Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company 'B'

This is my third review of a cartoon nominated for an Academy Award for 1941 having previously done so for George Pal's Rhythm in the Ranks and Friz Freleng's Rhopsody in Rivets. In this one, a black trumpeter gets drafted in the Army and is made to play "Reveille" every 5 am to the consternation of his fellow recruits. But then he gets a magic instrument that lets him play it Big Band-style to the delight of everyone within listening distance. Of course, the title song that was made famous by The Andrews Sisters is warbled by the enlisted men. The depiction of the black men with big lips isn't too offensive to me but I did cringe when one of them showed a pair of dice as part of his teeth! Nice gags throughout and Walter Lantz really keeps things moving so that's a recommendation of Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B.

My assumption is that the only place you'll find this cartoon short is at archive.org, as they keep all sorts of cartoons on their site for download--including ones that were pulled by the studios because they were racist and offensive. Clearly "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company 'B'" is one of these, though the offensive material is more benign than many from the era. The big problem is that all the soldiers* are black characters sporting HUGE lips. This made folks laugh back in the 1940s but today you might just get a punch in the nose with this sort of stuff! It's a shame, as the cartoon is well made (particularly for Walter Lantz) and is quite enjoyable.

The cartoon has little in the way of plot and is basically the famous song--with a back story and about half of the cartoon made up of folks singing the catchy tune. Oddly, you do NOT hear the Andrews Sisters singing it. But the cartoon has a nice, goofy sense of humor (I particularly liked the alligator) and is worth a look.

By the way, this must have been popular back in the day because it was nominated for the Oscar for the Best Short Subject, Animated.

*If you wonder why all the soldiers were black, it's sadly because at the time the US armed forces were segregated.

This short, an Academy Award nominee, has great music, mostly the title tune, the animation is very good and it's a fairly decent effort. But most people will never see this, for understandable reasons. The cartoon is one large string of racial jokes and stereotypes from start to finish. If someone ever does a project to collect and release the music from the Lantz material, as was done with the Warner Brothers shorts, this is at the head of the list. Otherwise, you can forget about this one being made generally available anytime soon, if ever. Worth tracking down, but not for everyone. Recommended for the less easily disturbed. This one was over the top, folks.

A vast majority of Walter Lantz's work ranges between well worth seeing and must watches, even if some theatrical series are better than others (not unexpected as that is true of pretty much every animation director). He was responsible for some misses, but on the whole he hit more than he missed. Have always gotten a lot of enjoyment out of cartoons centered around music of all styles and really like this kind of premise, though racial stereotypes have always not sat well with me.

Which sadly is the case with 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B', and it really significantly brings down the cartoon and doesn't make it an easy watch. Not just by today's standards, but also for the time. Which is a real shame, because there is actually quite a lot here in 'Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B' that is good and even great. So this ranks alongside cartoons that are not easy to rate and review, which has always made me think especially hard (harder than usual, and this is coming from someone who has always thought long and hard about what to say and how to say it) to summarise.

Beginning with the good, the music once again steals the show, just love its characterful energy, vibrant rhythms, sumptuous orchestration and how cleverly and enthusiastically it's performed all round. Everybody involved clearly loved and understood the music style and made the absolute most of it. Close behind in quality is the animation (apart from some of the character designs), which is lush and colourful with vivid attention to detail and inventive movements in the sight gags. Really loved the Tex Avery-like facial expressions and body language.

There is thankfully a large number of gags and enough of them amuse in a goofy way, especially at the end where the momentum picks up. A few of the characters are quite fun, especially the alligator.

However, there are shortcomings. The story is very slight, even for this type of story where thinness is expected. But there is nothing here narratively, just a stringing along of gags, and it shows in some very uneven pacing with a first act that takes a little too long to get going. While enough of the gags amuse, there are others that come over as very tired and rehashed as well as too corny and cutesy.

Do wish that the characters had more consistent personality, too many of them are too just there. As said, what really brings down the cartoon is the racial stereotyping, which is throughout shockingly distasteful and made me feel really uncomfortable. The characters in question are also not well animated and the bigger lips than usual at a time where black people in cartoons were often portrayed with big lips distracted.

Overall, not unwatchable but it is difficult to get past the stereotyping. 5/10.

The tall and gangly "Hot Breath Harry" wows the jazz clubs until he is drafted into the army. They can't tell the difference between a trumpet and a bugle, so he is charged with blowing the reveillé at 0500hrs. That doesn't exactly make him popular - and after an altercation with an hatchet he reckons that he might have more success jazzing up this early morning wake up call so he uses a trumpet! Success all round as the story now morphs into a mildly amusing skit on all things military whilst accompanied by the eponymous Prince/Ray musical number. This was made just as President Roosevelt started his recruitment drive in earnest, so has a very specific purpose I think. It demonstrates that the army is a fun, inclusive and welcoming place. Tosh? Well maybe with modern day eyes, but in 1941 this had a job to do, and it just about does what it says on the tin in a lively fashion.