THREE ORPHAN KITTENS (1935)

 RELEASE DATE: Saturday 26th October 1935

SYNOPSIS: On a cold winter night, three helpless kittens are abandoned off the side of a road. Seeing an open window on a nearby house, they sneak in, hoping to find some food or warmth. These kittens have a habit of getting into trouble though, and the housekeeper is certainly not keen on letting them stay!

IRVYNE: The kittens in this movie are just so adorable, I had to chainsaw down a tree, just to reinstate my manliness.

WENDY: They are SO cute.

SHENZI: Why didn't we see any of the peoples' faces?

MALEFICENT: Because they didn't want to focus on the people. Everything was from the kittens' perspective.

HAKU: The animation on the floor was really good, with the parallax motion. The way it moved in three dimensions, when you know every frame was hand-drawn... that's pretty impressive.

MALEFICENT: Yeah. The dimensions were amazing.

IRVYNE: And the reflections! The shiny floor sequences were just exquisitely animated.

PASCAL: And the kittens themselves as well. Their movement was fantastic. All of their little pounces and bum wiggles were perfect.

MALEFICENT: And yet they were still real little characters. Their facial expressions were great. They got up to so much mischief!

HAKU: Once again though, there would be a few touchy racial issues with this cartoon. You've got the black housekeeper, and there's even a golliwog in there.

IRVYNE: Wikipedia says that in the 1950s and 60s the golliwog scene was cut out, but then the reinserted it in future releases. I guess we just have to accept that something like a golliwog was simply acceptable in the 30s, and if you don't like it now, you just have to take it as historical of the time it was made.

MALEFICENT: "Laaaaaand SAKES!"

IRVYNE: Anyway, I love this cartoon. It's one I remember watching a lot as a kid, and like Music Land it's full of so many clever little touches, it's funny, and it's just so darn adorable!