Little Boy Blue (1936)

Fresh and Exciting

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

It is neither dumb nor smart enough to be fun, and spends way too much time with its boring human characters.

This is an Ub Iwerks Comicolor cartoon. Like most of the Comicolor shorts, it has lovely animation but not much else going for it. When the story begins, lazy Boy Blue is sleeping away as the Wolf is stalking for prey. The Wolf grabs a girl's sheep (perhaps she's Mary from Mary Had a Little Lamb) and Boy Blue and his scarecrow spring into action.So what's not to like about this one? Well, it starts off with some very sappy singing--the sort of stuff that make many 1930s cartoons practically unwatchable today. Additionally, bland characters and a rather creepy scene where the scarecrow is decapitated make this a tough film to love.

Little Boy Blue (1936) ** (out of 4)Ub Iwerks directed this animated short, which is just a knock-off on Disney's Big Bad Wolf series. Little Boy Blue might be the title but the real story deals with a wolf trying to eat a baby sheep. Little Boy Blue and a scarecrow eventually come to the rescue. For the most part there's really nothing overly entertaining here, although if you are a fan of the director then you'll probably want to still watch it. The animation is pretty good for the most part and there's no doubt that the wolf character is mildly entertaining. The biggest problem with the film is that the story just isn't all that original and nothing fresh is done with it.

I really don't know why this is called "Little Boy Blue" since his character plays a minor role in this story. The hero of the fairy tale is the scarecrow, not Little Boy Blue who only enters the "action" in the last 30 seconds of the cartoon after the scarecrow had defeated the "big, bad wolf." Earlier we saw scenes in which led to the climactic final, how one black sheep in the group inadvertently helped the wolf in going after the other lambs.Overall, this is a very weak Iwerks' effort because there is almost no humor to this cartoon. The only saving grace is an excellent "score" by one of the best-ever in the business, Carl Stallings. The music is here will get your attention more than the story or visuals.

This one was released a couple of years after the classic Disney short entitled "The Big Bad Wolf". I saw this short under the same exact title on a DVD compilation of cartoons.Instead of chasing the Three Little Pigs, this wolf is terrorizing the sheep of Little Bo Peep. Her sole black sheep does an exaggerated dance routine and then dons a wolf mask to scare the white sheep. Unbeknownst to him, a real wolf has been carefully watching and decides to pull a prank of his own.The wolf is able to grab one of the sheep and carries it away. Once inside his domicile, the wolf grabs a multitude of knives and begins to sharpen one of them. It's up to a singing and dancing scarecrow(!) to race inside and try to save the helpless woolen creature. There isn't an impressive moment in this one and I would stick to watching the superior short which this was likely inspired by.