Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for more classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with Heckle and Jeckle in King Tut's Tomb (1950). This short film was directed by Mannie Davis.
Next comes a classic UPA cartoon, The Emperor's New Clothes (1953). This short film benefits from great background and design work by Paul Julian, who had worked on many of Friz Freleng's cartoons at Warner Brothers and for Chuck Jones provided the sound of the Roadrunner's "Meep Meep."
Next comes Bugs Bunny in Bugsy and Mugsy (1957). This film was a semi-remake of the Slyvester cartoon, Stooge for a Mouse (1950). Bugsy and Mugsy would later be remade as the Dogfather cartoon, Heist and Seek (1974).
Next comes a Van Bueren Tom and Jerry cartoon (not to be confused with the MGM cartoons with the cat and mouse), Joint Wipers (1932). This short film is filled with all the delightfully bizarre gags that make the Van Beuren cartoons of this time so much fun,
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Now for silent movie time with a Aesop's Film Fables short, Wicked City (1926).
Now for one of my favorite early Mickey Mouse cartoons, The Karnival Kid (1929). This movie is famous for featuring Mickey Mouse's first spoken words. Though Mickey's earlier shorts had been sound pictures, they mostly revolved around music instead of dialogue. Though Walt Disney was excited about moving in this direction, his distributor, Pat Powers was not. Powers felt that an English-speaking mouse would have less appeal in countries where English is not the common language. To be fair the mouse does not receive a great deal of dialogue in this movie. His first words are the immortal, "Hot Dogs! Hot Dogs!" (in a scene animated by future Donald Duck director, Jack King). The voice is not the familiar high pitch falsetto, but a plainer and less distinguished voice. I do not know who provided this voice. Carl Stalling speak about the early voices of the mouse in a 1969 interview, “all the animators were taking a shot at it, those who wanted to.” Of course, later on Walt himself would become the voice of Mickey. The cartoon features some men who would soon have a great input on Disney's animated films. Ben Sharpsteen (supervising director on the Disney features Pinocchio (1940) and Dumbo (1941)) animates the opening shots of the fairgrounds, the monkey playing all the instruments and the barker (a forerunner of Kat-Nip from the Mickey Mouse comic strip) pulling Mickey's nose. Burt Gillet (who would direct the most popular Silly Symphony, Three Little Pigs (1933)) animates the scene with the merry-go-round, Mickey playing the hot dogs like musical instruments, the emergence of Minnie and Mickey tipping his ears to her ("The Big Mooseketeer" Roy Williams stated that this scene inspired the Mickey Mouse ears that all of TV's The Mickey Mouse Club wore). Les Clark (one of Walt's nine old men and one of the greatest Mickey Mouse animators) receives very little footage in the cartoon. He animates Mickey catching a runaway hot dog and giving it a spanking, Mickey briefly strumming the guitar and the final shot of the movie. Les Clark's ending was originally going to be longer with Mickey riding the bed like a horse. The legendary Ub Iwerks (who co-created Mickey with Walt) animates the two cats' duet. Despite the forward-looking ideas in this cartoon borrowed a major gag from a previous Disney short. Mickey chasing and spanking the hot dog was originally done by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in All Wet (1927).
Now we join Donkey Kong in Movie Mania (1983). This cartoon comes from a TV Show called Saturday Supercade. Each episode of this show was made up of multiple cartoons based on popular video game characters. Other video game characters featured in this show included Frogger, Donkey Kong Jr., Q*bert, Space Ace, Kangaroo and Pitfall Harry. In this cartoon, Donkey Kong is voiced by Soupy Sales, a comedian best known for his TV work in the 1950's and 60's. Mario is voiced by Peter Cullen, best known as the voice of Optimus Prime in Transformers.
Now to close by singing a song we all know.
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
https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mickey-mouse-in-the-karnival-kid-1928/
Walt Disney’s Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by David Gerstein and J.B. Kaufman.
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