Academy Award in Short Subjects, Cartoons - 1931/1932

Academy Award in Short Subjects, Cartoons - 5th Academy Awards - November 18, 1932

There were twelve awards in the 1931/1932 Academy Awards (about half of the current number of awards). This was the first award show to include Short Subjects, Cartoon. The eligible films were those shown in Los Angeles between August 1, 1931 and July 31, 1932.

For the Academy Awards, Walt Disney produced a short featuring his characters and caricatures of contemporary celebrities. He also received an honorary award for the creation of Mickey Mouse. The short's good. I particularly like the Jekyll and Hyde. It's interesting that he was given an honorary award about four years after Mickey premiered and Ub Iwerks was not. I don't know the story behind the lauding of Walt but it seemed to have been an award for the prestige Walt had attained in the industry as the cofounder of Walt Disney Studios.

The Nominees

It's Got Me Again! - Leon Schlesinger

It's Got Me Again! was released on May 14, 1932. I'm just going to say it. The mice look like Mickey. The rubber hose style of the era was popular in this time period and there were a few characters that looked like but it's a bit glaring. The voice in the cartoon kind of sounds like a version of the voice I've come to associate with Mickey. I found this to be the most enjoyable out of the three cartoons. The action is kinetic and the animation is well done. The characters are memorable. The cat design is cool. The attack with the drumsticks made me pause. I felt bad for that cat even though he was going to eat those cats.

Mickey's Orphans - Walt Disney

Mickey's Orphans was released December 9, 1931. The premise of Mickey and Minnie adopting a bunch of abandoned kittens on Christmas is nice. There's no point in reanimating the same sequence from scratch more than once, so animators use the same sequences more than once. You'll see this on display in pixel games with the walk cycle. Animation where characters walk all have walk cycles but it's easy to see this in the pixels because the sprites are so small and simple. You can find the sprites for famous games on websites. It feels like this cartoon lets the animations repeat just a little too long. It makes it stand out. The cartoon felt padded.

Flowers and Trees - Walt Disney - The Winner

This Silly Symphony cartoon was released on July 30, 1932. It's a beautiful work of art. A masterful display of animation. This was the first color film to win an academy award. It was also just a novelty. The cartoon did well due to Walt Disney's exclusive contract with Technicolor. The cartoon is beautiful and it tells a story but I find the story slightly dull. The cartoon wouldn't have had the same impact in black and white. It would have had nearly the same level of success. The short's significance would have been relegated to just another cartoon on Disney's filmography.

My Take

Flowers and Trees made me want to animate something but it doesn't make my favorites list. The animation work is beautiful. It's technically beautiful. I see why it won the Oscar even though I'd rather watch It's Got Me Again! I prefer the anarchic frenzy of Merrie Melodies.

BUT

I think Minnie the Moocher should have won. It's release date was within the eligible time period. This cartoon featuring Cab Calloway is a classic. There were reasons why Minnie the Moocher didn't even feature on the nomination list but whatever those reasons were were wrong. Minnie the Moocher is a classic.