Imagination (1943)

Imagination Review

Imagination is a 1943 animated short film by Dave Fleischer from the Color Rhapsodies series. It is a pretty good cartoon.

It follows two dolls in love, but a bigger male doll arrives and wants to steal the girl as he has the hots for her and it’s up to the boy to stop him and fight him out. Needless to say, it’s one of those movies that are odd and creepy nowadays as it’s bordering on child molestation, but this was pretty regular for this period so I’m used to it and I did not find it as offensive.

But the overall emphasis on sexual innuendos is simply too much and they should have cut out some of those moments. But nonetheless, I really enjoyed this film and I embraced it wholeheartedly despite all of these flaws as I really liked the characters, especially the feisty boy and the fun, sexually charged villain. I loved the cross-dressing scene and the action is superb throughout. The animation is also excellent with great character designs and it works as a solid musical too.

Imagination is sexually charged, but a lot of fun in its action, so well animated and memorable in its characters. It’s an odd, but solid Oscar nominee.