Thursday, July 30, 2009

Oswald in "The Shriek"



Ya know this blog has been going for over a year and yet no-one has ever asked: "Hey Uncle Stupid, where's the friggin Oswald?" Yeah, it's true that I tend to fawn over what I consider the A-studios of the early 30's (Fleischer, Mintz & Iwerks) but the B-studios could sometimes truly rise to the occasion by compensating for their lack of draftsmanship * with sheer wildness of ideas. One cartoon from the Oswald series which excels in this regard is "The Shriek" (Lantz Studios, 1933) . It belongs to a sub-class of Egyptian themed cartoons that seemed to enjoy something of a mini-vogue in the early 30's. Practically every studio took a crack at it. This is not the Egypt of a genuine geographic location but loosest of jumping off points; a funhouse filled with strange and supernatural happenings. Enjoy and keep cool!

*Addition* - sometimes lazy communication gets me into trouble. That's because I usually blog while I'm half (or fully) asleep. I should qualify the statement by saying in my opinion I feel the animation, design, layout etc. ("draftsmanship" is a rotten choice of words) at Fleischer, and by association Mintz & Iwerks (who were able to cherry pick from both coasts), was superior to the Lantz Studios. Taken selectively, however, there are some wonderful Lantz Oswald cartoons. That's my opinion an' uhm stickin' to it.

1 comment:

J.V. (AKA "White Pongo") said...

You made Oswald (and Jesus) cry.