When the green-hued bats return to their cavern to play the pipe organ and dance their hellish dance, a starving owl spots them and tries to trick them into becoming his dinner in this Columbia Color Rhapsody cartoon directed by Ub Iwerks.

Iwerks had been floundering a a cartoon producer since 1935, when Pat Powers and Metro had pulled the rug out from under him. Likewise, with Charles Mintz dead, Columbia was looking for a reliable producer for their cartoons. Alas, something went wrong. Columbia would go through several more regimes before settling on UPA, and Iwerks would return to Disney, where he busied himself for the rest of his life working on technical issues.

In the meantime, this is a good, if derivative cartoon, borrowing from Iwerks' work on SKELETON DANCE and Harpo Marx, both for the owl's initial look and one gag. It's nicely done, but perhaps its lack of originality indicates that Iwerks didn't have what it took for the top spot.

The Bats return to their cavern to play music and dance, but a starving owl tries to trick them into becoming dinner.

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Color Favorites (1949-1950 Season) #9: The Wise Owl

Wise Owl

What was the official certification given to The Wise Owl (1940) in the United States?

The Wise Owl

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