500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins
US (1943): Animated/Short
George Pal brings Dr. Seuss's (Ted Geisel) children's book to the screen with stop-motion animation. There are some distinct changes from Seuss's story. In Seuss's original book, Bartholomew Cubbins is a boy who wears a small red hat. When the King rides by in a carriage, Bartholomew loyally removes his hat ... but an absolutely identical little red hat instantly appears in its place on his head. When he removes this second hat, an identical third hat replaces it... and so on, well into the 400's of hats. From this point, the hats gradually become more complicated: one hat sprouts a feather, the next has two feathers, until the 500th and last hat becomes very elaborate indeed.
In Pal's animated version, EVERY hat after the first one is extremely elaborate, and each hat is different ... so that we get no sense of them becoming increasingly complicated. Since the Puppetoon mannequins and their props are three-dimensional physical objects (not animated drawings), it's amusing for us to see these huge bespangled chapeaux popping out of nowhere underneath Bartholomew's tiny original hat, but Seuss's original dramatic progression is lost. When the King's servants stuff Bartholomew into the carriage and drive away with him, he leaves a long trail of hats behind, each hat looking utterly different. This is about as funny as the movie gets. (F Gwynplaine MacIntyre, IMDb)
1 nomination
· Short Subjects (Cartoons) 1943: Paramount (Puppetoon) - George Pal, producer