Studio: Van Beuren Studios
Distributor: RKO Radio Pictures
Produced by: Amedee J. Van Beuren
Short Synopsis
Plot documentation for this short is thin, and this summary is based on the surviving film. It is opening night at the Roxy theatre. A pig in uniform stands at the door, and a well-dressed crowd of animals, an elephant, a horse, a dog and others in top hats and evening clothes, files in for the show. Inside, the star of the evening is Cubby Bear, who takes the podium in front of an enormous orchestra and conducts with great flourish. The musicians, rows of small animals with outsized horns, trombones and violins, follow every wave of the baton, and the orchestra rises around him in tiers as the performance builds. The individual gags and how the night ends are not described in any source this book could check.
Why It Matters
- The orchestra shots are the showpiece: dozens of separately animated musicians packed into the frame, each instrument moving in time, with Cubby's conducting the centre of a carefully staged musical number. It shows the Van Beuren studio competing directly with the big Disney and Fleischer musical shorts.
- It is the first appearance of Cubby Bear, Van Beuren's attempt to create a star to rival Mickey Mouse, Oswald and Bosko. Cubby headlined the studio's Aesop's Fables series until 1934, when Van Beuren fired the animators who had attended union meetings and the series came to an abrupt end.
Notes and Trivia
- Cubby was designed as the successor to the studio's earlier Milton and Rita Mouse characters.
- Van Beuren later hired Harman and Ising, the creators of Bosko, to make several Cubby cartoons.
- See also: The Last Mail (1933).