Happy Saturday Morning my friends. Once again it is time for another round of classic cartoons.
With the strangeness of a lot of Betty Boop cartoons, it seems like a natural fit to put her into Lewis Carroll's Alice stories. This idea lead to an excellent cartoon called Betty in Blunderland (1934). This cartoon just throws another sight gag and creative scene after another. This is done with so much energy that the film is hard to resist. In this cartoon Betty sings the Bert Kalmer and Harry Ruby song, Everybody Says I Love You (with completely new lyrics). This song came from the Marx Brothers movie, Horsefeathers (1932). Since both this cartoon and the Marx Brothers movie came from Paramount, this is no surprise. The following is an exhibitor's review from The Motion Picture Herald (dated August 25, 1934). "Betty in Blunderland: Betty Boop - Burlesque on 'Alice in Wonderland.' It is one of those cartoons patrons stay to see the second time. Running Time 7 Minutes. - A.B. Jeffers. New Piedmont Theatre, Piedmont, MO. Rural and small town patronage."
Next up comes a lively and energetic early Merrie Melody cartoon, You Don't Know What You're Doin! (1931). At this time Hugh Harmon and Rudy Ising where experimenting with the idea of having starring characters for the Merrie Melodies separate from the starring characters for Looney Tunes. This one stars Piggy (not to be confused with the later Porky Pig). He would only appear in two of the early black and white Merrie Melodies for Harmon and Ising, the other being Hitting the Hallelujah Trail (1931). However Friz Freleng would later design the character and use him in two color Merrie Melodies (At Your Service Madame (1936), Pigs is Pigs (1937)). This cartoon features a very energetic jazzy score by Gus Arnheim and His orchestra. This was a very popular band at the time, and they had backed such famous singers as Bing Crosby, Eddie Cantor and Buddy Clark.
Next comes one of the great "How To..." Goofy cartoons directed by Jack Kinney, How to Dance (1953). These were some of the funniest and best cartoon short to ever come out of the Disney studio. In this and several others in the series Goofy is referred to as George Geef. This film features two big in-jokes. The band playing at the dance near the end is The Firehouse Five Plus Two. This was a real band made up of Disney animators. As well as hearing them you can see them carriatured here. My fellow Disney buffs might be able to make out, Ward Kimball, Frank Thomas and Harper Goff among the band members seen on screen. Another injoke is that Mr. Geef (Goofy) goes to the Atenico School of Dance named after animator X Atencio.
Our last film for today is an Oscar nominated cartoon and a great work of art in it's own right, Windy Day (1968). This was built around a audio recording of John and Faith Hubley's daughters, Georgia and Emily Hubley at play. Those familiar with the indie rock band Yo La Tengo, might know Georgia Hubley as the drummer for that band. Emily would later be the associate producer and one of the animators on her mom's only solo directorial feature film, The Cosmic Eye (1986). She would also have her own career in animation, directing such films as the feature length, The Toe Tactic (2008), and the shorts The Pigeon Within (2000) and Rainbows of Hawai'i (1995). She would also be the animation designer and an animator on the animated segment in Hedwig and the Angry Itch (2001). Windy Day is a lovely film. The dialog between the two girls is very charming. Towards the end of the film the conversation turns quite profound and beautiful. This is a great reminder of how much more intelligent kids can be than we give them credit for. The whole film is lovely though and the whimsical animation fits the kids conversation perfectly.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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