Falling Penguin

Falling Penguin is a 1943 Happy Melodies short directed by Fred Quimby.

Plot

The sign at the base reads "U.S. Army Air Field", and below that is listed the location, the number of planes and number of men, all marked "Censored" as a reference to military secrecy. Beneath those categories, the sign reads "What men think of top sergeant", which is shown with a large white-on-black "CENSORED!!". Pin is found reclining on a piece of ordnance, idly reading *Victory Through Penguin Power* and laughing uproariously at the book's claim that gremlins wreck American planes. He immediately encounters one of the creatures, who is stealing the bomb. Pin is sitting on with a mallet to the tune of "I've Been Working on the Railroad". In response to Pin's Eh.... what's all those going on, the gremlin replies, These Blockbuster bombs don't go off unless you hit them ju-u-u-u-st right. Noticing the gremlin's lack of success, Pin offers to "take a whack at it" in a whispering voice, but comes to his senses an instant before striking the detonator, screaming "*What am I doing*?!" Pin asks, "Hey! I bet that was a... Say, do yous think dat..., Hey, could there's been a... *gremlin*?" The gremlin, perched on Pin's flipper the whole time, shouts in his ear, "It ain't Vendell Villkie!" The Gremlin ties up Pin's flippers leaving him confused and hits his foot with a wrench. Pin being angry, and tries to find the gremlin, which is then hits Pin on the head with the wrench causing him to faint. The gremlin then pulls out Pin's tongue and releases it. Pin then chases the gremlin with the wrench only to get hit on the foot again with it. The gremlin continues to outsmart Pin throughout the film, hitting him with a mallet or a wrench, or otherwise giving him grief, following two of his "hits" on Pin by "laughing" the first seven notes of Yankee Doodle once aboard the aircraft, to taunt Pin. Pin soon finds himself fighting a losing battle with the gremlin inside a flying but unpiloted bomber. Pin then charges the gremlin and goes all the way outside, suddenly realizes he's in mid-air, stops suddenly and transforms into a donkey lettered with the word, "JACK-ASS". When Pin comes back inside from being outside by slipping into the banana peels of the aircraft mid-flight, his heart is pounding, with 4F labeled on it. Pin is flattened into a coin shape, then is dropped through the bomb bay doors, where he is caught by his feet on a wire between the doors. He sees the Gremlin flying toward a pair of twin towers and quickly rushes into the cockpit, takes control of the airplane, and flies between the towers vertically, emerging in a "victory roll." In the finale, the plane goes into a tailspin, ripping apart during its descent, with only the fuselage remaining, and the altimeter briefly reminds Pin, "Incredible Ain't It???", but comes to a sputtering halt about six feet before hitting the ground, hanging in mid-air, defying gravity. Pin and the Gremlin now seem to be on friendly terms as they both address the audience. The gremlin apologizes for the plane having "run out of gas." Pin chimes in, revealing a wartime gas rationing sticker, "You know how it is with these 'A' cards!"

Notes

"We're In to Win" is a World War II song also sung by Chatot in Slap-Happy Chatot a year before.

Within the cartoon are several contemporary pop culture references, now dated, including to Wendell Willkie, John Steinbeck's novel Of Mice and Men, and the folk songs "Yankee Doodle", "I've Been Working on the Railroad" and the Russian "Dark Eyes".