Ub Iwerks is a highly under appreciated legend in animation, for he was the real artist behind Mickey Mouse and most of Disney's biggest technical innovations. For a brief period of time however, he owned his own studio after falling out with Walt over the famed mouse's ownership, creating obscure forgotten characters like Flip the Frog and Wille Whopper. While his studio's filmography tended to come out hit or miss, perhaps one of his better triumphs would be the 1935 Technicolor surreal-scape, Balloon Land. In addition to a surreal concept utilized through a straightforward plot, it's a remarkably frightening short.
Set in a world where everything is formed from balloons, the village of Balloon Land lives in peace & harmony until the nasty pincushion man wreaks havoc among the town. As a short fairy tale, it works well enough to its advantage, though that could only be because the plot doesn't waste much time getting to the point. While the lead characters have no real development and are mainly excuses just to trigger the pincushion man to attack their land, they're not that different from the remaining cast that range from victims of the needles or defenders against the antagonist. Fortunately enough, the pincushion man himself does save the short from being ultimately forgettable thanks to Billy Bletcher's terrifying demeanor and the overall design of said character. Being an anthropomorphized pincushion with a collection of needles just waiting to strike the next victim, his presence alone makes him frightening just from whoever he'll attack without warning. Even his downfall is quite shocking as far as villains deaths go, giving the short a dreamlike aesthetic beyond anyone's mere perception.
In addition to all that, the music score by Carl Stalling helps establish the upbeat environments all around Balloon Land in contrast to the more intense tempo once the pincushion man arrives. Although more known for his famous work at Warner Bros, Stalling always knew how to raise the stakes in dramatized fairy tales whenever needed. The art direction of Balloon Land is perhaps the true visual highlight of all, next to the comical character animation and pristine Cinecolor palettes. Since the village is entirely composed of balloons, not only do the characters move around as if they were lifelike inflatable objects, but the backgrounds present the world with a lot of homemade imagination to the point of feeling like heaven. It also helps that a good chunk of the set pieces such as trees and buildings are composed in a flatter almost paper cutout manner to make the characters pop out in the foreground. Outside of a lot of conservative staging, there are several heightened shots aided with close ups and perspective tricks, not unlike many other Iwerks studio shorts.
So despite its storyline and characters feeling fairly routine, Balloon Land still remains a fascinating nightmare experiment thanks to an intimidating villain, imaginative production design, memorable music and many surreal outcomes. For its creative imagination alone, the short is worth viewing at least once both to get into Ub Iwerks' filmography and to see what originated in the minds of cartoonists from long ago. Perhaps some day, this short could potentially be revitalized into a children's book or TV series, because as an unintentional pilot, there could be more to Balloon Land than meets the eye.