Foreverisacastironmess
Onions...boy, those old-time animators never stopped using their imaginations for a minute, did they! It does make one wonder, just what the heck is there that doesn't have a weird old cartoon about it? I thought this was a pretty fun, jolly little show, considering the absurdity of the subject matter! But then I usually do tend to go for the old animations that feature unique realms or anthropomorphic food or candy! That sure gave things a big leg-up for me with this. The story being set in a loopy little vegetable-world was something of a healthier alternative to other obscure mini-classics such as The Cookie Carnival, the Hot Choc-Late Soldiers, and the Bon-Bon Parade! It was quite bizarre, and featured several first for me-like, it was the first time I'd ever seen a banana skinny dip and then slip on its own peel, a caterpillar think it's Tarzan and of course an onion cry. I liked it better than the 1935 short Poor Me, which has practically the same plot, except it's all about a skunk. The quality of the animation was a little rough compared to some of the other animations of this time, but nonetheless I still thought it was very lush and bright and pretty. I don't know if it was just the one version, but the one I saw on Youtube was very amber-toned and yellowy. The little peach-girl looked a bit like Betty Boop, and I thought the main character was the cutest little noodle! That cool trick where he used his "hair" like a propeller was so neat! It was a little mean, but I found it really funny how in the scene after the pint-sized onion-boy has been rejected after trying to join in the play, the other fruits and vegetables rapidly jury-rig a contraption that fires corn like a machine gun at the little guy out of a knife and a corn-on-the-cob!!! I thought the purple-eyed, multi-armed galloping hairy caterpillar menace was pretty interesting, and its design was really cool. I loved the out-of-it expression on the thing's face when the onion's fumes start getting to it! He decides that just because food is running around and talking, is no good reason not to eat it! The little scrap between the onion and the caterpillar was surprisingly good and violent! The un-happy happy ending was so odd... Sure, the hero may have saved the day, but the girl was still crying, and all the others had decided to make the best of it by wearing gas masks and pinned clothes to tolerate the smell as they dance around him! It takes a special kind of creativity to make a short about walking-talking veggies and have it fly and not come off as really dumb and in fact really cute and fun! So kudos, Fleischer bros!
boblipton
One of the poorer of the Fleischer Brothers' cartoons, this suffers from a hackneyed plot -- no one likes the hero because of something that he is not responsible for (in this case, being a smelly onion) until it turns out that they need him (in this case, various fruits and vegetables) for rescue from an evil menace (in this case a caterpillar that looks a lot like a dragon from a Betty Boop cartoon half a decade earlier). Then joy and acceptance: now they like him because the caterpillar might come back and we need him, so put up with the stench.On top of that, it's one of the most poorly drawn Fleischers, with no fluidity of line -- although that might be an artifact of the print.
