BOOTLEG FILES 804: \u201cWacky Wigwams\u201d (1942 animated short). <\/p>\n
LAST SEEN:<\/strong> On YouTube.<\/p>\n AMERICAN HOME VIDEO: <\/strong>None.<\/p>\n REASON FOR BOOTLEG STATUS: <\/strong>It fell through the cracks. Unless you are a die-hard animation aficionado, there\u2019s an excellent chance that you are unfamiliar with the output of Columbia Pictures\u2019 Screen Gems animation studio in the 1930s and 1940s. Truth be told, their films were never as invigorating or innovative as those from the major Hollywood animation studios of the time, and their obscurity was compounded by not being part of the television rerun culture that ensured cult status for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer animation. The 1942 \u201cWacky Wigwams\u201d was one of the better \u2013 or perhaps, less bad \u2013 of the Columbia cartoons. Much of the credit for that could be attributed to Frank Tashlin, who generated memorable work while at Warner Bros. and Disney and held a production supervisor role on this work. One major negative aspect for the film from a contemporary viewpoint would be its stereotyping of American Indians \u2013 yes, it is politically incorrect by today\u2019s standards, but the film is so broad and goofy that any belated insults borne from its humor could be attributed to ignorance rather than deliberate malice. \u201cWacky Wigwams\u201d is a film of its time, not ours.<\/p>\n \u201cWacky Wigwams\u201d takes on the trappings of an old-school travelogue designed to enlighten yesteryear\u2019s viewers on distant and exotic cultures. The short opens with an appropriately pompous narrator bloviating, \u201cDeep in the Indian Country, steeped in misty legend, night like a shroud studded with jewels begins to pale before the first glimmering of day.\u201d Whether the writers were trying to be funny or not is unknown, but the thick imagery is among the funnier aspects of this film.<\/p>\n From here, \u201cWacky Wigwams\u201d takes on a hit-and-miss aspect with sight gags designed to poke fun at both the Indians and at the stereotypes manacled to their culture. The viewer is initially greeted with a skein of crummy gags: \u201cChief Thundercloud\u201d is presented as an anthropomorphic cumulonimbus, the \u201cIndian reservation\u201d is a line for tickets to a ball game, and an Indian \u201cscalper\u201d tries to entice the viewer with hard-to-get tickets for the much-anticipated game. (And, yes, we get to see that celebrated tribe of the \u201cCleveland Indians.\u201d)<\/p>\n There is an \u201cold witch doctor\u201d who is seen concocting a potion that turns out to be a pot of tea, with the Indian speaking in a posh Noel Coward-style accent. There is a medicine man who performs the \u201csnake dance\u201d to bring rain \u2013 naturally, he goes into reptilian slithering \u2013 and an Indian rug weaver addresses the audience in a mild Yiddish accent to warn about the quality of his workmanship.<\/p>\n The first and only woman Indian in the film is in the sight gag related to the Cherokee Strip (an obvious nod to the jaded middle-aged men in the audience). There is also a reference to Florida\u2019s Seminole tribe that includes the unexpected appearance of an alligator who speaks in a gravelly voice reminiscent of Eddie Anderson\u2019s Rochester character on the Jack Benny radio show.<\/p>\n The second half of the cartoon picks up with an extended chase between two smart-aleck talking buffalo and a squad of Indian horsemen. The gags here are more satisfying, particularly an Indian-style ambulance featuring a white teepee emblazoned with a red cross. The film\u2019s closing gag involves the medicine man\u2019s efforts to produce rain \u2013 without giving away the joke, it is safe to say that any car owner will appreciate the payoff.<\/p>\n \u201cWacky Wigwams\u201d was released in February 1942 and didn\u2019t make much of an impression \u2013 but, then again, very little of Columbia\u2019s animated shorts resonated with the moviegoing public. For years, it was difficult to access \u2013 Daniel Ira Goldmark\u2019s 2011 book \u201cFunny Pictures: Animation and Comedy in Studio-Era Hollywood\u201d lamented that the short was among five cartoons not considered for assessment due to \u201cthe unavailability of video reference copies.\u201d Since then, however, slightly faded copies have been included on a few collector-to-collector DVDs and there is an unauthorized posting on YouTube.<\/p>\n While it is no one\u2019s idea of a classic, \u201cWacky Wigwams\u201d is a silly curio that will entertain those who are eager to trace Tashlin\u2019s cinematic work and to enjoy under-the-radar animation from Hollywood\u2019s Golden Age.<\/p>\n
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\nCHANCES OF SEEING A COMMERCIAL DVD RELEASE:<\/strong> Probably not.<\/p>\n
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