Inki and the Minah Bird (1943)

It is a performances centric movie

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Fresh and Exciting

Great movie! If you want to be entertained and have a few good laughs, see this movie. The music is also very good,

Players: "Inki", "Minah Bird", "Lion".Director: CHARLES M. JONES. Animators: Robert Cannon, Shamus Culhane. Lay-outs: John McGrew. Color by Technicolor. Producer: Leon Schlesinger.Copyright 31 October 1949 (in notice: 1942) by The Vitaphone Corp. (Which means of course that the film is actually not copyright at all as the statutory period for registering the original copyright had long since expired. However, it would be foolhardy to risk making a copy as Vitaphone have access to some very smart lawyers who could tie you up for years in court). A Warner Bros "Merrie Melodies" cartoon. U.S. release: 13 November 1943. 1 reel. 7 minutes.COMMENT: This "Merrie Melodies" cartoon entry comes across as rather more than somewhat below par. It should in fact really be titled "Inki, the Lion and the Minah Bird". A great deal of the action actually centers on the first two, namely Inki and the Lion - and neither very witty nor smartly paced action it actually is either. Indeed, despite the charm of some of the backgrounds, this entry signally lacks comic invention in both spot gags and situations.

HITTING THE APPROACH from what could be described as a different angle, this cartoon short subject is as mysterious and even bizarre as any one reeler could be. Introducing us to this new character, young Black Native boy, Inki, the production team hits the ground running. Or rather we should say walking; as the pace is noticeably slower than a more typical LOONIE TUNES/MERRIE MELODIES bot of output.THERE IS SORT of triangle of competition established between little Inki, an over-aged male Lion with dentures and this surreal minah bird. Whenever there is some fast-paced action sequence pitting the little man vs. the king of beasts, the slow and deliberately easy paced minah intervenes passively; his moving through each scene, keeping cadence to the 'tune' of Felix Mendelsohn's THE HEBRDIES (aka FGINGAL'S CAVE Overture).THERE SEEMS TO have been some blacklisting of this cartoon because of the caricature of Inki as being stereotyped and not acceptable in this modern era of ours. This we believe is the bunk.THE CHARACTER DESIGN of the little hunter is a fine example of the merging of some great character traits. True, this little native boy is inept with his hunting; but, that is an expected flaw in the young and inexperienced, regardless of whatever the ethnicity, race or national origin.WE VIEW THE design and handling of the character as innocent fun; that has not even the most remote bit of bigotry in its inception. Inki is a dark skinned little cherub, with all the foibles of the young and inexperienced.

Inki and the Minah Bird (1943) ** (out of 4) Another Warner cartoon that won't be seeing a legit DVD release anytime soon due to the racial nature of the title character Inki. Inki, a black girl, and her pet bird go out into the jungle where they run into a lion who wants to eat them. I think this one here falls into the category of being convicted for no reason in a politically correct world. There's really nothing too offensive here but I'm sure that's not going to keep warning from giving this an official release. It's not even really worth an official release because the film itself isn't that good. There aren't too many laughs and I thought the animation was rather weak considering it was from the master Jones.

The offensively portrayed Inki continues his hunt throughout the jungle, antagonizing a lion. It's no surprise that cartoons like "Inki and the Minah Bird" are harder to find than Warner Bros.'s most famous cartoons, given how they drew Inki. It's very much a product of the old style Euro-American view of Africa.I get the feeling that these cartoons won't come to DVD anytime soon. If Warner Bros. brings these to DVD, they should put them in a section identifying that these were creations of a pre-conscious era. There were a number of their cartoons like this; others included "Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs". Good to see as a historical reference.