To start off with let us enjoy some coyote and roadrunner. As well as The Bugs Bunny Show, these two Also had their own TV show made up of theatrical shorts with new bridging sequences, appropriately called The Road Runner Show (1966-1968). Most episodes would start with a coyote and roadrunner cartoon, then shift into a Tweety and Sylvester cartoon and then end with any Looney Tune or Merrie Melodie. The bridging sequences all were quick black out gags with the coyote and roadrunner. These sequences were created by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises, who produced the theatrical Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies from 1964-1967 (Update: I wasn't completely right about this as you can see by looking at the comments). The Freleng from DePatie-Freleng was Friz Freleng who had worked on Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies from the very beginning and helped create such classic characters as Porky Pig, Yosemite Sam and Sylvester. The show also has one of the catchiest theme songs ever, a little ditty written by Barbara Cameron. Barbara had been a popular singer in the 1940's, even being a regular vocalist on the Moon River (1930-1970) radio show (another vocalist on that show was an obscure little singer named Doris Day, just getting her start). The following video includes the theme song as well as some of the bridging sequences.
Speaking of Looney Tunes, I have always felt one of the most underrated Looney Tunes directors is Norm McCabe. Most of his Looney Tunes (the ones he directed not the ones with him as an animator) are overlooked partly because all of them are in black and white, but also because most of them are full of World War 2 references. However his cartoons are truly funny and often laugh out loud funny. Our next cartoon is a fantastic example of how great of a cartoon director he was. It is also one of his most World War 2 themed. This is also one of the few Looney Tunes around this time, that did not feature Porky Pig. It was a rule throughout the mid to late 1930's that Porky had to be in every Looney Tunes cartoon. In the early 1940's this rule was starting to get broken sometimes, though Porky still appeared in the majority of Looney Tunes. So without further ado here is, The Ducktators (1942).
During the 1910's many animated cartoons were heavily inspired by newspaper comics. Not only did many cartoons feature characters from comic strips, but many felt like a Sunday comic that moved. A perfect example of this is Krazy Kat Goes a Wooing (1916), which featured George Herriman's famous comic strip character Krazy Kat. Notice that the opening title card states in big letters "A Cartoon by George Herriman" and then in smaller letters "Animated by Leon Searl." Truth is Herriman probably had little input on this cartoon.
Not all animated short films for the golden age of cartoons were silly and funny. Some were very consciously artistic and set out to make political and social commentary. One of the best is Berthold Bartosch's L'idee (1932). In this French film a beautiful and pure idea is shown in the form of a naked woman. However everyone tries to make the idea into what they want it to be instead of accepting it for what it is. This message is just as powerful and true today as it was when the film was originally made.
Stay tooned next Saturday for some more classic cartoons. Until then peace love and cartoons.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Although credited to DFE, the 1965-67 Road Runner cartoons were sub-contracted out to Format Films.
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