Welcome to another round of Classic Shorts Showcase. Join me today as I take a look at Little Hiawatha.
The Plot
The plot for short is that young Indian Brave, Little Hiawatha goes on a hunting expedition. He tries to kill a young rabbit but can't bring himself to do so. All of the animals who at first laughed at him now like him and understand that he isn't a bad person. They go so far as to help Little Hiawatha escape the clutches of a mother bear after he comes in contact with one of her children.
Narration
Narrator - Unlisted
The narration for this short was simple at best and I liked it that way. It felt as though the narrator was bringing a storybook to life. He wasn't to over expressive with his words and at the same time, he never sounded bored when narrating the short. This was some decent narration, I enjoyed it.
Characters
There are only two characters that I wish to focus on. In reality, I only need to talk about Hiawatha but I feel talking about the other character as well.
Main Character
Little Hiawatha - Not Voiced
At first, I wasn't sure what to make of Hiawatha as he did come across as bit of show off in the beginning of the short. Though after he refused to kill the young rabbit, I saw that he was an alright character. Though characteristics and such really don't matter in this short because it feels more like cat & mouse short so to speak. With one character being chased by the other. Sure, Hiawatha and the bear aren't doing any violent things to one another but the bear is chasing Hiawatha and he is trying to escape from the bear. Though he has help from his animal friends as they set up traps to trip the bear.
Chaser
Mother Bear - Not Voiced
I'm not labeling the Bear as a villain because that title doesn't fit her. Really, the best title to giver her is Chaser as that is what she does throughout the entire short. She chases Hiawatha and rightly so because the Mother Bear saw Hiawatha with one of her cubs. She probably thought that he was going to harm one of her cubs. She was chasing him off as a sign to go away. Which is very true of mother bears, as I know from backpacking experience. If you see a bear cub, the mother bear isn't too far behind. That reminds of one time when my Boy Scout troop was hiking through the Appalachian Trail and one of the boys saw a cub and wanted to pet it. Luckily, he didn't and guess who appeared right after he started hiking onward, Mama. Now to the boy's credit, I can kind of understand where he was coming from but that is something that you don't do. That thought just popped into my head when watching this short.
My Final Thoughts
In the end, I thought this was an all right short. The characters were okay but I truly think that the narration was my favorite part even if it wasn't all that memorable. Out of all the shorts that I have reviewed on Classic Shorts Showcase this is perhaps the most realistic of them all. I say this give this short a watch. Join me next time when I take a look at...
Paul Bunyan
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