. She throws a few creatures out of the volcano’s top and they grab Achmed and bring them to the Witch. The creatures were also somehow able to turn the boulder back into a bag of gold.

The Witch asks why he entered her magic mountain. Achmed says that the Sorcerer brought him there. The Witch and Achmed fight for some reason. The Witch begs for Achmed to stop and says that the Sorcerer is her greatest enemy. She then says that Achmed is her friend, likely using the “The enemy of my enemy is my friend” logic. The two shake hands.

Back in China, a horn instrument is being played.

It then cuts back to the Witch and Achmed. Achmed asks the Witch to help him free Peri Banu. The Witch says that she does not fear the demons/spirits. The witch turns some lava into a bow, arrows, a sword, and a suit of armor. She says that with the weapons he will defeat the demons/spirits. Achmed puts on the helmet.

Back in China, Peri Banu waits to be married to the Emperor’s Jester/Favorite.

Back in the Magic Mountain, the Witch gives Achmed, who is now in the armor, the weapons. The Witch uses a snake to levitate Achmed and her out of the top of the mountain. The two start flying away, but then they stop.

Back in China, the wedding is starting. The Witch and Achmed are above the ceremony. Achmed says that they must stop the wedding. The Witch and Achmed land and arrive where Peri Banu has been taken after the wedding. The Emperor’s Jester/Favorite outside and the Witch just flings him out of the way.

Inside, some women start to take her away, but Achmed stops them by entering the building. Peri Banu runs to him. Achmed tells the women to go away and they do. The two kiss. Achmed takes her to a bed and the two start kissing again.

Meanwhile, the demons/spirits of Wak-Wak are looking for Peri Banu, their ruler.

The demons/spirits appear outside the building. The witch sees them and runs away. The demons/spirits, who are giant in this shot, easily remove the top of the building. They then enter the building, becoming much smaller. Achmed tries to defeat the demons/spirits, but they manage to take Peri Banu and fly away. With one demon/spirit left, who is in the arms of Achmed, he demands that the demon/spirit take him to Wak-Wak. The demon/spirit does so. They follow closely behind Peri Banu. Once they get to Wak-Wak, the demon/spirit drops Achmed close to a mountain, which closes when the demons/spirits and Peri Banu enter it.

It is revealed that the mountain is the gates of Wak-Wak. It is also revealed that it will only open to the one who has Aladdin’s magic lamp.

Act 4 begins with Achmed, feeling defeated after the mountain closes. He sees a person being attacked by a monster. Achmed shoots an arrow into the monster’s back, which kills it. Achmed checks on the man, who was attacked by the monster. The man says that he is Aladdin. Getting right to business, Achmed asks where the magic lamp is. Achmed asks if he does not have the lamp. Aladdin does not have the lamp. However, he says that he will explain what happened.

Aladdin explains that he was a poor tailor in the city of the Great Caliph. One day, a stranger came to visit him. The stranger, who is the Sorcerer, tells Aladdin to follow him and he does. They go until they see Princess Dinarsade, who is playing chess. The Sorcerer says that Aladdin can have her if he does something for him.

Aladdin and the Sorcerer go to a high mountain. They stop at a well. It is covered with vines and has a lid. The Sorcerer moves the vines and opens the lid. The sorcerer opens a scroll, which shows the magic lamp. The Sorcerer tells Aladdin to fetch the lamp. Aladdin takes a rope ladder down to the bottom of the well. He sees that he can go down further and does so. He gets to the bottom and sees the lamp. He carefully grabs the lamp, blows on it, and starts to climb back up. He then climbs up the ladder, where the Sorcerer tells Aladdin to give him the lamp. Aladdin says, “First, let me out!” in the captions and narrator version, but says, “Let me go first!” in the translation version. They struggle for a bit and Aladdin ends up falling. The sorcerer says that Aladdin will die and that he will obtain the lamp on his own.

Aladdin explains that he was in the cave for a long time until he lit the lamp. The spirit, or genie as it is in the captions, appears. He asks what Aladdin’s command is. The spirit/genie says that he and the other spirits/genies of the lamp are here to serve him. Aladdin asks to be home. The spirit/genie sends him back to Aladdin’s tailoring tent.

Aladdin explains that now that he the lamp, he could win over Princess Dinarsade. That night, Aladdin uses the lamp to make a palace. The next morning, the Caliph and Dinarsade come to the magic palace, which has servants. Aladdin, who now has fancy clothes, greets the Caliph and Dinarsade. Surprisingly quickly, Dinarsade became Aladdin’s wife. They really skip ahead. One moment, it is him kissing her hand and then BAM! Married! I guess, they didn’t have the time to develop that. I mean, that makes Disney relationships look long.

Anyway, Achmed explains that the Caliph is his father and that Dinarsade is his sister. Achmed demands that Aladdin tell him what happened next.

Aladdin explains that one day, the palace, princess, and lamp were all gone. The Caliph’s guards take him to be executed, but before he can be, he escapes. In his escape, his fancy clothes are thrown off him. Aladdin explains that he escaped because the Caliph was mad at him. Aladdin runs to a dock. Here, he takes a boat and sails away. Eventually, a storm happened, which breaks the boat. Aladdin is swept by the waves, which land on a rock. He gets up and find what looks like a tree. He finds a bunch of bananas and takes them. Before he can eat any, the tree is revealed to be the monster that Achmed fought earlier. Aladdin explains that is when Achmed showed up.

Achmed asks who did this and Aladdin explains that it was the Sorcerer. Achmed explains that he loved Dinarsade. The Witch appears. She tells Achmed to hurry in his saving of Peri Banu. The Witch explains that the spirits/demons want to kill her because she followed her. Yes, that doesn’t make sense. Why even capture her if you were just going to kill her? So, stupid. Anyway, Achmed is sad and the Witch wants to comfort him, but Aladdin stops her. He explains that the Sorcerer has the magic lamp and that only the lamp can open the gates of Wak-Wak. Aladdin says that if she kills the Sorcerer, she can have the lamp. Achmed gets up and demands that she kills him. The Witch says that she will try to kill him.

The Witch summons the Sorcerer. He transforms into a lion. She transforms into a snake. They growl and hiss, respectively, at each other. He transforms into a scorpion. He uses his pincers to cut her, but she is too quick. She bites down on his tail. He manages to get him off and she transforms into a chicken. He transforms into a vulture. They then fight for a while, until he transforms into a small dragon and she transforms into a large fish. They fight again until they both transform back into their normal appearances. She throws a fire ball at him, but he ducks and it misses. He throws a fire ball at her and she steps out of the way, so that it misses her. They continue to throw fire balls at each other, every time missing, until one finally hits the Sorcerer, killing him. The Witch gives Aladdin the lamp. She confirms that the Sorcerer is dead. Per the agreement, Aladdin gives the Witch the lamp.

Act 5 begins with Peri Banu about to be killed by the spirits/demons. They take her to a cliff and wait for her to jump. She hesitates because, you know, she doesn’t want to die. Before she can do it, a spirit/demon comes and says that Achmed is at the gates. It then cuts to Achmed, Aladdin, who is holding the lamp, and the Witch outside the mountain. Achmed demands that they release Peri Banu. One of the spirits/demons holds her up, Achmed shoots an arrow, it hits the spirit/demon, and the spirit/demon plummets off the cliff, releasing Peri Banu before doing so. Achmed commands Aladdin to summon the spirits/genies of the lamp. Somehow, instead black demons/dark spirits appear. Achmed fights to get to Peri Banu, but leaves Aladdin unprotected. One of the black demons/dark spirits takes the lamp. Achmed manages to save Aladdin. Aladdin and Achmed start throwing boulders at the black demons/dark spirits. Finally choosing to do something, the Witch kills the black demon/dark spirit that had the lamp and gets the lamp. For some reason, the spirits/genies start coming out of the lamp. The spirits/genies start to destroy the black demons/dark spirits. However, a black demon/dark spirit grabs Peri Banu and Aladdin and Achmed throw boulders at it. They then run after the creature. Achmed and the Witch kill the beast, freeing Peri Banu.

After the spirits/genies finish destroying the black demons/dark spirits, Achmed kisses Peri Banu. The Witch interrupts to point out Aladdin’s palace, which is returning. It flies into the seen and lands. The Witch says goodbye to Achmed, Peri Banu, and Aladdin. The three then enter the palace. The spirits/genies enter the lamp. The palace flies away. Aladdin assumes that his wife is just in palace. He eventually finds her. The two kiss. Achmed and Peri Banu arrive and Dinarsade hugs her brother. The palace eventually lands where it was originally made. In his palace, the Caliph is sitting. A servant arrives and says that Aladdin’s palace is back. The Caliph greets his family. Achmed introduces his dad to Peri Banu. The Caliph hugs her. The Caliph forgives Aladdin. The end!

When I started writing this, I thought it was an okay movie, now I know, it really is not that good, story-wise.

Now, let’s talk about the characters.

First, Prince Achmed. This spoiled, arrogant prince becomes a true hero in the end learning the power of… I’m just kidding. This brat basically learned that women are not an object and then saved a seemingly powerless woman. This is definitely an example of the primitive “damsel in distress” story.

Second, Dinarsade and the Caliph. They didn’t do much besides move the story along.

Third, the Sorcerer. He was definitely a good villain. His motives were not clear at the beginning, but slowly become clear when he objectifies the Princess, which is what Prince Achmed did with Peri Banu. He’s supposed to be the hero, right? Anyway, I thought that the fight scene between him and the witch was a good scene. It was nice to know that even one of the oldest animated movies was not afraid to show death.

Fourth, the Witch. Throughout, she is an Anti-Hero, really only choosing to be good to help herself in the end. However, in the first part of her time, she acted like a sidekick, but quickly became an “ex Machina”.

Fifth, Aladdin. I quite enjoyed Aladdin and he seemed to be a good character throughout. While he was somewhat selfish, he did not seem too selfish.

Sixth, the Main Genie/Spirit. The Main Genie/Spirit was an interesting character and while he only appeared briefly for exposition, he did a good job doing so.

Seventh, the Emperor of China. He was a secondary antagonist, but I did kind of feel bad for him because all he really wanted was love.

Eighth, the Emperor’s Jester/Favorite. I feel bad for how he was treated by the Witch, since he really didn’t deserve it. Much like the Emperor, he just wanted love and he did spare Peri Banu’s life, so that’s a plus.

Finally, the Magic Horse. I don’t know if anyone noticed, but the Magic Horse is just gone like halfway through the movie, starting in like Act 3, they rarely show it and it never appears in Act 4 or 5. The horse was really just a way to move the story along.

Next is the animation. The animation is amazing for what it is. The effects all around were good. I think my favorite effects were when magic was being used. You definitely feel like they are using magic. I think the cleverest effect is the wave effect. When Aladdin was brought to the rock by the wave after the storm broke his ship, as Aladdin was getting up, the wave would appear as it would, but to me, I think that was a way for them to move the character without showing movement.

Finally, I want to talk about similarities to other media. For this, it will be things that came after it purely because I have not seen a lot of things from the first half of the 20^th century and there is not a lot to compare this too. It is important to note these are not necessarily references or the media I am comparing it to is not necessarily referencing this, but it is just things that I think are similar.

The obvious one is Disney’s Aladdin. There are definitely a lot of similarities to that film. 1. The Caliph plays a similar role as the Sultan. 2. Princess Dinarsade plays a similar role as Princess Jasmine. 3. For Aladdin’s story, the Sorcerer plays a similar role as Jafar. 4. How Aladdin finds the lamp is similar. 5. Aladdin’s palace is a lot like the Sultan’s palace. 6. The fancy outfit that Aladdin wears is similar to the one that Prince Ali wears. 7. The Main Genie/Spirit is a lot like the Genie, except not as helpful and does not follow the three wishes rule, which is standard for genies is modern fantasy. 8. When Aladdin escapes being executed, it reminded me of the “One Jump Ahead” scene.

The next one that is fairly obvious is the Witch vs. Sorcerer scene is similar to the Merlin vs. Mim scene and their relationship in general, although for the story their roles are reversed, from Disney’s The Sword in the Stone. The Witch and Sorcerer were just about as random as Merlin and Mim in the selection, even ending with the Sorcerer being a dragon like Mim was.

Another similarity involving the Witch vs. Sorcerer scene is fireballs. While this is a staple of the Super Mario series, it reminds me more of Once Upon a Time, mostly the Evil Queen.

A more obscure similarity involves the Sorcerer’s appearance. He looks a lot like Dr. Doofenshmirtz from Phineas and Ferb, mostly in the wide shots. It is mostly his triangular head and long pointy nose that makes him look similar. He actually looks quite a bit like Doofus Khan from the Phineas and Ferb episode, “Doof Dynasty”.

If you want to watch the movie for either good effects or historical value, I recommend this film, but you if want a good story with a good protagonist, stay far away from this movie as possible.