An Elephant Never Forgets (1935) is just a weird, loud time in the jungle

Is this worth your time?

If you like 1930s animation where everything bounces to a beat, yeah, watch it. It’s only eight minutes long anyway.

If you hate high-pitched singing or cartoons where logic doesn't exist, you should probably skip this one. It'll just give you a headache.

I found this short on a whim while looking for something old and strange. It’s called An Elephant Never Forgets and it came out in 1935.

The premise is simple: there is a school in the jungle. A goat—I think it’s a goat, maybe a sheep with a long beard—is the teacher.

All the animals are there. There is a hippo in a tiny dress. There are monkeys and giraffes.

And then there is the elephant. He is the main guy, I guess. He’s huge and keeps breaking things because he doesn't fit.

The first thing I noticed was the voices. William Pennell and Gus Wicke are in the cast. These guys have those super deep, gravelly voices you recognize from the old Popeye shorts.

It is honestly hilarious hearing those voices come out of a cartoon elephant. It sounds like the floor is vibrating whenever he speaks.

The animation is that classic rubber-hose style. Everyone’s limbs look like they are made of cooked spaghetti. Even the desks seem to wiggle.

There is this one scene where the teacher is trying to teach the alphabet. The animals sing along, but it’s not like a normal song. It’s messy.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of An Elephant Never Forgets (1934) through its definitive frames.

The hippo keeps getting in the way. She’s wearing a tutu for some reason? Nobody explains why. She just is.

I took a note about the school bell. It’s not a bell. It’s a monkey hitting a turtle with a mallet. The turtle’s head just pops in and out like it’s a game.

It felt a little mean to the turtle, but he seemed okay with it. He had this bored expression the whole time.

The Weird Details

• The elephant uses his trunk like a vacuum to clean up the classroom.
• There’s a bird that acts like a pencil sharpener.
• The backgrounds are surprisingly detailed, almost like they belong in a different movie.
• The music is constant. It never stops. Not even for a second.

The elephant gets into trouble because he can't remember something. Which is ironic, because the title says he never forgets. Get it?

He gets put in the corner with a dunce cap. He looks so sad. Like, genuinely depressed for a cartoon animal.

Then there’s a part where he has to do math on a chalkboard. He uses his trunk to write and it makes this screeching sound that actually set my teeth on edge.

It’s not exactly high art. It’s not even as tight as Slick Sleuths which has a bit more of a focused plot, if you can call it that.

But there is a charm to how chaotic it is. The animators clearly just wanted to see how many gags they could fit into one room.

I noticed a small mistake in the coloring at one point. The elephant's ears turn white for about three frames. It’s blink-and-you-miss-it, but once you see it, it’s distracting.

The whole thing feels very 1930s. It has that slightly creepy, slightly sweet vibe that disappeared once Disney got really polished.

Cinematic perspective: Exploring the visual vocabulary of An Elephant Never Forgets (1934) through its definitive frames.

It’s much more lively than something like Scrooge, which is just dark and stiff. This movie is at least loud and moving.

Does the elephant eventually remember? I won't tell you. But the ending is pretty abrupt.

It just sort of stops. The music reaches a crescendo and then—boom—black screen. I felt like I was missing a page of the script.

If you're into the history of animation, it's a cool artifact. It shows off that Fleischer-adjacent style where the world feels alive and a bit dangerous.

But if you want a story with actual stakes, maybe go watch The Fighting Parson or The Easiest Way. Those actually have people doing things for reasons.

One thing I can't stop thinking about is the ink. The black ink on the characters is so thick. It looks like it would be sticky if you touched the screen.

Also, the way the elephant walks is weird. He doesn't have bones. He just flows across the floor like a big grey puddle.

It’s definitely better than Her Love Story if you just want to be entertained by nonsense for a few minutes.

Anyway, it’s a short. It’s fine. It’s a fine way to spend ten minutes if you’re bored of the modern stuff.

"I've seen a lot of elephants in movies, but this is the only one that sounds like he smokes four packs a day."

The elephant's name is Spanky in some versions, but here he's just the big kid in the back. I felt for him. Being that big in a world built for goats must be tough.

I’m going to go watch something a bit more quiet now. My ears are still ringing from that alphabet song. Seriously.