Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #168

 Hello my friends and welcome back for another selection of classic cartoons.

Today's cartoon selection begins with Popeye the sailor in Never Kick a Woman (1936). In this movie a blond muscle building woman gives Olive Oyl a taste of her own medicine and she doesn't like it. Though Dave Fleischer gets a director credit with all of the Popeye shorts of this time period, many animation experts have stated that the first animator credited on each of these cartoons did much of the directing. This would make Seymour Kneitel the director for this film. The following is an exhibitor's review from the Motion Picture Herald. "NEVER KICK A WOMAN: Popeye the Sailor - Good for more laughs than any Popeye we have played. Running time, one reel. - Roy C. Irvine, Ritz Theatre, Ritzville, Wash. General Patronage." 

Next comes one of Tex Avery's classic Droopy cartoons, The Three Little Pups (1953). This short film features Droopy's brothers, Snoopy and Loopy, both of whose movie careers would only last this one cartoon. The big bad dog catcher is the southern wolf, Tex Avery used in many of his cartoons around this time. The character voiced by Daws Butler who is using the same voice he would later use for Huckleberry Hound. 

Up next is a classic Merrie Melodies cartoon, Flop Goes the Weasel (1943). This short film was directed by Chuck Jones, who, as evidenced by this movie, was already picking up quite a bit of speed from the slower paced cartoons he was making just a couple years previous. Our main character in his inquisitive nature, resembles Sniffles (another Chuck Jones character) in his last couple of cartoons, where Sniffles had turned from the sweet sentimental character, he originally was into a very similar character to the one we see here. This movie is a remake of an earlier Tex Avery Warner Brothers cartoon, The Sneezing Weasel (1938). This film would be reissued to theatres in 1949.

Now we join our old friend Krazy Kat in The Bandmaster (1931). I admit when I first saw these cartoons, I wasn't much of a fan due to how little they resembled George Herriman's classic comic stip. However over time they grew on me as I began to enjoy them for the truly bizarre films they are. This movie is an especially clever and delightfully strange cartoon. The way Krazy simply morphs into bandleader Paul Whiteman is one of my favorite gags in any animated Krazy Kat cartoon. 

Paramount Pep-O-Grams, 1928

Now it is time for a commercial break.

Some of Disney's best and funniest cartoon shorts are those that teamed Mickey, Donald and Goofy as a comedy trio. Next up I have the second of these cartoons and the first one in color, Mickey's Fire Brigade (1935). This movie opens with the title card burning away in flames, a creative touch by effects animator Cy Young. In this short Mickey is the fire chief, a role he had played earlier in The Fire Fighters (1930). Two of the animators on this film are Bill Tytla (possibly my favorite Disney animator) and Grim Natwick, both of whom had joined the studio in 1934. They animate the majority of the scenes with Clarabella Cow. The scene where Goofy tries to take a coffee break is animated by Wolfgang “Woolie” Reitherman, who would later become a specialist at animating the character. Jack Kinney, who would go on to direct some of the funniest cartoons to ever come out of the Disney studio, animated Donald's struggles with flypaper and pails of water. It is common for cartoon fans to think of the old Disney shorts as being slow moving and sentimental, however that is not the case here at all. This is a fast moving and very funny film that puts a smile on my face every time. The following is from an issue of The Film Daily (dated Sept. 5, 1935), " 'Mickey's Fire Brigade,' is to have its premiere in the New York theatrical sector this evening when it opens at the Rivoli Theater with the new Samuel Goldwyn production, 'The Dark Angel.'" A review in National Board of Review Magazine stated, "Noisier and less clever than most of this series but still better than most of its kind." A review in The Film Daily states, "This is one of the liveliest and funniest of the Walt Disney cartoon creations." The following is an exhibitor's review from The Motion Picture Herald, "MICKEY'S FIRE BRIGADE: Mickey Mouse—One of the best of the Mickey Mouse series. Running time, eight minutes.—M. H. Harrington, Avalon Theatre, Clatskanie, Ore. Small Town and Rural Patronage."

In the early 2000's there was a series of Looney Tunes webtoons cartoons. While the flash animation clearly wasn't as impressive as the full animation of the classic Looney Tunes shorts, the writing in these cartoons was often surprisingly pretty good. Up next is one of these cartoons, Gone in 30 Minutes (2001). 

Today's cartoon selection ends with Walt Disney's second Alice Comedy, Alice's Day at Sea (1924). For those of you unfamiliar with the Alice Comedies, these were a series of short films in which a live action little girl travels into a cartoon world. This movie holds a special interest to Disney fans and that is that it is a rare film, where all the animation was done by Walt Disney himself. After making the first Alice Comedy, Walt's Laugh-O-Grams studio went bankrupt. However Walt was given the financial means necessary for making these films from New York distributor Margaret Winkler. Winkler wanted more Alice comedies to be made quickly. As Walt was trying to start a new studio in Hollywood and was moving from Kansas City, he didn't have time to get more animators to work on this film. Therefore he had to animate the picture himself. Luckily for him much of the screentime was taken by live action footage. 

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

Resources Used

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein

https://www.wdw-magazine.com/today-in-disney-history-1924-alices-day-at-sea-premiered-in-theaters/?msclkid=adbd4293b24611ec8eff628e8aa49000

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mickeys-fire-brigade-1935/

https://mediahistoryproject.org/