Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for a round of classic cartoons.
Animation fans know director Friz Freleng as a master of timing and very few comedy cartoons have come close to the perfect comedy timing of his films. This can especially be seen in his cartoon, Yankee Doodle Daffy (1943). This in my mind is one of his funniest films and just a pure delight. Despite the title, this film does not have a parotitic theme or revolve around U.S. history. With the James Cagney feature, Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942) having come out the year before, this pun was probably just too good for the filmmakers to pass up. As I have spoke about Friz earlier look for a portrait of him in Porky's office. A review in The Motion Picture Daily calls this film a "Pleasant little subject." The following are Exhibitor's reviews from The Motion Picture Herald. "YANKEE DOODLE DAFFY: Looney Tunes Cartoons—This studio's cartoons lately seem to be either exiciptionally good or exceptionally bad. This is downright terrible. - W. Verricks Nevins, III, Alfred Co-op Theatre, Alfred N.Y." "YANKEE DOODLE DAFFY: Looney Tunes Cartoons—Good cartoon, but where does it get its name? - Ralph Raspa, State Theatre, Rivesdale, W. Va." "YANKEE DOODLE DAFFY: Looney Tunes Cartoons - Average color cartoon. - E.M. Freiburger, Paramount Theatre, Dewey, Okla."
Next comes the 4th Dogfather film, The Big House Ain't a Home (1974). By this time cartoons made for movie theaters were fading away. However with this series and DePatie-Freleng was helping keep the animated short film alive. All 17 shorts in the series would be released theatrically.
Freedom River (1971) is an excellent short film that's message rings even more true today than it did when it was first released.
Next comes and early sound film from the Van Beuren Studio, Dixie Days (1930). When you compare this to the cartoons Disney, The Fleischer Brothers or even Warner Brothers were putting out in 1930, this film does seem a bit primitive. Yet there is quite a bit to enjoy about this cartoon. The music is a lot of fun and there is that delightful oddball humor that populates the Van Beuren cartoons of this time.
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Poor Papa (1928) was the first Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon made but not the first one released. The reason for this was simple. The disturbers were not fans of this film. Upon first seeing the film distributor, Charles Mintz sent Walt Disney a telegram stating, "Oswald arrived today and am disappointed. I thought it was understood between us that the early pictures particularly would show more of the rabbit than this one does. There are so many other characters that at no time outstanding..." Sales director Hal Hodes wrote a letter stating all the faults he found with the film, "(1) Approximately 100 feet of the opening is jerky in action to poor animation. (2) There is entirely too much repetition of action. Scenes are dragged out to such an extant that the cartoon is materially slowed down. (3) The Oswald shown in this picture is far from being a funny character. He has no outstanding trait. Nothing would eventually become characteristic insofar as Oswald is concerned. (4) The picture is merely a succession of unrelated gags, there being not even a thread of a story throughout its length." Charles Mintz had attached this letter to his telegram to Walt. Walt would write a letter back to Charles Mintz addressing all of the criticism and going over each of Hodes' points one by one. He would start the letter by saying, "First of all, I want to say that the spirit of the criticism shown by Mr. Hodes is constructive and very much appreciated and that I hope that it will continue. I am sorry that the first 'Oswald' was such a keen disappointment to everyone, but I am not exactly surprised as I was disappointed with it myself. This was not thru [sic] a result of any indifference or slackness on my part but seemingly a wrong slant on it." When Walt addressed the complaint about Oswald as a character he stated, "It was our idea tho [sic] to make characteristics, his style and manner of doing things, rather than to give him merely a specific trait or habit." This quote shows us that even at this time Walt sought to do something beyond what other cartoon makers were doing at the time, and this thought process would stay true for cartoon characters created at the Disney studio for decades to come. Despite any complaints the distributers might have had this film is a lot of fun and continues to delight cartoon and Disney fans to this day. Oswald's war against the stork here is similar to the one Daffy Duck would later raise against the stork in Stork Naked (1955). Considering that Friz Freleng had been an animator on some of the Oswald cartoons and would direct that later Daffy Duck short, perhaps this wasn't a coincidence. Then again maybe it was.
Next we join Sylvester the Cat and Porky Pig in Claws For Alarm (1954). This was the second of two cartoons (both directed by Chuck Jones) featuring Sylvester as the cowardly cat that must protect his owner Porky for murderous mice (the first being Scaredy Cat (1948)). Unlike other appearances of Sylvester, here the cat is treated more like a real cat and has no ability to speak. Chuck Jones would use this basic formula again for Jumpin Jupiter (1955). That film would again feature Sylvester as a cowardly cat that must protect Porky. However in that cartoon he would protect his master from a space alien rather than mice. Claws For Alarm would later be used in the feature length compilation movie, Daffy Duck's Quackbusters (1988).
Today's cartoon selection ends with Popeye the Sailor in Out to Punch (1956).
Resources Used
Oswald The Lucky Rabbit: The Search For the Lost Disney Cartoons by David A. Bossert
Pink Panther: The Ultimate Guide to the Coolest Cat in Town by Jerry Beck
No comments:
Post a Comment