Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with a classic World War 2 Daffy Duck cartoon, Draftee Daffy (1945). This film is directed by Bob Clampett and certainly bears the director's mark. This is the type of fast paced high energy cartoon that Clampett excelled at. The short never slows down for a second and never becomes anything less than a pure blast to watch. Musical director Carl Stalling is also perfectly up to the task providing an energetic musical score that is just as fun as the action on screen. The cartoon is rightfully included in Jerry Beck's book, The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes. The following is a review from the Showman's Trade Review, "Articulate patriotism is one thing, and the deed is quite another. When Daffy Duck finds he is summoned for duty, the situations in which he tries to evade the draft have a continuity of gags that should keep an audience holding its sides with laughter. It is one of the best in the Looney Tunes series and main credit should go to Lou Lilly for the story. Supervision by Robert Clampett, animation by Edmund Gould." By sheer coincidence Don M. Yowp posted about this cartoon yesterday on his wonderful blog.
Next comes the UPA cartoon, Bringing Up Mother (1954).
Next, we join our good friend, Mighty Mouse in Lazy Little Beaver (1947). In this short a lazy little beaver finds himself in trouble when he runs away from home.
Now for a true Disney classic, Alpine Climbers (1936). Though this film teams Mickey, Donald and Pluto, it follows the same format as the Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoons that Disney made around this time. Like those films, here each of the characters goes his separate way and has a separate adventure. Mickey tries to collect an eagle's egg. Donald tries to pick flowers. Pluto has a run in with a St. Bernard dog (designed by Joe Grant). This other dog actually has a name, and that name is Bolivar. The character however is unnamed in the film, nor would he ever be used again in an animated cartoon. Instead, the character would be named in the Disney comics. He started appearing in 1938 in Al Taliaferro's Donald Duck newspaper comic strip. Bolivar would soon become the family dog of the duck family and would even be a reoccurring character in Carl Barks' beloved Donald Duck comic books. Despite this being an odd name for a cartoon animal the name had almost been used before. A cartoonist named Pinto Colvig (best known to cartoon fans today as the original voice of Disney's Goofy) was interested in entering the making of animated cartoons when sound came to the movies. He felt due to the fact that he was a cartoonist, who was also capable of doing various voices and playing multiple musical instruments, he felt sound cartoons were a wonderful opportunity for him. He created a character named Bolivar the Talking Ostrich. Teaming with Walter Lantz (later of Woody Woodpecker fame), he made a film with this character called Blue Notes (1928). In this film, the animated ostrich interacted with a live action Pinto Colvig. Unfortunately, this film is considered lost and despite Colvig's best efforts, a series never materialized. Colvig would however talk much about this ostrich in later years, however Lantz would barely ever mention the character. It may be possible that Al Taliaferro named the dog character after Colvig's ostrich character, but there is no real proof either way. Alpine Climbers would be reissued to movie theaters in 1948. The short film would make its TV debut on an episode of TV's Disneyland entitled, The Adventures of Mickey Mouse (1955). The following is a review of Alpine Climbers from a 1936 issue of World Film News. "I laughed immoderately at the latest Mickey Mouse, Alpine Climbers. The spectacle of the frozen Pluto getting tiddly with his savior, a St. Bernard with a handy keg around his neck is wonderful. - Ian Coster"
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Next, we join Krazy Kat in Out of Ether (1933). By this time this film was made the animated Krazy Kat resembled Mickey Mouse much more than his comic strip counterpart. The cartoon does though feature all the surreal craziness that made the Columbia cartoons of this time so much fun. The use of celebrity caricatures only adds to the fun, especially for fans of old radio shows. Unfortunately, this version of the film is missing its opening and closing titles.
Now is Mutt and Jeff in Lots of Water (1926).
Next is the Pink Panther short, In the Pink (1967). This film has everything I love about Pink Panther cartoons with a generous amount of creative slapstick and some great pantomime. With these cartoons, the filmmakers really helped keep the spirit of silent comedy alive long after the silent era had passed. This cartoon opens with some reused animation from Pink Panic (1967) where the Pink Panther gets out of the shower. Pink Panic was only released a few months earlier. This scene was animated by Norm McCabe. As McCabe also animated the final gag, we both start and end with his animation. Art Leonardi animates very little of this cartoon. He animates the very beginning of the shadow boxing scene (up until the shadow first punches our pink buddy out) and then Manny Gould animates the rest of the scene.
Let's close by singing a song we all know.
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
The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes edited by Jerry Beck
Of Mice and Magic: A History of American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by David Gerstein and J.B. Kaufman
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/bolivar-the-ostrich-unspoken/
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/the-pink-panther-in-the-pink-1967/
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