Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #225

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

Today's cartoon selection starts with a classic Mickey Mouse short film, The Steeple Chase (1933). This movie was originally planned as a musical, but there are no songs in the finished film. The horse Thunderbolt would inspire the Mickey Mouse comic strip character Tanglefoot. The following are a couple of exhibitor's reviews from The Motion Picture Herald. "STEEPLE CHASE: Mickey Mouse— Another good cartoon from Mickey. You'll like it. - J.A. Verchot, Opera House, Abbeville, S.C. Small Town Patronage." "STEEPLE CHASE: Mickey Mouse— Let me repeat, the biggest thing in this cartoon is the rental. Running time, 10 minutes.  - A.H. Edwards, Orpheum Theatre, Orwinsburg, Pa. Small Town and Rural Patronage." 

Next comes the Honey Halfwitch cartoon, From Nags to Witches (1966). This movie is directed by Howard Post, who also created the character. Post is better known for his comic work rather than his animation work. He created the comic strip The Dropouts and DC Comics character Anthro. He had also worked for Harvey Comics on various Casper comic books and on the Heathcliff and Care Bears comics for Marvel as well as being an editor on Looney Tunes Magazine and Tiny Toons Magazine for DC. The Honey Halfwitch films are a series of thirteen theatrically released cartoon shorts. This movie marks the 4th of these shorts. 

Now for the Terry Toons short, Shipyard Symphony (1943). Though this patriotic short was made for World War 2 America, it is still quite entertaining today due to some strong music and gags. This may actually be one of my favorite Terry Toons from this era. 

Next is Donald Duck in Honey Harvester (1949). This marks the second or third battle between Spike the bee and Donald Duck. The two had went up against each other in Inferior Decorator (1948) and a prototype for Spike bugged Donald in Window Cleaners (1940). Some of this film's story had come from an unfinished 1939 story outline entitled Donald's Roadside Market. This story outline also provided story material for the Donald Duck cartoons Donald's Garden (1942), Golden Eggs (1941) and Old MacDonald Duck (1941). This short film made its TV debut on an episode of the Disneyland TV show entitled The Donald Duck Story (1954). 

Now it is time for a commercial break. 

Now for Bugs Bunny in Super Rabbit (1943). The ending of this short film resulted in the U.S.M.C. acknowledging Bugs Bunny as an honorary marine with the title honorary Marine Master Sergeant Bugs Bunny. 

Next is Krazy Kat in The Awful Spook (1921). These silent cartoons from the Bray Studio have a much closer resemblance to the comic strip where the character originated than the later talkie Columbia cartoons. 

Now for The New Three Stooges cartoon, Lastest Gun in the West (1965). Like in all these cartoons, The Three Stooges are voiced by themselves. Curly Joe felt that the show was hurt by the fact that the live action intro and outro segments would be repeated, even when the cartoon was new. He felt this would lead people to see an opening they recognized and change the channel thinking it was a repeat.

Now to end with the greatest short film ever made. 

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

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

Donald Duck: The Ultimate History by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein

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

The Three Stooges Scrapbook by Jeff Lenburg, Joan Howard Maurer and Greg Lenburg

https://mediahistoryproject.org/