A Year in Shorts Day 81: "Tea for Two Hundred"

While we at The Great Oscar Baiter believe strongly that art is in the eye of the beholder, there are some things in the world of cinema that are objectively true. Casablanca is a great movie. Crash is not. But above all else, we hold this to be true- Donald Duck is fucking hilarious. Which is why it hits especially hard when a Donald Duck short somehow manages to be bad. It feels like a betrayal on a cosmic scale. And so it gives me no pleasure to report that today’s film, the 1948 short Tea for Two Hundred, is kind of a dud.


(via Wikipedia)


Once again directed by Jack Hannah, the premise for Tea for Two Hundred is certainly promising enough. Donald is trying to enjoy a nice picnic in the woods when he makes the mistake of antagonizing an ant. Well, the ant doesn't take that lying down, and soon he has a whole army of them trying to steal his lunch. It's a fairly basic setup, but one can see where a lot of great bits can be spun out of it. And yet...

Part of the problem is I feel like Donald is sorely misused in this short. Donald works really well as an antagonistic figure, but the ants don't really work as good foils for him. And there's very little for Donald to do other than yell at the ants and have his food stolen. Clarence Nash's vocal performance is great as ever, but he doesn't have much to work with. Besides, Donald really deserves everything that comes to him in this short, and that's just not as funny as when it's more even-handed. First he bullies a little ant, then falls asleep immediately after setting up a picnic big enough to feed an entire family? There's a lot of strain in the setup is what I'm saying.


(via Internet Animation Database)


And of course once again we have to deal with racism in our Disney cartoons, this time in the form of the ants, caricatured to look like African tribesmen. If one were feeling generous I suppose they could say that the short could certainly be worse, but I am not feeling generous. Even if the short is not actively hateful, it's still racist, and that's not just something you can ignore. And besides, there really is no excuse for basing one of the ants on Stepin Fetchit.


(via Internet Animation Database)


Is Tea for Two Hundred the worst Disney short? No. There's some decent sight gags, the animation is solid and the painted backgrounds by Thelma Witmer are very lovely. But frankly I expect more from Donald Duck, and so should we all. Tea for Two Hundred didn't win the Oscar that year, losing to the Tom and Jerry short The Little Orphan. That short was pretty racist too, but it was a damn sight better than this one!


Keep up with the Oscar Baiting here on Letterboxd!


"Tea for Two Hundred" is NOT available on Disney +, presumably because all of the racism. I can understand the sentiment, but I feel like Warner Bros. deals with its past of racist cartoons a hell of a lot better than Disney does.


The Great Oscar Baiter is a not-for-profit work of criticism. All images herein are property of their respective owners and are protected under Fair Use.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Song of the Week #15: "Take My Breath Away"

Image
I’ll put myself on a consistent schedule for these things one day, I promise. In my defense, there are a lot of movies to catch up on, and isn’t that what Oscar Baiting is all about? For instance- until recently, I’d never seen the original Top Gun! But with Top Gun: Maverick holding its spot as the biggest hit of the year (probably only to be dethroned by Black Panther or Avatar ) and even potentially soaring into the obligatory crowd pleaser Best Picture slot, I figured it was time to see where things began. Because while the Oscars Top Gun: Maverick may win have yet to be decided, the first Top Gun only went home with one- for the love theme, “Take My Breath Away.” (via Wikipedia) Love themes for films have gone a bit out of style these days, although for a long time it seemed to be a surefire way to nab a Best Song nomination. Seriously, look through the Wikipedia article and count how many times you see "Title Seemingly Chosen at Random (Love Theme from Movie You Didn
Read more

A Year in Shorts Day 182: "Munro"

Image
Once again, and completely by accident, we’ve found ourselves producing a little bit of a themed run in our Year in Shorts. This current theme, combined with yesterday’s short from Chuck Jones, seems to be “People Who Directed Tom and Jerry, Even Though They Shouldn’t Have.” But while I have said and will continue to say horrible things about Gene Deitch’s tenure with everyone’s favorite cartoon cat and mouse, I want to make it clear that, just like Chuck Jones, he was a tremendous artist with a unique style and considerable skill. If anything, the fact that their runs on Tom and Jerry weren’t very good is a testament to that; they tried to bend their vision to someone else’s, and it just didn’t pan out. And while Gene Deitch isn’t a household name in the way Chuck Jones is, films like Munro make a pretty solid argument for why he ought to be. (via TV Tropes) First released in 1960, but shown to American audiences prior to screenings of Breakfast at Tiffany's in 1961 ( after i
Read more

Song of the Week #6: "The Ballad of High Noon"

Image
I was finally able to catch Kenneth Branagh’s Belfast this weekend, and I have to say it certainly lived up to the hype. There’s a lot to love about this movie, from the gorgeous black-and-white cinematography, the exquisite performances from both the seasoned veterans and newcomers in the cast, to a script that’s brimming with heart and humor. But one aspect of the film I don’t see a lot of people mention is the way it incorporates footage from other films- most notably Fred Zinnemann’s High Noon, using not only a scene from the movie itself but scoring two pivotal scenes with the film’s theme song, the aptly-named (and Oscar-winning) “The Ballad of High Noon.” It was a bold choice to be sure, but who could blame Branagh? It’s a great movie, and a great song- and the subject for today’s installment in Song of the Week. (via Wikipedia) For those of you haven't seen High Noon... well, you really should get on that, it's a classic! Aside from being a taut, tightly edited thril
Read more