Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again that means it is time for some classic cartoons. This week's selection is dedicated to cartoons from the silent era.
To those unfamiliar with silent cartoons, it may come as a surprise how many of them combined animation and live action and how well this was done. In fact there were whole series completely built around this. The most famous examples being The Fleischer Brothers Out of the Inkwell films and Walt Disney's Alice comedies. However another one of these series was by Walter Lantz (later of Woody Woodpecker fame), these were the Dinky Doodles cartoons. In these films Walter Lantz played himself in live action. A live action Walter Lantz interacting with his cartoon characters looks forward to TV's The Woody Woodpecker Show. Here is a typically enjoy Dinky Doodles cartoon, Dinky Doodle's Bedtime Story (1926). Unfortunately this video is from a later TV showing with not very funny narration added, but I am grateful to see this film at all.
In my mind one of the best cartoon series of the silent era was Earl Hurd's excellent Bobby Bumps cartoons. Here is an example of why. So enjoy Bobby and His Hypnotic Eye (1920).
Next up is an excellent cartoon starring Walt Disney's Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Oh, Teacher (1927). This cartoon is full of the very creative and funny gags that made this series so memorable.
Many cartoons of the silent era centered around characters made famous in newspaper comics. Since I grew up reading newspaper comic strips that stopped existing well before I was born, I have a special fondness for these cartoons and the characters seen in them. One of the most famous and best cartoon series based on these strips were the Mutt and Jeff cartoons. So enjoy the always delightful Mutt and Jeff in Domestic Difficulties (1916). Notice how this film has fantastic looking art work and use of shading rare for animated cartoons of this era. Similarly notice the expert filmmaking in the scene after the two get drunk. There is no doubt the visual filmmaking there is miles ahead of some other cartoons made in the 1910's. Notice how the storytelling in this cartoon in many ways resembles a newspaper comic strip. With a clear set up leading to a simple but very funny punchline at the end. This was quite common for animated cartoons of this era and a style of storytelling I enjoy very much.
Ending today's selection of silent era cartoons is a Bray Studios film featuring the one and only Colonel Heeza Lair. The cartoon is the delightful Colonel Heeza Lair Foils the Enemy (1915).
Thanks for joining me come back next week for more animated treasures.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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