The King of the Elves comes to help a failing shoemaker industrialize through the doctrine of industrial capitalism.The King of the Elves comes to help a failing shoemaker industrialize through the doctrine of industrial capitalism.The King of the Elves comes to help a failing shoemaker industrialize through the doctrine of industrial capitalism.
- Director
- Writer
- Stars
Photos
- Elmer Fudd as King of the Elves
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- …
- Shoemaker
- (voice)
- (uncredited)
- …
- Director
- Writer
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- TriviaProduction was underwritten by the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.
- Quotes
Elmer Fudd as King of the Elves: A manufacturer who sticks to old equipment cannot compete, and must fail. To survive, he must persuade people to risk savings in his business. He can then buy new equipment, increase production, and show a profit.
Shoemaker: And he keeps the profit?
Elmer Fudd as King of the Elves: Oh no, that's what a lot of people think. But he doesn't. Out of profit, he must pay dividends to investors. Profit must be put back into the business to fund newer and better machinery.
Shoemaker: Spend his profit on machinery? When does it all end?
Elmer Fudd as King of the Elves: It never ends! Constant replacement with the latest machinery makes the industry more efficient, thus enabling it to pay higher wages and still make a profit. This efficient operation also results in more goods, a better quality, and produces them at a lower cost to everyone!
Shoemaker: By thunder, if that's the way it's done, I'll do it!
Yankee Dood It does have its good points, sure, with all the strengths being exactly the same as the strengths for Heir Conditioned. The animation, in distinctive Fritz Freleng style, is very bright and colourful with some nice background detail and nicely drawn characters. Even better is the vibrant and character music score from Milt Franklyn, it fits wonderfully and does add a lot to the action, it's rousing in energy, orchestration is rich and beautiful and rhythmically it's very lively yet dynamic. Mel Blanc, Arthur Q. Bryan and Daws Butler do reliably strong jobs with the voices, all three have had stronger material but they were still able to deliver some good energy, then again they were nearly always able to bring class and some sort of energy to even the weakest material. Despite having little to do, Sylvester is very nice to see, has some wildly amusing if very predictable moments and his personality is truer to the personality we associate him with than in Heir Conditioned, even with not much to do he didn't feel downplayed but he has been far more interesting a character.
However, Yankee Dood It's main problem is that it's not very funny, nor is it very informative. Whereas By Word of Mouse did entertain in its second half and Heir Conditioned had a few decent laughs with the alley cats, Yankee Doodle It's humour is spare, not sharp enough and is not unlike anything else we've seen with Sylvester, it is at best only mildly amusing. Unfortunately, Yankee Dood It also doesn't do a particularly great job on the educating and informing side, despite being the short to have the (slightly) most accessible subject matter of the three it is written in a way that is likely to confuse younger audiences and adults are likely to find it over-simplified and one-dimensionally explored. Some may criticise By Word of Mouse for 'glorifying the wonders of capitalism', but Yankee Dood It does this much more glaringly, with the low prices, higher wages it only shows the good sides of capitalism and not much else. The points the cartoon tries to make is delivered with heavy-handedly as well, so at the end of the day the cartoon, having failed at both its main objectives, just feels pointless.
The story is slow-going and what there is of it feels rather sugary sweet, complete with a very forced ending. Despite the good voice acting, the characters' material is not strong enough to carry the cartoon properly. Like in Heir Conditioned, it is nice to see Elmer less of an idiot than usual but with his personality as underplayed as it is what makes Elmer as memorable a character as he is doesn't come through here. The Elf and the Shoemaker are bland characters too, and the Elf's rapport with Sylvester fails to amuse or rouse because the material is so tired and predictable.
Overall, not unwatchable but doesn't have an awful lot of point to it. 4/10 Bethany Cox
- TheLittleSongbird
- Aug 2, 2015
Details
- Release date
- Country of origin
- Language
- Also known as
- Uhvati se u kolo pa igraj
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
- Runtime8 minutes
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 1.37 : 1