"Balloon Land" (AKA "The Pincushion Man" in Castle Films reissued prints) is a 1935 short in the Comi Color Cartoons series, directed by Ub Iwerks.
The short begins with an establishing shot of the eponymous town, populated by many sentient balloon people and animals. Soon after, we are introduced to an unnamed boy and girl balloon who have just been filled up and ready to go but are warned by a local patron (in song) about the dangerous Pincushion Man, who lies outside the town in the forest. Ignoring his warnings, the boy balloon hops off to challenge the pincushion man, dragging the girl along.
Not long after arriving in the forest, we are introduced to the villain, the eponymous Pincushion Man, a personified walking safety pin, with a pincushion (fittingly stuffed with a large amount of pins) attached to him. After his Villain Song (voiced by Billy Bletcher) he finds the kids and gives chase, and, after tricking a local into opening the gate, begins attack on the town's inhabitants!
This short has fallen into the Public Domain, and can be found here
, among other places. Not to be confused with the infamous 1965 live action children's movie Fun in Balloon Land, whose title location was courtesy of Philadelphia Thanksgiving parade balloons.
Tropes:
- Antagonist Title: The Castle Films reissue changed the name of the film to "The Pincushion Man".
- Babies Make Everything Better: Especially when their cries are used as alarms.
- Black Dude Dies First: The first few balloon people who get popped by the Pincushion Man are blackface characters.
- Blackface: Several residents of Balloon Land have black face balloons and look like blackface caricature.
- Bragging Theme Tune: The Pincushion Man's song.
- Brief Accent Imitation: When conning his way through the gate of Balloon Land, the Pincushion Man adopts a Yiddish accent and assures the doorman he's a "friend" who has something to give him.
- Charlie Chaplin Shout-Out: One of the balloons resembles Charlie Chaplin.
- Disney Villain Death: The Pincushion Man when he gets trapped in a ball of tree sap and is sent rolling to his doom off a cliff, screaming helplessly.
- Evil Laugh: The Pincushion Man gives a particularly impressive one.
- Evil Grin: The Pincushion Man does this often, particularly when he's taunting the balloon kid, and about to kill the balloon hick.
- For the Evulz: The Pincushion Man pops balloons for the sheer malice of it.
- "I Am" Song: The Pincushion Man's song.
- Killed Mid-Sentence: When the Hick is killed by the Pincushion Man.Hick: What er' ya goin' to give me?Pincushion Man: (pulls out pin) THIS!Hick: YOU na— (gets popped)
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: We get cameos of balloon versions of Laurel and Hardy and Charlie Chaplin in the opening. The worm that has his head zoom in on the screen, screaming, is also a reference to Joe E. "Big Mouth" Brown.
- Shout-Out: The black doorman who gets Killed Mid-Sentence is about to say radio comedian Joe Penner's catchphrase, "You nasty man!"
- Too Dumb to Live: The black balloon that lets the Pincushion Man into the town. He was dumb enough to buy his charade that he was a "friend" who wanted to "give (him) something", and lets him in—and is promptly popped by ol' Pinhead.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If the Balloon boy hadn't been so cocky about proving the Pincushion Man being fake, he would never have provoked him into chasing them and then getting him into their town in the first place.
- Villain Song: Given by the Pincushion Man in his introduction.
- Visual Innuendo: The villain's an anthropomorphic safety-pin who fondles his — pin.
- When Trees Attack: In a brief moment just before the Pincushion Man appears, an angry tree tries to grab the kids.
