Old Glory Review

Old Glory is a 1939 animated short film from the Merry Melodies series. It is a very patriotic short.

Very is an understatement here. This is extreme patriotism that we have here. I was surprised to see a serious film in a Merry Melodies series and this one surely should be respected for being different than all of the others as it is a drama, never a comedy. But being a drama, it is much less interesting, somewhat slow and overlong. And although solid as a history lesson, the patriotic angle really hurt the picture and the ending in particular is excessive and unappealing.

So the film is great for Americans, but not great for anyone else outside that country. But the technical aspects themselves are glorious. I loved its rotoscope styled animation as it brought a lot of necessary realism and seriousness to this mature short. The colors are smooth as are the movements plus the character design is really well done. The film sounds and looks good while also featuring very endearing Porky Pig per usual.

Old Glory is overly patriotic, serious and long, but also superbly animated and respectably different for the series.