The Explorer (1931)
Article 5816 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 7-22-2020
Directed by Frank Moser
Voice cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Early Terrytoon Talkie

Farmer Al Falfa goes to the North Pole in his autogyro.

Because Farmer Al Falfa has an autogyro (combination car and plane), this one gets by on having some science fiction content. Of course, the autogyro may be arbitrary; in fact, the whole cartoon feels arbitrary. For example, a flight of cats goes up in an airplane to attach a box of skunks to the autogyro. Why? No explanation is tendered. Pretty much anything that happens is punctuated by dancing. A cat dies, his nine lives dance. Al Falfa gets to the North Pole and dances with a (non-polar) bear. Two kissing walruses are revealed when their igloo is pulled away, so they dance. And once Al Falfa runs into the North Pole sign, the cartoon suddenly repeats a bunch of footage from the beginning of the cartoon. This cartoon sits with a lowly 3.0 rating on IMDB. It does little to merit any higher rating.