Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with Betty Boop's Ker-Choo (1933). Like many cartoons from the Fleischer Studios at this time, this film is filled with one surreal gag after another. Animator Dave Tender remembered about working at the studio, "Dave Fleischer's theory was that every scene should have a gag; nobody should animate a scene without a gag. He would come around, every other day perhaps, and speak to the guys. He'd pick up your scene and flip it, and he'd say, 'Where's the gag in this?' ... If you couldn't think of something in a scene, you would confer with him, and you would come up with something, what they considered a gag. Whether it was a chair moving across the room or an apple in a bowl of fruit animating up and saying something and then going back in the bowl - this was a gag a surprising bit of business."
Now we join our friend Dinky Duck in Foolish Duckling (1952). This Terry Toons cartoon was directed by Mannie Davis.
Next comes a real classic, Falling Hare (1943). This cartoon features one of the few characters to get the upper hand of Bugs, the gremlin. Despite only appearing in this one short, the character has proven quite popular and has appeared in quite a few Looney Tunes spin offs. The original title for this movie was going to be Bugs Bunny and the Gremlin. However, since Disney was working on an animated feature film about Gremlins (a movie that would never be finished), the studio took the word Gremlin out of the title of this cartoon to appease the Disney studio. The following is a review from The Film Daily, "Literally and figuratively, Bugs Bunny, already a prime favorite among current cartoon characters, gets off to a flying start in the distribution season just started. The buck-toothed, long-eared clown meets up with a gremlin and both find themselves aloft in an airplane, with Bugs or what's left of him being darn glad to get back to earth. There are plenty of laughs throughout. The tough Bunny, if this initial '43-'44 offering of his producer Leon Schlesinger, is any criterion, is in for a further rise in popularity among fans who like humor. Of course, the reel is in Technicolor. It was supervised by Robert Clampett and animated by Roderick Scribner. Warner Foster wrote the story and Carl W. Stalling handled the musical direction." This movie amounts to one of my favorite Bugs Bunny cartoons and it is appropriately in Jerry Beck's book, The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes.
Now for Donald Duck in Dude Duck (1951). This theatrical cartoon short made its TV debut in an episode of the Disneyland TV show entitled On Vacation (1956). Decades later this cartoon would return to movie theaters alongside the animated feature film DuckTales the Movie: Treasure of the Lost Lamp (1990).
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Next comes a Looney Tunes cartoon starring Beans the Cat (one of the Boston beans). Though not as well known Beans made his film debut in the same cartoon as Porky, I Haven't Got a Hat (1935). That cartoon was a takeoff on the Our Gang shorts and featured a bunch of little kid characters in a talent show. The studio did not know right away, which character would be the most popular, so they all appeared starred in some Looney Tunes when the studio was looking for a new character to replace Buddy (the rather bland character that had become that series' star). While Porky would become the most popular of these characters, Beans certainly had his fans in the studio as he would star in eight of these cartoons (Porky would even be relegated to a supporting role in some of these). Hollywood Capers (1935) is a good example of one of these Beans cartoons. While it may not be as laugh out loud funny as a Tex Avery or Bob Clampett Looney Tune, this is a charming little film that always puts a smile on my face. As a character Beans certainly has more personality than his predecessor Buddy. In many ways his personality is like the early Mickey Mouse before Mickey got toned down. He is very mischievous and always on a lookout for the next big adventure. Naturally this gets him in a lot of trouble but he always manages to have quite a bit of fun along the way. A quick joke has Beans disguise himself as Oliver Hardy to sneak into the movie studio. Porky would later try to do the same (less successfully) in You Ought to be in Pictures (1940). Look in the background for a poster advertising a fight between “Punchy” Pierce and “Hurricane” Hardaway. This is referring to two of the writers of Warner Brothers cartoons at the time, Tedd Pierce and Bugs Hardaway. Also, Beans is voiced by Tommy Bond here (who played Butch in the Our Gang shorts).
Next comes the Fleischer Stone Age cartoon, Springtime in the Rockage (1940). Though on this film and most cartoons from the Fleischer Studio, Dave Fleischer is given a director's credit, on all these cartoons, he functioned more as a general supervisor than an actual day to day director. That job often fell to the first animator you see listed on each of these cartoons, here that is Myron Waldman.
Now for our friend Kiko the Kangaroo in Skunked Again (1936).
Now to 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 it's Golden Age by Michael Barrier
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
100 Greatest Looney Tunes edited by Jerry Beck
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