Poor Little Me

The little woodland animals are all playing together. A little skunk sadly sings "I ain't got nobody" and walks home. His mother is singing with her children and tries to comfort him. He goes back outside but everybody runs away from him except for one sneezy happy bunny.

This is an early color animation from MGM Happy Harmonies. The animation is primitive and looks a little ugly. The stink should show up on the screen. Also I don't know what the message is suppose to be with the ending. The bunny mommy throws the little skunk out into danger. In the end, the skunk has to stay home away from the outside danger. It would be a lot better to have skunk rescue the bunny and becoming the hero to the whole village. He should be playing with the rest of the animals.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera, Studio Ghibli and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. With significantly broader knowledge of different directors, animation styles and studios, actually appreciate and love it even more now.

As has been said a few times already, 'Poor Little Me' is fairly typical of Harmon-Ising, leaning towards the cute kind of cartoon with a lot of sentiment in alternative to the laugh a minute and hilarious kind, the latter being the one that a lot seem to prefer (understandably, though am hardly biased against the former). This approach has varied with Ising. In some instances it has been very sweet and charming, in others it can be cloying and too cutesy. Some fit in the former category, others in the latter category. Sadly, 'Poor Little Me' is one of the latter category cartoons.

'Poor Little Me' is not an unwatchable cartoon by all means. It may be underwhelming but there are redeeming values as well. Its best asset is the animation, it's vibrantly and atmospherically coloured and shaded, beautifully drawn and rich in meticulous background detail. The music is another big plus, it's lushly orchestrated, full of charm and character and fits with the visuals beautifully.

There are a few cute and charming moments. The bobcat is the most interesting character, being the only one to have any real personality.

On the other hand, the supporting characters are bland and Skippy not easy to endear to due to being on the wrong side of cutesy, they may have cute exteriors but their antics can leave a bad taste in the mouth. The story is barely existent and there are times when it drags hard.

Most of 'Poor Little Me' is too saccharine and cloying and some of the antics render it mostly charmless. Was not expecting a laugh a minute or hilarious cartoon, but 'Poor Little Me' is completely humourless, even the sporadic moments that should have amused a little.

In summation, underwhelming. 4/10 Bethany Cox

So the moral of the story is that you shouldn't worry if people don't want to be your friend as long as your parents love you? I don't know, but that whole concept seems woefully misguided.

Outside of one pretty cool swinging shot, this one is such a chore to get through. Seriously, why did the filmmakers insist on making their shorts longer than needed? It just makes the already paper thin story more unengaging. Plus, the short's antagonist was unnecessary and is more annoying than threatening.

Can we PLEASE have at least ONE story involving a skunk where their stench is not the primary focus? That would be nice.

A skunk is lonely because none of the other animals want to play with it in this Harman-Ising cartoon.

There seems to have been a genre of cartoons in the 1930s, based roughly on "The Ugly Duckling" about some poor, unloved critter, whom all the other animals hate because reasons. However, along comes a threat, the unwanted animal saves everyone else, and now everyone puts up with it. I call it "the useful idiot" and perhaps its most famous example is Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. Purportedly these preach tolerance. I think they do no such thing.

This cartoon is another example of he genre, although it's ameliorated by the other skunks having some self-respect, and the fact that there's a little bunny who is pleasant to the skunk before the threat appears.