Tuesday 3 September 2013

Suicidal Flame

Olive Oyl can’t call the fire department where flames roar through her house in “Two-Alarm Fire” (1934) so she gets some help.

A little flame escapes under the front door, slides down the street (it has no feet), opens the fire alarm box and pulls the alarm twice.



Its work done, the flames heads back to the burning house.



Why would the flame want the fire department to put it out? Oh, well. Best not to ask questions like that and enjoy Dave Fleischer’s little gags.

Willard Bowsky and Nick Tafuri get the animation credits; it’s Tafuri’s first.

2 comments:

  1. I'd guess the flame's just cocky about it and it's buddies ability to burn Olive's house down even if the fire department arrives ... which they do in the Famous color remake -- Olive eats the spinach to save Popeye & Bluto there, but doesn't save her house, and ends up living in the fire station instead of our two firefighters (the twist ending should have been funnier than the original's end of Popeye just blowing out the fire, but this is a 1950s Famous remake, so somehow it isn't).

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  2. Maybe it's like the ghosts in Disney's "Lonesome Ghosts", and is calling the fire department so it can have some fun with them. Then again, character motivations aren't "Lonesome Ghosts's" strong point either.

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