The Air Race (1933) User Reviews

Better than Iwerks' later color cartoons.

[planktonrules · 7/10 · 3 May 2014]

While this cartoon isn't nearly the quality of a Disney cartoon from the era, Ub Iwerks had nothing to be ashamed of with this pleasant little cartoon. Ub used to be the lead animator of Disney Studios in the early days, but in the 1930s he seized an opportunity to do his own films-- with only fair results. In fact, by the end of the decade, Iwerks would return to Disney because his own independent efforts had failed.

Of the various cartoons Iwerks did, his Willie Whopper series, though short-lived, was better than most. The formula was about the same in each--Willie regaled folks with impossible stories of his supposed conquests. In "The Air Race", Willie tells the kids about an air race he supposedly was in--and there was an awful lot of cheating going on in this one! The provided for a lot of cute vignettes, an inside joke about 'Iwerks' and a prize bestowed upon Willie by none other than Amelia Earhart herself! There are no huge laughs but lots of little ones and LOTS of action. Worth seeing.

By the way, my score of 7 is relative to other cartoons of this era. The quality of cartoon shorts would improve dramatically in the next decade and this one isn't even close to them in quality.

The Air Race was the first Willie Whopper cartoon made

[tavm · 7/10 · 19 April 2017]

This Up Iwerks cartoon was the first to star Willie Whopper whose last name means he tells "whoppers"-outlandish stories of his adventures. In this one, he tells of entering the air race-a race of planes. Plenty of plane and air jokes abound including one involving a stock footage of an actual live-action explosion! Also, a caricature of Amelia Earhart also appears. I really don't want to reveal anymore than that so I'll just say I recommend The Air Race to any animation buffs out there.

Willie Whopper as a pilot

[TheLittleSongbird · 7/10 · 2 May 2018]

Ub Iwerks's Willie Whopper series of cartoons was short-lived, only lasting a year from 1933 to 1934. On the most part the Willie Whopper cartoons are not great or cartoon/animated masterpieces and it is sort of understandable as to why Willie didn't make it bigger. However they are far from terrible ones either and do amuse and charm.

1933's 'The Air Race' is the first cartoon in the Willie Whopper series with a different and thinner Willie making his debut appearance. And it is a pretty decent and interesting start for somebody who has only just gotten acquainted with the series as a huge animation fan, doing a good job setting up what to expect from the other cartoons. It is amusing and cute providing that one doesn't expect a masterpiece or too much.

'The Air Race' may be on the formulaic side with conflict that is somewhat predictable, it is not hard to figure out at all who wins.

Willie himself is slightly bland, though it is very early days. The animation sometimes lacks finesse especially in some of the drawings.

However, there is some nice background detail and inventive little things. The music is energetic and characterful with appealing orchestration. The cartoon goes at a lively pace, has an appealing charm and the tale is wonderfully outlandish.

While not hilarious, 'The Air Race' has a lot of very amusing and sweet little laughs which makes it entertaining. The ending especially. Although slightly bland, Willie avoids being annoying and he avoids being sickly sweet as well. The supporting characters are a lively bunch an Amelia Earhart's short appearance is sweet.

Overall, decent start. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Willie The Flying Ace!

[ccthemovieman-1 · 8 May 2008]

This is extremely entertaining, especially if you like aircraft and the old racing days of biplanes and the like. Here, Willy Whopper tells the gang about the day he won "National Air Race."

In it, we see tons of sight gags and airplanes of all sizes and shapes, some built flying trains or coffee percolators and other bizarre things. How these planes fly, too, is fun to see. It's total craziness, which is why this story is a "whopper."

Shockingly, during the race Wily and his foe race by someone who might be St. Peter, with a halo around his head and thumbing a ride. When the planes pass him by, he gives them the finger! (I guess this was pre-Code.) Anyway, we see Willy battling his Bluto-like foe, our hero with the small little plane and his enemy in the big streamlined job. You can guess who won.

Overall, lots of fun to watch with some good, corny puns, too.

The first cartoon in a brief series

[llltdesq · 7/10 · 3 December 2015]

This is the first cartoon to be made in the Willie Whopper series produced by the Iwerks studio. There will be spoilers ahead:

Though this short was the first Willie Whopper cartoon made, it was rejected by MGM and, at the studio's insistence, was used as the basis for another cartoon in the series. I don't believe it was ever actually released to theaters at the time.

The basic premise is simple-Willie Whoppers tells, well, "whoppers". Lies so grandiose in nature that they're essentially "tall tales". Here, Willie tells how he won the "great air race".

The body of the short is largely composed of sight gags, though at one point St. Peter (shown attempting to hitch a ride with one of the passing planes) delivers a line in what has to be one of the strangest caricatures of Mae West ever committed to film! Most, if not all, the obligatory set pieces seen in this type of cartoon from the period are here. There's the bad guy, there's a visual of a plane motor, there's a black-face gag and so on. The animation is very good and the timing of the gags is also good. The bad guy cheats a great deal, there are oddly designed planes, including one which looks like a locomotive engine.

What I think is the best gag in the short comes toward the end and involves Willie flying directly into a tent labeled "Fireworks". It's a cute gag, but if you blink, you might miss it. I won't spoil it here.

This short is on a recent Blu Ray/DVD combo release from Thunderbean and I recommend both this short and the Thunderbean release as a whole.

Best Iwerks Short

[joemaiden84 · 9/10 · 13 October 2003]

Anyone who's seen many of Iwerks shorts know that they're not the most exciting bit of entertainment that exists in this world, but they're watched for their ULTIMATE CLASSIC FACTOR! This one is an exception. It has some exceptional slapstick which is far superior to the rest, although I'm not quite sure why(except for the fact that there's an Angel hitch-hiking on a cloud which says the classic line "Come up and see me sometime" and also flips off a passerby(also, it's a grizzled old man)). All in all it was very entertaining, but I must say, that angel flipping off a pilot pretty much kept me happy throughout the whole thing.

* Featuring a cameo appearance by a badly hygienic Amelia Earhart.

Willie Wopper

[azmikw · 12 October 2004]

This is one of the Willie Whopper cartoons, the boy who always tells stories about his adventures which we don't know for sure if he telling the truth or not.

In this short Willie looks little different, he is not the fat boy we know, for some reason he looked skinny here, maybe because it was necessarily for winning the race. Anyhow, this short was made before 1935 when sexual jokes were allowed for cartoons. And I saw in one of the shots an angel character gives a flyer the finger for speeding. in general it is a good cartoon