Going Places (1948)
Article 6015 by Dave Sindelar
Date: 10-2-2021
Directed by John Sutherland
Voice cast unknown
Country: USA
What it is: Propaganda designed to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit.

A young boy is kept from fishing by having to help his mother make soft soap. He decides if he comes up with a more efficient way to make soap, he can find the time to fish, but instead it leads him down the road to the world of business.

It’s not the invention that puts this one in the realm of the fantastic; bar soap is hardly a novelty. Nor is there a fantastical character leading the protagonist by the nose, a prevalent type of character in the realm of file ephemera like this animated short. Rather, it’s the appearance of our old friends, the good and evil doppelgangers who try to tempt the protagonist into evil or keep him on the path of good; they pop up when the main character is tempted to join a monopoly and fix the prices. And therein lies the biggest problem here; it whitewashes the business world by presenting a rosy but not entirely accurate view of capitalism. But then, what do you expect of a short intended to encourage more people to go into business? Still, it’s an interesting and useful short in its way, though I will point out our hero never does get to go fishing.