'Tulips Shall Grow' (1942 George Pal Puppetoon) If you're of a certain age, you saw this little 7 minute stop motion animated short dozens of times on your tiny little black and white TV.......
It was among the many 'Puppetoons' produced by George Pal, who went on to become the producer and/or director of some of Hollywood's most classic science fiction and fantasy films...("When Worlds Collide", "The War Of The Worlds", "The Time Machine")
A simple primal story unfolds here as an obvious metaphor for the Nazi invasion of Europe.
A little Dutch boy and girl frolic among the vast vistas of tulips and windmills in Holland. They dance. They hug an smooch.. They gift each other with cakes and flowers. In short, a dreamy world.
Lightning erupts before their horrified eyes. 'The Screwballs' come marching in, overrunning and crushing the beautiful landscapes. They're literally a mindless, goose-stepping army of nuts and bolts, bringing devastation and destruction from both ground and air.
The Dutch kiddies flee in terror as the Screwballs bomb the windmills and roll over the tulips with their tanks. Chaos reigns......
Until it rains...........
The heavens above unload on the Screwballs, zapping their planes with lightning and drenching their nuts-'n-bolts army until it rusts and falls apart.
Sunshine returns. The tulips regrow. The cute little boy and girl happily reunite. And in 7 minutes, you've see World War 2 in a a nutshell......and you've seen the Nazis for what they always were all along.......rusted, mindless screwballs.
Watching it a lifetime later, it doesn't look like a dated little bauble of ancient memorabilia....
Today, it looks as true and timely as it did 78 years ago..........only the metaphors have changed.
Once again, we're overrun with Screwballs........Donald Trump and his army of minions, sycophants, enablers, toadies, apologists, crooks, professional liars, racists, idiots......and even the original Screwballs crawled out of the woodwork for him.......the Nazis.
And just like George Pal's 1942 screwballs, the Trump Screwball Army has brought nothing with them but hatred, misery, stupidity.......and now overwhelming death.
We're still anxiously awaiting the rain to wash this horde away........but not in the form of torrential raindrops.....
.......but in the form of torrential rains of votes on November 3rd. In fact, if you take a look at any of Trump's lunatic pronounements, you can see the nut's wheels and screws starting to fly off already.....
Including his extended Fox News rant about.........oddly enough......windmills.
Just like George Pal's wretched screwball army, he's afraid of them.
The metaphors may have changed in 78 years, but the little 7 minute cartoon still carries the ring of truth.
Sooner or later, it rains on the screwballs. For George Pal's timeless allegory, 4 stars (****)........for the real life Screwball general his army, an infinite amount of minus stars......
We can't wait for the rain to get here.........
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