Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Primitive Pete vs. Hand Tools
The "ABC's of Hand Tools" was a booklet published for the Armed Forces of the United States in 1943, specifically for help in the training of mechanics in charge of servicing, maintenance, and repair of the equipment used in modern warfare. To make the booklet more fun and interesting, Walt Disney Productions was commissioned to supply the illustrations-- so enter Primitive Pete, the unsuspecting victim who shows us the wrong way to do things and the troubles which result from it. Seriously, is there anything more entertaining than watching someone maim themselves with deadly, inanimate objects?
Like Buster Keaton always said, "The audience LOVES a slow-thinker!"
ReplyDeleteThese were also done as short instructional films on tool safety. In the early 1970's our "shop" class showed them to us while the girls were in "home-ec", but they surely dated back to WWII vintage, when Disney was doing a lot of informational material.
ReplyDeleteBear with me if you already know this: The "Pete" character is derived from the "Emotion" character in the WWII general audience propaganda short: REASON & EMOTION. The film shows us that two characters "drive" our brains: "Reason" is a stuffy officious type and "Emotion" is depicted as a caveman thinly disguised as a self-caricature of animator Ward Kimball.
Thanks for posting these..
I'm guilty of pretty much every one of these sins.
ReplyDeletePrimitive Pete looks a lot like a Fred Flintstone prototype.
ReplyDeleteGives a new meaning to the GEICO commercial "Even a caveman can do it"
>Like Buster Keaton always said, "The audience LOVES a slow-thinker!"
ReplyDeleteIndeed, bless each and every one of them!
>These were also done as short instructional films on tool safety.
While researching and preparing for this post I did find info about the film shorts, thanks for all of the additional info Will.
>I'm guilty of pretty much every one of these sins.
I probably would be too KW, that is, if I even owned any tools!
>Gives a new meaning to the GEICO commercial "Even a caveman can do it"
Haha, good one! Thanks for the comments, friends! And happy Four-Twenty to those of you that celebrate this sort of thing.