Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company 'B'

If Woody Woodpecker and Chilly Willie creator, 'Walter Lantz' (qv) offered 'The Andrews Sisters' (qv) popular trio for their current hit, of same title, "Boogie-Woogie Bugle Boy" (of Company B), and the trio accepted, I am strongly sure it would have won the best animation short award of 1941, along with the fact it was nominated, despite the fact of different human races and a majority of people are racial. If Laverne, Maxene and Patty Andrews were the musical vocalists, along with their newest or current hit song, Walter Lantz surely would have earned one more award, among those that he had already won, and would win later, in his career.

This is my third review of a cartoon nominated for an Academy Award for 1941 having previously done so for George Pal's Rhythm in the Ranks and Friz Freleng's Rhopsody in Rivets. In this one, a black trumpeter gets drafted in the Army and is made to play "Reveille" every 5 am to the consternation of his fellow recruits. But then he gets a magic instrument that lets him play it Big Band-style to the delight of everyone within listening distance. Of course, the title song that was made famous by The Andrews Sisters is warbled by the enlisted men. The depiction of the black men with big lips isn't too offensive to me but I did cringe when one of them showed a pair of dice as part of his teeth! Nice gags throughout and Walter Lantz really keeps things moving so that's a recommendation of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B.

This short, an Academy Award nominee, has great music, mostly the title tune, the animation is very good and it's a fairly decent effort. But most people will never see this, for understandable reasons. The cartoon is one large string of racial jokes and stereotypes from start to finish. If someone ever does a project to collect and release the music from the Lantz material, as was done with the Warner Brothers shorts, this is at the head of the list. Otherwise, you can forget about this one being made generally available anytime soon, if ever. Worth tracking down, but not for everyone. Recommended for the less easily disturbed. This one was over the top, folks.

. . . it is likely to soon be entirely suppressed, squelched, banned and forbidden, due to its controversial nature. The song for which this film is named was the subject of a recent copyright lawsuit, pitting the sects industry against Big Music. Some weak-kneed pseudo "authorities" still refuse to impute any blame on Dick Wagner for inspiring the rise of the National Socialist Party and World War Two. Similarly, there doubtless are ostrich-like apologists who will not admit any connection between the degrading evil of James Crow and the mayhem depicted during BUGLE BOY OF COMPANY 'B,' including the haphazard nonchalance in which a minority recruit is callously fed to a crocodile.

A jazz musician gets drafted to the military and finds himself given the job of bugle boy – a very unpopular job who gets all manner of stuff chucked at him at 5am. Luckily for our main character he finds a trumpet rather than a basic bugle and he is able to call reveille with a swinging jazz number which makes all the difference.

I travel quite a bit so often find myself watching films etc on my tablet while on planes or waiting in airports. In doing this I am always conscious of those watching over my shoulder with no context, so I try to avoid very violent or sexual films as a courtesy to them and me. I mention this because I am incredibly glad that I did not watch this cartoon anywhere but my own home because it may have been hard to explain why I was watching something with such racial caricatures as in this 1941 cartoon. Sadly this is a reflection of the time and, as plankonrules points out, the reason that the cartoon only features black characters is that at the time in the US soldiers were segregated – so this cartoon was not about to show integration even in a fantasy setting!

Anyway, to deal with it first, the cartoon is really racist – massive lipped characters, "yes masta" style voice acting and very dark skin; one can excuse it as being of its time, but it is still offensive to watch and it feels uncomfortable to do so today. On the other side, to ignore this and watch it as a cartoon it does function well because the swinging soundtrack is very enjoyable and the comedy is nicely in support of this. The animation flows well too. It is a shame then that you will struggle to focus on all of the good aspects because there are so many negative ones and it is uncomfortable to watch because of them.