Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.0
Audio		3.0
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman January 6, 2016

Though Terry Gilliam’s phantasmagorical 1988 opus The Adventures of Baron Munchausen didn’t really emphasize it, the source tales by Rudolf Erich Raspe that inspired this extremely fanciful film often pointed up the fact that the good Baron had a tendency to—well, perhaps stretch the truth a bit as he detailed his exploits around (and even off) the globe. There was a real life Münchhausen who had evidently become famous (some might say infamous) for spinning elaborate yarns about his supposed war exploits, though Raspe’s fictional appropriation of the character tended to push those proclivities over into hyperbolism. Some might wonder if Ub Iwerks’ Willie Whopper was a direct descendant of Baron Munchausen, for the little boy, much like the storied Baron of yore, has a tendency to regale folks with stories that tend to verge into flights of fancy that are often divorced from reality, especially with Iwerks’ near surreal animation stylings. Willie Whopper lasted only around two years, ultimately offering fourteen shorts that featured Willie in a variety of improbable adventures. Thunderbean Animation, the little “home grown” label run by Steve Stanchfield, has now compiled all fourteen of the Willie Whopper shorts, giving a nice overview of what Iwerks was up to at an important juncture in his long and iconic career.

As Stanchfield details in some quite interesting notes included in the insert booklet, the fact that any of these Willie Whopper cartoons saw the high definition light of day is a bit serendipitous, for as often happens with various product, rights issues long prevented a “complete” release of the franchise on any home video format. Working with Blackhawk Films (and David Shepard), Stanchfield and his team have both figuratively and literally reassembled Willie Whopper for new generations who might be in the mood for a whimsical tall tale or two. That said, the Willie Whopper cartoons are often quite innovative from a design and animation standpoint, but their story arcs are pretty routine, never totally exploiting potential for gags or even any decent character development.

Iwerks had (temporarily) broken away from Walt Disney to try to his own hand at creating product, and in fact the smart money back in the day was probably at least as much on Ub as it was on Walt in terms of who would end up being the bigger success. Iwerks’ first at bat, a series called Flip the Frog, wasn’t an inordinate smash, lasting three years or so but never really exploding into public consciousness in the way that previous Iwerks creations (either in part or whole) like a certain Mickey Mouse had. Willie Whopper was evidently produced to “take the place” of Flip the Frog in a manner of speaking, though it turned out that little Willie had even less staying power than Flip.

The fourteen cartoons collected on this Blu-ray are:

The Air Race (1933). This was a “pilot” of sorts for the Willie Whopper enterprise, and has the little boy telling about his adventures in an airplane contest. This was never officially released by MGM, but was reworked as Spite Flight (see below).

Play Ball (1933). Willie gets to play Major League Baseball, taking his team to victory (of course).

Spite Flight (1933). This redone Air Race introduces a somewhat redesigned Willie and a more visceral villain.

Stratos-Fear (1933). This is one of the more hallucinogenic entries in the Willie canon, courtesy of some laughing gas.

Davy Jones’ Locker (1933) is one of two two-color Cinecolor releases included on the set, in this case a rather fanciful reworking of the vaunted folktale.

Hell’s Fire (1934) is the second two-color Cinecolor offering, which finds Willie and his dog literally going to hell.

Robin Hood, Jr. (1934) recasts the iconic hero as Willie.

Insultin’ the Sultan (1934) may strike the more sensitive as being a little politically incorrect as Willie travels to the Far East for an adventure.

Reducing Creme (1934) has Willie, who had become rather rotund due to several redesigns through the years, attempting to slim down.

Rasslin’ Round (1934) takes Willie into the wacky world of professional wrestling.

The Cave Man (1934) has Willie recounting his adventures in prehistoric times.

Jungle Jitters (1934) has Willie dealing with cannibals in another potentially politically incorrect entry in the series.

The Good Scout (1934) finds Willie attempting to do a good deed.

Viva Willie (1934). This final Willie Whopper short takes place in the Wild West.

Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Thunderbean Animation with AVC encoded 1080p transfers in 1.37:1. As Stanchfield details in his interesting liner notes, a number of different sources needed to be accessed in order to offer a complete Willie Whopper collection. Because rights had splintered through the years, some cartoons were sourced variously from original camera negatives, 35mm fine grain master positives, 35mm dupe negatives (and 16mm printdowns), 35mm prints, 16mm fine grain master positives and 16mm prints. That variety is the biggest obstacle Stanchfield needed to overcome to deliver something relatively homogenous looking, and if the results aren't completely convincing in that regard, when taken as a whole, the look of these shorts is well done. A quick glance at the screenshots accompanying this review will clearly point out variances in sharpness and clarity as well as contrast (compare screenshot 1 and 4 for just two examples), generally speaking all of these shorts look incredible for their age. The black and white cartoons do show slight fluctuations in black levels and gray scale, while the two color outings (both sourced from the original negatives, per Stanchfield's notes) offer a really convincing reproduction of the kind of orangish tendencies of the Cinecolor process. All of the cartoons show occasional damage that has not been overly tweaked, and in fact one of this release's most commendable aspects is how Stanchfield and his team have attempted restorations without depriving the cartoons of an organic appearance. As such, grain is completely intact (and, again, somewhat variable courtesy of the different source formats).

Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Things are a little less felicitous with regard to Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper LPCM 2.0 mono soundtracks. Stanchfield again goes into some (kind of harrowing) detail about what reassembling various soundtracks entailed to provide complete versions of some of these cartoons, and while the efforts here have been heroic, there are simply some limitations to the source stems that cannot be overcome. Crackling, pop and hiss are pretty apparent throughout virtually all of the shorts, and a couple of them have some relatively compromised fidelity, with a muffled, tamped down sound that never bursts forth with much immediacy. All of this said, there's virtually no "deal killing" damage here, and despite a generally boxy, thin sound, both dialogue and scores can be heard at least relatively well throughout.

Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Still Gallery (1080p) features production art, publicity and merchandise.


• Jazz Recordings featured in 'The Caveman' and 'The Good Scout' include:

  Somebody Stole My Gal (3:04) features Bennie Moten and his Kansas City Orchestra (1930)

  Lafayette (2:47) features Bennie Moten and his Kansas City Orchestra (1932)

  Milenberg Joys (3:00) by Jelly Roll Morton, played by McKinney's Cotton Pickers (1928)

  Note: All of the above tracks are presented in LPCM 2.0 mono.


• Original Film Outlines (1080p) is another gallery of sorts, this one devoted to scripts and outlines.


• Re-Issue Titles (1080p; 3:58) offers variant sequences for several cartoons.


• Bonus Cartoons include:

  Funny Face (1933) Powers Re-Issue Version (1080p; 7:51)

  Vulcan Entertains (1933) Powers B/W Re-Issue of 'Hell's Fire' (1080p; 6:35)

  Masquerade Holiday (1933) Standard Definition Commonwealth Re-Issue Work in Progress Cut from 35mm Nitrate Cinecolor Print (480p; 4:57)

Note: While I typically don't include insert booklets in my write ups of supplements, in this case special kudos need to be paid not just to Stanchfield, who includes a nice essay on the provenance of the various cartoons, but J.B. Kaufman who details both Iwerks' and Willie's history and (especially for this music loving reviewer) Chris Buchman, who offers a really excellent overview of the scores of each cartoon.

Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Willie Whopper isn't an especially innovative cartoon series, and in fact from a story standpoint virtually every short in the franchise follows more or less the same structure. That said, Iwerks was such an inherently whimsical designer that virtually every short has moments of pure genius, whether that be a guy shaving his beard with an airplane propellor or Willie "hooking" Neptune himself during a fishing expedition. One of the interesting elements for film historians to notice in this collection is just how malleable Willie's appearance was over the life of the series, as if some bean counter thought that if the title hero looked different, maybe the public would react more strongly. While the 1930s public never really took Willie to their collective hearts, contemporary audiences may well find charm to spare in these enjoyable cartoons. Stanchfield and his team have done remarkable work here, with video looking generally very good to excellent and audio faring a bit less well, though remaining listenable. Recommended.