Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #58

Hello my friends and happy Saturday. Once again that means it is time for some classic cartoons. 

Today's cartoon selection begins with a 1965 cartoon from The Peter Potamus Show. This episode is titled Pre-Hysterical Pete.

 /

Next is one of the best Cubby Bear cartoons, Goode Knight (1934). Though Cubby Bear may be a thinly disguised Mickey Mouse ripoff I have no trouble admitting that I find his cartoons a lot of fun. Much of this is due to the fact that I am a fan of the over the top rubber hose animation of the 1930's and these films are fully of that. This is about as cartoony as a cartoon can get and I love it.

Here is an excellent Donald Duck short, Sleepy Time Donald (1947).



Next comes a Newsreel parody from our good friend Scrappy. This cartoon Scrappy's News Flashes (1937) is one of the better later Scrappy cartoons with lots of silly fun from start to finish. The ending is a treat for all my fellow old movie fans as it is full of caricatures of some of the most popular stars of the day. An exhibitor's review from The Motion Picture Herald stated "You will have to take your hats off for this series of cartoons as they are excellent." The following is a review from the Motion  Picture Daily, "A repletion of the cartoon idea produced by this company last year, but not as clever. It burlesques a prominent newsreel even going as far as to even play the opening bars of music which identify the reel. The news and novelties seem strained for their comic effect and will depend on a questionable humorous reaction." This review is perhaps referring to the Krazy Kat cartoon, Krazy's Newsreel (1936), which was made by the same studio. If you think of another cartoon this could be referring to let me know.

While the main segments of the Garfield and Friends (1988-1995) were original cartoons, the show also featured what were called Garfield quickies. These very short segments were simply Garfield comic strips but animated.

One of the earliest animated TV series and the first in color was Colonel Bleep (1957-1960). With simply designed character and animation as limited as can be, extravagant is a term that can never be used to describe this show. The stories are just as simplistic as the animation (some sources say Joseph Barbera worked as one of this show's writers in the early days). Chuck Jones may have referred to Hanna-Barbera cartoons as illustrated radio, but this series fit that description better than any other cartoon series. If you close your eyes, you can follow the story just as well as if you were listening to a radio show. While this may be clearly a kid's show in a way a Hanna-Barbera or Jay Ward show wasn't, I admit to this being a bit of a guilty pleasure for me and perhaps it is for you too.


 

Motion Picture Herald, 1931

Let's close with a song.

-Michael J. Ruhland