The Old Pioneer (1934) User Reviews

Decent Two-Strip Technicolor Cartoon

[boblipton · 5/10 · 14 September 2019]

A Kentucky-Colonel-type character tells a newsboy about his days fighting Injuns in this nice Harman-Ising cartoon for MGM.

First there was Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies; next, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising created Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes for Leon Schlesinger, and after they lost that contract, got a new one from MGM to create color cartoons for Leo the Lion to roar at. Because Disney had an exclusive contract for the new, 3-strip Technicolor process, they made this with the older two-strip method.

The gags are standard for the era, as is the animation and it seemed as if they simply took the black-and-white cartoon and colored it in, but there are a couple of nice point-of-view shots during the Indian attack.

The Old Pioneer is pretty entertaining for an initial Happy Harmonies cartoon despite some stereotypical Indians

[tavm · 7/10 · 20 November 2009]

Just watched this first M-G-M Happy Harmonies entry by Harmon-Ising on YouTube as linked from the Saturday Morning Blog. An old man encounters a young paper boy in front of a cigar Indian statue and tells of his early days during the California Gold Rush. Not a bad initial entry for a new series of cartoons though some of the humor concerning the hostility between the Native Americans and the settlers may not go well today. (In fact, the only scene I found funny was when some clothes from a chest ran away from an attack!) It does have some good music with entertaining animation to match when we see some animals play the instruments. And despite some stereotyping of the American Indians, there is also a pro-friendship lesson when a little tribe cub gets in trouble and the man telling the tale rescues him. So on that note, The Old Pioneer is well worth a look.

Not pioneering, not too old

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 10 November 2022]

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. 'The Old Pioneer' popped up as a random recommendation here when reviewing one of the Rudolf Ising cartoons and was on a roll with watching lesser known cartoons from the 30s, 40s and 50s (and have been for the past four or five years or so). It didn't sound particularly great and have often been iffy when it comes to stereotyping in cartoons, but 'The Old Pioneer' was still seen anyway.

It turned out to be a lot better than expected. 'The Old Pioneer' is far from pioneering or innovative and a classic it is far from, but it doesn't feel too old and is a good deal more interesting than it sounds from the synopsis. Was not expecting much from 'The Old Pioneer', but even with the odd cringe worthy moment and it is easy to see why it won't appeal to some there are a lot of good things. And from personal view there are far more offensive cartoons out there (i.e. Some of the "Censored Eleven" cartoons).

'The Old Pioneer' is admittedly very slight when it comes to the story, which is not surprising as all Ising cartoons are slight and in a good number of them best forgotten. It could have gotten going quicker.

Furthermore, the portrayal of the Indians is very stereotypical and induces a lot of cringing. Complete with some humour that is quite tired and may be less than tasteful today and a conflict that could have done with more tension.

However, there is a lot to recommend. The animation is vibrantly colourful and fluid, with lovingly crafted and detail background art. Nothing looks rushed or static. Even better, and this is probably the best aspect of 'The Old Pioneer', is the music, it is lushly orchestrated and very characterful in an energetic way that is not matched enough in the story and gags. Both are worth two points each of my overall rating.

Also found the titular character extremely endearing and easy to identify with. The tribe cub is sweet without being too sugary and it is always fun seeing animals play instruments. There are a few amusing moments, such as the clothes running away from the attack, but 'The Old Pioneer' scores a lot better with the well staged and cleverly animated climax and the pro-friendship moral, which is a sincere and heartfelt one that doesn't feel too sentimental like Ising cartoons are prone to. Really liked the chemistry between the cub and the titular character.

Concluding, decent but not great. 7/10.

A decent though stereotyped cartoon extra on my 'Manhattan Melodrama' DVD!

[talisencrw · 7/10 · 15 August 2016]

This cartoon was included as an extra on my 'Manhattan Melodrama' DVD from my 5-film TCM Spotlight's 'Myrna Loy and William Powell Collection', and was the first of MGM's 'Happy Harmonies' series. It's decent and quite representative of animation from the period, from my experiences in this field. The negative is that it had then-typical stereotyped views of Native Americans, but on the plus side, it encouraged friendship, as in the flashback, the pioneer's life was spared when the chief about to attack him heard from the child that he saved its life. I hope to check out the others in this series in due time, maybe on YouTube.