Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company 'B'

My assumption is that the only place you'll find this cartoon short is at archive.org, as they keep all sorts of cartoons on their site for download--including ones that were pulled by the studios because they were racist and offensive. Clearly "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company 'B'" is one of these, though the offensive material is more benign than many from the era. The big problem is that all the soldiers* are black characters sporting HUGE lips. This made folks laugh back in the 1940s but today you might just get a punch in the nose with this sort of stuff! It's a shame, as the cartoon is well made (particularly for Walter Lantz) and is quite enjoyable.

The cartoon has little in the way of plot and is basically the famous song--with a back story and about half of the cartoon made up of folks singing the catchy tune. Oddly, you do NOT hear the Andrews Sisters singing it. But the cartoon has a nice, goofy sense of humor (I particularly liked the alligator) and is worth a look.

By the way, this must have been popular back in the day because it was nominated for the Oscar for the Best Short Subject, Animated.

*If you wonder why all the soldiers were black, it's sadly because at the time the US armed forces were segregated.

this cartoon is available on the new woody woodpecker collection that debut this week. This cartoon has not aged well, since it reflects the "Amos and Andy" stereotyping of African-Americans. However, if you can watch this cartoon for the way in which it tells the story of the famous song and how the song and animation interact it is neat in the evolution of cartoons.

Once again, I wish to state that stereotyping of African-Americans is shocking by todays ideas. Therefore, I would not recommend this cartoon to the general population of viewers, because it could be highly offensive.

The tall and gangly "Hot Breath Harry" wows the jazz clubs until he is drafted into the army. They can't tell the difference between a trumpet and a bugle, so he is charged with blowing the reveillé at 0500hrs. That doesn't exactly make him popular - and after an altercation with an hatchet he reckons that he might have more success jazzing up this early morning wake up call so he uses a trumpet! Success all round as the story now morphs into a mildly amusing skit on all things military whilst accompanied by the eponymous Prince/Ray musical number. This was made just as President Roosevelt started his recruitment drive in earnest, so has a very specific purpose I think. It demonstrates that the army is a fun, inclusive and welcoming place. Tosh? Well maybe with modern day eyes, but in 1941 this had a job to do, and it just about does what it says on the tin in a lively fashion.

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.

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.