Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #139

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

Today's cartoon selection begins with a true classic, Orphan's Benefit (1934). This film marks the second Donald Duck cartoon and the first time Donald appeared alongside Mickey and friends. As many of you know, Donald first appeared in The Silly Symphony short, The Wise Little Hen (1934). However some of those who worked on the Disney cartoons at this time (including Walt), misremembered this as the first Donald Duck cartoon. This may be because the short was the first one the studio started work on. Historian J.B. Kaufman has stated that the Disney story department began work on this cartoon (with an outline entitled The Surprise Party) in November 1933, before they started work on The Wise Little Hen.  However this outline was quite different from the finished film. Donald was a small boy who was dragged to a party by his mother and made to recite Mary Had a Little Lamb. The recitation of Mary Had a Little Lamb has its origins in the origin of Donald's voice. Clarence Nash had created this voice as a child himself not to be the voice of a Duck but of a crying baby goat. He used to entertain his friends by reciting Mary Had a Little Lamb in this voice. He would later do this act professionally both live and on radio. Walt Disney, having heard Nash do this voice on radio, felt that it sounded more like a duck and pitched the idea of voicing a duck to Nash. In the early 1940's several older Disney cartoons were considered for some shot for shot remakes. However only one of these were made and that was Orphan's Benefit (1941). The remake was almost exactly like the earlier picture except being that in color and using the 1941 designs of the characters. In fact the remake even uses the exact soundtrack of the original. However I personally prefer this 1934 black and white original and I hope you love it too. A review in The Film Daily stated, "It's all very clever, screamingly funny and with a dandy of a musical score." 

Variety, 1936

Next we join Sylvester and Tweety in The Jet Cage (1962). Though this film gives Milt Franklin credit for the music, much of the music was done by William Lava. This is because Milt Franklin died of a heart attack before finishing the musical score and had to be replaced by William Lava. 

Created for TV's The Pink Panther's Laugh and a Half Hour and a Half Show (isn't that a mouthful to say) in 1976, Misterjaw was an affectionate parody of much more deadly shark in Steven Spielberg's Jaws (1975). For this series he appeared in 33 made for TV cartoons, all made in 1976. His voice was provided by comedian Arte Johnson, best known to TV fans for his work on Laugh-In. His sidekick, Catfish is voiced by Arnold Stang, best remembered by cartoon fans as the voice of Hanna-Barbera's Top Cat. 

Now it is time for a commercial break. 

Due to Disney parks and merchandising, some of you may know Oswald the Lucky Rabbit only as a Disney character. While Walt did create the character and direct his earliest films, a large amount of the Oswald cartoons would later be made completely separate from the Disney studio. When Walt asked for a raise, his boss at the time, Charles Mintz, told him that Walt did not own the character and they would make the cartoons without him, instead of paying him more. However Mintz was to only make films with the character for a short time. Universal distributed the cartoons and when they set up their own cartoon studio, headed by Walter Lantz, and decided their new studio would now make the Oswald films. While I, like everybody else, love the Disney Oswalds, I also have a strong fondness for the cartoons produced by Lantz. They are strange, surreal and wildly entertaining. One of my favorite of these shorts is Mars (1930). A review in The Film Daily best sums up this cartoon best when it states, "The conceptions of the strange inhabitants of Mars are well worked out and highly imaginative, this being one of the best fantastic cartoons yet produced." 

 

                                                                        Universal Weekly, 1929

Now we join Popeye the Sailor in  I'm in the Army Now (1936). This cartoon is a cheater and uses clips from such films as Blow Me Down! (1933), Shoein' Hosses (1934), Choose Your 'Weppins' (1935), and King of the Mardi Gras (1935). 





  

Motion Picture Daily, 1940

Let's wrap this post up by singing a song together.

Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for another selection of animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.

Resources Used

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/orphans-benefit-revisited/

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/origins-of-the-duck/

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