Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #266

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

Today's cartoon selection begins with Sylvester the cat in A Mouse Divided (1953). Though best known for his cartoons with Tweety and Speedy Gonzales, the cat has shown many times that he is more than capable of making a great cartoon without any famous co-stars. This is one of those. The story of Sylvester wanting to eat a small animal until it considers him its parent and then protecting it would be repeated much later in Father of the Bird (1997). A Mouse Divided was directed by Friz Freleng, who directed the Tweety and Sylvester cartoons. 

Next comes Tweety in Birdy and the Beast (1944). This is the second Tweety cartoon. The first three Tweety cartoons were directed by Bob Clampett and feature the bird with other cat antagonists than Sylvester. After Friz Freleng directed the award winning short Tweetie Pie (1947), which first paired Tweety and Slyvester, Tweety would only appear in theatrical cartoons with Slyvester. 

Next comes the first Mickey Mouse cartoon made, Plane Crazy (1928). This was back in the days when Mickey was still a simple country mouse who went around barefoot and didn't wear gloves. These early Mickey cartoons have a genuine rural feel to them (partly because Walt always considered himself a farm boy at heart) that I personally find irresistible and definitely prefer over the later and bland suburban settings featured in his later cartoons. In this film Mickey dreams of being a pilot and makes himself a homemade plane that would make the Our Gang kids jealous. This is because aviation was a popular topic around this time due to the fame of Charles Lindbergh (briefly caricatured here) after his New York to Paris flight of 1927. Walt had already had his earlier star, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in an aviation themed cartoon with The Ocean Hop (1927). This cartoon began production in March 1928. The production of this cartoon was done in secret due to the fact that Walt was still under contract to make Oswald cartoons for Universal. Animator Ub Iwerks (who animated the film by himself) was separated from the artists working on the Oswald shorts so that he could not be seen by them. Hugh Harman later described this saying, "They curtained off part of the studio with a great black drop, black skim of some kind, so that I and a few others who were leaving couldn't see the great secret that was going on." Ub Iwerks was one of the fastest animators of the time and finished this cartoon in only a matter of weeks. It has been said that he made as many as 700 drawings in one day. This cartoon was originally made as a silent film, yet you will notice the opening title card says, "Sound Cartoon." The reason for this is that after the success of Steamboat Willie (1928) with sound, a soundtrack was added to this cartoon. 

Now for the silent Aesop's Film Fables cartoon, Snapping the Whip (1929). 



  

Now it is time for a commercial break. 

Next comes the New Three Stooges cartoon, A Flycycle Built for Two (1965). The Stooges voice themselves in this made for TV cartoon. In this cartoon, the Stooges try to create a flying bicycle. The live action wrap around segment here is reminiscent of the classic Stooge short, The Ghost Talks (1949). 

Now for the Mighty Mouse cartoon, Hero for a Day (1953). 

If you asked me to pick a cartoon that perfectly shows what the style of the Fleischer Studio was, I would pick, Bimbo's Initiation (1931). This cartoon has everything that makes the Fleischer Studio one of the most unique animation studios of all time. The film has a lot of surreal humor, a very detailed look, a dark and dangerous atmosphere, and was definitely intended more for adults than kids. One thing the Fleischers strived for was to put a gag in every moment of the film and this cartoon has that in abundance. Bimbo was a star character at this time, but his star was soon to be eclipsed by another character in this film, Betty Boop. Betty had made her debut a year earlier with Dizzy Dishes (1930). It wouldn't be long until Bimbo would be playing supporting roles in Betty Boop cartoons. Eventually Betty's films would drop Bimbo. Betty would also later own a dog making her one of the few cartoon characters to both own and date a dog (and even be a dog in her earliest appearances). This cartoon was placed at 37 in Jerry Beck's book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons.



 

Now let us close with a song. 

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

Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age by Michael Barrier

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

The 50 Greatest Cartoons by Jerry Beck

https://mediahistoryproject.org/