BCDB: Cartoon Reviews: Play Safe

I recall seeing this cartoon when I was a small child and it was frightening indeed. The surrealistic nature of a Fleischer cartoon can scare the hell out of a child. yet today the artwork, style, and technique of Fleischer mark him as a true pioneer in animation technique. I've wanted to see this again for years and finally stumbled upon a web site that allowed me to view it again via the Internet. That was super and a blast from the past (circa 1958).

A little boy plays with an electirc train set in his back yard which is near a railroad track. He is fascinated by real trains, and dreams of becoming a railroad engineer. The boy is protected by a St. Bernard, reminiscent of NANA in Sir James Barrie's PETER PAN story. Although the dog continually brings the boy away from the train tracks, the boy manages to chain the dog to a tree while she is asleep, and slips away to play on a boxcar. Suddenly, the train takes off, and after hitting a few bumps, the boy bounces off the rear of the car and lands on the tracks, falling into a dream. In the dream, the boy is in a fantastic railroad roundhouse seen in Fleischer's Stereoptical Process. The boy climbs into the cab of a locomotive, and turning the right handles, and puling the right levers, manages to sent the locomotive into motion, until it gains more and more speed. Suddenly the dials on the console lean forward and warn the boy to "Play Safe." The locomotive continues on a wandering path through mountain tunnels, which become mouths and faces, repeating the warning, "Better play safe!" The locomotive now becomes a runaway, and an approaching train looks on in horror as it is approaching in the opposite direction. Its fenders form hands, and it places its fingers to its mouth to blow a warning whistle. The boy's locomotive screams in response and whistles back. The quick cutting back and forth between the approaching locomotives builds the tension to an expected train wreck that only leands to both engines leaping into the air, looking at each other like scared dogs. At this point the film returns to the boy still unconscious on the tracks. A train is speeding down the tracks, and the dog, struggling with the rope chain, breaks loose. She races furiously along side the speeding locomotive in the spirit of Rin-Tin-Tin or Strongheart to rescue the boy. In the nick of time, the dog picks him up and moves him off from the tacks. But it looks as though her tail is in the way. Just at the right moment, her tail moves out of the way just as the train passes, and the dog licks the boy's face. This is a fantastic cartoon adventure that combines many of the best Fleischer elements, including technical and engineering devices, anthopromorpic animation, and the macabre.