Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #42 - Spooky Edition

Hello again my friends and happy Saturday morning. With Halloween just around the corner, today's Saturday morning cartoons post is dedicated to some downright spooky cartoons. 

We start with the coolest cat to ever grace the silver screen, The Pink Panther in a spooky treat, Pink Panic (1967). This a delightful and very creative cartoons. It may not be one of the funniest Pink Panthers, but it has its own atmospheric charm.

 

Next we'll rejoin our good friend Scrappy in a delightfully spooky Columbia short, Scrappy' s Ghost Story (1935). I really love the little song in this cartoon, and much of the dancing animation is very enjoyable. Like many Scrappy cartoons, what makes this film so delightful is the sheer amount of imagination and creativity. A review in The Film Daily stated "A good number of laughs evolve from this fast moving cartoon."






Next comes another Columbia Halloween treat from the 1930's. This cartoon, Skeleton Frolic (1937) was directed by the one and only Ub Iwerks. Many of you are probably aware that Ub Iwerks was the main animator of the classic Disney cartoon, The Skeleton Dance (1929). This film is in many ways an unofficial remake of the earlier cartoon. While it may not be the masterpiece that The Skeleton Dance was this is a delightful film in its own right. One exhibitors review from the Motion Picture Herald stated "Amusing antics. This sort of thing doesn't seem to bother our young folks any." A review in The Film Daily stated, "Rather a gruesome subject in a way but done with great technical cleverness and filled with a grim sense of humor." This cartoon would be reissued to theaters in 1953-1954 and 1961.

Of course you can't have Halloween cartoon watching without the next Disney classic. This is one of Jack Hannah's finest Donald Duck cartoons, Trick or Treat (1952). If you are interested in the history of this cartoon you can't do better than a great article Disney Historian Jim Fanning wrote for the D23 website. To see that click here.


















Happy Halloween and come back next week for more cartoon fun.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #24

Hello again my friends and welcome back to some more classic cartoons this Saturday morning. 

We start with one of the most atmospheric Mickey Mouse cartoons, The Mad Doctor (1933). Differing from earlier Mickey cartoons, this film is not a pure comedy. Rather this cartoon mixes in elements of horror and suspense. The horror elements were too present for some. Because it was deemed too scary, it was actually banned from some theatres and completely banned in the UK. Shockingly this cartoon's copyright was never renewed and actually fell into the public domain. This film along with The Sprit of '43 (1943) and Minnie's Yoo Hoo (1930) is one of the very few Disney shorts (not including the Alice Comedies) to fall into public domain. Video game fans will be familiar with elements of this cartoon. The second level of the game Mickey Mania: The Timeless Adventures of Mickey Mouse was based off this cartoon, and the Mad Doctor himself became a major character in both Epic Mickey games. 

Next comes a very early Silly Symphony. In fact it is the second one. Unlike the first Symphony which was almost entirely animated by Ub Iwerks, this film has a bigger variety of animators. Ub did still animate on this film and not shockingly his portion (the bullfight) of the cartoon is a highlight. The other animators on this film would go on to become very important to Disney history. Burt Gillett (Don Jose and Carmen meeting) would later direct the most popular Silly Symphony, The Three Little Pigs (1933). Wilfred Jackson (Carmen dancing) would later direct some of the best Silly Symphonies and would be a co-director on such Disney features as Cinderella (1950), Alice in Wonderland (1951), Peter Pan (1953) and Lady and the Tramp (1955). Les Clark (close-ups of Don Jose) would become one of Walt's Nine Old Men as well as one of the most important Mickey Mouse animators. Jack King (Escamillo challenges Don Jose) would become one of the best Donald Duck directors. Ben Sharpsteen (introduction to the bullfight) would later be the supervising director for such Disney features as Pinocchio (1940), Fantasia (1940) and Dumbo (1941). Though Walt Disney directed this film himself, Ub did supervise much of the animation. This cartoon is an early example of human characters in Disney animation. As such the human animation looks crude compared to later examples. On the other hand the animation of the funny animal bull (something that greater resembled what Walt and his animators had done in the earlier Mickey Mouse and Oswald cartoons) is much more sophisticated. At this point in Disney history very gruesome gross out gags were still part of the cartoons, and this cartoon ends with a very gruesome gag.

   

From one bullfighting cartoon to another, here is one featuring the Pink Panther. This cartoon is called Bully For Pink (1965). However despite this title the film is not a remake of the Bugs Bunny cartoon, Bully For Bugs (1953). Instead the jokes come from the Pink Panther using a magician's cape in the bullfight. This film was directed by Hawley Pratt, who worked as Friz Freleng's (who produced this cartoon) layout artist when Friz was a director for Warner Brothers.




Now we end with one of the Fleischer Brothers silent Out of the Inkwell cartoons, Koko Needles the Boss (1927). The boss referred to in that title is producer Max Fleischer, who is the animated Koko's live action nemesis in this and many other Out of the Inkwell films.



-Michael J. Ruhland 

Movie Review: Goosebumps 2 Haunted Halloween

Review Written By Michael J. Ruhland












Michael's Movie Grade: B-

Review: After finding the first Goosebumps movie to be little more than a decent time passer, I didn't go into this movie excepting much more. However while this film is nothing mind-blowing and has its share of faults, I found myself enjoying it quite a bit.


One thing that puts this movie ahead of the first one is that this one is quite a bit more creepy and suspenseful. Slappy still has a creepy presence and brings a bit of an edge to this film as he did last time. However this time, his plan is quite a bit more scary. While there is little here that will keep most adults up at night, the film has an eerie and uncomfortable feeling that is surprisingly unsettling. There are quite a few good jump scares and moments of real suspense. The most effective use of this suspense is in the early scenes, where we know Slappy is alive and the kids don't. Something could happen at any minute and we don't know when or he will truly reveal himself. Every time we see that seemingly lifeless dummy next to our heroes, this is all we can think about creating a fantastic mood of unease and suspense. Also (don't worry there are no real spoilers), while much of the conclusion of the first movie felt forced, it doesn't at all feel that way here, therefore creating some real suspense. Actually the ending here is great and makes me look forward to the third one. The main characters are underdeveloped, however they are likable enough that we don't want to see anything happen to them, making the spooky scenes more effective.


The humor is very hit and miss. The scene with the gummy bears is quite funny and I laughed out loud at a fantastic reference to It. Still some of the jokes completely miss their marks and made me groan. Also before our villain steps into the picture the movie is kind of dull. The opening scenes introducing our characters and storylines are quite dull. This part feels like a movie we have seen done many times before and often much better. Also while our main characters are likable, we are treated to very lame and boring school bullies and two boring romantic subplots. However when we first see Slappy the story gets interesting and the movie really picks up and becomes quite a bit of fun.


This may not be a new Halloween classic, but for what it is, this movie is definitely fun and I am glad I saw it.    


-Michael J. Ruhland