Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #220

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

Today's cartoon selection begins with a wonderful Daffy Duck film, The Daffy Duckaroo (1942). This cartoon was directed by Norman McCabe, who I always feel was underrated as a Looney Tunes director. Some of his Looney Tunes shorts are truly excellent, but because most of his cartoons were in black and white and feature a lot of topical gags about World War 2, his cartoons rarely get the exposure that other Looney Tunes directors do. He would return to the Looney Tunes universe well after the golden age as a timing director on such TV shows as Tiny Tunes Adventures, Taz-Mania and The Sylvester and Tweety Mysteries. I personally love McCabe's version of Daffy. He is as wild and crazy and energetic as Bob Clampett and Tex Avery's version of the character is, but he also has a few traits of the later Daffy that Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng would use. 

Next comes a delightfully surreal cartoon from the Van Bueren Studio, The Phantom Rocket (1933). This short film stars a human duo named Tom and Jerry, that predate the more famous cat and mouse duo. While not as famous as the later duo that would share their name, the human Tom and Jerry starred in some really fun, fast-paced cartoons that are a pure delight for animation lovers. 

Now for Honey Halfwitch in Potions and Notions (1966). This short film was directed by Shamus Culhane. Culhane is one of the most underrated classic cartoon directors (his Woody Woodpecker shorts are some of the woodpecker's best films). His book Talking Animals and Other People is essential reading for any true cartoon fan. 

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. 

 

The Dover Boys themselves would later make a cameo appearance on TV's Animaniacs.

Now it is time for a commercial break. 

Now for the Terry Toon cartoon, One Note Tony (1947). This short film was directed by Connie Rasinski, who had a long career working at the Terry Toons studio, first as an animator then a director. He began working at the studio in 1929 and kept working there until his death in 1965. 

Next comes one of Walt Disney's classic Alice Comedies, Alice Plays Cupid (1925). This short film features Margie Gay as Alice. She was the second young actress to play the role. For us Disney fans one of the greatest thrills of the earliest Disney films is that Walt himself directed them. Because of this we get a better look at the film legend's comedic mind. The gag of night falling, always makes me smile.

As many of you know when Fleischer Studios was shut down, it was succeeded by Famous Studios who not only created new series, but continued the series started by the former studio. Many cartoon fans feel that this series went downhill after this, but the falling of quality was hardly something immediate. I especially am a fan of the early Famous Studios Popeye films. These cartoons may be different from the Fleischer output, but they are fast paced, energetic and a lot of fun. There were also a wide variety of storylines used during this time that were not the simple one of Popeye and Bluto fighting over Olive. One great example of how good these films are is Me Musical Nephews (1942). The following is a review from The Film Daily, "One of the best Popeye shorts to hit the screen in years. Popeye's young nephews keep their uncle awake by practicing on their musical instruments and the grief they cause him is the central theme for some hilarious fun. This one deserves prominent billing."

Now to end with a great clip and song number from one of my favorite Simpsons episodes, Homer Badman (1994). 

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

 The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes edited by Jerry Beck

Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney by J. B. Kaufman and Russell Merritt.

https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/moonlighting-animators-in-comics-connie-rasinski/

https://mediahistoryproject.org/

  

 

Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #201

 Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons. Today in honor of Halloween here is a selection of spooky themed cartoons. 

Today's musical selection begins with Scaredy Cat (1948). This is the first of a trilogy of cartoons directed by Chuck Jones to star Porky and Sylvester. In these films, Sylvester is a scaredy cat, while Porky is oblivious to the danger around him. These cartoons also feature Sylvester as a completely pantomime character. This cartoon holds an important distinction in cartoon history. It is the first film in which the name Sylvester is used for the cartoon feline.  

Now for a short perfect for this time of year, Betty Boop's Halloween Party (1933). This short has all the surreal and manic energy, you would expect from a pre-code Betty film, especially one taking place around Halloween.  The following are two exhibitors' reviews from the Motion Picture Herald. "BETTY BOOP'S HALLOWEEN PARTY: Betty Boop Cartoons—Good cartoon and sound. It's just a toss-up which is the best cartoon, "Mickey Mouse," "Betty Boop" or "Popeye the Sailor," with "Popeye" slightly in the lead.—S. H. Rich, Rich Theatre, Montpelier, Idaho, Town and Rural Patronage." "BETTY BOOP'S HALLOWEEN PARTY: Talkar- toons—Better than the average Betty Boop. Good short for any program. - H. E. Newberry, Y.M.C.A. Theatre, Ware Shores, S.C. Small Town Patronage."

Now we join Little Roquefort in The Haunted Cat (1951). 

Now for a spooky Van Bueren short, Magic Mummy (1933). This short film stars a pair of human characters named Tom and Jerry, which predate the cat and mouse duo by nearly a decade.  

Now it is time for a commercial break. 

You can't have spooky cartoons without Scooby-Doo!

Now for something completely different here is a completely serious cartoon short of the 1950's, The Tell-Tale Heart (1953). This film is not surprisingly from the UPA studio. The UPA studio at this time sought to move away from the violent slapstick of Warner Brothers or MGM cartoons, or the more realistic "illusion of life" featured in many Disney cartoons. They often experimented with what could be done with the color and design in animated films. These films often experimented with flat backgrounds, purposely limited animation and abstract color schemes that reflect the emotion of a scene rather than what something would really look like. As is true of all cartoon studios that do a lot of experimenting, sometimes it worked and sometimes it didn't. Tell-Tale Heart is one of the most successful and one of the most extreme experiments. Most American audiences at this time had never seen an animated short quite like this and many would never see something like this again. When a 1954 article in Home Movies talking about the Cannes Film Festival got to Disney's Toot, Whistle, Plunk and Boom (1953) winning a prize, the writer had this to say, "It is unpardonable however that Disney should so openly and fully steal the style of the cartoon developed by the most excellent groups of artists, Steven Bosustow's UPA. It was no secret this was the case among those as the festival as UPA is well known and well respected in France. It is a shame that UPA recent and excellent 3D cartoon, The Tell-Tale Heart could not be shown at the festival, for it most certainly won the prize awarded to Disney." This cartoon is placed at 24 in Jerry Beck's book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons. 

Now for another Edgar Allan Poe cartoon adaption, this one starring The Simpsons. So, enjoy The Raven (1990) from the first Simpsons Treehouse of Horror episodes. This still remains as one of my favorite Treehouse of Horror segments. True it may not be the funniest or the scariest, but it is a surpassingly well-made adaption of Edgar Allan Poe's short story and the vocal performances from James Earl Jones and Dan Castellaneta are fantastic. 

Next comes a classic silent Alice Comedy, Alice's Spooky Adventure (1924). This is an early Alice Comedy meaning that it plays more as a live action comedy with an animated insert than a full cartoon like later entries. The pure live action scenes resembled Hal Roach's Our Gang comedy shorts (known by many now as The Little Rascals). This is rather interesting considering how new Our Gang was at the time of these shorts, having just started in 1922. Still the resemblance is hard to ignore with Alice's live action friends often physically resembling the Our Gang kids. Featured in Alice's Spooky Adventure are Spec McDonald, who looked a lot like Our Gang's freckled faced Mickey Daniels and Leon Holmes, this series' answer to chubby Joe Cobb from the Our Gang films. Distributor Margert Winkler was very happy with the film upon receiving it and wrote to Walt, "I will be frank with you and say that I have been waiting for just such a picture as 'Alice's Spooky Adventure' before using it in all territories throughout the world." She did have reservations though about some of the scenes combining live action and animation and asked that they would be retaken. Winkler must have been happy with the introduction of a cartoon cat in this film (later named Julius for future Alice Comedies). In the next Alice Comedy, Alice's Wild West Show (1924) a dog would be used as Alice's sidekick and Winkler would write Walt saying, "I might suggest that in your cartoon stuff you use a cat whenever possible and don't be afraid to let him do ridiculous things." Not surprisingly the cat would again appear in the following Alice Comedy, Alice's Fishy Story (1924).  

Now to close here is Garfield's Halloween Adventure (1985). 

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

Walt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney by J. B. Kaufman and Russell Merritt.

The 50 Greatest Cartoons by Jerry Beck

https://mediahistoryproject.org/

Silent Era Cartoon Advertisements

Hello again my friends in this post I will be sharing with you some classic advertisements for silent era cartoons in old movie magazines.

Photoplay, 1916

Motion Picture News, 1919

Exhibitors Herald, 1927

Moving Picture World, 1920

Motion Picture News, 1920

Motion Picture News, 1916

Film Daily, 1924

Exhibitors Herald, 1924

As a bonus here is a Jerry on the Job cartoon.





Peace, love and cartoons.

-Michael J. Ruhland 

Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #19

Hello again my friends, it is Saturday morning and time for more classic cartoons.

In the late 1930’s and early 40’s, Porky Pig was the star of Looney Tunes. It became a rule that Porky had to appear in every Looney Tunes cartoon while the same would not be true of the sister series Merrie Melodies. Because of this oftentimes in these Looney Tunes Porky would just make a brief cameo appearance. Case in point, A Coy Decoy (1941) which stars Daffy Duck and Porky only makes a brief appearance singing the great cowboy song Ride Tenderfoot Ride and delivering the final line. The song Ride Tenderfoot Ride was written by Johnny Mercer and Richard A. Whiting. Johnny Mercer also wrote another one of the best cowboy songs ever with I'm an Old Cowhand. Richard Whiting was a writer for two songs ever Looney Tunes fan will know, Hooray For Hollywood and Ain't We Got Fun. 

Now for an episode of The New Three Stooges (1965-1966) featuring the voices of the real Stooges who also appear in the opening and closing live action segments. These live action segments would often be repeated even when the cartoon was new. Curly Joe DeRita felt that this hurt the show. He thought that people would see a live action segment they had seen before and assume the show was a rerun, and change the channel not knowing the cartoon was new. 

I love Walt Disney's incredible Silly Symphony cartoons. To say this is one of the greatest cartoon series ever made is an understatement. There are so many great films from this series but if I had to pick my favorite, I'd probably pick Toby Tortoise Returns (1936). This cartoon was a sequel to one of the most famous Silly Symphonies ever, The Tortoise and the Hare (1934). This cartoon also stands as one of the series' best ventures into pure cartoony slapstick comedy. Appropriately this cartoon was written by Ward Kimball, who would become one of the studio's most cartoony directors. This was the only cartoon he wrote for, though he would be a writer for the live action Disney feature, Babes in Toyland (1960). Ward also worked as an animator on this film (animating the referee introducing the fight and Toby's daydream about being at a harem full of Jenny Wrens).Also animating on this film was Jack Hannah, who would go on to direct some of the studio's most cartoony short cartoons. Here he animated Max being flown into the ambulance. The audience for the fight is made up of characters from previous Silly Symphonies, so keep a sharp eye out and enjoy the cartoon.

   


Let us now watch one of Walt Disney's classic silent Alice Comedies, Alice's Tin Pony (1925).

One of the most overlooked cartoon studios of the 1930's is the Van Beuren studio. This is not fair as many of their cartoons are still quite fun today. One of the best is Opening Night (1932). This cartoon introduced a new character, Cubby Bear. This is one of the many Mickey Mouse lookalikes that populated American cartoons of the 1930's. Almost every studio was guilty of having Mickey Mouse clones at this time, since Mickey had become such a sensation. In fact the Van Beuren Studio once took this too far, when they made some cartoons featuring Mice that looked just like Mickey and Minnie in 1931. Walt would sue the studio over those cartoons. This cartoon is also a rather historically interesting film for another reason. It was made for the opening of the RKO Roxy Theatre. It is not subtle about this either. Since the theatre opened in late December, the film begins with Santa Claus riding his sleigh and takes out of his bag various stars which form the words "RKO ROXY." The meaning is simple to decipher, the theatre was a Christmas gift to movie fans.

Stay tooned, next week for more cartoon treasures until then peace, love and cartoons.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #15

Happy Saturday morning my friends. That's right it is time for more classic cartoons.

We begin with a classic Frank Tashlin Porky Pig cartoon, Porky's Railroad (1937). This is one of the many cartoons of this time that used the formula of Porky being placed in a different job. In fact earlier the same year Tashlin had directed a very similar Porky Pig cartoon, called Porky's Building (1937). That film like this one featured Porky up against a rival for his job. This cartoon opens up using of Tashlin's favorite types of gags that of words appearing on the screen to introduce the action. Often times he would do this in the form of a "disclaimer", but here he simply introduces the two trains. Also notice the ship that Porky picks up is the SS Leon after the cartoon's producer Leon Schlesinger.

Betty Boop cartoons often really stand out and stay in one's memory because of their endless imagination and bizarre (but very funny) gags. Here we have an example of this at its finest with Betty Boop's Penthouse (1933). This cartoon does not contain much of a plot, but that doesn't matter as the plots of these films is often secondary (if not third-dary or fourth-dary). The humor is fast paced and very funny and the musical score is fantastically energetic.




The Pink Panther began his animated career appearing in the opening credits of Blake Edwards' great live action feature, The Pink Panther (1964). Blake Edwards contacted animation producers Friz Freleng and David DePatie to create an animated Pink Panther for this title sequence. They created many different panthers, but when Blake saw them he immediately knew which one he wanted in his film. The title sequence was a smash hit and the character was spun off into a series of theatrical cartoon shorts (at a time when those were on their way out). Today we will look at the first and possibly best of these cartoons, The Pink Phink (1964). This cartoon set a template for many more shorts to come. The basic storyline involves a formula that would be often used. The Pink Panther wants to turn everything pink much to the annoyance of a little man (who may look a little like Friz). The gags come fast and furious and the design work is lovely. All in all this cartoon was a delight and the best way to start this series possible.




Let us end with one of Walt Disney's great Alice Comedies. This is the great series of silent shorts that combined a live action little girl with animated characters, and was Walt Disney's first series of films with reoccurring characters. At this time the live action girl was played by Margie Gay, the second girl to play Alice. Also at this time the live action was becoming less important to the series. Earlier entries featured live action opening and closing sequences with the animation taking place in the middle. Here the live action opening and closings are completely gone . Not only this but Alice herself is playing a smaller role than before with her animated companions receiving more screen time. So enjoy Alice's Mysterious Mystery (1926).




Stay Tooned next week for more classic cartoons. Until then peace love and cartoons.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #10

Happy Saturday morning again my friends, it is time once again to enjoy some classic cartoons. 

Let us begin with some of those great bumpers for The Yogi Bear Show (1961-1962). Yogi had originally started as a segment on The Huckleberry Hound Show (1958-1962) and was eventually spun off into his own series. Like The Huckleberry Hound Show, an episode of The Yogi Bear Show featured three short cartoons. Each one would star a different character. One would star Yogi, one would star Snagglepuss and one would star Yakky Doodle. Also like Huck's show, this series would feature little mini cartoons or "bumpers" between the three cartoons. Here are some of those.

  
 

Here is one of my favorite Terry Toon cartoons, The Power of Thought (1948). This cartoon stars two of Terry Toons most famous and most entertaining characters, Heckle and Jeckle. This cartoon is one of the most clever of the duo's cartoons having the very fact that they are animated characters be the premise of the story. 

Next up is the first of the Fleischer Brothers' great series of Superman cartoons, titled Superman (1941) though sometimes referred to as The Mad Scientist. Paramount (the distributors of the Fleischer cartoons) brought the screen rights to the famous superhero in 1940, and gave it to the Fleischers to make a cartoon series out of. The studio was not quite sure about this venture after all animated cartoons had not yet done anything similar to a pure action film. They tried to dissuade Paramount by asking for four times the usual budget for one of the studio's cartoon shorts ($100,000) thinking Paramount would refuse. Shockingly they accepted and the series began production. Voicing Superman himself was Bud Collyer, who was already the character's voice on radio. The famous lines "Look up in the sky- it's a bird - no, its a plane - no its superman" made their first appearance in Superman lore with this cartoon. This cartoon was nominated for an Oscar but did not win. This cartoon also received the 33rd spot in Jerry Beck's excellent book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons.

       

Now for one of Chuck Jones' great Bugs Bunny cartoons, Wackiki Wabbit (1943). The two castaways who try to eat Bugs in this cartoon, were caricatured to look like and were voiced by Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies writers, Michael Maltese and Tedd Pierce. Many of Chuck's cartoons of this time had great experimentation with background art, and that is certainly true here. The background art is delightfully abstract, in a way that works perfectly. The background art is credited to Bernyce Polifka, though it has been debated whether or not John McGrew had anything to do with the backgrounds here considering he left the studio during the making of the film.




Now to end with one of Walt Disney's great silent Alice Comedies, Alice the Whaler (1927). This is a later entry in the series and by this time Alice herself was playing a much smaller role. There is no longer the live action wrap around scenes and the live action Alice only makes a brief obligatory appearance. This cartoon also features what has to be one of the earliest anvil gags in cartoon history. Also doesn't the mouse pealing potatoes make you think of Steamboat Willie (1928)?

  
Stay tooned next week for more cartoon greats. Until then peace love and cartoons.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #4 - Silent Edition

Happy Saturday morning again my friends. Of course you know that means it is time to look at more classic cartoons. Today let's try something a little different and look at some great silent cartoons. 

First up is a cartoon staring the most famous cartoon character of the silent era. This is of course Felix the cat. Felix as many of you know is turning 100 this year having debuted in 1919 with Feline Follies. By the cartoon we are going to look at today, Felix was as popular to movie going audiences as any of the great silent movie live action stars. Speaking of the great live action stars you will see animated versions of many of them here including William S. Hart, Douglas Fairbanks, Ben Turpin, Will Hays, Gloria Swanson and most delightfully Charlie Chaplin. Yes the scene with Charlie Chaplin is fantastic. When our hero shows Will Hays his acting ability, he does an imitation of Charlie Chaplin. Charlie accuses the feline of stealing his stuff and gives chase. There is some actual history behind this joke. Producer Pat Sullivan and animator Otto Messmer had previously made a series of animated shorts featuring an animated version of Chaplin's little tramp and this work with the tramp inspired much of Felix's personality and movements. This is maybe one of the most popular silent Felix shorts and certainly one of the best. In fact it received a spot in Jerry Beck's book, The 50 Greatest Cartoons. So without further ado here is Felix in Hollywood (1923).




Since I mentioned them earlier, I feel this is a perfect time to share one of Pat Sullivan and  Otto Messmer's Charlie Chaplin cartoons. The story of having the Tramp as a farmhand was done in Chaplin's live action short, The Tramp (1915). Borrowed directly from that short is a gag involving milking a cow. So here is Charley on the Farm (1919).

The next film is one of Walt Disney's excellent series of Alice Comedies. This series was intended as a reversal on the Fleischer's Out of the Inkwell cartoons. Those films featured an animated KoKo the clown entering a live action world. The Alice comedies on the other hand featured a live action girl entering an animated world. The effect was fantastic and many of the Alice Comedies are just fantastic entertainment. The live action little girl was originally played by Virginia Davis. After her contract was not renewed because her parents were not happy with her being payed less, the part was taken over by Margie Gay who plays the role here. This is Margie's first time playing the lead in an Alice Comedy. It also marked another first, this was the cartoon debut of Pete, who would later be the nemeses of such Disney characters as Oswald the Rabbit and Mickey Mouse. The character is still in use today thanks to shows like Mickey and the Roadster Racers or video games like the Kingdom Heart series. So here is Alice Solves the Puzzle (1925).




Speaking of Walt Disney here is one of his classic Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons. The story of this film will seem familiar to Disney fans, as it was remade as the Mickey Mouse cartoon, Building a Building. I have written about that Mickey Mouse cartoon, here. Notice in both the Oswald and Mickey Mouse Pete is the villain. This however is an excellent cartoon in its own right, so here is Sky Scrappers (1928).




Last but not least is one of Earl Hurd's great Bobby Bumps cartoons. Earl Hurd is probably best remembered today for being one of the creators of cel animation. However he should be just as remembered for the Bobby Bumps cartoons, because they are fantastic. I love all the fourth wall jokes here as well as the gags that could only be done in silent cartoons. This is one of the best of the series and a must watch for all fans of silent cartoons. So here is Bobby Bumps Puts a Beanery on a Bum (1918).






So stayed tooned next Saturday morning for more cartoons. Until then peace love and cartoons.

-Michael J. Ruhland




   

Silent Film of the Month: Alice's Spooky Adventure (1924)

Run Time: 8 minutes. Studio: Walt Disney Productions. Director: Walt Disney. Producer: Walt Disney. Main Cast: Virginia Davis, Leon Holmes, Spec O'Donell. Animators: Walt Disney, Rollin Hamilton. Cameraman: Roy Disney.


Well its October and that means Halloween is coming up. With that in mind I feel it is a great time to look at a spooky themed Alice Comedy entitled Alice's Spooky Adventure.


The Alice Comedies were Walt Disney's first real series. In these films a live action Alice would find herself in an animated wonderland. This was an unsubtle reversal of what the Fleischer brothers were doing with their Out of the Inkwell series. In that series an animated Koko the clown found his way into the live action world causing havoc there.


Alice's Spooky Adventure was the fourth Alice Comedy. When Walt Disney made the first Alice Comedy (Alice's Wonderland), he was producing various cartoons for Laugh-O-Gram Films in Kanas City. They were mostly involving old fairytales moved in modern day. However he was running into much finical troubles at this time. Unfortunately the studio was bankrupt before the film could be completed. This lead Walt to move to California and get a distribution contract with Margert Winkler (who also distributed the Felix the Cat and Out of the Inkwell). The contract stated that Alice must still be played by Virginia Davis (who played the character in Alice's Wonderland) in the new Alice Comedies. Walt wrote a letter to the Davis family asking them to move to California. Fortunately for Walt they agreed. Immediately after this animation began on the second Alice comedy (Alice's Day at Sea). The problem was at this time Walt did not have the full crew who had worked on Alice's Wonderland. Because of this Walt needed to do most of the work himself including the animation and direction. Walt while certainly a talented animator was not the fastest and was not on the level of Ub Iwerks, who had worked with him on the Laugh-O-Gram films. Because of this pure live action scenes would take up quite a bit of the screen time for these early Alice Comedies. Just as the scenes with animation had a lot of similarities to the Out of the Inkwell series, the pure live action scenes resembled Hal Roach's Our Gang comedy shorts (known by many now as The Little Rascals). This is rather interesting considering how new Our Gang was at the time of these shorts, having just started in 1922. Still the resemblance is hard to ignore with Alice's live action friends often physically resembling the Our Gang kids. Featured in Alice's Spooky Adventure are Spec McDonald, who looked a lot like Our Gang's freckled faced Mickey Daniels and Leon Holmes, this series' answer to chubby Joe Cobb from the Our Gang films. As the series would go on Ub Iwerks would start working for the films and the animation would become much more prominent, while the live action would be pushed further into the background (in some of the later entries live action Alice herself seemed to be just making her short obligatory cameos that had little to do with the animated plot). That was not the case here as the live action takes up a decent portion of the film.


In this film Alice is playing baseball with her friends. However a baseball lands in an old abandoned house and Alice goes to get it out. However a piece of plaster falls down and knocks her unconscious. While unconscious Alice has an animated dream that she is in a town called Spookville. While there her and her new cat friend, go to see a concert. Ghosts seeing them at the concert give chase.

This is a highly entertaining film. The animation definitely lacks the polish and depth of later Disney cartoons, but it more than makes up for it the with pure imagination. Much of this film resembles   more of an early Fleischer cartoon than a Disney cartoon. For instance the houses in Spookville grow faces that react to seeing Alice. This is something that you would definitely not see in a later Disney cartoon, but just because it is different does not mean is not effective. These visual ideas are immediately intriguing and pull you into the film. The live action part is also very fun and the closing live action gag is hilarious. All in all this is a great film and I can't help but recommend it.


With Alice's Spooky Adventure Walt was hoping to have a shorter production period than he had on the previous Alice Comedies. However Mother Nature had other plans. The filming of the live action scenes had been continually delayed by clouds and fog.


Margert Winkler was very happy with the film upon receiving it and wrote to Walt, "I will be frank with you and say that I have been waiting for just such a picture as 'Alice's Spooky Adventure' before using it in all territories throughout the world." She did have reservations though about some of the scenes combining live action and animation and asked that they would be retaken. Winkler must have been happy with the introduction of a cartoon cat in this film (later named Julius for future Alice Comedies). In the next Alice Comedy, Alice's Wild West Show a dog would be used as Alice's sidekick and Winkler would write Walt saying "I might suggest that in your cartoon stuff you use a cat whenever possible and don't be afraid to let him do ridiculous things." Not surprisingly the cat would again appear in the following Alice Comedy, Alice's Fishy Story.  

Resources UsedWalt in Wonderland: The Silent Films of Walt Disney by J. B. Kaufman and Russell Merritt.