Indian Whoopee (1933) User Reviews

...And then he woke up. It was a dream!

[boblipton · 4/10 · 26 March 2014]

Cubby Bear falls asleep while reading a history book and dreams about being part of the John Smith and Pocahontas story in this visually beautiful but pointless cartoon from Van Beuren.

I dislike stories in which all the issues are resolved by "And then he woke up". Add in the pointless clowning of Cubby Bear -- no matter how well executed -- and you wind up with something that actively annoys me. This sort of "white-faced clown" was common in cartoons in this period as the cartoon teams concentrated on making gags that fit the cartoon, instead of fitting the cartoon character.

Nonetheless, the artwork in this cartoon is particularly beautiful, with a nice minimalist use of black and white illustrations with little in the way of grays. This emphasizes the shapes in a very attractive manner. The gags are also well timed and executed. It's the fact that they don't add up to anything in particular that makes this a bad cartoon.

Cubby and the Indians

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 8 December 2017]

Van Bueren Studios' Cubby the Bear series comprised of just 19 cartoons made between 1933-1934. As much as it pains me to say it, speaking as a big animation fan, it is not hard to see why the character and the series weren't so popular and didn't last long.

'Indian Whoopee' is not one of the series' worst (there's been worse before and since) but it's hardly one of the best or a particularly good cartoon. The best thing about it, and this is true of a lot of Van Bueren's output, is the music score. It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and full of lively energy that is sorely lacking elsewhere, doing so well with enhancing the action.

Surprisingly, generally 'Indian Whoopee' is one of the better-looking Cubby cartoons, the animation tends to not be good at all in the series and in a good deal of Van Bueren cartoons. The character designs and overall drawing are not particularly attractive still and still somewhat sloppy, but the black and white is crisper than usual and the backgrounds more elegant and detailed.

There is also one good gag, involving tent pegs pulling Cubby's tent down that is reminiscent of a gag one would find in a Fleischer cartoon (if one is wondering that's a compliment).

However, Cubby himself just isn't that compelling a character. He is not as pointless as he is in 'Barking Dogs' but his shenanigans add very little to the cartoon and are more repetitive than funny. He is still very bland, with not much motivation, and doesn't have much personality, he is too not particularly well animated. The Indian characters also don't have much to them.

With the exception of one gag, 'Indian Whoopee' is not an amusing cartoon, let alone a funny one. It is too low on gags and what there is generally make little impression in humour or memorability.

Regarding the story, this aspect is barely one at all, not unusual actually for a Cubby cartoon, but it's further disadvantaged by its blandness, too bland even to descend into weirdness, and its dull pace. The chase sequence is overlong and doesn't engage in humour or antics and the way things are resolved at the end is like a cheat.

In conclusion, not awful but forgettable and dull. 4/10 Bethany Cox

Lots of Action

[Hitchcoc · 5/10 · 19 March 2018]

Cubbie Bear is reading a book and falls asleep. It is the story of John Smith and Pocahontas and becomes a serious of rather racist portrayals of Native Americans. I will give them credit for pulling back a little bit, but the portrayal of the Indians uses ever stereotype, culled from Westerns at the time. The animation is OK. But no great shakes for plot.