Some Cartoons for Saturday Morning #201

 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 Tree For Two (1952). This short film introduced the two dogs, Spike and Chester. They would only appear in two classic theatrical shorts (the other being Dr. Jekyll's Hyde (1954)), but the popularity of these movies has made the characters make cameos in many post-golden age Looney Tunes projects. This short would later be edited into the feature film, Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island (1983) and be remade as The Dogfather (1974), the first short in The Dogfather series of short films. 

Santa's Surprise (1947) is an especially delightful Christmas cartoon from Famous Studios. This cartoon is best remembered as the first cartoon to feature the character of Little Audrey. Little Audrey was an original character for the studio and also a replacement for Little Lulu, who the studio had made a series of cartoons with, in the past. Little Lulu was not created by the studio but was the star of a comic strip by Marjorie Henderson Buell. When Paramount decided not to renew the license for Famous Studios to use that character, Little Audrey was created. The character was designed by veteran Disney animator Bill Tytla (possibly my favorite Disney animator), who was now a director at Famous. This short's lead animator was Myron Waldman, who specialized in cute animation (often shining his best in the studio's Casper series). Myron would later remember this cartoon as one he was especially happy with.

Now we join Mighty Mouse in Goons from the Moon (1951). I love that since this movie was made for Terrytoons, the town in it is called, Terrytown. 

Disney cartoons have long been associated with sentimentality and cuteness. Yet this wasn't always the case. The early black and white Mickey Mouse films were mostly pretty much the opposite. They focused purely on the gags and jokes and with keeping the comic momentum going. A perfect example of this is Mickey's Orphans (1931). This movie has all the makings for a sentimental cartoon. It takes place at Christmas time and the involves Mickey adopting a bunch of orphans. Yet all of this is play strictly for laughs and some of the kids can be a little sadistic. A review in the Motion Picture Herald stated "The youngsters will get a real kick out of this short, and the oldsters will extract a bit of enjoyment." A review in The Film Daily gave the same sentiment stating "It will delight all children and get many a laugh from their elders." An issue of The Film Daily (Dated February 7, 1932) stated "In addition to El Brendel in person this week's show at the Roxy is a special treat for the kids. The presentation includes four scenes based on 'Mickey's Orphans,' the Mickey Mouse cartoon that was held over for three weeks at this house. The characters of Mickey and Minnie are portrayed by the Arnaut Brothers, popular pantomimists. Patricia Bowman, Fred Waring's orchestra in a novelty entitled 'Dancing Melodies,' and the Roxyettes also are part of the proceedings. In the Mickey scenes, the Roxyettes and ballet group are made up to represent kittens, musical notes and animated furnishings in Minnie's boudoir." This movie was reissued to theatres in 1934. 


    

Now it is time for a commercial break.

Now we join our good friend Pooch the Pup in Nature's Workshop (1933). The last few moments of this movie are completely insane and I love them.

If you have trouble reading the page below click on it and use your touch screen to zoom in. The page has an extra little bonus for fans of Universal Monster movies. 

Universal Weekly, 1933

Up next Donald Duck once again battles Chip and Dale in Chips Ahoy (1956). Unlike other Chip and Dale, shorts, this cartoon was directed by Jack Kinney instead of Jack Hannah. While it is not as crazy as some of Kinney's other films, this cartoon still features all the delightful slapstick you could want. This movie predates the cookies with the same name. 

Now for Bugs Bunny in Prince Violent (1961). This film would later be renamed, Prince Varmint for TV airings, because I guess seeing the word violent written out would make kids want to be violent. 

Today's cartoon selection ends with The Simpsons in Simpson Xmas (1988). This was one of the Simpsons shorts on The Tracy Ullman Show before the family got their own TV series. 

Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for another selection of animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry. 

 

Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #192

 Note: Due to technical difficulties, this post is up a little late. 

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

Today's cartoon selection begins with a wonderful Chuck Jones directed cartoon, The Ducksters (1950). This short film features Daffy Duck in quite a villainous role, of the kind that would be more common for him in the 1960's then in the 1950's.   

The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) not only brought director Blake Edwards and actor Peter Sellers back to the Pink Panther franchise but also brought the Pink Panther cartoon character back to the feature film series as he would star in the opening credits sequence for the first time since the first movie. He would appear in the opening credits for every Pink Panther feature film after this as well. This opening credits sequence features an animated version of Inspector Clouseau chasing The Pink Panther for the first time. This would become a reoccurring theme for the opening credits of these movies. This marks the first of two times the opening credits would be done by Richard Williams (many of you may know him for being the animation director for Who Framed Roger Rabbit (1988)) instead of DePatie-Freleng. Also working on this sequence is Ken Harris (who worked on many of Chuck Jones’ Looney Tunes cartoons). 

While many cartoon fans praise the Donald Duck cartoons directed by Jack Hannah, I feel the Donald shorts directed by Jack King do not get enough praise. They are often really funny. An especially good example is Chef Donald (1941). I love the use of I Got No Strings from Pinocchio (1940) in a particularly funny spot. 

Up next comes Flip the Frog in The Soup Song (1931). This movie has everything I love about Flip the Frog cartoons in it, especially the incredibly odd sense of humor and logic that could only come from an early 1930's cartoon.

Now it is time for a commercial break.

Ever wonder how cartoons are mde well wonder no more. Van Bueren Studio explains the whole process to us in the short In a Cartoon Studio (1931). 

Now we join our favorite rodent superhero in Super Mouse Rides Again (1943). You will quickly notice the cartoon you watch below has been retitled Mighty Mouse Rides Again. This was done because the character's name in his earliest films was Super Mouse. However to avoid confusion with a comic book character named Super Mouse, the character's name was changed to Mighty Mouse, which is a better name anyway. Naturally for this movie's TV airings the title was changed to have the current name of the character. I love how this version still keeps in our hero autographing his name as "Super Mouse." 

Today's cartoon selection ends with Woody Woodpecker in Fair Weather Fiends (1946). This movie was directed by Shamus Culhane. Culhane had worked at Disney, Warner Brothers and many other classic cartoon studios, however in my opinion his best work is seen in the films he directed for Walter Lantz studio. These may not only be some of his best work but they are arguably some of the finest films to come out of the Walter Lantz studio. Fair Weathered Fiends may not be my favorite of the bunch but it is still a throughly delightful cartoon, that I could watch many times and not get tired of. 

 Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.

 

Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #40

Hello my friends and welcome back for another Saturday Morning featuring more classic cartoons. 

As many of you know Mighty Mouse cartoons often followed a strict formula with little variation. That is what makes the following cartoon stand out. While it still maintains some of the same formula such as the last minute rescue it does feature enough differences to make it not feel like the same thing again. Such changes include Mighty Mouse appearing in disguise and the lack of defeating a villain. Enjoy Spare the Rod (1954).


During Prohibition many American cartoons revolved around alcohol. As during prohibition alcohol was more popular than when it was legal. The Beer Parade (1933) is a oddity among these shorts as it stars the character Scrappy who is supposed to be a little boy. To be fair the beer is drunk by gnomes and only served by Scrappy and the even younger Oopy. An exhibitors review from The Motion Picture Herald called this cartoon "Extra good."




Next comes another early 1930's cartoon from Columbia. This cartoon revolves around another topical subject. This time it's The Great Depression. The American entertainment industry combatted the Depression with overwhelming optimism. This was especially true when it come to cartoons. This following cartoon, Prosperity Blues (1932) is a pure example of that. This cartoon feature Columbia's other cartoon star of the period Krazy Kat. These cartoons had scant resmblance to the George Herriman comic strip on which they were based. Krazy even went from being a character of undefiend gender to clearly a male and Ignatz Mouse and Officer Pupp are not to be found. Still these films are quite enjoyable on their own weird merit. The following is an exhibitors review from the Motion Picture Herald. "Prosperity Blues: Krazy Kat - Better than the average, music excellent. Krazy Kat cartoons are always good. Running time 6 minutes. -Marion F. Bodwell, Paramount Theatre, Wyomoing, Ill. Rural Patronage."

 



Next up comes one of my favorite Pink Panther cartoons, We Give Pink Stamps (1965).



We end our time of watching cartoons together with a classic Tweety and Sylvester short directed by Friz Freleng, Tom Tom Cat (1953). Friz directed almost all of the classic Tweety and Sylvester cartoons (Hawaiian Aye Aye (1964) was directed by Gerry Chiniquy (that cartoon and Dumb Portal (1964) where the only classic Warners cartoons he directed)). This cartoon features much of what made Friz a great director, great timing, fantastic slapstick and use of off screen space. However one has to wonder what a whole tribe of cats is gonna do with one small bird like Tweety.

  

Thanks for joining me and come back next week for more cartoon goodies.

-Michael J. Ruhland