Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with Tweety's first appearance in a cartoon, A Tale of Two Kitties (1942). Sharp eyed viewers may notice that Tweety is not yellow in this film, but pink. Since he was a newborn baby bird, it made sense for him not to have feathers. According to director Bob Clampett, he based the character off of a nude baby photo of himself. Tweety already has his famous line, "I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat." According to animation historian Jerry Beck's book, I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety, this line also originated with Bob Clampett when in the mid-1930's he wrote a letter to a friend on MGM stationary. Next to Leo the MGM lion, Clampett drew a small bird with a word balloon with "I think I taw a titty-tat." Instead of Sylvester Tweety is here pitted against two cats named Babbit and Catstello. As should be obvious by the names, these cats were a take-off on the infamous comedy team Abbott and Costello, who had just made their movie debut just a couple years earlier in One Night in the Tropics (1940). The voice of Catstello was provided by the man of a thousand voices, Mel Blanc (who also voiced Tweety) and Babbitt was voiced by writer Tedd Pierce. A reviewer in Showman's Trade Review was very impressed with these voices stating, "Either the famous comedy pair furnished the accompanying dialogue themselves, or the impersonators are the last word in perfection." Though they would not catch on the way Tweety did, these characters would reappear in other cartoons. Some of these cartoons would even feature the duo as mice instead of cats. They would even appear with Tweety much later in a 1998 episode of the TV show, Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. This cartoon was reissued to theaters in 1948, the year Abbott and Costello made their most popular movie, Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948).
Next comes the Fleischer Screen Songs cartoon, Come Take a Trip in my Airship (1930). This was the second time, The Fleischer studio had made a cartoon centering around this song. They had earlier made a film that used an early sound on film process (Come Take a Trip in my Airship (1924)). The earlier film featured the Fleischer cartoon of KoKo the clown, who starred in many silent cartoons for the studio and would later become a supporting character in their Betty Boop cartoons.
Now we join Honey Halfwitch in Brother Bat (1967).
Up next is Farner Al Falfa's Bedtime Story (1932). The following is a review from the Motion Picture Herald. "Clever Cartoon. The Farmer goes to bed; the cat's go out for the night - and the mice come out to play as only the animated cartoon artists can make them play. Their tricks and stunts are cleverly drawn, amusing. This rates as among one of the better of the cartoon shorts - Running time, 6 minutes."
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Next is an early Woody Woodpecker short, The Dizzy Acrobat (1943). In these earlier Woody films, the character is a bit cruder than fans of his later work are used to. But there is something about this sheer unabashed craziness that many cartoon fans (including myself) can't get enough of. This movie was nominated for an Academy Award; however, it lost to Disney's Der Fuehrer's Face (1943). The following is from an issue of Showman's Trade Review (dated June 5, 1943), "Walter Lantz Cartune Studios which releases through Universal, has just released 'The Dizzy Acrobat,' A Woody Woodpecker special. The cartune revolves around the circus, and Lantz had experts advising the animators so that the action and facts would be accurate.
It is now time for a silent Felix the Cat cartoon, Felix the Cat Ducks His Duty (1927).
Next comes one of Disney's funniest cartoon shorts, Der Fuehrer's Face (1943). This film grew out of a Donald Duck short about paying your taxes during war time called The New Spirit (1942). There was going to be a scene (in a story treatment by Joe Grant and Dick Huemer) in that short that featured a radio announcer talking about the horrors of living in a totalitarian state. This was not used in that short, but the idea stayed in the heads of those working at the Disney studio. These ideas grew into a cartoon that would feature Donald Duck living in Nazi Germany. Jack Kinney, Disney's most comedic and satiric cartoon director being placed in the director's chair guaranteed that this short would be a comedic masterpiece as well as an effective piece of political commentary. The cartoon was originally going to be titled Donald Duck in Nutziland. However, it would be retitled Der Fuehrer's Face after the satirical and catchy song Oliver Wallace wrote for the cartoon. Disney studio staffer Jim Macdonald remembered Wallace improvising the song one day at Walt's request. Macdonald stated, "He did that in about ten minutes. That's spontaneity!" Before the cartoon even reached theaters Spike Jones and his City Slickers released a recording in late 1942 and had a massive hit with it. This film also benefits from some top-notch animation. John Sibley animated the hilariously cartoony marching band animation at the start. The real highlight of the cartoon is the great montage sequence which was animated by Les Clark and Hugh Fraser. This cartoon we earn Donald Duck, his one and only Oscar. It later received the 22nd spot in Jerry Beck's must-own book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection ends with the Simpsons in Dinner Time (1987). This is one of the shorts made for The Tracey Ullman Show before the animated 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
I Tawt I Taw a Puddy Tat: Fifty Years of Sylvester and Tweety by Jerry Beck.
Donald Duck: The Ultimate History by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein
https://mediahistoryproject.org/
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