Balloon Land

Just watched this restored Ub Iwerks ComiColor cartoon on the DVD collection "Saved from the Flames". It is inhabited by creatures entirely made of balloons which includes three looking like Stan Laurel, Oliver Hardy, and Charlie Chaplin. Well, actually, there is a villain called the Pincushion Man who's what his name is and he likes popping anyone that comes near him so watch out! As with many of these '30s cartoons, there's plenty of music and the main characters are a boy and girl in love who persevere against all odds. The sound and colors are excellent and this was quite an entertaining cartoon from this period but I urge discretion if you want to expose your kids to this. So on that note, Balloon Land comes highly recommended.

This is a visually impressive cartoon, which should be expected from an Iwerks cartoon. As plots go, this was actually a pretty intricate one for the Iwerks studio, with a great villain voiced by a Disney regular, Billy Bletcher, who did Pegleg Pete, among others. The funniest bit for me was the town's "alarm" system. The Pincushion Man is really the most interesting character in the short, but it does offer some entertaining moments and is genuinely tense and frightening in spots. Iwerks deserves more notice and credit for what he had a responsibility for at Disney. His stint running his own studio wasn't as successful as he would have hoped, but he did produce (with an incredibly talented team, as a glance at the names of his employees will attest) some very good shorts. Balloon Land is one of the best that the Iwerks Studio created. Well worth watching. Recommended.

The glorious early cartoons of Ub Iwerks (he's the man who made Mickey Mouse move) make up for their lack of Disneyesque fluidity with a determined, and often startling, inventiveness. The story is quite conventional, and can be found in different guises in the medieval folk and fairy tales from which the film takes its visual cue. A young boy disregards his elders' advice about the safety of society, and goes into the woods with his girlfriend, clearly a metaphor for sexual pleasure. However, nature proves a rapacious shelter, and the couple are chased by a murderer who manages to invade their village and go on a killing rampage.

What makes this cartoon strange and different is that the characters and settings are made entirely, as the title suggests, of balloons. Iwerks' introduction of this fantasy world is masterly and brightly coloured, replete with balloon Laurel and Hardy, and Chaplin. It's not quite fantasy, however. The hero and his girl are created and given breath by an inventor and his machine; he warns them that they are mere air, and easily destroyed. On the one hand, this is a conservative message about the dangers of transgressing family and society, a danger which is chillingly realised.

On the other, the story is a fantastic dramatisation of what used to be called the human condition - we are just as vulnerable as balloons to the vagaries of chance and inhospitable nature; we too have been breathed into life by a creator who has left us so vulnerable, and whom we cannot satisfy whether we obey or disobey him. The Pin-killer is all destructive demon, though, gleefully revelling in his homicidal spirits, free, but sadly vulnerable too.

In a film of such wit and visual imagination, it would be difficult to select an enduring image, but there is one scene where the hero sounds the alarm, a cot of four babies whose bottles he swipes - the resulting din would wake the dead, and, as if following this idea, Iwerks zooms into one of the infants' bawling mouth, a terrifying glimpse of the abyss in a new-born child, a perfect encapsulation of the film's theme.

When people are balloons, those who control the pins will rule. Balloon land isn't just characters; it's structures and clouds and trees. But, of course, there is a villain: Pin Cushion Man. He has no motivation but to make life miserable for the balloon people. This is very colorful and quite well done in 1935.

While not one of my favourites, Ub Iwerks was responsible for a lot of interesting work. Especially when working with Walt Disney, his oldest friend and one of his best, and co-creating one of animation's most famous characters in Mickey Mouse. His career since opening his own studio had interest value but the quality was variable, often being successful in the animation and music but wanting in the story and variable in gags, lead characters and tone.

1933 to 1936 saw twenty five cartoons, mostly based on famous fairytales and familiar stories, as part of Iwerks's "ComiColor" series. The "ComiColor" series is very much worth watching and interesting, as is the case with many series some cartoons are better than others but there are no real animation nadirs. 1935's 'Balloon Land' is one of the very best cartoons of the series, only put 'Jack Frost' above it.

'Balloon Land' doesn't actually have much wrong with it. There is much more of a story than some of the other cartoons in the series and other Iwerks works, and feels much more than just a series of gags and events. It doesn't feel saccharine and has some substance. It is slight though and maybe a bit too simple.

However 'Balloon Land' has enough freshness to stop it from being stale. It avoids the over sentimental factor and is never dull. There are a lot of imaginative visuals and the transitions are smooth.

There are a few amusing moments that aren't too corny and never repetitive, it's very charming, is touching at times and there is a genuine likeability and cuteness without being over-sentimental. Plus the conflict is entertaining and frightening. The characters are nice enough in 'Balloon Land', the best being the deliciously wicked Pincushion Man who by default steals the cartoon. Billy Bletcher sinister vocal characterisation is a big part of why.

Furthermore, the animation is great. Meticulously detailed, fluid in drawing, vibrant in colour and often rich in imagination and visual wit. The music is cleverly and lushly orchestrated, is infectiously catchy and adds a lot to the cartoon.

Concluding, very well done. 9/10 Bethany Cox