Imagination

This Bob Wickersham cartoon was nominated for an Academy Award, which strikes me as strange. Gremlins were infesting Termite Terrace, Lantz was near the peak of his Swing Symphony Series, there were, I would guess, the usual half-dozen identical Tom & Jerry cartoons and Tex Avery turned out RED HOT Cinderella, DUMB-HOUNDED and WHO KILLED WHO? and they needed to eke out the list with this piece of earnest cheese urging children to be imaginative? Yes indeed, it's a cartoon. Let's try not to have fun and we'll let you make the cut before we give the award to Tom and Jerry, like we always do.

There's nothing wrong with this cartoon. It's a perfectly competent Columbia Pictures cartoon turned out during one of their frequent periods when no one quite knew what they were trying to do, especially not the people involved in actually making them. It has good production values, but it is clearly directed by people who are aiming it at children and who have no more idea of what children actually want than the jade plant in my living room does.

We are introduced to two sawdust stuffed dolls. They love each other but the girl is pursued by an evil guy with bad intentions. But ultimately it has to do with sacrifice. There is some nice music along the way and some swing dancing. It's a nice story.

I feel like there's a lot of potential to explore the vastly creative landscape of childhood make believe and imagination, especially with the works of Dr. Seuss, C. S. Lewis and even Bill Watterson. However, this short doesn't seem to do much with that idea beyond a typical love bond that gets offended by a generic villain. For what it's worth, the soundtrack and voice acting are pretty decent and there are some neat visuals to show off the different designs and functions of certain toys. That being said, just relegating the entire experience in a house doesn't add much pizzazz to the content. I think having the established little girl play with her toys outside in a backyard or even field would add some more visual variety to the story, because as is, there's not much to gain from just one setting alone.

However, the short's greatest failing is in its climactic resolution, not so much for what it tries to do alone, but by how it attempts to cloy at the viewer's emotions. This wouldn't be too much of a problem except the main doll and his sweetheart are not well defined or interesting enough to feel much sympathy for, and the resolution comes off as an almost direct ripoff of the Fleischer's Raggedy Ann & Raggedy Andy, not helped by Dave Fleischer being the producer of this whole ordeal. While that short wasn't perfect by any means, it at least felt a lot more sincere and genuine in its story and its main characters' relationship than this mediocre farce.

So yeah, there are far better works of childhood wonderment and imagination in the media, but if you are still curious to check this one out, I'm definitely not going to hold it against you. I personally don't view this as anything more than a subpar affair that comes off more saccharine and cloying rather than endearing or charming.