Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #286

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

Today's cartoon selection starts with an early Tex Avery classic, Egghead Rides Again (1937). Despite the title this is actually Egghead's first cartoon. In later appearances Egghead would have a voice that was based off of radio comedian Joe Penner. However in this short his voice is more similar to an early Daffy Duck. Daffy actually made his film debut earlier the same year with Porky's Duck Hunt (1937). 

Toby Tortoise Returns (1936) is maybe my favorite Silly Symphony cartoon. Like many great comedy shorts the story for this cartoon is extremely simple. Max Hare and Toby Tortoise (returning from the earlier Symphony, Tortoise and the Hare (1935)) fight each other in a boxing match. This leads to some amazingly good slapstick. Again, those who think of Disney cartoons as cute and sweet while Warners cartoons were wacky and funny might be surprised to see this film. This cartoon in fact even resembles a Looney Tunes or Merrie Melody from this time period. The slapstick is fast and furious and there is a real wise guy tone to much of the humor. The idea itself came from Ward Kimball, an animator who had joined the studio a year earlier. Ward would soon become one of Walt’s favorite animators and a major asset for the studio’s animated films. Ward is hugely known by Disney buffs today as one of the studio’s most comedic animators, so it comes as no surprise that he would suggest the story for one of the studio’s funniest cartoons. As well as coming up with the story Ward also was one of the film’s animators. One of the scenes he animated was early in the film where the referee is introducing the fighters. There are no real jokes here, but the animation itself is quite funny. The character doesn’t look funny, but he moves funny. This is something that is much more important to animated comedies. This over the top and quite funny animation sets you up perfectly for the slapstick you are about to see. This cartoon is in fact full of fantastic slapstick comedy.  The part with the water was mostly animated by Bob Stokes. The fireworks section was animated by Dick Huemer with the exception of the tiny bit where Max blows out of the ring and into the ambulance, which was animated by Jack Hannah. What all three of these animators understood was using speed for comic effect. This kind of speed was fairly new to cartoons and while Tortoise and the Hare mastered animating speed, this film masters using this type of animation to its full comic potential. Another delight in this cartoon is the use of other characters from Silly Symphonies cartoons in the audience. Just as it is fun for movie buffs to spot all the stars in Mickey’s Gala Premiere (1933), it is fun for cartoon buffs to catch all the cartoon characters seen here. A review in The Film Daily stated, "Aside from the loud laughs, its beautifully done in Technicolor."

Next comes the Terry Toons short, The First Flying Fish (1955).

Next comes Krazy Kat in Port Whines (1929). One of the animators on this short film was future Looney Tunes director and Pink Panther producer Friz Freleng. This marked the third sound Krazy Kat cartoon. Though in time Columbia would change Krazy into a Mickey Mouse lookalike, here he still looks more like he did in George Herriman's classic comic strip (which the character was created for). However, the film itself much more closely resembles a Disney cartoon of the time than the comic strip. Animator Harry Love later remarked about working on this series of cartoons for Columbia, "Whenever a Disney cartoon was playing in a theater, we'd go in and pay just to see the cartoon and study it. See what we could steal and everything." 

Now it is time for a commercial break. 

Next comes a classic UPA short, Willie the Kid (1952). This is an incredibly charming little film and one of my favorite UPA shorts. This short was directed by Robert "Bobe" Cannon, one of my favorite UPA directors. He had previously been an animator for both Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett's units at Warner Brothers and even Tex Avery at MGM. He even worked on the Disney feature film, Melody Time (1948). As a director he made some of the best UPA shorts including one of the studio's most famous films, Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950).

Up next is Sylvester and Tweety in Muzzle Tough (1954). About the Sylvester and Tweety cartoons, director Friz Freleng stated, "Tweety doesn't do anything. He can't even put a hat on because his arms are too short. And he's got such a bug head. The comedy comes out of Sylvester and his determination, his stubbornness to get the bird no matter what happens to him. Still, everybody says, 'Oh I love that Tweety.' Audiences are funny. They never love the characters that really get the laughs." Despite Friz's comments Tweety does have some pretty funny lines in this film. 

Now for a silent cartoon starring the Katzenjammer Kids, The Heathen Benefit (1918). 



 

In tribute to a great comedic talent that had recently passed away, let us end today's cartoon selection with Bob Newhart's cameo on The Simpsons.

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

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

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

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/animator-breakdown-for-disneys-toby-tortoise-returns-1936/

https://lantern.mediahist.org/