Zula Hula

1937 American film

December 24, 1937 (1937-12-24)

Running time

7 minutesCountryUnited StatesLanguageEnglish

Zula Hula is a 1937 Fleischer Studios animated short film starring Betty Boop, and featuring Grampy.^[1]

Synopsis

Betty and Grampy are on an around-the-world flight when they are forced to crash-land on an apparently deserted island. Betty is upset with their situation, but Grampy quickly invents a number of gadgets that allow them all the comforts of home. Things again take a turn for the worse when a group of cannibals show up. Quick thinking Grampy charms the savages by creating a calliope out of the crashed plane's parts. While the natives are distracted by the music, Grampy and Betty repair their plane and make a hasty escape.

Reception

Motion Picture Herald said on January 15, 1938, "The whole of the business is detailed in an amusing and rapidly drawn vein of clever cartooning. Similarly, on January 29, Boxoffice described the short as "another one of those sheer wacky cartoons that gather a fair share of laughs."^[2]

Retrospective examinations of the episode note its negative racial stereotypes.^[3]^[4]

References

^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 54–56. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
^ Sampson, Henry T. (1998). That's Enough, Folks: Black Images in Animated Cartoons, 1900-1960. Scarecrow Press. pp. 129–130. ISBN 978-0810832503.
^ Hendershot, Heather (1995). "Secretary, Homemaker, and 'White' Woman": Industrial Censorship and Betty Boop's Shifting Design". Journal of Design History. 8 (2): 117–130. doi:10.1093/jdh/8.2.117.
^ Pointer, Ray (2017). The Art and Inventions of Max Fleischer: American Animation Pioneer. McFarland. pp. 109–110. ISBN 978-1-4766-6367-8.