Ben Sharpsteen | The Cookie Carnival / 1935

angel fruit cakes

by Douglas Messerli

 

Pinto Colvig, William Cottrell, and Ted Sears (writers), Ben Sharpsteen (director) The Cookie Carnival / 1935

 

     In May of 1935, the Disney Studios released the 8-minute cartoon, The Cookie Carnival, the animated tale of a poor Gingerbread Cookie Girl who, like Cinderella, has no proper dress to wear to the parade. The Gingerbread Man comes upon her crying, and quickly, with the help of icing, cupcake flutes, nonpareils, sugar sequins, and numerous other sweet tarts dolls her up to become the Queen of the Parade.

 

       Given the award, the cookie judges must now find the perfect King to share her throne. Performing before her in competition are the “Dandy Candy Kids”; “The Old-Fashioned Cookies Like Mother Used to Bake”; “The Devil’s Food Cakes” who jive with jazz proclaiming that they are “naughty and nice”; the “Upside Down Cakes” with the wrong side up doing a dance on their heads and hands; the Jolly Rum Cookies who sing their song quite obviously drunk; and finally, the “Angel Fruit Cakes”—two queers if I’ve ever seen one—who as they flutter and flit about in careful time to their dance ask her to marry “one of us because we are so good,” presumably no sex involved.

     Wisely, Miss Gingerbread resists all the candidates, with the cookie world quite perplexed. The judges each suggest she marry one of them, or perhaps, marry all three. But upon discovering the Gingerbread Man, who having slipped away from the cookie guards, shows up just in time, she declares him as her consort. The two kiss as the Gingerbread Man, embarrassed to be seen by all, lifts up a lollipop to cover their canoodling.

 

Los Angeles, April 17, 2022

Reprinted from World Cinema Review (April 2022)