Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! (1931)
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! Review
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! is a 1931 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is a fun entry with a great song.
Foxy is a trolley engineer here and he first has a problem with a lady hippo who can’t get into the vehicle. That segment was pretty funny, albeit not as original. Then the segment with the cow is quite the same – fun, but unoriginal. And the action scene with rescuing Roxy was excellent along with the hobos singing, that was a lot of fun. So this cartoon does everything right except do anything really unique.
As was the case with ‘Lady, Play Your Mandolin!’, this Merry Melody also features one hell of a song in the titular Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! Not only is the song incredibly entertaining, so catchy and just amusing from start to finish, but it was also perfectly incorporated into the short which I really respected. Foxy in the end wakes up from the dream that was the whole movie and the radio is singing that song. Now that was a perfect explanation for the song’s introduction which is something that has never really happened in any musical short before. So admirable.
Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! is far from original, but very amusing and featuring a great title song.
