I'm No Fool With Fire

Hello & welcome back, today on A Look at Disney, I'm taking a look at look at a segment from the Mickey Mouse Club known as I'm No Fool.  Now this segment was a Jiminy Cricket segment, if that pompous title didn't give it away.  Yeah, I'm not a fan of Jiminy Cricket.  I don't know if I've made this clear in the past but I hate this cricket.  Jiminy to me is easily one of the least likable Disney characters and his nagging to me is grating and comes across as a bit of  a jerk.  I'd say that I'd try to look at this short fairly but with my dislike of Jiminy, I'm not sure that's possible.  

Intro

Yeah, this intro song isn't helping me in liking this Cricket.  If anything, it reminds me why I can't stand him.   It's got that superiority of  "I'm better then you".   But it does fit the personality of the Cricket of  being Perfect.   Thought it is a bit fun but it still makes the Cricket look like a jerk to me.   

The Plot

The plot is pretty simple.   It's part history of fire and fire safety.  The segments with the fire history were really fun as it took us through a timeline showing what fire did for the world.    Such as we saw a caveman use it and the discovery of steam.

Although it always showed the historic figures getting hurt by being careless around the fire. I'm not sure, if this was supposed to be funny because if it was, it wasn't.  Now as for the fire safety segment,  I liked the idea that they used a chalkboard to demonstrate as  it made that part stand out and feel unique but I do take one particular issue with this segment and it goes back to the Cricket.

  Look, I know that teaching kids about fire safety is important but I took issue with the fact that the Cricket  used the line of "Come on stupid" referring to the kid multiple times.   Now I know, it was not supposed to be done in a malicious manner but I hate it when people call children stupid. That to me is one of the most offensive things, you can do.   Just because they may not know something,  they are not STUPID!!!!!!! Children are still learning and they aren't going to know everything.  Yes, this is an important topic to cover  but you DO NOT CALL A CHILD STUPID!!!!   That is one of the most insulting things, you can do. Way to encourage them, Cricket. Way to go! Way to go! Yo must be so proud of yourself.     Honestly,  if this line had been cut,  I'd still hate Jiminy but not as much as  I do now.  How do I feel about Jiminy? Well, look...

Oh, that'd be a dream come true for me.

Character

Now I'll only be focusing on the Cricket.   So, let's begin.

Jiminy Cricket

Okay, let's be fair here.   Jiminy served as a teacher type character and his narration worked well in that regard. I mean, he wasn't so annoying, when I didn't have to see him but just hear him. It wasn't as bad except for when he called the child, stupid.  Yeah,  that bugs me a lot! Okay, as much as I dislike the Cricket,  using him in a teacher role does make sense as that is the type of role, he served in his film debut.  So, that role fit him like a glove.   See, I can say nice things about Jiminy but I'd rather not.

My Final Thoughts

There were things I liked about this short such as the history segment and the time, I didn't have to see Jiminy on screen.   As stated, this didn't help me in liking Jiminy at all but that is just the way it is.  He's a character, I'm never going to like.   Save for his appearance in Mickey's Christmas Carol but other then that,  I don't like him and  he became even more dislikable by calling a child stupid.   That just does not sit well with me.  Yes, I was perhaps a bit extreme with my dislike in this review but we all have characters that we hate with a burning passion and Jiminy just happens to be mine.