Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Toby Tortoise Returns (1936) is maybe my favorite Silly Symphony cartoon. Like many great comedy shorts the story for this cartoon is extremely simple. Max Hare and Toby Tortoise (returning from the earlier Symphony, Tortoise and the Hare (1935)) fight each other in a boxing match. This leads to some amazingly good slapstick. Again, those who think of Disney cartoons as cute and sweet while Warners cartoons were wacky and funny might be surprised to see this film. This cartoon in fact even resembles a Looney Tunes or Merrie Melody from this time period. The slapstick is fast and furious and there is a real wise guy tone to much of the humor. The idea itself came from Ward Kimball, an animator who had joined the studio a year earlier. Ward would soon become one of Walt’s favorite animators and a major asset for the studio’s animated films. Ward is hugely known by Disney buffs today as one of the studio’s most comedic animators, so it comes as no surprise that he would suggest the story for one of the studio’s funniest cartoons. As well as coming up with the story Ward also was one of the film’s animators. One of the scenes he animated was early in the film where the referee is introducing the fighters. There are no real jokes here, but the animation itself is quite funny. The character doesn’t look funny, but he moves funny. This is something that is much more important to animated comedies. This over the top and quite funny animation sets you up perfectly for the slapstick you are about to see. This cartoon is in fact full of fantastic slapstick comedy. The part with the water was mostly animated by Bob Stokes. The fireworks section was animated by Dick Huemer with the exception of the tiny bit where Max blows out of the ring and into the ambulance, which was animated by Jack Hannah. What all three of these animators understood was using speed for comic effect. This kind of speed was fairly new to cartoons and while Tortoise and the Hare mastered animating speed, this film masters using this type of animation to its full comic potential. Another delight in this cartoon is the use of other characters from Silly Symphonies cartoons in the audience. Just as it is fun for movie buffs to spot all the stars in Mickey’s Gala Premiere (1933), it is fun for cartoon buffs to catch all the cartoon characters seen here. A review in The Film Daily stated, "Aside from the loud laughs, its beautifully done in Technicolor."
Not everyone loved Toby Tortoise Returns though as you can see by the below page from a 1936 issue of Screenland magazine. If you having trouble reading it click on the page and use your touch screen to zoom in. If you are still having trouble, click here.
Next comes one of Bob Clampett's great color Merrie Melodies, A Corny Concerto (1943). This is an unusual film as it is written by but not directed by Frank Tashlin. Tash had been working at the Disney studio after having been a director at Warner Brothers. After coming back to Warners, he found himself briefly in the writing department before returning to the director's chair (taking over Norm McCabe's unit). Appropriately this cartoon is a Disney parody. A Corny Concerto is a parody of Fantasia (1940). However, while this cartoon certainly has its fun with Fantasia there is definitely more than a little respect for Disney's ambitious feature. This cartoon while not as elaborate as a Disney feature, the look of this cartoon is definitely more elaborate than the average Merrie Melodies short. Even as a fan of Fantasia I have to state that the satire is dead on here. Probably the best bit of satire is Elmer Fudd serving in the Deems Taylor role, as he captures the part visually, but is still Elmer Fudd and hilariously lacking the sophistication of Taylor. This cartoon also has one of the few times Bugs Bunny and Porky Pig share the screen in the golden age of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies and even though neither speaks, they work off each other very well. This short is included in in Jerry Beck's book 100 Greatest Looney Tunes.
The question of how animated cartoons are made has been around nearly as long as animated cartoons. Even back in the silent era film studios were offering often very simplistic explanations to answer this question. How Animated Cartoons Are Made (1919) offered movie goers a look behind the scenes of animated cartoons.
Next we join the Pink Panther in Sky Blue Pink (1968).
Now for a commercial break.
Jan Švankmajer is not only one of the finest filmmakers in the history of stop motion animation, but a director, who can hold his own with many of the great live action filmmakers. Case in point is his brilliant short film, Punch and Judy (1966).
Now we join our good friend Gandy Goose in Gandy's Dream Girl (1944). This cartoon follows a formula often seen in this series where Gandy and his good friend (and this time romantic rival) Sourpuss find themselves a fantasy world of Gandy's imagination. This is in my opinion an above average use of this formula as this film gives us quite a few good gags that make me smile whenever I watch it. Not everyone was so impressed with this cartoon though as evidenced by the following exhibitor's review from The Motion Picture Herald, " GANDY'S DREAM GIRL: Terrytoons—Just another cartoon. Laughs few and far between. Skip this and you won't miss a thing. —Elmer Bohlig, Lake Theatre, Big Lake, Minn."
Now let us close by singing one we all know.
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies be merry.
Resources Used
The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Edited by Jerry Beck.
Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/animator-breakdown-for-disneys-toby-tortoise-returns-1936/
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