Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #298

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

Today's cartoon selection begins with the Terry Toons short, All About Dogs (1942). This is very much a spot gag cartoon in the vein of the travelogue films Tex Avery made for Warner Brothers.

Now for Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Yosemite Sam in A Miner Problem (2011). This is one of a series of surprisingly good Looney Tunes webtoons that came out in the early 2010's.

Now we come to a short starring the first star of the Looney Tunes cartoons, Bosko. This movie, Bosko's Holiday (1931), was the first to feature Bosko's name in the title and all the following (with the exception of The Tree's Knee's (1931)), all the Looney Tunes starring Bosko would follow suit. Watching this movie, you will probably feel that it more closely resembles an early Disney cartoon than a later Looney Tune and that was true of all the Warner Brothers cartoons of this era. In his landmark book Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon, film historian Leonard Maltin quotes animator Jack Zander, "We were doing something and Hugh Harman [who co-directed the early Warner Brothers cartoons with Rudolf Ising] said 'You remember that scene in the Disney picture where Mickey Mouse did do-and-so?' I said 'You want me to do almost the same thing?' and he said 'No I want you to do exactly the same thing.'" 

Next comes the silent cartoon, Aladdin's Vamp (1927). According to Michael Barrier's landmark book, Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age, Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising made this cartoon when the Disney studio closed for vacation in September 1926 (in an office they rented for two weeks). Also working on this film were Disney animators Rollin "Ham" Hamilton and Ub Iwerks. Harman and Ising were unsuccessful in finding a distributor for this film and it never got a full theatrical release. This is the second and last cartoon made for an Arabian Nights series of cartoons that never got off the ground. 

Now it is time for a commercial break.

Now comes an all-time classic, The Dover Boys at Pimento University (1942). This is one of Chuck Jones' most daring (and arguably one of his best) films. The stylized design and animation were unlike most anything being done at this time and look forward to what UPA would become known for in the 1950's. Many have cited Chuck Jones as a very strong influence on UPA and with a cartoon like this who could argue? It is worth noting that the credited animator on this film is Robert Cannon, who would become an important director for UPA (he directed Gerald McBoing-Boing (1950) there). Much of this film's charm came from background artist, Gene Fleury and layout artist John McGrew. These were two very experimental artists, and Chuck gave them plenty of room to experiment. They are a huge part of why Chuck's cartoons for this era really stand out. If you are a fan of Disney's Goofy cartoons, you will probably recognize the narrator, John McLeisch (who narrated most of the Goofy "how to..." shorts). The film's writer Ted Pierce does the voice of Tom. However, the scene stealer of the voice actors is Mel Blanc as he seems to be having a blast voicing the villainous Dan Backslide (coward, bully, cad and thief). Visually Dan Backslide is a caricature of Warner's animator, Ken Harris. This film appropriately appears in Jerry Beck's book, The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes. 

Next up comes a masterpiece of a Silly Symphony, The Flying Mouse (1934). This cartoon perfectly shows how advanced the filmmaking from the Disney staff was by this time. While these cartoons are not stylized in the way later UPA cartoons were, the filmmaker how to use bits of stylization to help tell the story. For instance watch how the color of certain scenes changes to fit the mood. These colors are obviously not used for realism but rather to get us involved in the emotion of the story. Here in 1934, they accomplished a feat similar to the ones UPA was praised for in the 1950's but since the filmmaking does not call attention to itself here, it has easily gone unnoticed by many. However this subtlety shows just how sophisticated these cartoons are. It did not hurt that an excellent group of animators worked on this movie. Mickey Mouse specialist, Fred Moore, animated this more realistic mouse in the scenes in which he interacts with the fairy and looks at his reflection in the pond. Ben Sharpsteen (later the supervising director for such features as Pinocchio (1940) and Bambi (1942)) animates the dramatic scene of the mouse escaping from the cave. Ham Luske (the first animator Walt Disney cast for the feature length Snow White) animates the mouse being spanked, seeing the butterfly and the scene with the bats. In 1939-40, there were plans to release shot for shot remakes of earlier Disney shorts including this one, but most of them were abandoned.

Now for the Mickey Mouse cartoon, Wild Waves (1929). Much of this film borrows from Walt Disney's earlier silent Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon, All Wet (1927). However, there is a musical number here, that would have of course been impossible in a silent cartoon. This short was before Walt Disney was cemented as the voice for Mickey Mouse and he has another voice here (two in fact as his singing voice and speaking voice are different). Composer Carl Stalling claimed to have done Mickey's voice here. Disney historians J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein believe that if that was true, he probably provided the speaking voice. 

Now to close with a song. 

Thank you 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

Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman

The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes edited by Jerry Beck

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

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