Though not the most popular cartoons from the studio, I personally really enjoy the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies that Cal Dalton and Ben Hardaway directed. While they are clearly inspired by the work that Tex Avery and Friz Freleng, they aren't quite either and have a style all their own. Their films are often wacky, and smart alecky, but don't defy film conventions like Tex Avery cartoons and don't have the focus on timing and music that is present in the work of Friz Freleng. One of my favorite of their cartoons is Bars and Stripes Forever (1939)
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| Film Daily, 1936 |
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| Film Daily 1936 |
Next comes a highly enjoyable Columbia cartoon, Booby Socks (1945). This movie manages to be a cartoon of this era parodying Frank Sinatra yet not featuring a single skinny joke. This is the Columbia cartoon department at its best with lots of fast paced gags and character animation. The ending is a very funny joke, I will not ruin here.
While in the early 1930's every American cartoon studio made some films with characters that looked and acted more than a little like Mickey and Minnie Mouse (that is how popular those cartoons were at this time), no more obviously did this than the Van Beuren Studio which made some cartoons with a boy and girl mouse team that were often indistinguishable from their Disney counter parts (except for the the fact that the Disney films had more refined animation and more consistently on model (the mouse here gains a lot of weight by the end of the cartoon). In fact Walt himself set out legal action against the Van Bueren studio for these films. Up next is one of the movies featuring these mice characters in all their ripped off glory, Circus Capers (1930). By the way this has one of the most pre-code gags to ever be in a pre-code cartoon.
Next is the excellent Donald Duck cartoon, Donald Applecore (1952).
The last cartoon for today is a delightful Yugoslavian animated short film, Uzbudljiva ljubavna priča (1989) (The English title being Exciting Love Story).
Come back next week for more animated treasures, until then peace love and cartoons.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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