It's John Hubley's first directorial credit and you'll find it hard to see. That's because this is a cartoon about an air raid warden trying to enforce a blackout, and the flame from a gas lamp refuses to go out. That's not what makes it hard to find. It was banned because it was set in Harlem and all the standard Black tropes of the period are in full play.
Is this why Hubley became a leader in the movement towards a more abstract style of animation? It may be one of the reasons, along with abstraction favoring less expensive, minimal animation and his own taste.
Factoring out the racism of the picture and looking at the cartoon purely in terms of execution, it is pretty good. Still, unless you are a bug for animation in all its iterations, you can avoid this one. It's certainly not generally available.
Is this why Hubley became a leader in the movement towards a more abstract style of animation? It may be one of the reasons, along with abstraction favoring less expensive, minimal animation and his own taste.
Factoring out the racism of the picture and looking at the cartoon purely in terms of execution, it is pretty good. Still, unless you are a bug for animation in all its iterations, you can avoid this one. It's certainly not generally available.
