Going Places

Going Places is an odd piece of propaganda from the post Word War II era (like most propaganda pieces were from that era) about the marvels of free enterprise. The short cartoon starts out with a boy who would much rather be fishing being forced by his mother instead to help her make soap. Dreaming of escaping this drudgery, he decides if he invents an easier way of making soap, he will then have the leisure to do anything he wants. If this movie was meant to inspire school children to become captains of industry, I suspect it misfired badly. Our hero succeeds yet he is never able to enjoy his success because he spends the rest of his life competing with competitors who are always looking for opportunities to drive him out of business. The whole thing is nicely animated and mildly amusing but overall it is a very dispiriting look at capitalism.