THE CARTOON CRYPT: Samurai Elf Versus Mickey Mouse and his Legion of Snakes

THE CARTOON CRYPT

An utterly bizarre Japanese cartoon from 1934, found courtesy of the excellent Cartoon Brew website. A whole lot more interesting information on this can be found in the comments there.

Here is part of a comment there by “EricW”:

This appears to be Komatsuzawa Hajime’s “Toybox Series #3: Picture Book 1936″ (a.k.a. Momotaro vs Mickey Mouse). I found this description at http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/white962.htm: “One very popular cartoon character was Momotaro, the “Peach boy,” who appeared in a number of cartoons designed not just for domestic consumption within Japan, but for propaganda use in occupied countries as well. For example, Picture Book 1936 (Momotaro vs. Mickey Mouse) presented fanged Mickey Mouse look-alikes riding giant bats, attacking peaceful Pacific islanders (represented by cats and dolls, for some reason); the hero Momotaro jumps out of a picture book, repels the American mice, and cherry trees blossom throughout the island as the grateful natives sing “Tokyo Chorus.”

THE CARTOON CRYPT: UGOKIE-KO-RI-NO-TATEHIKI (1933)

THE CARTOON CRYPT

Here’s a GREAT surreal Japanese cartoon by Ikuo Oishi from 1933… the more I watch it the more I like it. If the Fleischer Brothers had been Japanese this is what they might have made. Parts of this remind me of Jim Woodring as well. It really makes me want to see more early Japanese animation. Don’t miss this one!