Crazy House

In the Walter Lantz-produced "Crazy House" (1940), Andy Panda and his dad lose their car in a flood and have to spend the night in a closed-up building that happens to be an amusement park-style "Crazy House," with all kinds of gag fixtures and rides contained therein. They try to sleep, but the house gets the best of them, chiefly because Andy, less out of mischief than willful stupidity, insists on pushing every lever he can find, sending his poor father on a succession of rides and various surprises, including a merry-go-round and a moving "dance floor" that puts him into different musical settings and, in one clever bit, gives him a life-size rag doll as a jitterbugging dance partner. The gags are never very funny, but the animation is fluid and the real treat here is the steady stream of beautiful art deco designs in the background art that begin to be seen about midway through the nine-minute cartoon, all sharply captured in Technicolor.