I thought it would be interesting to compare an early Japanese cartoon with some of America’s early cartoons. It is my belief that since animation got it’s origins in Western Europe and especially the USA, that cartoons would be a bit more advanced than cartoons in foreign countries. (at least during the early years of animation)
As you can see from this animation, it would seem that my original assumption would be correct. The animation is of a much more simplistic quality than that of American animation. Disney’s Steamboat Willie came out 5 years prior to this short film, and not only does their not seem to be any improvements on the quality, but rather the quality seems to be worse. By this time, Disney was miles away from where he was when he created Steamboat Willie. Many things appear to be borrowed from American animation as well. For instance, one of the main characters looks a lot like Felix the cat! Also, many of the characters eyes are very round and this could be the animators copying the Americans as well because round eyes are a characteristic of western people. Or it may be simply that it is easier to portray emotion in larger eyes.
Furthermore, a lot of adult humor exists in this short film. Disney used some more adult humor in his early cartoons such as tobacco spitting. However, this Japanese cartoon features smoking (probably opium) and drinking. I know that what he is drinking is alcohol because the cartoon even portrays the drink changing a characters attitude immediately, and the animators show a main character passed out with the bottle.
The story itself may be derived from a Japanese story, but it looks to be a story similar to the Wear wolf stories. The film could also be trying to make some social implications. The cat breaks up into multiple little cats and takes on the much larger man who they are fighting. They are portrayed as having the ability to truly scatter, or at least harm, the man. This film, which was released only 8 years prior to the attacks on Pearl Harbor, could be one of the things which was signaling that future event. A japanese person could make a good argument that the drunk person bullying the cat is the United States, and that with persistence and ingenuity, the cat can take down the larger, belligerent person.
I commented on Katherine Danoy and Haileigh M’s blog
