May 7th, 2021 
Michael Lyons 
Perhaps Lindsay Lohan, playing identical twins in the 1998 remake of Disney’s live-action classic The Parent Trap, summed it up best when she declared: “My mom is too cool!”
We can all relate. As we approach Mother’s Day and plan to celebrate our moms or fondly remember moms who are no longer with us, we can all agree that moms are indeed cool. Animation fans have plenty of feature films and TV shows that celebrate mothers in animated forms. Still, there have also been several short subjects that provide the perfect theming for Mother’s Day.
Lambert the Sheepish Lion, 1952, Disney
A charming “stand-alone” short subject from The Disney Studio puts a new spin on the “Ugly Duckling” tale.
Narrated by one of Disney’s most recognizable vocal talents, Sterling Holloway, who voices a stork (while it’s never been fully confirmed, this looks to be the same stork from Dumbo in some sort of “shared universe”). He drops off baby lambs to some mother sheep in a field (the stork tells them, “pick out the ewe that you like best”).
One would-be mom finds herself without a baby lamb, and the stork realizes that he has mistakenly brought a lion cub named Lambert with his delivery. The stork attempts to take Lambert back, but the cub has already bonded with the lonely mother sheep.
Lambert grows up with the other lambs, trying desperately to fit in, even though he meows, instead of baaa-ing. The lambs tease Lambert by singing the short’s earworm of a theme song.
Even as the lambs grow to sheep and Lambert to a lion, he continues to be the butt of their jokes until one night when a wolf shows up and threatens his mother. Lambert’s true mighty lion nature comes out, allowing him to save his mother and the flock heroically.
Directed by Jack Hannah, a veteran of many of Disney’s classic short subjects, including those starring Donald Duck and Chip n’ Dale, Lambert feels like a feature film. It has tremendous heart and excellent character design (particularly of Lambert and his “sheepish grin”).
As Lambert’s mom loves him dearly, even though he looks nothing like the other lambs, the short also has a nice message of acceptance.
Gorilla My Dreams, 1948 & Apes of Wrath, 1959, Warner Bros.
These Bugs Bunny shorts need to be discussed together, as one is almost a remake of the other.
In Gorilla My Dreams, Bugs Bunny finds himself adopted by a mother gorilla, wondering why the stork hasn’t visited her. She grabs Bugs as he floats down a river in a barrel. Inside, Bugs is clueless, perusing Esquire magazine and singing “Someone’s Rocking My Dreamboat,” as mother gorilla swings through the jungle, taking the bunny home as her own.
The gorilla roughly showers Bugs with affection until he tries to convince her that he’s a rabbit, which upsets mom (“My baby doesn’t love me!” she says as she bursts into tears). Feeling bad, Bugs tells her to “turn off the ‘watah-woiks” and agrees to pretend to be her baby (which includes dressing him as an infant).
From here, Bugs tangles with the father gorilla, who, quite literally, tries to throw him out of the house/jungle.
Apes of Wrath features an almost identical plot. This time, a drunk stork misplaces a baby gorilla while making deliveries in the jungle. After spotting Bugs Bunny nearby roasting a carrot over a campfire, the stork knocks out the rabbit, dresses him as a baby, and delivers him instead to proud gorilla parents.
In shock at seeing Bugs, daddy gorilla immediately wants to take a club to the crib, while mom defends her new baby, loving her baby no matter what. When Bugs wakes up (thinking he is “hungover”), he attempts to leave, but his mother won’t let him.
Mama Gorilla
From here, Bugs continues to get the best of dad until the stork drops off the correct baby. As Bugs leaves, the stork gives him another bundle, this one containing a cameo from another Warner Bros.’ cartoon star.
Although similar in storylines, the cartoon shorts are visually and tonally different. Gorilla My Dreams was directed by Robert McKimson and Apes of Wrath by Friz Freleng, each bringing their inimitable comic style to their respective films.
Both, however, are fun fare for Mother’s Day. Apes of Wrath was included as part of the compilation TV show The Bugs Bunny Mother’s Day Special, which included other appropriately themed classic Warner Bros. cartoons (bridged with new animation) and aired on CBS in May 1979.
That’s My Mommy, 1955, MGM
Mistaken motherhood is also at the center of this Tom & Jerry short; after a duck egg winds up under Tom, the little duckling who pops out immediately imprints on Tom and thinks that the cat is his mother.
On the other hand, Tom immediately builds a fire and a spit and thinks that he has found breakfast.
Jerry comes to the duckling’s rescue as the duckling’s continues to run back to his “mommy,” Tom. And so, the cartoon short goes, with Tom attempting different ways to cook the duckling, Jerry trying to save the duckling, and Tom getting the best of Jerry.
The cat’s heart eventually melts, and he discovers that he just can’t harm the little duck, instead he teaches him how to swim.
That’s My Mommy is so endearing (and, at times, darkly comedic), thanks, in large part, to the talents of comedian Red Coffey, who provides the overtly cute, quacking-like voice of the little duckling who, no matter what gruesome fate Tom dreams up, is always loyal to his “mommy.”
Bao, 2018, Pixar
Flashforward to this unusual, emotional, and brilliant computer-animated Pixar short from director Domee Shi.
Bao opens with a Chinese-Canadian woman cooking baozi (a Chinese cuisine that is a yeast-leavened bun filled with meat or vegetables). After serving them for her husband and herself, one of the baozi comes alive, acting like a newborn baby.
Although she is initially shocked, she raises the baozi as her child, caring for him, taking him out shopping with her, and watching this little baozi grow.
When he wants to play with the other children, his mother becomes overly protective, and he begins to rebel. The baozi distances himself from his mother. He eventually brings home a fiancée, which causes an argument between mother and baozi and results in the mother taking action that seemingly ends their relationship.
What we see after this is that this was a dream-like sequence, as the mother’s real-life son comes back to her and the entire family reconciles.
Told with no dialogue that only brings the story’s heart closer, Bao is a powerful allegory with universal themes of empty nest syndrome, the bond between mothers and children, and the pain parents face when children strike out on their own.
Packing so much into its short time frame, it’s no wonder that Bao won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject.
Like all of the short subjects here, Boa may not be grand in scale, but they’re all fun, entertaining and full of heart, and like Mom herself, they’re all “too cool.”
Happy Mother’s Day!
- An Eye for A Classic: The 60th Anniversary of “Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol” - December 22, 2022
- A Very Merry Mickey: The 70th Anniversary of “Pluto’s Christmas Tree” - December 19, 2022
- A Fine French Feline Film: The 60th Anniversary of “Gay Pur-ee” - December 12, 2022
Posted in 
Tags: 
