Hello again my friends, once again it is Saturday morning, and that means it is time to watch some more classic cartoons. So sit back relax and enjoy some cartoons.
First up is a Hokey Wolf cartoon, from The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958-1961).
Next up is a very early Mickey Mouse cartoon, the fourth one in fact, The Barn Dance (1929). Unlike the previous three Mickeys (Plane Crazy (1928), The Galloping Gaucho (1928) and Steamboat Willie (1928)), Walt Disney was not able to supervise the animation very closely. This was because at this time Walt was in New York, while his main animator Ub Iwerks was in California. Though Walt asked Ub to cut corners in the animation, because of a strict deadline, when he received the first of the animation on October 22nd of 1928, he was not happy and wrote Ub a page of criticisms of the animation. However watching this film now, it is actually a very entertaining cartoon and it is hard to see anything actually wrong with the animation. However Walt was working to achieve a level of perfection in his cartoons and this one as good as it is did not meet that requirement in his mind. The gag involving the stretching of Minnie's leg was the type of joke that would soon fade from these cartoons, as Walt would treat the body more solidly in future outings.
Now for one of Frank Tashlin's classic Looney Tune cartoons, Porky Pig's Feat (1943). Tashlin spent much of his cartoon directing career dreaming of directing live action features. Because of this his cartoons are some of the most cinematic of the era, featuring a lot of great camera angles and brilliant cutting and timing. This one is no exception. In fact this is one of his finest Looney Tunes shorts. This film was also released during the same year as the last black and white Looney Tune, Puss 'n Booty (1943, also directed by Tashlin). However cartoons like this make one sad that black and white left the Looney Tunes series. Tashlin's use of black and white here is incredible and the look of this cartoon is simply breathtaking in a completely different way than a color cartoon ever could be.
Next comes one of the best cartoons to ever come out of the UPA studio, this is Rooty Toot Toot (1952) directed by the one and only John Hubley. The UPA studio was known for its brilliantly stylized design choices that looked much more like the modern art movement of the era rather than a typical cartoon short (the closest thing any past cartoon shorts came to this kind of a design were John McGrew's backgrounds for various 1940's Chuck Jones Warner Brothers cartoons). These stylized designs would soon have a major effect on nearly every animation studio out there, but few would use them as brilliantly or artistically as the UPA studio. This stylized modern art look was rarely as radical as what can be seen in Rooty Toot Toot. The incredibly daring background look was created by the one and only Paul Julian, who at Warner Brothers not only as a background artist for director Friz Freleng but also as the voice of the Roadrunner. Him and Hubley were a perfect pair creating some of the most original and all together best films to come from UPA. The animation here while stylized can be deceptively simplistic. This is not at all like later TV limited animation, where great design work and writing covered up for the lack of full animation. Actually the animation here is quite elaborate and no two characters move in the same way, each having a type of movement that fits their personality. This cartoon is based around a jazzy version of the old folk tune, Frankie and Johnny. The jazz was provided by a real jazz musician Phil Moore, who had over the years worked with such legends as Lena Horne, Frank Sinatra and Harry James. He did a lot of film music, but this is a rare time he was actually credited. Hubley later stated that he believed this cartoon was the first time a black composer had been credited with a film score. This cartoon would receive the #41 spot in Jerry Beck's excellent book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons.
Today Oswald the Lucky Rabbit is finally getting some of the attention he deserves. Now that Disney has the rights it is naturally that everybody thinks of him as a Disney character. Many know the history that Walt Disney created Oswald. However distributor Charles Mintz hired away Walt's animators and let Walt know that if he did not give into Mintz's demands Mintz could make Oswald cartoons without him, because Walt had no rights to the character. Walt would leave and create Mickey Mouse. However this is where the character's history ends for many people. However that is not when Oswald's film career stopped. Mintz made a few cartoons with Oswald until Universal took the rights away from Mintz and put another Walt in charge of the series. This other Walt was Walter Lantz, later of Woody Woodpecker fame. From 1929 through 1943 Lantz would produce Oswald cartoons. These are little remarked upon today, but they are often highly entertaining films and here is one of my favorites. This is Merry Old Soul (1933). Many of my fellow old movie buffs will have fun trying to name all the celebrity caricatures they can. So watch this film and see how many you can name.
-Michael J. Ruhland
No comments:
Post a Comment