Out of the Frying Pan Into the Firing Line

Well, I had no idea bacon fat could be so deadly. And I'm sure the housewives of America at the time didn't know that common kitchen grease could be made into torpedoes that would sink Nazi U-boats or 1 billion steel tipped bullets to blow away the advancing army.

And hey, you know what? If you save a pound of fat and take it to your local butcher (if he is an official fat collecting station) he will give you cash-money for it. How about making a tidy little profit out of war eh?

This very, very short cartoon will probably never be shown again, even on TV unless another war breaks out and the Army needs your bacon fat. An interesting look at wartime propaganda nonetheless.

During WWII, Walt Disney began to concentrate mostly on the war. He would produce several cartoons promoting people to buy war bonds. This one promoted people to conserve bacon grease and other fats in the home so that it could be made into nitro glycerin and we've got Minnie Mouse and Pluto demonstrating for us. There really wasn't much comedy to this short, but I liked the part where Pluto goes down to the meat market to deliver the bacon grease and instead of being paid in cash, he wants wieners.

Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Firing Line is another example of the Disney wartime shorts. They are interesting and worth the viewing though not perhaps your idea of entertaining. Out of the Frying Pan and Into the Firing Line is one of the better ones. Like most of the Disney wartime shorts, there is not much especially that you'd call entertaining, apart from when Pluto is paid in sausages rather than money. But also like them it makes for great historical value, with a message that is simple and well put across with no heavy-handedness. There is not what you call a story specifically, but it doesn't bore you and makes its point effectively, and it was a good idea to use Disney characters to do so. Minnie and Pluto are not one of their stronger characters, but they are still very engaging and are well-matched together. The animation is great, being crisply drawn with handsome colours, and the music is lively and appealingly orchestrated.

All in all, interesting and very nicely done. 8/10 Bethany Cox