Scrappy's Big Moment (1935) User Reviews

Decent

[planktonrules · 6/10 · 23 August 2012]

The cartoon begins with Scrappy and Oogie working out in the gym. They want to be boxers and succeed in knocking each other out in the process. While out cold, Scrappy dreams of boxing the champ, Max Baer. He does very poorly until Oogie joins in and together they make mincemeat out of the champ.

Let's be honest about cartoon shorts in the 1930s. Aside from some excellent cartoons from Disney, most of the cartoons of this era were awful. You know it was a dreary time for cartoons when the next best ones were the Popeye cartoons from the Fleischer Brothers. Most cartoons were very, very cutesy--and singing and behaving in a VERY saccharine manner was the style. As for the Scrappy cartoons, they are a bit of an enigma today, as the available shorts are difficult to describe. Some, such as the wonderful "The Pest" were very funny and very, very dark. Others, such as "Camping Out", were typical cutesy crap. "Scrappy's Big Moment" is a film that is somewhere in between. It's not overwhelmingly saccharine but it also lacks the hard edge I was hoping to see. Good for 1935, only okay when seen today, though, like all the Scrappy cartoons from Columbia, very well animated.

Another daydream

[boblipton · 5/10 · 24 February 2009]

A lot of work and talent went into this episode in the 'Scrappy' series of cartoons, but I get little pleasure out of it, because it is clearly aimed at small children, with very little, except some technical work, of interest to an adult. The animation is fluid and cartoonish as Scrappy and Oopie train for and fight against a well-drawn Max Baer, a leading and feared boxer of the day who killed at least one man in the ring.

There are a couple of good gags in the opening sequence as the two children train: a shadow boxing gag and beating up one of those sand-bottomed boxing figures that were still popular in the 1960s. And certainly the set-up and logic would appeal to a small child. However, it never really cuts loose with its assumptions as the cartoonists over at Leon Schlesinger's, the Fleischer's and Disney studios did. It remains, therefore, a minor effort.