Small Fry

I still want to be a big fry and go to the big fry club, playing pool, getting into fights like Russell Crowe, and smoke with the big fry! Don't you want to be a big fry?

A pretty simple story with some nice animation. A little fish leaves his family to show them that he is a "big fry." But, of course, he doesn't realize that the guys he is gravitated toward are thugs. Of course, it was 1939 and the outcome is pretty predictable.

Small Fry (1939)

*** 1/2 (out of 4)

Now classic animated short has a little fish deciding he wants to be a "tough guy" so he skips school so that he can hang out in a pool parlor. Later that night he decides to go back so that he can be tough but he's taught a valuable lesson. This short from David Fleischer was actually pulled from circulation because parents thought its themes were "bad" for children, which I found to be quite funny since this movie actually has a message for kids who like to skip school or smoke. Yes, there's a scene here where the fish tries a cigarette but is this really a reason to pull the film? The movie manages to be quite funny at times and there's no question that the message gets across very well. The animation and Technicolor are extremely good as well.

This cartoon was among my favorite and most memorable cartoons when I was growing up. Small Fry is the story of a kid fish, who has no interest in going to school and instead hangs out at pool halls and smokes. When Small Fry gets a chance to be a Big Fish, he jumps at the chance, only to get scared and run back home to his mother.

Cartoon has a great theme song. Small Fry character makes his second and final appearance in a Max Fleischer cartoon. He had first appeared in the cartoon "Educated Fish." "Small Fry" was released on April 21, 1939. Cartoon is in the public domain and is available on VHS and DVD by numerous companies.

In 2005 scenes from this cartoon were used in the horror film "The Ring 2."

This Fleischer cartoon is infamous for it's unusual fish freak out scene. A small fry fish, still in 'school', wants to smoke and be one of the big boys. He sneaks away after Momma catfish puts him in his room to study and winds up at the 'pool' hall, where all sorts of different kinds of larger fish smoke and shoot pool. They decide to induct him into the fish union and slip him a mickey before pushing him into a dark cave where he hallucinates as he bumps into all sorts of fish eating images. He runs home to momma and is happy at school thereafter. A simple enough storyline but the animation is cherce. A+++ M: