gavin6942 The story of a little boy who would only talk in sound effects. With story by Dr. Seuss (and Bill Scott of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame) this cartoon won the Oscar for best short subject (animated) for 1950.Some people seem to give this short a hard time. And I suppose the animation is not that incredibly amazing. But keep in mind this is 1950, making it one of the earliest (if not the first) Dr. Suess cartoon. And there is no denying the rhyme and story are quite original and clever.This is no Pixar or anything too deep. But worth checking out if you area fan of Dr. Suess, because this story gets overlooked compared to the Grinch or Cat in the Hat.

Artemis-9 I've mixed views about this Oscar winning cartoon.On the script side, it's still worth while to watch, and so much more so, 50 years and as many big wars since WW2, as humankind is less human, less kind, and less able to understand the deep self of the people across the Ocean, or the street.Gerald is a mute boy, only able to pronounce boing-boing. When extraterrestrials from the planet Moo descend on his backyard, and take him in their flying-saucer, as a human specimen for study, they got the impression that all earthlings spoke like that. Being very clever, the extraterrestrials develop a language based on boing-boing intonations, and are still sending messages to Earth with the only sentence, "boing-boing".On the drawing, colors, and repetitiveness, and also stridency, of the "language" signs, I'm afraid I'm not with the majority here. Even when I saw this title in 1965, I found it too simplistic, and still do. I grant you that I was not the child this cartoon aims at, and today's manga and similar comics are 300% worse than this, but I would not accord this title an Oscar...(First posted September 19, 2003; re-posted after clarifying with IMDb that it belongs here, not with the 1956 longer version of this cartoon, similarly titled.)

Michael_Elliott Gerald McBoing-Boing (1951) *** (out of 4) Oscar-winning, animated short has a story by Dr. Seuss so you know it's going to be something special. The film tells the story of Bobby McBoing who never learns to speak and instead just makes various noises including "boing" over and over. His parents slowly begin to get upset because he can't speak normal words and after a while it's hard for them to know what to do when nothing but sounds come out of his mouth. This is a pretty interesting little short as it's clear they didn't spend too much money on the thing but at the same time there's a strong touch of imagination that makes it worth watching. The animation style is I guess what you'd call "simple" as there aren't any grand backgrounds, beautiful images or rich colors. Instead the drawings are pretty simple and not particularly ground breaking but they are unique in their own way. I think the real key to this thing are the sound effects and how they use them to tell the story. The constant "boing" is charming in its own way but what's really funny are the train noises and various other ones that scare Gerald's father when he's shaving.

endkaos My dad had this movie as an 8mm reel. I loved it when he would pull out the projector, tape a sheet to the wall, and play Gerald McBoing Boing. The thought of a child who communicated through sounds fascinated me.Nine years ago, my son was diagnosised as autistic. The doctors would ask me questions about my son such as "How does he communicate with you?" I would respond, "Have you ever seen the cartoon, Gerald McBoing Boing?" I would love to have a copy of this cartoon to show my son and his educators, this is how my son see he's world.Recently, I spoke with a digital transfer specialist who indicated most personal 8mm films did not contain sound until the mid 1970's. I guess I was pretty lucky to have experienced the sights and sounds of Gerald McBoing Boing in 1972.