Today's selection begins with one of the most popular and best pairings of Mickey, Donald and Goofy, Lonesome Ghosts (1937). This film provides one with everything they could want from one of these cartoons. It has tons of fast-paced slapstick and creativity throughout. The story of this movie changed over the time it was being made, originally the haunted house was going to be a fake created by gangster Pete to scare others away. As you will see when you watch the film, the ghosts here are completely real. This caused a review for Motion Picture News too call the movie, "rather scary for tiny tots." A review in The Film Daily however said just the opposite stating "The Ghost stuff is all played for laughs instead of spookiness and the kids will eat it up." The following are a couple exhibitors' reviews from The Motion Picture Herald. "Lonesome Ghosts: Walt Disney cartoons - Another Disney of outstanding entertainment. - Harland Rankin, Plaza Theatre, Tilbury, Ontario, Canada. General Patronage." "Lonesome Ghosts: Walt Disney cartoons - I feel that Disney is living on his Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs reputation and his cartoons are not up to the usual standard he formally had. Running Time seven minutes - A.J. Jinks, Crystal Theatre, Ligonier, Ind. Small town patronage."
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| Motion Picture Herald, 1937 |
Next comes the first Daffy Duck cartoon directed by Chuck Jones, Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939). Today many cartoon fans associate Chuck with being one of the main people who changed Daffy from his early high energy crazy self into a more vain, jealous and greedy character. This film however features Daffy in his early crazy high energy mode. A review in The Motion Picture Herald even stated, "The gags and situations are appropriately matched to the zany personality of the duck." Another review in The Motion Picture Daily stated "Leon Schlesinger delivers good color cartoon work in this "Merrie Melody," but the striving for whimsy hits only in spots." The following is an exhibitors' review also from The Motion Picture Herald, "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur: Merrie Melodies—Very few laughs in this one. Not up to standard of most cartoons in this series. Running time seven minutes. - Don Bloxham, Place Theatre, Exira, Iowa, General and rural patronage."
In the late 1940's Columbia was unhappy with its Screen Gems Studio and was looking a new studio to make cartoons for them. Steve Bosustow, producer of the UPA cartoons and one of the founders of the studio, interested them in distributing UPA's output. Columbia agreed to a trail run, if UPA could make a couple cartoons starring Columbia's biggest cartoon stars, The Fox and the Crow. The result was three great films (Robin Hoodlum (1948), The Magic Fluke (1949), Punchy DeLeon (1950) that were decisively different from what had been done with the characters before. Director John Hubley would later say " It [Robin Hoodlum] was funny and very sophisticated. Columbia didn't like it -it wasn't a standard audience film. We made another one called The Magic Fluke, which was a more popular story using the same characters, the Fox and the Crow. It was more successful." Regardless of how Columbia felt both Robin Hoodlum and The Magic Fluke would be nominated for Academy Awards and Columbia would become the distributor for UPA's cartoons.
Thanks for joining me come back next week for more animated treasures. Peace, love and cartoons.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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