Friday, August 01, 2008

Tokio Jokio's on You

Since "Tokio Jokio" will not be on the warti..."patriotic pals" disc, it's time to post this beautiful copy here. This is not a great cartoon, being full of racial stereotypes and corny gags (WW2 references and unfunny jokes were numerous in McCabe's shorts). However there's something to enjoy, expecially the animation by Davis, with chaplinesque Hitler soon coming to mind.





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See Youse,

Andrea
at

7 comments:

  1. Joe2:04 pm

    This cartoon always gets my vote for "worst cartoon ever." The gags are not just bad, they're embarrassingly bad. Usually a bad Warner's short will have at least one or two good spots to make up for the bad, but not this one. On the other hand, I've never gotten to see a complete copy of Tokio Jokio, so thanks for posting it!

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  2. Anonymous2:26 pm

    Not a good way to end McCable's short career as a director.

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  3. Bob3:55 pm

    Not exactly Norman McCabe's greatest achievement.

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  4. Martin Juneau5:07 pm

    I never seen "Tokio Jokio" completely before but this is just a weak short with easiest gags. It's still upsetting they wasn't in the Patriotic Pals disc.

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  5. Nick7:44 pm

    The art is nice, but its so painfully unfunny, not to mention ignorant (note the misspelling of Tokyo). It's of its time though, and its hardly surprising seeing as Corporal Norm McCabe was leaving to join the forces.

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  6. Anonymous5:30 pm

    I've heard rumors that even at the time, this cartoon was so poorly received, with audiences booing throughout, so that it was withdrawn from distribution (and given the national mood of anti-Japanese hatred in 1943, that says a lot).

    I wonder if part of it was becausee of the ridiculing of the Japanese Navy, depicting them as shoddily built and incompetent. In 1943, the Japanese Navy was still a serious force and the US Navy was only beginning to prevail, after some very ugly battles and major losses. Audiences knowing this, many of them perhaps having lost family members in such battles, would not find this funny at all.

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  7. Anonymous10:09 pm

    Lurked the blog for a while now. I appreciate your posts.

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