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| Disney and KKK-like killers |
I recently watched Alice's Mysterious Mystery, Alice's Little Parade, and Alice's Orphan. The experience allows me to say without hesitation:
Walt Disney was a messed up guy.
Of course, I say that as a modern viewer revisiting these. I am sure they are "of their time," but I just do not get it.
Let's start with Alice's Mysterious Mystery. I figured a fun detective comedy would be a way to forget my issues with the 1925 shorts. Man, was I wrong.
The "mystery" is solved pretty quickly as Alice and her cat follow footprints to a bird with shoes. But that leads them to a mouse and what-I-am-assuming-is-a-bear are operating a dog catching racket where they capture canines and ship them to a sausage factor.
How do they do this? By donning KKK outfits, sorting the dogs (grade A or B) and sending them to the death chamber. Especially disturbing was a scene where a dog is pacing on death row and a priest arrives to give the last rites. The dog begs for his life, gets dragged into a death chamber and moments later, is dragged back out as links of sausage. For a viewer in 2011, it's hard not to view this short through the eyes of World War II Germany.
In a similar vein, Alice's Big Parade has a misleading title. It's actually about preparing and executing a war. Alice is the general, but her cat is the recruiter/field commander. As in previous shorts, the feline can remove his tail to use as a weapon. As they battle the mice, the cat stations himself at one end of the enemy's trench and leaves a slice of cheese. As the mice are drawn to the smell, the cat clubs them over the head with his tail.
Alice's Orphan is about an orphan cat that Alice and her pet take care of. There were again some cringe-worthy moments. Early on, the cat is watching a female cat ice skate when she falls into the lake. He makes the save and she instantly falls in love with him. But there's a problem: she's ugly. So the cat throws her back into the hole and seals it up (presumably drowning her). Later, when he unsuccessfully tries to get the orphan to sleep, our cat hero resorts to using a mallet on the child. Not funny. Not even smile-inducing.
The shorts continue the trend of completely sidelining the title character. She's slightly active in Alice's Mysterious Mystery, but in the other two, she's a non-entity. In Alice's Orphan she is barely in it and does nothing. I thought part of the appeal of these was the interaction between live action and cartoon characters?
I have never watched anything by Disney and felt like I needed to shower afterward. Until these Alice shorts. They are an historical curiosity but nothing more.
Alice's Mysterious Mystery: * out of *****
Alice's Little Parade: ** out of *****
Alice's Orphan: *1/2 out of *****
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