Wonderland Burlesque's Down The Rabbit Hole: Daisy Dolly In Hearts And Flowers

Wonderland Burlesque's 

Down The Rabbit Hole: 

Daisy Dolly In Hearts And Flowers

Down The Rabbit Hole merely places a spotlight on something slightly unusual that's caught my interest. With the help of Wikipedia, YouTube, and other sites, I gather information and learn something new.

Today, we take a look at Daisy Dolly In Hearts and Flowers.

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This bit of vintage stop motion animation fascinates me. It's so creepy! 

Let me name the ways:

The stalker boyfriend with the harmonica. The sexualization of the pigtailed doll behind the window blind. The sax playing sailor in the bushes (shades of Bill Clinton). And what on earth is that thing that appears in the hole left by the fence post? Plus, you have a reptilian-looking cuckoo bird in the town square clock.

Who on earth thought this was sweet or endearing? 

Daisy Dolly In Hearts and Flowers

Released during the height of the depression, did they think this would lift people's spirits?

It's also rather violent. The bridge incident alone, with its odd touch of racism, is enough to make one wonder what these filmmakers were thinking. 

As for Dolly, she seems to have no moral compass. She'll go with anyone who still has a bit of wind in his sail. And when she returns with a bit of cheese from the moon (was that her quest all along?), her father, who apparently has been day drinking (he's still in his nightshirt), shoots the moon... which makes no sense. What? He hates cheese?

 

In the end, I feel for Dolly. Growing up in a world filled with faces not even a mother could love, in a town created from Tim Burton's nightmares, with the lack of a logical storyline? 

I guess a life of day drinking is in her future, too.

Dolly Daisy in Hearts and Flowers was originally released in 1930 by Warner Brothers as part of its Vitaphone Varieties series, with sound. The original Vitaphone has never been found, so the soundtrack that we hear is a replacement. The Vitaphone Varieties series consisted of mostly live action musical shorts. Howard Moss, who directed this short, was one of the earliest stop motion animators. He went on to , produce a series called MoToy Comedies.

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Daisy Dolly In Hearts and Flowers

(Colorized)