Small Fry

When I was a kid, I loved Max Fleischer cartoons. My two favorites were, Somewhere in Dreamland (1936) about two very poor children who go to bed one night and wake up in 'dreamland' which for them is a land with ice-cream fields,syrup rivers and cake mountains...where it rains candy all day and there are more toys than you could play with in a lifetime. I think every child, rich or poor from the beginning of civilization until now has had this dream.

My next favorite was 'Small Fry' (1939) about "Junior Catfish who skips school to hang out at the pool hall. Mama was worried he might have been caught by a fisherman instead. He returns home for dinner, then sneaks back to the pool hall for the meeting of the Big Fry Club. For his initiation, he's sent into a cave full of scary things that ultimately send him running back to mama's arms."

For some reason, 'Small Fry' crossed my mind today so I looked it up on YouTube. Of course YouTube has everything so I found it and watched it again after all these years.I was amazed. It still has a wonderful message but also elements we would never see in a cartoon of today; elements I never noticed until now: heavy tobacco usage, mention of spanking with a shoe, drug usage, and the final scene was actually really scary for me as a kid. lol.

It's funny, kids back then were so much less messed up than kids today...I guess it just goes to show...it must not be what they're watching.The problem must lie somewhere else.