Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #170

 Hello my friends and happy Saturday Morning. 

Because tomorrow is both Easter and Daffy Duck's birthday, I feel it is the perfect time to share the TV special, Daffy Duck's Easter Egg-citement (1980). To try and stay in the style of the classic short films, this special is broken up into three short cartoons with bridging sequences connecting each. The bridging sequences are quite very reminiscent of the classic Daffy Duck short film, Duck Amuck (1953). The three cartoons here have found their way into the regular rotation of Looney Tune and Merrie Melody shorts on TV today.

Mentioning Duck Amuck (1953) earlier, here is that classic film. Probably no other cartoon short has been as thoroughly analyzed as this film has. Yet no matter how cerebral your analysis of this film may be, the fact of the matter is that the cartoon works because it is simply a lot of fun. The impact of the cartoon does not end there though/ In 1999 the movie was deemed significant by the Library of Congress and selected for the National Film Registry. It also received the number 2 spot in Jerry Beck's book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons. Director Chuck Jones must have found of this film as well as he included it his feature length compilation movie, The Bugs Bunny /Road Runner Movie (1979) and he named his 1989 autobiography, Chuck Amuck.

Next let's join Cubby Bear and take a World Flight (1933). If this film feels more like one of the early Looney Tunes with Bosko than most Cubby Bear cartoons that is due to the fact that the film is directed by Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising who made those cartoons. It must be remembered that this movie was made in 1933 well before the horrors that Adolf Hitler would inflict on this world would be fully known to the filmmakers. Seeing  Hitler cheer on Cubby is still more than a little uncomfortable today. A review in The Film Daily stated, "Nothing new or particularly clever about this one." The following is a review from The Motion Picture Herald, "When Cubby Bear, the Aesop's Fables animated hero, attempts his world flight, and the plane indulges in those antics that only an animated cartoon artist can conduct, the result is a lightly musing cartoon, especially enjoyable for the youngsters. Incorporated are caricatures of the Four Marx Brothers, Chevalier and other cleverly done but no longer new." Notice how the newsboy at the beginning looks more than a little like Bosko. Phileas Fogg would be amazed at just how quickly Cubby can make it around the world.

 

Being a cartoon rabbit, it should come as no surprise that Oswald made an Easter cartoon, and that film is Egg Cracker Suite (1943). By this time the Walter Lantz studio had completely redesigned and changed the character to the point where he no longer even slightly resembles the character Walt Disney worked with. This movie would mark the last Oswald film. 

Now it is time for a commercial break.

Next comes Roland and Rattfink in The Deadwood Thunderball (1969). Those of you familiar with this series of cartoons will note that the voices sound very different. That is because instead of Lennie Weinrib voicing them as usual, here the characters are voiced by John Bryner and Dave Berry. 

We go from a jazzy Betty Boop cartoon to a jazzy Silly Symphonies cartoon. Up next is the high energy Woodland Cafe (1937). This is a fun cartoon, but what makes it especially memorable is the Truckin' musical number at the end. Here is high energy music and animation working together perfectly. The song Truckin' was written by Rube Bloom (music) and Ted Koehler (lyrics), who wrote such songs together as Out in the Cold Again, Don't Worry About Me and I Can't Face the Music. With the great use of jazz music it is appropriate that this movie is one of the first in which Ward Kimball was a full fledged animator. He was one of the Disney studio's biggest jazz fans. In fact he would become the leader of The Firehouse Five Plus Two, a jazz band consisting of Disney animators. Ward animated the ending montage, a scene that also showcased the type of animation Ward would become known for,  high energy fun cartoony animation. Todd James Pierce in his biography, The Life and Times of Ward Kimball called this "the highlight of the cartoon." He also gave us this insight, "The bug orchestra also revealed one other element of Kimball's inner life: the animation radiated New York attitudes about jazz suggesting how deeply the dream of moving to the Big Apple still simmered within him." Ward at this time still viewed animating at Disney as a non-permeant job, and his goal was to become a illustrator and painter. Yet his work in this film alone shows us how much greater things waited for him as a Disney animator. Not everybody was as impressed with this film as I am as is shown in an exhibitor's review in The Motion Picture Herald, "WOODLAND CAFE: Silly Symphonies—Not up to the standard of Silly Symphony.—C. L. Niles, Niles Theatre, Anamosa, Iowa. General patronage."

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.