Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #238

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

Today's cartoon selection begins with a delightful short film starring Mickey Mouse, Musical Farmer (1932). This was the next to last film Mickey made for Columbia Pictures before his shorts would be distributed by United Artists. The latter part of this cartoon with the henhouse being treated as an assembly line recalls an earlier Disney film, the Alice Comedy, Alice's Egg Plant (1925). This idea though would be best used not in a Disney short but in a Warner Brothers cartoon, Swooner Crooner (1944). 

Next comes a later day Terry Toons cartoon, A Bum Steer (1957). This film came out after Paul Terry had sold Terry Toons to CBS. CBS as well as having the rights to the cartoons also retained the entire Terrytoons staff. As well as airing the old films on TV, CBS was intrested in keeping the theatrical cartoons from the studio going and did so with Gene Deitch as the new artistic supervisor. Gene Deitch had worked with UPA, a studio that specialized in flatter more artistic stylized design work and this look can be seen in almost every Terry Toon made during this period. Cartoon fans today know Gene Deitch best for some truly underwhelming Tom and Jerry shorts in the 1960's. This is not fair though as this was just a small part of his career and elsewhere he made some great films. This short was directed by Mannie Davis, who had been directing Terry Toons shorts since the 1930's. 

Next comes an excellent Daffy Duck cartoon, A Coy Decoy (1941). This film was part of a series of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies in the 1930's and 1940's that featured books coming to life at night. The first of these was I Like Mountain Music (1933) and the last was Book Revue (1946, also starring Daffy Duck). This cartoon features the early Daffy Duck meaning he is not yet the greedy and attention seeking duck he would be later. He is just simply crazy which works perfectly with this crazy short. As much as I love the later Daffy, I have a special fondness for this early crazy duck. A review in The Motion Picture Daily states, "The net result is moderate amusement." The following is an exhibitor's review from The Motion Picture Herald, "COY DECOY, A: Looney Tunes Cartoons—A dandy black and white cartoon.—C. L. Niles, Niles Theatre, Anamosa, Iowa, General Patronage."

Now for a classic silent film from the Out of the Inkwell series, Fishing (1921). 

Now it is time for a commercial break. 

Now for a classic short film starring the Tijuana Toads, Hop And Chop (1970). This cartoon introduced the character of the Japanese beetle, who would later appear in the Blue Racer shorts for the same studio. 

Now for Andy Panda in The Wacky Weed (1946). 

Up next is a cartoon with a clever take on the story of the tortoise and the hare, Winner by a Hare (1953). 

Today's cartoon selection ends with a classic Silly Symphonies short, Who Killed Cock Robbin? (1935). This film shows cartoon birds at the mercy of an unjust legal system. Satire, dark humor, celebrity caricatures and slapstick abound. The most significant of the celebrity caricatures is Jenny Wren, a caricature of Mae West. Most of her animation here is handled fantastically by Ham Luske and her voice comes from Martha Wentworth who does a really good impression. This character would later appear in the Silly Symphony Toby Tortoise Returns (1936). Two of Walt's future Nine Old Men animate on this film, Eric Larson and Clyde Geronimi. Eric animates the scene where Cock Robbin falls and the cops rushing in. Clyde animates the scenes involving the blackbirds and the cops, Legs Sparrow with the cops and then going into the witness box, and the cops' raiding the area. For the year of 1935 the National Board of Review named this as one of the Ten Best American Films (not just cartoons but films as a whole). According to JB Kaufman and Russell Merrit's excellent book, Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series, the idea for making this film had been around the Disney studio as early as October 1933, but work truly began in March, 1934. Wilfred Jackson was originally going to be the cartoon's director, but he was replaced with Ben Sharpsteen, who was replaced with Dave Hand, who actually directed the cartoon. Dave Hand would later be the supervising director for the Disney feature films, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) and Bambi (1942). My fellow Alfred Hitchcock fans will recognize that a clip from this cartoon was later used in Hitch's classic movie, Sabotage (1936).

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. 

Resources Used

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

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

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

Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies: A Complete Illustrated Guide to the Warner Brothers Cartoons by Jerry Beck and Will Friedwald 

https://mediahistoryproject.org/