Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #40

Hello my friends and welcome back for another Saturday Morning featuring more classic cartoons. 

As many of you know Mighty Mouse cartoons often followed a strict formula with little variation. That is what makes the following cartoon stand out. While it still maintains some of the same formula such as the last minute rescue it does feature enough differences to make it not feel like the same thing again. Such changes include Mighty Mouse appearing in disguise and the lack of defeating a villain. Enjoy Spare the Rod (1954).


During Prohibition many American cartoons revolved around alcohol. As during prohibition alcohol was more popular than when it was legal. The Beer Parade (1933) is a oddity among these shorts as it stars the character Scrappy who is supposed to be a little boy. To be fair the beer is drunk by gnomes and only served by Scrappy and the even younger Oopy. An exhibitors review from The Motion Picture Herald called this cartoon "Extra good."




Next comes another early 1930's cartoon from Columbia. This cartoon revolves around another topical subject. This time it's The Great Depression. The American entertainment industry combatted the Depression with overwhelming optimism. This was especially true when it come to cartoons. This following cartoon, Prosperity Blues (1932) is a pure example of that. This cartoon feature Columbia's other cartoon star of the period Krazy Kat. These cartoons had scant resmblance to the George Herriman comic strip on which they were based. Krazy even went from being a character of undefiend gender to clearly a male and Ignatz Mouse and Officer Pupp are not to be found. Still these films are quite enjoyable on their own weird merit. The following is an exhibitors review from the Motion Picture Herald. "Prosperity Blues: Krazy Kat - Better than the average, music excellent. Krazy Kat cartoons are always good. Running time 6 minutes. -Marion F. Bodwell, Paramount Theatre, Wyomoing, Ill. Rural Patronage."

 



Next up comes one of my favorite Pink Panther cartoons, We Give Pink Stamps (1965).



We end our time of watching cartoons together with a classic Tweety and Sylvester short directed by Friz Freleng, Tom Tom Cat (1953). Friz directed almost all of the classic Tweety and Sylvester cartoons (Hawaiian Aye Aye (1964) was directed by Gerry Chiniquy (that cartoon and Dumb Portal (1964) where the only classic Warners cartoons he directed)). This cartoon features much of what made Friz a great director, great timing, fantastic slapstick and use of off screen space. However one has to wonder what a whole tribe of cats is gonna do with one small bird like Tweety.

  

Thanks for joining me and come back next week for more cartoon goodies.

-Michael J. Ruhland