User Reviews

1936 was the year Harman and Ising began to create good cartoons, but they remained wedded to a sentimental childishness that stopped them from achieving great cartoons. Ising would eventually overcome that, but Harman never quite did. Here, the problem is that we know the main character is sleeping, so his dreaming peril is not as frightening as it might be.

The best thing about their cartoons from this period is their lush use of Technicolor. While this is not so over the top as TO SPRING, it shows some excellent visual glosses.

The middle of this cartoon is a common one for Harman-Ising and for Schlesinger in this period: the contents of a bookstore, row of billboards or, in this case, the various brands in a drugstore. Some of them are still current. Enjoy spotting the ones you know.

In 1929, Walt Disney Productions began to produce one of the most influential series of short films of all time, "Silly Symphonies". Unlike Disney's other famous series of shorts ("Mickey Mouse"), the "Silly Symphonies" shorts wasn't about the company's famous recurring characters, but were more about experimenting with new techniques and styles of animation. This approach made "Silly Symphonies" very popular, and soon other animation teams began to follow that approach, like Warner Bros' "Merrie Melodies". Among the best of the shorts influenced by "Silly Symphonies" was definitely "Happy Harmonies", a series of musical short films created by former WB employees, Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, which was distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Produced in Technicolor, "Happy Harmonies" showed a technical proficiency at times as good as the shorts by Warner and Disney, and 1936's "Bottles" is a good example of this.

The story of "Bottles" is pretty simple: During a dark stormy night, a Druggist is working late making what seems to be a new kind of poison, as the bottle has its top shaped as a skull. The druggist falls asleep, and at this moment, the Bottle of poison comes alive, using a potion to shrink the druggist to the size of a bottle. The druggist awakes, shocked after being magically miniaturized, but his shock becomes marvel as he discovers the secret world of his bottles, who by night come alive and begin to sing. Baby bottles crying in harmony, dancing Scotch whiskey, and two bottles of salt water who dance like sailors are just some of the many bottles who participate in the dancing and the singing with the druggist. However, not everything is fun and party, as the deadly bottle of poison has a secret plan for the druggist, and recruits the witch-hazel and the Spirits of Ammonia for his evil scheme.

Like most of the "Happy Harmonies", the movie was written and produced by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising, with the music and the songs written by their regular collaborator at MGM, Scott Bradley. As usual in their cartoons, the movie is based on the concept of inanimate things coming to life, in surreal experiences where the inanimate things sing, dance and behave as real persons. Anyways, inn "Bottles" they show a lot more of imagination and wit in the creation of the characters, as while at times the link between the bottle and their persona is pretty obvious, there are a couple where the connection between them is a very creative and unexpected one. The comedy is done in lighthearted fun, although the plot about the Poison bottle has a nice touch of the horror as it's filled with a good dose of suspense. Finally, Bradley's songs are fantastic, and some of the best in an MGM cartoon.

Produced in wonderful Technicolor, "Bottles" is a beautifully looking cartoon that makes excellent use of the variety of colors that the Technicolor process allowed director Hugh Harman to use. Harman brings Bradley's song come alive in remarkably well designed musical numbers where the highly detailed bottles (resembling popular brands of those years) act like singers and dancers in the film's choreographs. The visual look of the movie retains the same style that Harman and Ising had been developed since their years at Warner Brothers, with very fluid and dynamic animation and, as written above, carefully designed characters. Also, given the horror elements of the story, the directors add a nice touch of Gothic atmosphere to the movie that works perfectly within the film, with the serious looking "monster bottles" making good contrast with the "good" bottles.

While there's a lot to praise in "Bottles", it also carries with what was the bane of the musical "Happy Harmonies" films done without Bosko, their signature character: the plots were pretty much the same. So, even when "Bottles" does include some of the cleverest character design of all the "Happy Harmonies" films, when one has seen a film from this series, the rest will invariably look like repetitive. However, if one can get past these flaw, "Bottles" is a very rewarding cartoon, as it manages to play on the many stereotypes of the culture of 1930s without being insulting or disrespectful in any way (as some other short films from those years were). Showing a remarkable use of the Technicolor process, "Bottles" is all about good fun, good music, and of course, a few scares. 8/10

Agree with previous poster, this cartoon is fantastic on so many levels.

I find it very warming, a treat for the eyes and ears, the only shame is it's over so soon.

Remember watching this over 30 years ago when I was a kid, that skeleton-bottle, it scared the life out of me but I loved those singing baby-bottles. Watching it again is a real trip.

I also agree, it's long time overdue for a DVD release of these gems. Those geniuses who created these deserve no less.

Brilliant.

"We don't feel like safe and tidy/No one here will change our di-di/That's the reason why/All we do is cry...." These 1930's MGM Harman-Ising cartoons, with their lush Technicolor hues, are still waiting to be discovered by cartoon fans. Many have but the thinnest of story lines to hang onto, but the musical numbers in this one--to say nothing of the innumerable puns (the "baby bottles," the "shaving mug," the "smelling salts," etc.) take the prize for sheer invention. (Or, perhaps, sheer audacity.) Genuine suspense, too, in the climax. So when's Time/Warner going to put out the "Happy Harmonies" shorts into a complete DVD collection??

I saw this when I was about 10 years old, but it has only seemed to be available on laser disc up until its recent release as one of the extras on the DVD release of 'San Francisco'. It's exactly as surreal and fun as I remember! With the 'death walks tonight!' croaks of the animated poison bottle, it seems to convey a sense of foreboding, as if people at the time could sense the war that was coming only three years later. Some fantastic ideas, like the Spirits Of Ammonia, the Baby Bottles and the Cuban rum bottles. Some nice rotoscoping as well, in the Cuban sequence. They really did make them better back then. Contrast this or Max Fleischer's Superman series with the half-hour toy ads like He-Man that were cranked out in the 80's. My 3-year old gets to watch as many of these, and Betty Boop and old Popeye as he likes, so that he knows the good stuff!

In a stormy night, a pharmacist in a drug store mixes a concoction and falls asleep. Various inanimate objects come alive while he is miniaturized.

This MGM Happy Harmonies cartoon is created by Hugh Harman. It's 10 minute. It's fun but it's always going to be a dream. It's really an exercise in having fun with the variety of bottles. As in most cartoons of that era, there are some old fashion racial insensitivity which is par for the course. If Aunt Jemima is only changing now, one can't expect better from this 85 years old cartoon. The bigger issue is that it's never not a dream. The ending is inevitable.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. While Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising didn't go into daring, controversial subject territory very often, when they did the results were often quite surprising in a good way. Their output was inconsistent, some very good and more cartoons but also some rather mediocre ones, which was apparent in the Happy Harmonies series.

One of the best Happy Harmonies cartoons is one of the most daring and imaginative ones 'Bottles'. It did remind me a little of 'Pipe Dreams', which also tackled a bold subject where one really thinks of the consequences of doing what is being addressed even at a time where attitudes were different at the time. Except to me, 'Bottles' is the superior cartoon, it is not as ahead of the time or racy in content but it is more inventive and there is more of a "know what approach to take to the material" sense.

Sure, 'Bottles' is slight in story and the times where it goes into cute territory does go too far on the cutesiness and felt out of place (the baby bottle song could easily have been left out.

The animation however is great, have not seen surrealism done this imaginatively, colourfully and uncompromisingly in animation for some while. It disturbs but also intoxicates. The music is outstanding, lush, characterful with the odd haunting moment.

'Bottles' never fails to be entertaining and the surrealistic creepiness while very, very strong is not overdone or too traumatising. Loved it when the poisons came to life and the duet sequence is memorable. While the story is best forgotten, the cartoon is always very energetic and highly atmospheric. The objects/characters have a lot of personality.

In conclusion, very well done and surprisingly so. 8/10.

In the late 1930s, the team of Harmon-Ising made cartoons for Warner Brothers and then MGM. While their films generally looked good, the Harmon-Ising formula is a dated one as the cartoons seem rather insipid today with all their singing and cutesiness. Fortunately, they weren't all this way and "Bottles" is actually a very good cartoon that is worth your time.

While the film does have a few cutesy elements (the baby bottle song), the film has lovely animation (some of the best of the era) and a strange but enjoyable story. It begins with a pharmacist falling to sleep at work and in his dream various items in his inventory come to life. I particularly likes seeing the poisons come to life and sing a duet with the witch and ammonia. The overall effect is much more scary than schmaltzy....and it's a weird but enjoyable one of a kind little film.

Harman and Ising largely developed the midnight in the store trope during their WB years. Disney also utilized it, but not to the extent that Harman and Ising, and by extension WB, did.

BOTTLES continues this idea; this time in a chemist's laboratory. This short strongly benefited from the use of three-strip Technicolor, which was recently unleashed to Hollywood after Disney's trial period ended. Much like Disney's earlier short THE CHINA SHOP, the glass/ceramic characters are convincingly animated as such.

The mood goes from sinister to light hearted, much like what Disney would achieve in the features.

One of the best Happy Harmonies and most polished of the inanimate objects come to life cartoons.

It seems that one major theology of animation concerns the animating (meaning coming to life) of normally inanimate objects.

Its one strain worth tracing, because with today's film technologies, animals can easily be seen to talk and even wear clothes and such. Its the power to make objects and environments have agency that gives great animation its power. And if you trace the evolution of the idea, you'll come through this. Its an unimaginative idea: a chemist/druggist mixes a poison, then dreams that it comes alive and evilly threatens him, together with all the other objects in the lab.

As with all early attempts with object life, some of the objects must be juvenile, and the centerpiece here are three baby bottle who whine because their diapers are dirty.

This was made toward the end of prohibition when use of opiates and marijuana became its great rise in popularity in the US, and that's the not so subtle subtext here.

Unfortunately the animation itself isn't any great advance.

Ted's Evaluation -- 2 of 3: Has some interesting elements.