Ali Baba
Ali Baba 1936

Ali Baba

Released
31 Jan 1936
Running time
00:08:00
Directed by
Ub Iwerks

Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter, hides in a tree and watches a band of thieves ride up to a rock, call "Open, Sesame!" and vanish into a cave. When they have gone he tries the words himself, the rock opens, and he finds a treasure hoard, from which he helps himself and goes home rich.

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About the cartoon

Studio: Ub Iwerks Studio (ComiColor Cartoons)
Distributor: Celebrity Productions
Produced by: Ub Iwerks

Short Synopsis

Ali Baba, a poor woodcutter, hides in a tree and watches a band of thieves ride up to a rock, call "Open, Sesame!" and vanish into a cave. When they have gone he tries the words himself, the rock opens, and he finds a treasure hoard, from which he helps himself and goes home rich. The thieves discover the loss and track him to his house, where their captain hides his men in a row of great oil jars in the courtyard and presents himself as an oil merchant seeking lodging. Ali Baba's servant girl, going to the jars for oil, finds a thief in each, and deals with them one by one with boiling oil before the captain can give the signal. The captain, finding his men cooked, flees, and the servant girl finishes him off with a dance and a dagger, as in the tale, and Ali Baba keeps his treasure.

Why It Matters

  • The oil-jar sequence, with a thief popping out of each jar and the servant girl dealing with the lot, is the Arabian Nights' best piece of slapstick and the Iwerks animators make the most of it; Shamus Culhane, who shares the credit, later said the studio's story work was improvised, and the film has that looseness. It is two years earlier than the Fleischers' Popeye version of the tale.
  • The film is in the public domain in the United States, its copyright never renewed, and it circulates in Cinecolor prints; it is one of the ComiColors on which three of the studio's directors are credited together, which is as close to a record of the studio's working method as survives. The Wikipedia entry is a stub.

Notes and Trivia

  • Culhane left Iwerks for Fleischer's shortly after and animated Betty Boop's Bamboo Isle's hula.
  • "Open, Sesame!" became a catchphrase in American cartoons through films like this one.
  • See also: Popeye the Sailor Meets Ali Baba's Forty Thieves (1937), Sinbad the Sailor (1935), Humpty Dumpty (1935).

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