Small Fry

This is a very good cartoon. However, it's no longer in general circulation due to changing times--as well as folks who want to protect our kids. I find it strange that this film was shelved because it depicts smoking and advocates slapping the crap out of your kids when worse mind-rot is available on most TV channels. As for the smoking, the film is AGAINST that. And, while the mother fish in the cartoon talks about 'putting him across me knee', no acts of violence were perpetrated in the cartoon. It's just a very cute morality tale about a young fish who wants to grow up too quickly--and do all the things the tough older fish want to do. And, while I usually hate singing in cartoons, the tune "Small Fry" is very catchy and fun. My advice is watch the cartoon (it's available for free download at archive.org) and forget about the do-gooders who hate this and other old cartoons that might actually be fun!

By the way, although the film says it's in Technicolor, it sure looks like the old Two-Color Technicolor due to the effects of aging and a need for restoration. The film is VERY orangy--which sometimes happens with older Technicolor film with age.

This odd cartoon from 1939 is really a cult film. The bizarre story makes it enjoyable. It has a great score by Hoagy Carmichael.

When a film is 7 minutes long, it really doesn't have much time to pull you in to the story. A few minutes of background info takes up half the film. Because of this limitation, many early cartoons have either very simple or very non-sensical plots, while others have no plot at all. But Small Fry is that rare gem that is able to pull you in to the story with only the smallest amount of background. A teacher's pet is sent to the Catfish house with a note asking why Junior Catfish wasn't in school. It reads, "Did he play hookey or did he get hooked?" Suddenly you actually do care about the whereabouts of this fictional fish you've never met or heard of before. Throughout the rest of the short, Small Fry just hits all the right notes--the music, animation, and story line are all top notch.

I still want to be a big fry and go to the big fry club, playing pool, getting into fights like Russell Crowe, and smoke with the big fry! Don't you want to be a big fry?

I first watched this movie as a kid, and I thought it was great. I watched it again today and I still loved it. This is a very old cartoon, which by today's standards of what good animation is, lets just say it doesn't score high marks. But I think what really matter is the story, not the quality of the animation. This cartoon is old and it shows, but its a lot better than the stuff kids watch today i.e. pokemon,which has basically the same plot recycled each episode about a thousand times. This cartoon is original and I think it still stands the test of time. No, its not very long, and its kinda hard to find now days, but if you do get a chance to see, I suggest sitting down and watching it. This movie over all is short but sweet.