Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #175

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

Today's cartoon selection begins with Sylvester and Tweety in Tweet in Lovely (1959). This is one of my favorite Sylvester and Tweety films. Voice actor Mel Blanc would later write, "Sylvester has always been a favorite of mine. He's always been the easiest character for me to play. When I was show the first model sheet for Sylvester with his floppy jaws and generally disheveled appearance, I said to Friz Freleng, 'A big sloppy cat should have a big shthloppy voice. He should spray even more than Daffy.' While recording Sylvester cartoons my scripts would get so covered in sylvia I'd repeatedly have to wipe them clean. I used to suggest to actress June Foray, who voiced Tweety's vigilant owner Granny, that she wear a raincoat to the sessions." 

Next we join another cartoon cat, Krazy Kat in The Little Lost Sheep (1939). This movie proves that Krazy Kat is in fact the world's greatest detective (with the exception of maybe Duck Tracy). Though this series was based off George Herriman's classic newspaper comic strip the Krazy Kat character here bares scant resemblance to the one in the comics. For one thing in the comics, Krazy's gender is a mystery but in the cartoons the character is clearly male. 

Next we join our good friend Donald Duck in Straight Shooters (1947). This was an early Jack Hannah directed Donald Duck short. Hannah had directed four Donald Duck cartoons before hand; The Eyes Have It (1945), No Sail (1945), Light House Keeping (1946) and Frank Duck Brings 'Em Back Alive (1946). However Jack King had still been the main director of Donald's shorts. However Jack King would retire in 1947 and Jack Hannah would for the most part take over the series afterwards, directing many great Donald Duck shorts. Though this short film was originally created for movie theaters, it would later air as part of an episode of the Disneyland TV series entitled Duck For Hire (1957). 

Next is the delightfully bizarre Aesop's Fables cartoon, Magic Art (1932).

Now time for a commercial break.

Next comes Betty and Bimbo in Jack and the Beanstalk (1931). One may notice that Betty here has longer ears than she would later have. That is because at first Betty was meant to be a humanized dog, but that idea would be abandoned, and she would just be human. 

Now we join Dudley Do Right in Matinee Idol (1963). Jay Ward (head of the studio that made these cartoons) was very excited about these cartoons and told an interviewer, "I personally feel that the 'Dudley' episodes will be the big hit of the show, and I am using our best directors to help it off on the right foot." 

Today's cartoon selection ends with one of Walt Disney's silent Alice Comedies, Alice in the Wooly West (1926). To compare this short with the earlier western Alice Comedy, Alice's Wild West Show (1924), show just how much the series had changed in just a couple years. The earlier short was basically a live action comedy with cartoon segments worked in. This film however delves right into the cartoon world and Alice is the only live action character. She was also clearly the star of the earlier short and here she plays a supporting role to Julis the Cat. Another change was in the actress who played Alice. In the earlier picture she was played by Virigina Davis, but by this movie she is played by Margie Gay. You may notice the Julis looks a lot like Felix. The reason for this was distributor Marget Winkler, who basically wanted Walt Disney to create another Felix for these films. Felix was the first real cartoon movie star and he created a sensation. Winkler had been the distributor of the Felix cartoons and many assume that she wanted Walt to use such a character as a way of keeping Pat Sullivan (producer of the Felix shorts) in check.  

Resources Used

The Moose That Roared: The Story of Jay Ward, Bill Scott, a Flying Squirrel and a Talking Moose by Keith Scott

Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman

I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety by Jerry Beck.

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