The Milky Way

OK, so I didn't love the squeaking singing as we meet the three little kittens who've lost their mittens - and it's freezing out there! Mama isn't impressed, so it's no milk and off to bed. These critters aren't happy that they've got no supper but are soon distracted by the Milky Way in the sky. How can they get there? There'll be loads of milk there, surely? Balloons might help, and a basket? There's the green cheese moon, the comet train, Martian shooting stars, and then they navigate the Dippers before arriving in a lactose Eutopia where there's loads of song-free fun to be had. Thing is, the moral of the story has yet to arrive! This is good fun with plenty of childish fun as the mice mess about in just about every milky substance know to man - or mice.

Remember that "The Milky Way" was released in 1940, and that the likes of Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, and Bob Clampett were just beginning to develop a new style of cartoon that would catch on during the war years and basically bring an end to the cutesy genre that includes this film. Indeed, if a panel in 2010 had to pick the Oscar-winner from among this film, "A Wild Hare," and "Puss Gets the Boot," this one would definitely come in third. But the panel that awarded the Oscar to "The Milky Way" was doing so in 1940, so it's not fair to condemn them when that particular style of cartoon was still popular. Having said that, I will admit that parts of the film are a bit saccharine by today's standards, particularly the narration in song. But anyone who can look at those kittens and not find them appealing has a cold, cold heart in my opinion. In fact, anyone who says the artwork is Disneyesque is paying the film the highest compliment, given that Walt Disney is the gold standard of animation. Dreadful? Hardly. I'm as big a Bugs Bunny fan as they come, and I know that even edgier cartoons like "The Simpsons" and "South Park" have pushed the envelope even more. But I can take the eight minutes of "The Milky Way" and see it as a pleasant alternative to much of today's stuff.

THE MILKY WAY is a bit of a transitional film from the schmaltzy cartoons of the 1930s and the more enjoyable and irreverent films of the 40s and 50s. Younger viewers might not know that in the 30s, many (way too many) cartoons were filled with sappy music and cutesy images and in many ways THE MILKY WAY is one of the last of these dreadful films. Considering that it was made by Rudolf Ising (who made a career of this style film), it isn't at all surprising that I hated the film. There's just so much singing and saccharine that I found myself wanting to see it infused with some Tex Avery sensibilities.

On the positive side, the animation was exceptional and showed that even before good writers and directors came to MGM's cartoon division in subsequent years, the animation was already stellar. In many ways, you could see the roots of the upcoming and very successful Tom & Jerry cartoons in this film. If only this film had an edge--it might have been a lot better. As it is, it's only a very pretty bit of treacle with a few nice touches.

Amazingly, it somehow garnered the Oscar for Best Animated Short. Apparently, the Academy were saps for this sort of stuff.

"A Wild Hare" was nominated for the Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film, but was nudged out by the winner, MGM's June 1940 "The Milky Way" was the Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film, the first time Walt Disney, placing most of his resources on his feature films at the time, didn't earn an Oscar in that category. In fact he was shut out of the three nominated. Besides "A Wild Hare," MGM's "Puss Gets the Boot," a forerunner to Tom and Jerry cartoons, was the other nominee. In back of their minds the Academy voting members must have remembered the Disney look since "The Milky Way" resembles Walt's 'Silly Symphonies's' cartoons, which he ended in 1939.

The Rudolph Isling-directed "The Milky Way" has three kittens punished by their mother for losing their mittens while playing in the snow, to which they're sent to bed without their milk. They dream of going on a balloon space flight to the Milky Way, where all forms of milk is delivered and gulped down by the ravenous kittens. When they wake up, their mother regrets what she's done and prepares a dinner for them-of milk. The three kittens' stomachs churn just at the thought of milk.

MGM did a movie tie-in with the National Dairy Council, promoting "The Milky Way" with milk bottle caps as well as cards displayed in grocery store windows. The studio also advertised the cartoon on billboards alongside the National Milk Month logo.

I had not seen this short before, and it is an overlooked gem. The short is based on the nursery rhyme about the three little kittens who lost their mittens. Their mother sends them to their rooms without dinner. From there, they sail on to the milky way for plenty of milk and other dairy products. Unlike some of cartoons of the era, it is easy to understand the voices of the "characters" and the technicolor hues are still vivid. Walt Disney won the Oscar for Short Subject (Cartoon) for the first eight years it was awarded (1932-39); this cartoon broke his streak and is clearly one of the best cartoons of the era. I saw it on Turner Classic Movies during the annual "31 Days of Oscar" broadcast. Hopefully, it will be distributed on DVD in the near future.