Arnold the Octopus
Arnold the Octopus is a 1952 adult animated comedy one-reel short film produced by United Productions of America (UPA). It follows a greedy octopus adventuring into the city of Las Vegas, perhaps learning a thing or two along the way.
It was released in only three theaters in the United States on November 10, 1952. The short was originally of detest, with audiences criticizing the adult themes, but after it was rediscovered (by me, not to brag), it was praised for the same reason, along with the animation and characterization. In 2021, it was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".
How I found it
It was a typical night in the summer of 2018. I was watching Toonami, at, like, 2 am. After a while, I got bored, so I decided to go out and buy myself some Blu-Rays from our 24-Hour Walmart. After all that, I tripped on something that looked like a dodgy cassette tape jammed into the ground. I managed to pull it out, but it was all dusty. Curious, I took it home and used baby wipes to clean it. To my surprise, it was what I originally suspected, a cassette tape. But the logo of what the tape is supposed to display was unnaturally dim. Shining a flashlight at it, I could just read: "Arnold t O t". Confused, I inserted it in my VHS player.
The film itself
The film started with a 1930s-1950s intro, where I could just see in the corner a logo I recognized, but I wasn't sure what it was. Then, the production company logo itself came up, and to my shock, this was from UPA, creators of Gerald McBoing-Boing and Mr. Magoo. Then, the logo appeared, Arnold the Octopus. The first thing I noticed from the cartoon is that it was very stylized, with a more Picasso-like art style. I wasn't surprised, since UPA usually uses this style. But one thing that did put me off in terms of the visuals was the design of this Arnold guy, since he looked EXACTLY like Oswald from the 2001 preschool series of the same name. Enough with the visuals, let's move onto the storyline of this cartoon. It started out with Arnold walking out of the sea, with the narrator stating that he was an alcoholic who was moving for "nostalgia". I was both shocked and confused that a UPA cartoon would start like this. It then showed him on a train, moving to Las Vegas and getting in a vulgar fight with someone on the train after an argument of if the newspaper is fake or not. Arnold is arrested for verbal harassment. In prison, a beautiful octopus walks by, making Arnold's jaw drop. He decides that he must get this lady's attention, meaning that he must escape from what he calls "solitary confinement". He and his new prison friends sneak out of the prison, to find themselves in Las Vegas. Pleasantly surprised, Arnold searches through the city to find the lady he saw before, but police officers follow him in cars. Arnold finds the lady in the bar, so she goes up to her and blatantly flirts with her. However, she isn't impressed by his snarky attitude, so she refuses. Heartbroken, Arnold buys beer, but the cops find him, causing him to drop the glass bottle on the floor, winding him into a puddle of beer as the short ends.
My thoughts on the short
Despite the shock of a UPA cartoon literally being about an alcoholic getting arrested for verbal harassment, I must say, I was impressed. The story was engaging, it had several funny moments, and Arnold getting what he deserved was nice.
Overall, I give it an 8.5/10.
Aftermath
I shared a recording of the short film onto YouTube, which got a lot more views than I expected. What really surprised me was that not even three years later, the NATIONAL FILM REGISTRY put it into the Library of Congress, meaning that, yeah, I found a piece of f**king HISTORY.
Conclusion
That was my dusty, raunchy, Picasso-esque experience of finding something the world never knew existed. I'm out!
Credited to Grapey Works
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