I just love the good cartoons of this classic era that feature characters and settings that are totally unique to them, and they surely don't come much more different than this one! It sort of has the weird streak of a Fleischer short, but was also extremely delightful, I loved the bizarre globular proportions of all the rubbery buildings in the hazy backgrounds of Balloon Land, as well as its residents. What an uncanny, cool idea-an entire little floating kingdom of rubber! All the bright cheerful colours were just beautiful, and set a fun carnival tone and atmosphere-I want a balloon duck! The most fun that I got out of this was simply appreciating all those wonderful colours and designs. ::: The peculiar-looking cackling pointy villain, and the whole idea behind him was so interesting and sinister! Now what could a world of cuddly-wuddly balloon people ever have to fear, if not to be popped? The simplicity and effectiveness of that little plot-device was such a little stroke of genius because it's so obvious you'd probably never think of it! He sounded a lot like the wolf from "The Three Little Pigs" Silly Symphony. With all the pins I assume being outlawed, it was the one outlaw who eventually ended up with all the pins...ha! I love the funny villainous song he sings in which he proudly boasts of how much all the balloon folks fear and despise him so! He never once actually pokes anyone with his pins, he throws them all like darts to pop his victims. It's funny, if those were 'people', instead of squishy-squashy balloon people, then this would basically be a little slasher horror cartoon wouldn't it? I don't get why some see this as being all dark and scary. Yeah it does have a certain antiquated edginess to it, the spindly walking pincushion is an impressive menace, but I wouldn't exactly call him nightmarish unless you're a little kid. And yes he does 'kill' a few balloon citizens-I don't really think the goofball they had guarding the door counts, as he was kinda too dumb to live! I also thought the inventive sequence where he's overwhelmed by the soldiers was surprisingly violent as he was first trapped in the ball of tree sap and then sent rolling over a cliff to his doom, screaming all the way! But I still found the overall show a little on the tame side... A short that I would definitely describe as daring is the 1932 Silly Symphony "King Neptune". ::: So many of these really old cartoons are so much better than all the soulless crud they churn out today. They don't rely on 'hip', crude humour to win over their audience, and I just plain like the older animation style better because you can occasionally see how much more care and time has gone into it to make it so special and memorable. Now it's all become so much loathsome unworthy computer-generated garbage-who'd have ever thought that the hand-drawn animation would have one day become effectively rendered extinct!? Bah!!! ::: Let your lighter side out and enjoy this little curio! If you enjoy the slightly unusual or bizarre it's guaranteed to not turn out to be a great big letdown! See ya.

This film was included in the three DVD set "Saved From the Flames"--a collection of mostly ephemeral movies that have managed to avoid turning to powder, catching fire or melting--something that usually happened with the nitrate film stock used up through the 1950s.The first thing I noticed was how incredibly vibrant the Cinecolor was with this restored film. Audiences might think it strange to see a color film where two main colors predominate--bluish-green and orange-red. With Cinecolor and Two-Color Technicolor, three strips of film overlapped--black & white, red and green (though the Cinecolor films I have seen look a bit bluer). It's all rather primitive by today's standards, but it's nice to see a film like this with all it's vibrant color.This is set in Balloon Land--a place where all the creatures are made of balloons. Suddenly, the Pincushion Man (Billy Bletcher) appears with his pins and starts acting like a big jerk--threatening to pop everyone. Naturally, the folks are scared and run and hide. Soon the alarm is sounded and the weird little creatures of Balloon Land go on the attack--though what they can do with the Pincushion Man seems pretty dubious. Yet despite an obvious disadvantage, the balloon folks work together for a common good and save the day. I think there's supposed to be an object lesson here, but it escapes me.While compared to cartoons of the 1940s and 50s this one seems VERY old fashioned and dull, for the 1930s it's actually pretty exciting and fun. It's no where up to the standards of the stuff being produced over at Disney (where the series director, U.B. Iwerks had once worked), it's pretty good.

"Tickles me the way they rate me!"-- The Pincushion Man.And how WOULD you rate the Pincushion Man? He's a man made of pins, and he lurks in the woods outside of Balloon Land. Now, he does not like the Balloon People. In fact, from birth the Balloon People are warned against this evil dweller. Of course, once in Balloon Land, the deep-voiced villain goes on an alarmingly cheerful rampage.Dark, horrific, but very intriguing. This is well worth watching, but it may traumatize you! Just take heart, and realize that the Pincushion Man is not real and you are not a balloon. The voice work is very well done, as is the animation. The Pincushion Man is easily up there on a list of top cartoon villains.

This is a visually impressive cartoon, which should be expected from an Iwerks cartoon. As plots go, this was actually a pretty intricate one for the Iwerks studio, with a great villain voiced by a Disney regular, Billy Bletcher, who did Pegleg Pete, among others. The funniest bit for me was the town's "alarm" system. The Pincushion Man is really the most interesting character in the short, but it does offer some entertaining moments and is genuinely tense and frightening in spots. Iwerks deserves more notice and credit for what he had a responsibility for at Disney. His stint running his own studio wasn't as successful as he would have hoped, but he did produce (with an incredibly talented team, as a glance at the names of his employees will attest) some very good shorts. Balloon Land is one of the best that the Iwerks Studio created. Well worth watching. Recommended.