Classic Shorts Showcase: Ben and Me

Welcome to another edition of Class Shorts Showcase as today, I will be taking a look at the short, Ben and Me.


The Plot

The plot of this short is rather simple as we follow the life of American Icon, Benjamin Franklin through his life and take a look at  all the things he did during his lifetime but from this short we learn that he had some help in the form of a mouse.


Narration


Narrator - Sterling Holloway

Ah, Mr. Holloway we meet again.  Now this was rather interesting because unlike all the other shorts that I have reviewed, the narration was done both in character as Sterling Holloway played the lead character of this and therefore it was also done in first person.  I actually liked this and I thought that this was unique take on doing the narration and it was nice to have something different and also I feel by having the narration be done in character, it gave the audience more insight into the thoughts of the main character.



Characters


Amos voiced by Sterling Holloway

As stated, the narration was done in character and well here is that character. Amos is poor church mouse who left home to make life easier on his parents and he couldn't a place to stay until he came upon Benjamin Franklin's old shop. And according to this short Amos is the uncredited inventor of such things as bifocal glasses and he is also the one who convinced Benjamin Franklin to print The Pennsylvania Gazette. As for the character of Amos, he was likable for the most part. He was a fun little character who I could tell just wanted to see Ben succeed. Though sometimes he didn't care for Ben's actions such as according tho this Amos was in a little basket on the kite that Benjamin Franklin used to discover electricity.   Normally these types of shorts or stories where a fictional character doesn't bug me as I enjoyed Johnny Appleseed and that had Johnny's Angel helping him but as much as I liked Amos, I found him to be a bit stubborn and I will say that he was the one character that I found likable but I just couldn't enjoy this short. Though it wasn't because of this character. 

Benjamin Franklin voiced by Charles Ruggles

Now we come to Benjamin Franklin. I hate the way he was portrayed in this short.  Honestly in this short it felt as though he couldn't anything without the aid of Amos by his side and worse yet as I mention when talking about Amos with the kite that to me made Ben look like an insensitive jerk that didn't care much about his friends.  Now I may recall much from my American History but I don't think that is the way it really was.  I swear I had the hardest time sitting through this short because of the way they made Benjamin Franklin an insensitive buffoon.   Y'know if his character wasn't based on a real historical figure this probably wouldn't bug me so much but I feel as though they treating this person poorly.  Now don't get me wrong there was at least one moment where I felt pity for this character and that was after he came back from talking to the King of England and had to report the sad news to the local townspeople that nothing could be done at the time with the crisis they were in but other than that I couldn't stand this character and I'm surprised Amos didn't leave him sooner because the kite incident wasn't the first time he pulled a trick on Amos. Oh no early on he put his thumb on Amos' tail after working on one of his inventions and he had static on it and fried poor Amos' tail.  Amos and Ben shook on this and agreed that Ben would never do anything like that again but what Amos didn't see that the audience saw was that Ben had his fingers crossed behind his back. It was at that moment I just went  "Really!?"   There may not have been an actual villain in this short but this Benjamin Franklin sure came close.

My Final Thoughts

I personally would say skip this short but if your interested in somewhat, go ahead and check it out.  I j don't think it is very good as I feel it messes with an American Historical figure.  I find  the only good thing about this short to be Sterling Holloway but I have come to expect that with each of his performances. I hate saying this but I actually think this is so fat my least favorite Disney short that I have watched and reviewed since starting Classic Shorts Showcase. While I may have disliked the short, I can't rightfully call it bad because the voice acting was decent and the animation was up to Disney standards.  I just found the character of Benjamin Franklin to be very unlikable. I don't like doing negative reviews  and I promise that these will be rare. Also please keep in mind for most of the shorts that I review on Classic Shorts Showcase,  I haven't watched most of these shorts and know very little about the plot of these shorts. So I do try and go in with a fresh and open mind. Now  again, even though I may not have cared for it doesn't mean that you won't. These are just my opinions and you may think differently.  Join me next time as we batter up as I take a look at Casey at The Bat