Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #115

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

The Betty Boop cartoons from the early 1930's were some of the most risqué cartoons from the golden age of American animation. Anyone who thinks of old cartoons as sweet, innocent and squeaky clean may be surprised to see scenes in these cartoons. One of the most risqué images from one of these cartoons comes from Red Hot Mama (1934), where we are given a look through Betty's dress. Though admittedly the rest of this cartoon is not exactly innocent either. The setting for this film is Hell, where Betty's sexiness excites the various demons. Not everyone back then was fine with what happens in this film as the following exhibitor's review from Motion Picture Herald shows. "Red Hot Mama: Betty Boop - I can remember several years ago after sound had been established that a great cry arose within the industry that the youngsters of that day ( and the show patron of tomorrow) were unable to find any entertainment in the movie palaces because the biz had gone high hat and no entertainment for them. I screened 'Red Hot Mama,' a cartoon yesterday on my Sunday matinee hence this letter. I have always felt that in booking these cartoons the youngsters were getting a treat. I enjoy their hearty laughs and suppressed excitement when their favorite cartoon is on the screen. However 'Red Hot Mama' must have been drawn when the guy was drunk. Betty Boop starts out sweetly, is suddenly transported to Hell and pursued and tortured by all sorts of fire devils, imps and what have you. One variety, the ability to bound in the air and come down on a spear studded tail stabbed in the floor. A grand subject for your juvenile trade? Naturally my Sunday matinee was without a cartoon. The only recommendation I have for this is that the one responsible for it be compelled to sit through a screening every time he has a pink elephant fantasy. Some exhibitor's have said they hesitate to report on products through the Herald for fear of getting in bad with the local exchange. My opinion is that the people who are sincere in this business welcome constructive criticism. Report fairly on pictures with merit and likewise that class of product which is detrimental to our investments. I'm not a crank but it is cartoons such as the Symphonies and 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and 'Little Red Hen' that are in demand and not such a thing as 'Red Hot Mama'. -E.A. Reynolds, Strand Theatre, Princeton, Minn. Small Town and Country Patronage." With the praise of the Silly Symphonies, I am wondering what this exhibitor would have to say about the Silly Symphony, Hell's Bells (1929). The following is a much more positive exhibitor's review from the Motion Picture Herald, "Red Hot Mama: Betty Boop - This is a great cartoon comedy that will please everyone. It is full of good clean entertainment and much better than the average comedy. More time should be given to shorts in order to fill in a poor feature and everything would be better. Running Time eight minutes. -J.J. Medford, Orpheum Theatre, N.C. General patronage."

  Surrealness in 1930's cartoons was not limited to Betty Boop as is evidenced in the Toby the Pup cartoon, The Milkman (1931). While Charles Mintz was producing Krazy Kat cartoons for Columbia , he decided to create a separate series of cartoons for RKO, these starring a character named Toby the Pup. To head this series Mintz handed the duties to Dick Huemer, Art Davis and Sid Marcus. Dick Huemer had been a major contributor to the style of the Fleischer studio earlier and this is probably why these shorts have a Fleischer-type feel to them. Huemer, Davis and Marcus would later be the major creative factors for Columbia's Scrappy cartoons (also produced by Mintz).

When in 1963 the Warner Brothers cartoon studio closed, Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies would not be gone for long. Friz Freleng and David DePattie would soon produce more of these cartoons with much reduced budgets. Interestingly these cartoons never used one of the studio's biggest stars Bugs Bunny. A character who became a mainstay during this period was Speedy Gonzales. For the most part instead of being pitted against Sylvester (as he had been previously) he was pitted against Daffy Duck in most of these outings. Cats and Bruises (1965) was an exception to this and it is fun to see a pairing of Sylvester and Speedy from DePattie-Freleng. This is definitely one of Speedy's better outings during this period. 

Now we jump from the final days of the classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies to the earliest days with a cartoon staring the earliest star of Looney Tunes, Bosko. The film is Big Man From the North (1930). At this time the main creative forces behind the Looney Tunes were Hugh Harmon and Rudolph Ising, both of whom had worked with Walt Disney during the silent era. As such the Disney influence is often strongly felt in these films. This cartoon is a remake of a silent era Disney cartoon, Ozzie of the Mounted (1928) starring Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. 

As many of you know when Fleischer Studios was shut down, it was succeeded by Famous Studios who not only created new series, but continued the series started by the former studio. Many cartoon fans feel that these series went downhill after this, but the falling of quality was hardly something immediate. I especially am a fan of the early Famous Studios Popeye films. These cartoons may be different from the Fleischer output but they are fast paced, energetic and a lot of fun. There were also a wide variety of storylines used during this time that were not the simple one of Popeye and Bluto fighting over Olive. One great example of how good these films are is Me Musical Nephews (1942). The following is a review from The Film Daily, "One of the best Popeye shorts to hit the screen in years. Popeye's young nephews keep their uncle awake by practicing on their musical instruments and the grief they cause him is the central theme for some hilarious fun. This one deserves prominent billing."

  Next we join The Pink Panther in Sink Pink (1965). Around this time the filmmakers were experimenting with how much dialogue they should use in the Pink Panther cartoons. Most of this experimenting was with talking supporting characters or narrators the Panther interacted with. However there were two cartoons in which the Panther actually spoke himself. This was the first of the two and the Panther only speaks one line. In the second of these cartoons (Pink Ice (1965)) the panther has a more substantial use of dialogue. The experiment of using spoken words in Pink Panther cartoons was one that was quickly abandoned but these films still stand as very interesting and entertaining experiments.  

Today's cartoon selection ends with a classic Disney Silly Symphony, The Pied Piper (1933). Walt Disney had made two Alice Comedies based around the classic story during the silent era (Alice the Piper (1924) and Alice Rattled by Rats (1925)). This cartoon strongly differs because while the previous films were parodies this one is an adaption. During this time the Disney studio had not quite mastered human animation the way they had later. This short film marks a giant step towards what the studio would master in their later features. This is very clear when it comes to Art Babbitt's animation of the Mayor and Ham Luske's animation of the titular character. In his must have book, Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age, Michael Barrier writes "More than any of the other Disney animators, Babbitt and Luske showed in their work an intense interest in how people really moved. If other Disney animators, under the influence of Don Graham's life classes, measured their animation against the real world and adjusted it to get a closer fit, Babbitt and Luske went much further: they looked long and hard at the real world before they ever started animating." Another delight for Disney fans is some songs by Leigh Harline, who also wrote the songs for such Disney features as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Pinocchio (1940). Harline's earliest work with the Disney studio was earlier the same year with the Silly Symphony, Father Noah's Ark (1933). A review in The Film Daily stated "Incredible as it may seem, these Walt Disney Silly Symphonies keep getting better every time." The following is an exhibitor's review from the Motion Picture Herald, "PIED PIPER: Silly Symphony—Another excellent colored cartoon. Good enough for anybody's program any time.—Charles Niles, Niles Theatre, Anamosa, Iowa. General patronage."

Thanks for joining me come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry. 

Selected Resourses Used

Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman

Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in it's Golden Age by Michael Barrier

Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Brothers Cartoons by Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald 

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