THE OOMPAHS (1952)
Article 4243 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 6-5-2013
Directed by Robert Cannon
Featuring the voice of Marvin Miller
Country: USA
What it is: UPA animated cartoon

In a family of musical instruments, staid, traditional Mr. Oompah Pah tries to exert parental authority over his free-spirited jazz-loving son. But will his authority quash the little one’s spirit?

UPA revolutionized animation in the fifties with its spare but stylish abstract look, and this is a good example. The story itself is a fairly common “generation gap” tale, similar in some ways to Warner Brothers’ I WANT TO SINGA. The animation style and the bouncy music are the main attractions here; it even has a bit of poignancy when the father tries to cheer up his son by buying him a dog. All in all, it’s cute, but it’s not up to the level of THE TELL-TALE HEART, just to pick out one of UPA’s better cartoons.