Little Ol' Bosko in Bagdad

Little Bosko's mother asks this little kid to take some cookies to grandma's house. However, his imagination gets the best of him and he imagines all sorts of strange things--such as giant frog-like genies, flying carpets and Stepin' Fetchit-like characters. It all makes very little sense and seems like a combination of Cab Calloway, the Nicholas Brothers and LSD.

What can you say about this cartoon other than the obvious?! "Little 'Ol Bosko in Bagdad" is a VERY dated cartoon short that abounds with racial stereotypes which would make most of us cringe today. Back in 1938, making fun of black people and portraying them as less than others was the norm-- and folks thought this sort of humor was quite funny. Today, it naturally makes us cringe and it's not surprising that the film was yanked from circulation. However, for historians and the curious, it can be seen or downloaded from archive.org.

On the positive side, the animation is pretty good and the cartoon is in color. On the negative...just about everything else.

This is a Bosko cartoon from the MGM animation studio. There will be spoilers ahead:

After Harman and Ising parted company with Warner Brothers, they took the character of Bosko with them and modified him, making him a little black boy. They made a number of Bosko cartoons for MGM. Several of these were extremely formulaic, to the point that they were essentially the same cartoon with minor plot variations.

Little Ol' Bosko in Bagdad is one of these. Bosko is given cookies by his mom to take to Grandma's. Along the way he meets frogs dressed as (fill in the blank) and they want some of Grandma's cookies. Bosko refuses, there are musical numbers throughout, Bosko is threatened, manages to escape and goes on to Grandma's, the end.

In this one, the details are out of the Arabian Nights, with a genie, a sultan, a bevy of frogs dressed as dancing girls and the like. Various frogs are caricatures of Louis Armstrong, Fats Waller, Bill Robinson, Stepin Fechit and possibly others I've missed. Movie audiences would have gotten the references and catch phrases in the 1930s.

The animation is good, the color is great and the musical stuff is excellent. The shorts are seriously dated and not very funny, but worth watching once.

The Bosko cartoons may not be animation masterpieces, but they are fascinating as examples of Looney Tunes in their early days before the creation of more compelling characters and funnier and more creative cartoons. There are some good cartoons, as well as some average or less ones.

'Little Ol' Bosko in Bagdad' unfortunately is one of Bosko's weakest, even in a period where most Bosko cartoons (from around 'Bosko the Drawback' to this) were barely average and very forgettable with a few exceptions (particularly 'The Old House' and 'Little Ol' Bosko and the Cannibals', two of Bosko's better overall cartoons).

As always for a Bosko cartoon the animation is good. Some of the most refined of all the Bosko cartoons, fluid and crisp enough with some nice detail and colour, it is especially good in the meticulous backgrounds and some remarkably flexible yet natural movements for Bosko. The music doesn't disappoint either and actually some of the best music in terms of how it's written and used in a Bosko cartoon, its infectious energy, rousing merriment, lush orchestration and how well it fits with the animation is just a joy.

One highlight is the Bosko and Bojangles tap-dancing, especially for the animation and how it synchronises with the music. Synchronisation and sound are very good.

However, wouldn't have minded the caricatures so much (far more memorable than a very bland Bosko, a limited character with little to do) if they weren't so racially stereotypical to even not bode well with anybody usually not so quick to dismiss anything for being racist, they also date the cartoon badly. The Fetchit caricature in particular really shouldn't be for the easily offended. This is coming from somebody who usually isn't easily offended, far from it, and tends to dislike criticising something as dated.

'Little Ol' Bosko in Bagdad' has very little that is funny (didn't laugh once and barely smiled even, a bad sign), has no imagination of any kind and too often lacks energy. The story is non-existent and the sluggish pacing and lack of laughs and originality do nothing to compensate.

In summary, very lacklustre at best. 4/10 Bethany Cox

I had previously reviewed The Old Mill Pond which, in my mind, caricatured many African-American musicians in a mostly flattering light. In this cartoon, Bosko (who's here redrawn as a realistic-looking black kid instead of the monkey-looking one from Warner Bros.) is tempted in a dream by a Louis Armstrong-like giant frog, complete with trumpet, to give him and his many palace co-worker servants a bag of cookies meant for Bosko's grandma. Those servants include caricatures of Stepin Fetchit, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and, as Armstrong's cohort here, Fats Waller with his piano. Love the tap-dancing animation between Bojangles and Bosko and much of the singing, but, as with The Old Mill Pond, the Fetchit character is offensive and annoying as is Robinson almost successfully tempting to trade Bosko's cookies with watermelon. Good thing Bosko refused! And the Armstrong-Waller buffoonery is too close to stereotypical to be funny. Worth a look, however, for what MGM cartoons were like before the arrival of Tom and Jerry and Tex Avery...