Julien Neaves, Caribbean Head Writer
In March last year I reviewed hilarious Jamaican animated short Cabbie Chronicles: Drive Thru Drama by husband-and-wife team Alison Tabois Latchman and Anieph Latchman. I have been meaning to check out more of the Cabbie Chronicles videos and finally did with the episode subtitled “JAMAICA 50 Independence Special” which was released 12 years ago. And it was not only funny, but surprisingly insightful.
The story finds Cabbie with a colourful group of characters in his vehicle as Jamaica celebrates its 50th anniversary of Independence. There’s the flambouyant and party-loving Fluffy, colonial-loving Miss Perkins, streetwise Tugz and conservative Miss Haughton. They all share their various perspectives about Jamaica at five decades old and it is as thoughtful as it is comedic. The short also features historical figures of Jamaican political activist Marcus Garvey and Jamaica’s first and only premier Norman Manely and first prime minister Alexander Bustamante. While Drive Thru Drama was thoroughly entertaining there is a depth to this episode I really appreciated. There are also a couple of not-so politically correct racial portrayals for which I had to take off a point. But at under nine minutes, this episode packs in a lot of laughs and information and is definitely worth checking out.
Editor Jules’ Score: 8 out of 10
You can check out the video for yourself by clicking here. And you can check out more Caribbean animated content below:
Julien “Editor Jules” Neaves is a TARDIS-flying, Force-using Trekkie whose bedroom stories were by the Cryptkeeper, learned to be a superhero from Marvel, but dreams of being Batman. I love promoting Caribbean film (Cariwood), creating board games and I am an aspiring author. I say things like “13 flavours of awesome sauce”. Read more.