Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #226

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

Today's cartoon selection begins with a fun short film starring Woody Woodpecker, Fowled Up Falcon (1960). This movie has Woody facing off against a falcon that proves to be no match for him. 

UPA was one of the most unique and artistically daring studios of the golden age of animation. They were a studio that refused to follow the other studios' reliance on funny animals and slapstick violence but instead set out to create short films that showed how animation could do more things than the average cartoon short was doing. In my opinion one of the best films from the studio is The Unicorn in the Garden (1953). This short was an adaption of a short story by James Thurber. Stephan Bosustow (head of the studio) wanted to make a feature film adaption of a Thurber story, but couldn't get the funding. He asked director William Hurtz to make a short film based on a Thurber story. Hurtz chose The Unicorn in the Garden because it relied on human characters instead of animals. Hurtz studied the work of Thurber extremely closely for this film, but Bosustow was still disappointed and refused to enter it for an Academy Award. I respectfully disagree feeling that this film is a fantastic adaption. I am not the only one as it ended up as #48 in Jerry Beck's excellent book The 50 Greatest Cartoons.

Next comes the Terry Toon short, Happy Valley (1952). This movie is in many ways just a silly cartoon, but it surprisingly has a good message about greed and how happiness doesn't always mean acquiring more wealth.  

Now for a really fun early Disney Silly Symphony short, Summer (1930). This movie was directed by Ub Iwerks, who was around this time pretty much Walt Disney's right hand man and had co-created Mickey Mouse with Walt. He was definitely one of the people most responsible for the style of film Disney was making in the 1920's and early 1930's. When distributor Pat Powers offered Ub the chance to head his own studio he left Walt. Ub's own studio would never receive the success that the Disney studio did, but he turned out some films that still delight cartoon buffs to this day. Ub would later return to Disney to help create the special effects in such feature films as Song of the South (1946), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1953), The Parent Trap (1961) and Mary Poppins (1964). Outside of Disney, Ub also did some special effects work for Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds (1963). Like all Disney films of this time period, Summer benefits from a truly great cast of animators. Wilfred Jackson, who would not only later direct some of the best Silly Symphonies but would also go on to be one of the co-directors on the Disney feature films Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955), animates the butterflies dancing, the bugs rolling the cocoon, the cocoon bursting, the beetles dancing and the flies dancing. Ub Iwerks animates the opening and closing shots of the film including the spider's whole dance at the end. Les Clark, who would later become one of Walt's Nine Old Men and is often considered one of the finest Mickey Mouse animators, animates the jitterbugs on the water, the beetles waterskiing and the beetles rolling their nest. This short film made its TV debut on an episode of The Mickey Mouse Club that aired on December 29, 1955.  

Now for a commercial break.

Now for one of Frank Tashlin's classic Looney Tune cartoons, Porky Pig's Feat (1943). Tashlin spent much of his cartoon directing career dreaming of directing live action features. Because of this his cartoons are some of the most cinematic of the era, featuring a lot of great camera angles and brilliant cutting and timing. This one is no exception. In fact this is one of his finest Looney Tunes shorts. This film was also released during the same year as the last black and white Looney Tune, Puss 'n Booty (1943, also directed by Tashlin). However cartoons like this make one sad that black and white left the Looney Tunes series. Tashlin's use of black and white here is incredible and the look of this cartoon is simply breathtaking in a completely different way than a color cartoon ever could be.

Now for the Ant and the Aardvark in Hasty but Tasty (1969).

Now for a silent movie, A Thrilling Drill (1920).

Motion Picture News, 1916

Now for the moment you have all been waiting for, the final chapter of the Toon Marooned (2001) saga. 

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

Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman

The 50 Greatest Cartoons Edited by Jerry Beck

https://mediahistoryproject.org/