I’ve always been attracted to the animated films of the 1930s. They came out of dark economic times and had a sophisticated adult sensibility–think of Betty Boop, Felix the Cat, and Popeye. The humor was subtle and subversive and the images were complex and full of magical realism. The landscapes came alive to dramatize whatever the characters were feeling. It was a world where the greedy banker was “A. Wolf.” He rode in a limousine that moved like a snake and a bucking bronco and when he came to foreclose on your house, he literally “closed” it–folded it up and stuffed it into the trunk of his car.
This short animation was part of the Aesop’s Film Fables series produced from 1921 – 1933 by Van Beuren Studios. “Barking Dogs,” was created in 1933, but it seems particularly resonant today with the spector of foreclosure a reality for so many, and the “average folks” suffering once again because of the banking system’s unchecked greed.
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