The Tail of the Monkey (1926) User Reviews

The Tail of the Monkey was an interesting look at some early silent Lantz

[tavm · 6/10 · 3 January 2009]

Here's another Walter Lantz cartoon short I found on the CartoonsOnFilm blog. In this one, which he co-directed with David Hand, Lantz plays an organ grinder whose monkey steals a girl's lollipop in the live-action sequences. To keep the girl from crying, the organ grinder tells of why the monkey keeps moving his tail as we fade in to an animated version of the tale as the monkey fixes a horseshoe while his long tail gets burned on a grill (why it's cooking nothing in particular is not explained). That tail also gets caught in a cheese-shaped mousetrap as tricked by a mouse who lives inside and holds the monkey up on a tree branch as he tries to make a giant hippo ring by 5:15 since his assistant went out to lunch at 5! The gags I just described are amusing in their primitive way in the animation and it's just fascinating just looking at what passed for movie cartoons back in the day. The Tail of the Monkey was an Unnatural History series entry for The J.R. Bray Studio where Lantz was an employee at the time. Worth a look for any animation buff out there.