Note: As for some reason lately videos do not seem to appear on every device when posted on this blog, each video will feature a link under it where you can watch the cartoon. If you do not see a video please use these links.
It has been a while since I have done a silent edition of my Saturday Morning Cartoons posts. However it is simply an idea I love too much to stay away from too long. So happy Saturday morning my friends and let us enjoy some silent era cartoons.
Colonel Heeza Lair is considered by many to be the first cartoon star with his own series. He began his career in 1913 with the short, Colonel Heeza Lair in Africa (1913). After 1917 his series seemed to come to an end. The Bray studio made quite a few successful series thanks to such animation greats as Earl Hurd, Paul Terry and Max and Dave Fleischer. However when those artists left in the early 1920's, the studio descided to revive the Colonel to make up for the great talent they lost. Up first we have one of these films, Forbidden Fruit (1923). The new cartoons with the character took on the format of the Out of the Inkwell cartoons that the Fleischer Brothers had done for the Bray Studio, but now were doing on their own. This is to say the animated Colonel interacts with his live action animators (in this movie that includes Walter Lantz, the future Woody Woodpecker creator).
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| Motion Picture News, 1916 |
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| Motion Picture World, 1916 |
Many film historians consider Émile Cohl's Fantasmagorie (1908) to be one of the first (if not the first) hand drawn completely animated films. What makes this incredible is how entertaining and imaginative this film still is today.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=swh448fLd1g
Next comes one of my all time favorite silent era cartoons, Bobby Bumps Puts a Beanery on the Bum (1918). Earl Hurd's Bobby Bumps series though forgotten today is one of the finest cartoon series of its era and these films never fail to put a smile on my face.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HvEjcX6bee0&t=8s
Following is one of my favorite Mutt and Jeff cartoons, Playing With Fire (1926).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMCfudHJc_o
Last but certainly not least is the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, Africa Before Dark (1928). The silent era was probally the most cartoon-y era of Disney cartoons, as unlike for later Disney characters nothing is impossible for Oswald to do with his body. Though Walt would later disregard these surreal body gags, there is no doubt they worked extremely well within the context of these Oswald films. A gag involving Oswald detacthing his face was used in an earlier Disney film, the Alice Comedy, Alice Gets Stung, in which the gag would be preformed by the now forgotten Julis the cat. Less surreal gags from this cartoon would later be reused by Mickey Mouse in his newspaper comic strip (January 29, 30, 31, 1930).
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