User Reviews

'The Stubborn Mule' (1939)

Opening thoughts: Have seen a lot of the cartune special cartoons over time (some first time viewings recently, others re-watches), and while they are a mixed bag in quality there are plenty that are well above average and more. Burt Gillett did do a good deal of great work in his earlier career, with some of the best Disney cartoons (i.e. 'Lonesome Ghosts' coming from him), but his later work varied with some good cartoons but also some rather average ones. Same goes for Walter Lantz.

'The Stubborn Mule' is one of three cartoons to star Li'll Eightball. Watching this and the other cartoons, which are not much better on the whole and for pretty much the same reasons, it is hardly surprising that he and his series didn't last long. This is very weak and one of the worst Cartune special cartoons and among the worst for both Gillett and Lantz. To the extent that there was real disbelief of it coming from them. It even manages to waste a legend and in my mind that's unforgivable.

Good things: It is not all bad. The animation is vibrant and beautifully detailed, with also some nice atmosphere.

Even better is the very characterful music, that is also lush in orchestration and rousing and does so well at enhancing the action rather than merely adding to it.

Bad things: Unfortunately, that is pretty much it for the praise. It badly lacks energy and is sorely lacking in laughs, in fact in material and atmosphere the cartoon has next to nothing to it. The story is pretty much non-existent and is very predictable.

Also found the titular character himself very unappealing and personality free, basically he is little more than a very bland stereotype. There is a lot of racial stereotyping here, even for back then, and they are hard to take, cliched and in bad taste (even when judging it for back then). The waste of the God of voice acting Mel Blanc is truly unforgivable.

Concluding thoughts: Summarising, very weak.

3/10.

A frustrated Italian cart driver gives his mule to a small Black boy. The boy then spends the rest of the cartoon trying to persuade the mule to get up and do something in the first of three "L'il Eightball" cartoons from Walter Lantz.

Lantz had just retired Oswald the Lucky Rabbit -- although he still appears as "presenting" the cartoon -- and was searching for a new star. With Burt Gillett, newly hired from Disney as his director, he tried an African-American character, and produced three cartoons that, had they been from Schlesinger's Studio.... well, the "Censored Eleven" cartoons would be at least 14. As a result, this one is hard to find. This raises a minor, but interesting point: the Italian cart driver is just as stereotyped as L'il Eightball. Lantz himself was Italian. What did he think of the stereotype?

Pushing aside such issues as how a cartoon made for release to children n 1939, with no thought about how it would strike a sociologically-minded audience of adults eighty years later -- if we can -- how does this one stack up? Depending on your take, either it flails about, trying to find a voice, or it has a lot of different jokes of all sorts for everyone.

Lantz knew he had to find a star character to lead his cartoons. He would soon find one with Andy Panda, and enormous success with Woody Woodpecker. Sticking a lot of gags of different sorts into this cartoon was a way of giving different senses of humor something to enjoy, and that's good. However, it resulted in inconsistencies for the lead character, and that's bad -- and even in 1939, there were some audience members who were annoyed by the stereotype.

If this had starred Daffy Duck or Bugs Bunny, with the exact same joke setups, in 1939, it'd easily be an 8/10 star rating. But the over-the-top racism (sadly voiced by superstar voiceover artist Mel Blanc) makes it impossible to rate higher than the lowest possible.