Cartoon a Day: The Story of Anyburg U.S.A

The Story of Anyburg U.S.A.
1957
Directed by Clyde Geronimi
Available on: Walt Disney Treasures - Disney Rarities

Here's another "one-shot" from Disney. This one is one of their message movies, dealing with the problem of aggressive driving well before it became popular to do so. Of course the title doesn't hint to any of this. I guess the guy who came up with the titles for cartoons at Disney must've been on vacation the day they came up with this one.

The premise is a bit strange, a town puts "the automobile" on trial for all the problems it causes. Eventually the defense attorney points out that it's bad people, not bad cars, that are doing the damage. True yes, but it all comes across as pretty self-righteous.

There are some interesting design elements, though it's a bit different style than the cartoon we looked at yesterday. We don't have as many hard angles in this one, but it's still an interesting 50's style.

Probably the most interesting aspect of this cartoon is the cars brought to life, which has to have been looked at by the crew at Pixar when making their film "Cars." Lightning McQueen bears more than a passing resemblance to a sporty red number in this film.

Ultimately the film makes for interesting viewing but is a little too preachy to be funny.