Hello, my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with a Friz Freleng directed classic, Daffy the Commando (1943). This is a very topical cartoon for the era, throwing in many World War Two gags and old radio show reference. However, a fast pace and some solid gags help it stand up very well today. The following is an exhibitor's review from the Motion Picture Herald, "Daffy the Commando: Looney Tunes Cartoon - This is Daffy's best. By the way where has Vitaphone being keeping Daffy Duck? This is the first I played in a long while. -Ralph Raspa, State Theatre, Rivesville, W. Va."
Now for our friend Mighty Mouse in A Date for Dinner (1947).
Now get ready to sing along with a Fleischer Screen Song, I'd Climb the Highest Mountain (1931). This short features quite a bit of that great surreal humor that we all love about the Fleischer Studio's output of this era.
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Now for a Garfield Quickie.
Next is Betty Boop and Pudgy in You're Not Built that Way (1936). This short features some of those wonderful Fleischer 3-D backgrounds. These backgrounds were achieved through the use of model 3-D set
The most famous film animator/comic strip artist Winsor McCay made is easily Gertie the Dinosaur (1914). This film was actually a vaudeville act before it was in theaters. The act consisted of Winsor McCay talking to his animated dinosaur Gertie. He would tell her what to do and Gertie would do it (most of the time). This was translated to theaters by having an off-screen narrator, who speaks through intertitles (since this was a silent film). This film has often times wrongly been called the first cartoon ever made. While this is not true (It isn't even McCay's first cartoon, it is his third), its place in animation history is still extremely important. The reason for this is Gertie, herself. She is one of the first animated characters that the audience was allowed to see think. Unlike most of the earlier silent cartoon characters, Gertie does not seem like she is just moving drawings projected on a screen, but instead like a real character that we know and relate to over the course of the film. This was the beginning of character animation, and one of the first successful attempts at it. Like McCay's earlier short Little Nemo (1911) this film begins in live action. Winsor McCay bets his fellow cartoonists that he can make a dinosaur come to life and boy does he. This cartoon still holds up incredibly well today and received the number 6 spot in Jerry Beck's book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons.
Now for another silent treat, here is the Jerry on the Job cartoon, A False Alarm (1920).
Our cartoon selection ends with The Simpsons in Baby Sitting Maggie (1987). This is one of the shorts for The Tracey Ullman Show before the family got their own TV series.
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 American Animated Cartoons by Leonard Maltin
The 50 Greatest Cartoons edited by Jerry Beck
Donald Duck: The Ultimate History by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein
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