In this scene, characters are in silhouette while the background painting of the auto factory is fairly representational, though not as abstract as some artwork would become in the ‘50s.
The Sutherland cartoon cartoons contained some gentle humour to off-set their propagandistic nature (the shorts were pro-big business because big business paid to have them made). See what happens to the auto workers on the assembly line as parts are lowered through the ceiling.
A “What the...?” reaction.
The writer (True Boardman?) ends the scene making fun of gaudy hood ornaments of the era.
A deal was worked out with MGM to put the Sutherland cartoons in theatres. An ad in the Motion Picture Herald of September 2, 1950 says there were 5,025 bookings for this cartoon so far. One theatre manager complained to the publication “These should not be sold as cartoons...there is certainly no humor to them.” The CIO News of March 26, 1951 called it “a sly attack on wage increases.” We’ve talked before here about the controversy surrounding one Sutherland animated short that was accused of criticising U.S. government policy, with MGM subsequently deciding to stick only with Tom and Jerry, Droopy and Barney Bear. Joe the factory worker was out.
Unfortunately there are no credits on the short, so we don’t know the artists. We do know the background music composer, because his name is mentioned in the copyright registration. It’s former Disney composer Paul Smith. The copyright office lists names for some of the cues: “Walking Theme,” “A Raise,” Farm Theme,” “Charts,” “Trouble,” “Production Theme” and “Main Title,” all copyrighted September 26, 1949.
Bud Hiestand is the narrator (evidently the cartoon was reissued because there’s a change in quality of the soundtrack in one version dealing with prices), Frank Nelson provides a couple of voices and I have not been able to discover who played Joe, who starred in the earlier Sutherland cartoon Meet King Joe.
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