Caveman Inki (1950) Online

CAVEMAN INKI (1950, Warner Brothers cartoon, D: Chuck Jones) In pre-historic times small animals run when they hear the great beast roar. Then the great beast runs in terror as the ground quakes, mountains rumble, the earth splits and out hops the mynah bird, to alternately bedevil, mystify and rescue Inki as he hunts dinosaurs. Great IB-Technicolor fun! I feel so luck to have caught this rare film at CINEFEST the annual early & rare film festival in Syracuse, NY - March 2003. More film buffs should support these festivals and share their discoveries on the IMDB so other film fans can track these old titles down.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes, Hanna Barbera and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons. Actually appreciate it more even through young adults eyes, thanks to a broader knowledge.

Chuck Jones is one of the greatest geniuses in animation history, or at least to me and many others, but 'Caveman Inki' while still a worthwhile effort and the best Inki cartoon definitely is not one of the best representations of him by any stretch. There are other cartoons that are much funnier, wittier, more inventively animated, Jones did go on to much better things. 'Caveman Inki' having said that is still decent.

Although Inki is kind of cute and the interaction with the supporting characters is amusing, people are not going to take kindly to the unappealing visual design of the character or the less than flattering stereotypical behaviour. Just to say though, there are far more offensive cartoons and characters about. 'Caveman Inki' is more amusing rather than laugh-a-minute or among the funniest cartoons around, and there could have been a little more variety in the gags.

Story-wise, 'Caveman Inki' is likable and lively in pace but it is pretty predictable.

However, the rest of the animation is very good. It's beautifully drawn, very detailed and the colours are vibrant, complete with some great expressions for particularly the lion and shots.

The music score is typically lushly and cleverly orchestrated, with lively and energetic rhythms, it's also beautifully synchronised with the action and gestures/expressions and even enhances the impact. Then again what do you expect from Carl Stalling, a near unequalled master at this. There are great use of sound effects.

'Caveman Inki' is amiable and amusing enough, some of it funny, the timing is lively and support is fun. The best character is the Minah bird, namely for the perfectly synchronised movement and hopping to Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture cleverly slowed down. Pacing is lively.

Overall, worthwhile with Inki's last cartoon (of five) being the best, saying this by some way as the others for me just scrapped above average. Doesn't see a genius on top form though. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Chuck Jones clearly liked using classical music. In this cartoon he used the same mysterious, black, myna bird as he did in several other cartoons.The bird, (whose appearance signaled a stop to whatever fighting was going on) was always accompanied by the same melodic phrase by the classical composer, Felix Mendelssohn. Anyone familiar with the works of Mendelssohn will recognize the music immediately. And, I suspect the reverse will also be true, i.e. anyone having seen the huge, black myna bird, with the bored expression, doing his silly hop to the music of Mendelssohn, will find it difficult to listen to this music again without conjuring up a memory of this curious bird.

In the tradition of Wille E. Coyote and Roadrunner, there is no dialogue and the action speaks louder than words. Inki the hunter was going to hunt a dinosaur, but instead goes after the Mynah Bird leading them in a series of wacky events. It is a great cartoon, the dinosaurs are interesting to look at and the animation is great, not to mention the music. But with every up there is a down. It is politically incorrect. First of all, the character is offensive to look at and is bound to cause an uproar. There are some running gags there. It must be seen to be believed. Give it a watch. Although it is not rated, but a G-rating would be nice.

. . . Warner Bros. courageously attempts to thwart the need for a #Cartoonssowhite Hashtag by depicting Inki as a Proud Member of the Black Race during CAVEMAN INKI. Ten years after CAVEMAN INKI graced USA theater screens, the Hanna & Barbera weasels--spawned in the same Racist Miasmic Swamp at MGM studios that birthed that infamously mendacious snooze-fest, GONE WITH THE WIND--plagiarized INKI with their Deplorable FLINTSTONES television series. These cheap cartoons Whited Out History with their bigoted all-White cast featuring the Rubble Family, along with the title characters, of course. Warner also uses CAVEMAN INKI to poke fun, in their usual clairvoyant way, at the Holy Roller Museums destined to dot America in the 21st Century in order to spread Fake "Facts" malarkey about people and dinosaurs roaming Earth AT THE SAME TIME!! The weak-minded Holocaust, Climate Change and Evolution Deniers that currently visit these Brainwashing Shacks are the same folks that accelerated the looming Human Extinction Event by AT LEAST a century when they recently installed Red Commie KGB patsy Don Juan Rump at the White House through the Rigged Election of 2016. Warner's Animated Shorts Seers division (aka, the prognosticating Looney Tuners) gets the last laugh at the expense of this Fascist Confederate Nazi ilk by throwing a Minah Bird into the mix, contemporaneous with Inki and the long-necked dinosaur. Every True Blue Loyal Patriotic Progressive Union Label toddler knows that in Reality, Minah Birds evolved from Minotaurs many eons later!

"Caveman Inki" and at least four other Inki cartoons have been shelved by Warner Brothers (home of Merrie Melodies/Looney Tunes) because the character offends modern sensibilities. So, although audiences of the 1940s and 50s saw no problem with this depiction of a black character with huge lips and a bone in his hair, today it is bound to offend. While this is true, I have to see any cartoon banned (officially or unofficially) for many reasons. First, we need to know how far we've come--and, thankfully, this sort of character is something we wouldn't make today because most folks genuinely don't want to offend. Second, throwing out the entire cartoon is a loss of our history. And, in some cases, the cartoons are good even though they do offend. However, "Caveman Inki" isn't that good--it just isn't funny. Plus the myna bird character was used pretty much the same way seven years earlier. Not a terrible cartoon but one we probably won't miss as it sits on the shelf.

...that "Caveman Inki" was a product of the old Euro-American view of Africa, given how they draw Inki. As long as we understand that, it's a pretty fun cartoon, as he persists in his attempts to trap the mysterious minah bird - with its syncopated walk - and gets chased by a lion. The whole scene in the dinosaur's belly is quite cool.

If they eventually release these cartoons on DVD, I figure that they'll probably have to give some sort of disclaimer identifying that they never meant any malice to people of African descent; they just didn't know any better. As it was, this cartoon seemed like a sort of place holder in between the really great ones (in 1950, Chuck Jones also released "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" and "Rabbit of Seville"). Worth seeing.