A Busy Day

Ub Iwerk bounced from one studio to another, trying to keep at least semi-independence as a cartoon director after he lost his own studio in 1936. At this point he was in Great Britain, trying to make it a world power in movie cartoons, as David Hand would attempt after the war. In fact, this cartoon seems to bear more than a passing resemblance to Hand's ANIMALAND series. It is based on Gran'pop Monkey, created by Lawson Wood for his Collier's magazine cover illustrations; Collier's was one of the general interest slicks, like The Saturday Evening Post and Liberty.

It is a well-constructed piece of work, too, as Granpop wakes up in the jungle and heads over to his office to deal with the affairs of the day -- and is unable to deal with the help of his grandchildren. The gags are well timed, and the effect is cute without being overwhelmingly so.