Burt Gillett | King Neptune / 1932

blow the men down

by Douglas Messerli

 

Norm Ferguson, Johnny Cannon, Les Clark, David Hand, Dick Lundy, Ben Sharpsteen, Art Babbitt, Jack King, Hamilton Luske, Bill Roberts, Ed Love, Fred Spencer, Paul Fennell, Chuck Counch, Joe D’Igalo, Harry Reeves, Charles Hutchinson, Dick Williams, and Charles Byrne (animation), Burt Gillett (director) King Neptune / 1932

 

This 1932 Disney Silly Symphonies cartoon, features Neptune (voiced by Allan Watson) at the bottom of the sea, surrounded by his various subjects including octopi, crabs, seahorses, and, from within a clamshell, a bevy of naked mermaids.

    The mermaids gather on a rock, while meanwhile a ship full of pirates carouse the sea singing their pirate song. In the midst of the burly, drunken pirates song a highly campy pirate, dressed in purple, peaks through a porthole to momentarily interrupt the chorus with his own effeminate version of “Yo-ho blow the man down,” in response to which someone throws a jug of rum in his face.

     The pirates spot the mermaids and rush to the rock where they sit sunning themselves. Most of the beauties quickly dive into the sea, but one red-haired lovely is lassoed by the head pirate and tossed into his treasure box. She too is different from the others, prized for her ginger hair.

     Neptune is locked in chains, but his entire kingdom comes to the mermaid’s rescue, including spouting whales, a contingent of mounted sea horses, and a razorback shark whose body serves as a launching and landing pad for flying fish. Octopi—via the animation of David Hand, who later became supervising director of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Bambi—turn themselves into helicopters.

     Breaking the chains, Neptune rises to the surface, blowing up a storm, stirring up whirlpools with his trident, and finally, sinking the pirate ship by leaping upon it and plunging it to the bottom of the sea.

     The pirates have apparently drowned, but the orange-headed mermaid pops out of the chest festooned with jewelry hidden in the treasure chest, while the others equally rope themselves in long strands of pearls, performing another lovely water ballet to Neptune’s pleasure.

     Because of the perceived nudity regarding the mermaids and the suggestion of heavy drinking, this lovely film was not selected for the 2019 Platinum Edition DVD of Disney’s treasures.

     Interestingly, the brief role played by the queer pirate is precisely the way gay men and women were often introduced during the same period in the numerous “panze” films, where they appeared in a context of isolation, separated from the rest of the action and having no real involvement with the other characters, there only to represent an outsider in the midst of an often closed society.

    It’s never revealed what happened to the queer pirate, despite the fact that we doubt he was not involved in the rape of the mermaid; but perhaps just by presenting an alternative, the life of pirating was pictured as not entirely evil. Some pirates just liked to be around those of their same gender.

 

Los Angeles, August 6, 2025

Reprinted from My Queer Cinema blog (August 2025).