Saturday, September 17, 2022

Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #191

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

Today's cartoon selection begins with Donald Duck in Bee at the Beach (1950). This short film pits Donald Duck against Spike the bee. Though Spike is a rather forgotten Disney character, this film is not the only time him and Donald went up against each other. Staring with Inferior Decorator (1948) and ending with Let's Stick Together (1952), the two made a series of 7 shorts centered around the two fighting. Bee at the Beach would make its TV debut on the Walt Disney Presents episode, This is Your Life, Donald Duck (1960).


Next comes Sylvester and Tweety in Catty Cornered (1953). In this cartoon Tweety is kidnapped by gangster Rocky. Rocky was a character who was only used by director Friz Freleng. He had earlier been the villain in the Daffy Duck cartoon, Golden Yeggs (1950). Most cartoon fans associate Rocky with his dumb partner in crime Mugsy. However this cartoon was made before the character was created. Mugsy first appeared in the Bugs Bunny short, Bugs and Thugs (1954). This short would later be edited into the feature-length compilation film, The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981). 





Next comes the 6th Hoot Kloot film, Stirrups and Hiccups (1973). This short film is a play on the story of Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde. 




Next is Willie Whopper in Insultin' the Sultan (1934).  Willie Whopper was the second starring character to come out of Ub Iwerks' own cartoon studio. The first character is Flip the Frog, who did not prove to be that popular and had to be replaced. Unfortunately, Willie did not catch on with audiences either and his movie career only lasted 13 short films. Before leaving to make cartoons for his own studio, Ub had worked at Disney playing an incredibly important role in the Disney shorts of the 1920's and early 30's. He even played a large role in the creation of Mickey Mouse. After his own studio work did not pan out, he returned to Disney where he would do special effects work on many of the Disney's best feature films. The following is an exhibitor's review from the Motion Picture Herald, "Insultin' the Sultan: Willie Whopper - This is a good cartoon comedy that pleased all who saw it. Willie is not so popular here, but with better story material he will improve and the patrons will be pleased. Running Time, 9 minutes. - J.J. Medford, Orpheum Theatre, Oxford, N.C. General Patronage." 




It is time for a commercial break. 












Next is Cubby Bear in The Nut Factory (1933). This is one of my favorite Cubby Bear films.


 
Now for the second Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon, There's Good Boos To-night (1948). Though many of the Casper cartoons aimed for sentiment, few of them were as effective as this short film. The film's ending is surprisingly quite touching. 





/

After the success of The Pink Panther (1964) and A Shot in the Dark (1964), Mirisch Films was interested in a third Inspector Clouseau movie. Unfortunately, director Blake Edwards and star Peter Sellers both declined. The studio still wished to make another film and cast Alan Arkin as Inspector Clouseau and put Bud Yorkin in the director's chair. The result was Inspector Clouseau (1968) and was definitely one of the weakest Pink Panther feature films. One of the few highlights was the opening credits sequence, which was as with the previous movies is essentially a cartoon short. This sequence featured The Inspector. This character starred in a wonderful series of theatrical cartoon shorts from 1965 to 1969 for the DePatie-Freleng studio and was based off of the character of Clouseau. The DePatie-Freleng studio (which had also done the opening credits sequences for the previous two Inspector Clouseau films) is credited with creating and designing this sequence, while TVC London is credited with animating it. Fortunately for fans of these movies, Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers would later return to the Pink Panther franchise with The Return of the Pink Panther (1975). 




Today's cartoon selection ends with one of the best post golden age Looney Tunes cartoons, Little Go Beep (2000).




Resources Used

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

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

https://disney.fandom.com/wiki/The_Disney_Wiki

https://lantern.mediahist.org/






 









1 comment:

  1. How did I miss out on that Felix zoetrope from Wendy's? Arrrgh!

    Glad you made it back home safely.

    ReplyDelete