Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors
Directors: Harry Bailey and John Foster
Rating: Three of Ten Stars
An office romance between an office boy and a secretary is threatened by their lecherous boss.
"The Office Boy" is a terrible cartoon. Everything about it is amateurish--from the animation through the sound design and the musical soundtrack and featured song--and indifferently produced, with the least amount of effort going into all aspects of creation.
I suspect some of you, after reading the above paragraph, are wondering how anything Walt Disney did with Mickey Mouse could ever be described as "amateurish" and "indifferently produced"? Well, that's because, despite what it might appear from the still above, "Office Boy" is NOT a Disney cartoon. Instead, it's one of a handful of knock-offs cranked out by the Van Beuren Corporation to capitalize on the popularity of Mickey Mouse and his female friend Minnie Mouse. They were so bad that Roy Disney reportedly filed suit against Van Beuren. According to Hal Erickson, who literally wrote the book on the Van Beuren Company, Disney wasn't seeking any monetary compensation for the obvious infringement--he just wanted then to stop making crappy cartoons featuring knock-offs of their popular characters.
"The Office Boy" is more terrible than even the worse "Tom & Jerry" installment, as, no matter how awful some of them are, there's always a certain atmosphere of childish glee, along with a generous helping of surreal absurdities. We have almost none of either here, except for the cute out-of-nowhere finale... which is tainted by what I assume is the first run of a nightmarish "gag" where two characters merge into one in a terrifying manner. (It reappears a couple years later in "Rocketeers", which was also co-directed by John Foster.)
As is my habit, when it comes to the short films I review, I encourage you to check out the subject instead of just taking my word for its quality. If nothing else, you will find yourself marveling at just how shameless the Van Beuren folks were in their rip-off of Mickey Mouse in "The Office Boy". (And if you find yourself disagreeing with my take, let everyone know your views in the comments section, or over on my Facebook page.)
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In fact, I think it's unlikely that Disney was looking for financial compensation, given that it has stated that the Van Beuren company lost it a million dollars because the public confused the two characters.
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