"Little Black Sambo" is an American 8-minute cartoon from 1935, so this one is already over 80 years old. It is from the early days of the Golden Age of Animation and this Iwerks production is already in color. Still, it is not too popular or well-known compared to other color cartoons (no pun intended!) from back then, which on the one hand may have to do with the absence of characters like Donald, Bugs, Droopy and all the others. The little black kid is pretty much forgotten today and today most people only think of and talk about this short film when there is talk about racism and stereotypes in the early days of Hollywood. And "early days" is somewhat fitting because this is from the days that the NSDAP was in power in Germany just to put in in perspective how old it is already and not too long already before the Berlin Olympics. But enough with the background information now. Lets take a look at the specific film we have here. In my opinion, it is not a racist movie and if it is, then probably in both directions, which kinda makes it similar to how some thing are today. In contrast to that, there is just no political correctness and I don't think that this is the worst thing to be honest. Completely aside from this controversial subject, it can be said that the plot here is a bit thin, even for under 10 minutes. It's also not too funny sadly, here and there is a solid moment, but the majority of it is pretty weak, especially the chase sequences dog behind boy, then tiger behind dog and boy. By the way, why were they celebrating as the tiger was far from gone. They knew even as they feared him behind the door at the very end again. Oh well, I think people back then were more easily entertained, which is good for them and bad for us I suppose. The schadenfreude moment when the boy gets punched by his own invention for his cockiness at the very end is pretty telling. but not that entertaining. Skip this one, there's many other better cartoons to see, also from the mid-30s.
Review of Little Black Sambo
