Have You Got Any Castles? (1938)

Another entry in the "books come alive" subgenre, with possibly more books coming alive than any other. We begin with some musical numbers, notably the various pages of Green Pastures all ... See full summary »

Director:

Frank Tashlin

Writer:

Jack Miller (story)

Stars:

Mel Blanc, The Four Blackbirds, Delos Jewkes

Cast

Uncredited cast:
Mel Blanc	...	Town Crier / Praying Baby / Rip Van Winkle / Emily Host / Alladin (voice) (uncredited)
The Four Blackbirds	...	Vocal Group (archive sound) (uncredited)
Delos Jewkes	...	Old King Cole (voice) (uncredited)
Tedd Pierce	...	W. C. Fields (voice) (uncredited)
Georgia Stark	...	Whistler's Mother / Heidi (voice) (uncredited)

Storyline

Another entry in the "books come alive" subgenre, with possibly more books coming alive than any other. We begin with some musical numbers, notably the various pages of Green Pastures all joining in on a song, The Thin Man entering The White House Cookbook and exiting much fatter, and The House of Seven (Clark) Gables singing backup to Old King Cole. The Three Musketeers break loose, become Three Men on a Horse, grab the Seven Keys to Baldpate, and set the Prisoner of Zenda free. They are soon chased by horsemen from The Charge of the Light Brigade and Under Two Flags and beset by the cannons of All Quiet on the Western Front. All this disturbs the sleep of Rip Van Winkle, who opens Hurricane so that everyone is (all together now) Gone with the Wind.

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Plot Keywords:

horse | musketeer | singing | book comes to life | jail break | 

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Genres:

Family | Musical | Animation | Short | Comedy

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Certificate:

Approved

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

25 June 1938 (USA)

Also Known As:

Have You Got Any Castles

Company Credits

Production Co:

Leon Schlesinger Studios

Technical Specs

Runtime:

7 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The globe on the cover of Pearl Buck's book "The Good Earth" requests blessings for people in his family, including "Papa Leon and Uncle Ray." This is in reference to Leon Schlesinger, who was the executive producer of the Warner Brothers Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies cartoons up until 1944, and Raymond Katz, Schlesinger's brother-in-law, who also worked in the cartoon studio.

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Quotes

Rip Van Winkle: Old King Cole is a noisy old soul.

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Connections

Spoofs Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1931)

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Soundtracks

"Boulevardier from the Bronx"
(uncredited)
Music by Harry Warren
Played during the Thin Man sequence

User Reviews

A bit offensive and not all that funny but for a 30s cartoon, it's still better than average.

Before this short begins, there is a little written prologue about the racist nature of some of the humor in the film--as a sort of warning. I appreciate this instead of just censoring or hiding the film, as it IS a part of our history (for good or bad).

The color in this film is quite nice--vivid and better than the average 30s cartoon. What follows are a long series of mostly lame jokes where books come to life--with characters coming off the pages. The Asian and Black characters are a bit overdone (especially with the large-lipped Black cartoon characters), though compared to a lot of the images of Blacks in films of the time, this is relatively benign. I am not excusing it--but it could have been and often was a lot worse! Unfortunately, despite a clever idea and nice animation, I must also admit that most of the jokes weren't that funny and there was too much singing. On the plus side, however, there were lots of references to famous Hollywood films and actors, so lovers of classic Hollywood will probably enjoy this more than the average viewer. Not great but compared to the average cartoon of the 1930s, this is actually a bit better than average. Cartoons of the 40s would evolve for the better--with far less singing, better laughs and an edge--all which are problems with "Have You Got Any Castles?".