We see Santa and his reindeer up in the night sky with Santa opening his bag. Stars come out which form the word Roxy lighting the theater's opening night. Cubby Bear is not allowed in the crowded entrance so he takes a top hat and has it push him up to where the Roxy control room is. He comes to another room, finds a rope to pull which takes him to where the conductor's spot is. Cubby is now the conductor! As the opera is playing, one patron is obnoxiously eating peanuts and dropping them to the floor. The usher tries to shush him out only to be insulted. Control room operator sees this and ejects patron's seat below to be replaced by two seats from the entrance with replacement audience members. On stage, we see a big-breasted heroine singing to smaller leading man. Leading man is challenged to a duel by rival. A crowd gathers to watch the swordfight as rival has his head cut off. He comes downstairs replacing it with a flowerpot! Hero bounces on girlfriends breasts (talk about a pre-Code moment!). As Cubby is finishing his conducting, a monkey musician is waiting for his ending on his big drum. As he bangs his drum once loudly, a hole forms below him causing him and everyone else to fall through. Cubby comes out as we iris out on his close-up. Pretty amusing Van Beuren cartoon with a few risqué materials that wouldn't pass the censors after 1934. Worth a look for animation buffs.
4 Reviews
Cubby the Bear debuts
TheLittleSongbird30 November 2017
Van Bueren Studios' Cubby the Bear series comprised of just 17 cartoons made between 1933-1934. As much as it pains me to say it, speaking as a big animation fan, it is not hard to see why the character and the series weren't so popular and didn't last long.
'Opening Night' is the first Cubby the Bear cartoon and while it is not one of the worst cartoons of the series it's not particularly good either. There are far better opera-based cartoons around, with much better animation, much funnier material and much better characters and protagonists. There are plus points here. The best thing about it, and this is true of a lot of Van Bueren's output, is the music score.
It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and full of lively energy that is sorely lacking elsewhere, doing so well with enhancing the action. The Italian opera snippets are seamlessly arranged and inserted.
The opening scene is quite nice, pretty charming and it boasts the best visuals of the entire cartoon. It was interesting to see some surprisingly risqué elements that makes one shocked how they got past the censors, back when the Production Code had not yet been enforced and some cartoons weren't as tame as they became (see the difference for example between the pre and post Code Betty Boop cartoons). The audience seats gags evoked a wry smile.
However, outside of the opening, the animation is really not good even for a cartoon not made on a high budget, and it is true for the Cubby the Bear series and Van Bueren in general on the whole. It's static in movement, simplistic in background detail and sloppy in drawing, with the character expressions being pretty expressionless. Another major problem is Cubby himself, on top of being poorly animated he is one of the blandest, most personality-deprived and most motivation-less characters ever to exist.
Generally, 'Opening Night' is not funny. The risqué elements and audience seats gags aside, there are too few to begin with and what there is is mostly not very well timed and very uninspired and lacking in variety. It's a dull cartoon pace-wise and the story is practically non-existent, doesn't even try to make sense (not unusual for Van Bueren but rarely to this extent) and often doesn't go anywhere. Then we have a very melodramatic and fairly brutal fight scene that feels out-of-kilter within the rest of the cartoon.
To conclude, a somewhat interesting but uninspired and not particularly well made debut for an unsurprisingly short-lived character. 4/10 Bethany Cox
'Opening Night' is the first Cubby the Bear cartoon and while it is not one of the worst cartoons of the series it's not particularly good either. There are far better opera-based cartoons around, with much better animation, much funnier material and much better characters and protagonists. There are plus points here. The best thing about it, and this is true of a lot of Van Bueren's output, is the music score.
It is so beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and full of lively energy that is sorely lacking elsewhere, doing so well with enhancing the action. The Italian opera snippets are seamlessly arranged and inserted.
The opening scene is quite nice, pretty charming and it boasts the best visuals of the entire cartoon. It was interesting to see some surprisingly risqué elements that makes one shocked how they got past the censors, back when the Production Code had not yet been enforced and some cartoons weren't as tame as they became (see the difference for example between the pre and post Code Betty Boop cartoons). The audience seats gags evoked a wry smile.
However, outside of the opening, the animation is really not good even for a cartoon not made on a high budget, and it is true for the Cubby the Bear series and Van Bueren in general on the whole. It's static in movement, simplistic in background detail and sloppy in drawing, with the character expressions being pretty expressionless. Another major problem is Cubby himself, on top of being poorly animated he is one of the blandest, most personality-deprived and most motivation-less characters ever to exist.
Generally, 'Opening Night' is not funny. The risqué elements and audience seats gags aside, there are too few to begin with and what there is is mostly not very well timed and very uninspired and lacking in variety. It's a dull cartoon pace-wise and the story is practically non-existent, doesn't even try to make sense (not unusual for Van Bueren but rarely to this extent) and often doesn't go anywhere. Then we have a very melodramatic and fairly brutal fight scene that feels out-of-kilter within the rest of the cartoon.
To conclude, a somewhat interesting but uninspired and not particularly well made debut for an unsurprisingly short-lived character. 4/10 Bethany Cox
Cubby and the Opera
Michael_Elliott17 March 2016
Opening Night (1933)
** (out of 4)
It's opening night at RKO's Roxy Theatre where an opera is about to start. Cubby the Bear wants to see it but ends up having to sneak in where he accidentally ends up conducting.
OPENING NIGHT is a mainly forgotten animated short that really doesn't offer anything too special and will only be of interest to film buffs who enjoy watching cartoons that were at one time banned. There's really nothing too offensive to be seen here, although I guess some will notice the singer's cleavage. Outside of that this is a rather harmless film that has a few clever things in it. I enjoyed the opening visuals of Santa Claus. I also liked the factory line like way of showing people getting to their seats. Outside of that there's very little going on here.
** (out of 4)
It's opening night at RKO's Roxy Theatre where an opera is about to start. Cubby the Bear wants to see it but ends up having to sneak in where he accidentally ends up conducting.
OPENING NIGHT is a mainly forgotten animated short that really doesn't offer anything too special and will only be of interest to film buffs who enjoy watching cartoons that were at one time banned. There's really nothing too offensive to be seen here, although I guess some will notice the singer's cleavage. Outside of that this is a rather harmless film that has a few clever things in it. I enjoyed the opening visuals of Santa Claus. I also liked the factory line like way of showing people getting to their seats. Outside of that there's very little going on here.
Ban it because it sucks...not because it might offend
planktonrules1 November 2008
As a history teacher and lover of films, I occasionally like watching cartoons that have been banned, as they tell us a lot about our society and how far we have come over the years. What was perfectly acceptable decades ago is now, in some cases, seen as gross and inappropriate. Occasionally, these cartoons which have been removed from screening aren't particularly offensive but often, as in the case of this cartoon, they are so god-awful it's hard to imagine that people would have laughed at and enjoyed these films! Thirteen of these cartoons have been packaged together on a DVD entitled "Cartoon Crazys: Banned and Censored" and while the print quality of many of the cartoons is less than stellar, it's a great chance to see how sensibilities have changed.
Of all the cartoons in the set, this is probably the least offensive. Sure, it might be misconstrued as being anti-Italian in one tiny portion and one of the characters has a lot of cleavage, but otherwise this is a very innocuous film.
Instead, I say we ban this one because it sucks--and I mean sucks!! The animation style is poor, the film not at all entertaining and the crowd scenes consist of the same characters entering the theater again and again and again--a sloppy cost-saving measure. Insipid from start to finish.
Of all the cartoons in the set, this is probably the least offensive. Sure, it might be misconstrued as being anti-Italian in one tiny portion and one of the characters has a lot of cleavage, but otherwise this is a very innocuous film.
Instead, I say we ban this one because it sucks--and I mean sucks!! The animation style is poor, the film not at all entertaining and the crowd scenes consist of the same characters entering the theater again and again and again--a sloppy cost-saving measure. Insipid from start to finish.
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