The Milky Way

I had not seen this short before, and it is an overlooked gem. The short is based on the nursery rhyme about the three little kittens who lost their mittens. Their mother sends them to their rooms without dinner. From there, they sail on to the milky way for plenty of milk and other dairy products. Unlike some of cartoons of the era, it is easy to understand the voices of the "characters" and the technicolor hues are still vivid. Walt Disney won the Oscar for Short Subject (Cartoon) for the first eight years it was awarded (1932-39); this cartoon broke his streak and is clearly one of the best cartoons of the era. I saw it on Turner Classic Movies during the annual "31 Days of Oscar" broadcast. Hopefully, it will be distributed on DVD in the near future.

This is dated, big-time, with most of the "narration" done is song and in the old-fashioned harmony of the '30s singers. It's a trip through space by three little kittens in a makeshift air balloon.

The three little kittens had lost their mittens, so it was no milk and an early bedtime for them. They gaze at the stars, see the Milky Way, and figure if they could get up there, they'd have all the milk they want. So, with the aid of a basket and three balloons, they head up into the heavens.

Where the film must have impressed Oscar voters was the depiction of the cheese-filled moon, comets, shooting stars from Mars, the big and small dippers, and all the variations of milk products in the Milky Way. All of those were portrayed fairly cleverly, but nothing exceptional. In fact, the whole thing looks pretty primitive and one wonders what kind of competition there was for the award that year. To have this win an Oscar is very puzzling. It's okay, but that's it.....just okay. I mean, it's a "cute" cartoon but not funny.

I saw this as part of a Marx Brothers DVD which a double-bill with "Go West" and "The Big Store."

This cartoon was notable as the first not from the Disney studio to win the Academy Award. It depicts three kittens who are sent to bed without supper because they lost their mittens. One of them sees the Milky Way up in the stars and decides to go up there to get some milk with the other two coming along. I'll just now say this was quite charming and imaginative and if you were a child who loved cartoons, this one was probably one of the cutest shown on afternoon TV during the '70s when one came home from elementary school. Rudolf Ising was the producer/director of this one and it doesn't look that much different from what his former employer Walt Disney was still making along this time. So on that note, I recommend The Milky Way for any animation buff out there.

"A Wild Hare" was nominated for the Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film, but was nudged out by the winner, MGM's June 1940 "The Milky Way" was the Academy Awards Best Animated Short Film, the first time Walt Disney, placing most of his resources on his feature films at the time, didn't earn an Oscar in that category. In fact he was shut out of the three nominated. Besides "A Wild Hare," MGM's "Puss Gets the Boot," a forerunner to Tom and Jerry cartoons, was the other nominee. In back of their minds the Academy voting members must have remembered the Disney look since "The Milky Way" resembles Walt's 'Silly Symphonies's' cartoons, which he ended in 1939.

The Rudolph Isling-directed "The Milky Way" has three kittens punished by their mother for losing their mittens while playing in the snow, to which they're sent to bed without their milk. They dream of going on a balloon space flight to the Milky Way, where all forms of milk is delivered and gulped down by the ravenous kittens. When they wake up, their mother regrets what she's done and prepares a dinner for them-of milk. The three kittens' stomachs churn just at the thought of milk.

MGM did a movie tie-in with the National Dairy Council, promoting "The Milky Way" with milk bottle caps as well as cards displayed in grocery store windows. The studio also advertised the cartoon on billboards alongside the National Milk Month logo.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

'The Milky Way' is fairly typical of Rudolf 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. Generally 'The Milky Way' belongs in the former category, despite the danger of falling into the latter with the premise.

As to the debate as to whether it deserved to win the Oscar, which some don't agree with, personally do prefer 'Puss Gets the Boot' and 'The Wild Hare' but 'The Milky Way' has a lot to like and far from undeserving of a nomination.

Yes it gets a bit too saccharine in places, like with the lyrics of the narration, and it is best perhaps to not talk about the story because there really isn't much of one.

What 'The Milky Way' does so well however eclipses these problems. The animation is rich in detail for design and backgrounds, vibrant in colour and crisp. Composer for the prime-era 'Tom and Jerry' cartoons and regular Tex Avery composer Scott Bradley provides a lush and atmospheric music score.

It is hard not to fall in love with the irresistibly adorable kittens, and they have enough likeability and personality to not be dull. 'The Milky Way' is rich in natural sweet charm and some very imaginative ideas and visuals. There is not much hilarious and the cartoon's hardly laugh a minute, but a good deal of it does raise a smile. The pace avoids being draggy.

Overall, lovely cartoon. 8/10 Bethany Cox