Uncle John's Crazy Town

Why snow posts?

2011-12-29T12:13:00.000-08:00

Sorry folks, I've been bust lately but hope to have a new post on a new wonderfully weird 30's cartoon soon. In the meantime you should absolutely, if you haven't already, check out fleischerstudios.com new online exhibit documenting the studio holiday season and how the artists celebrated it. The film footage alone is a gem. Very glad they transferred that. In the meanwhile happy recuperating.

2011-12-11T10:50:00.000-08:00

For those of you engaged in holiday shopping this image is perhaps timely. I posted it back in May along with a link to the online archive of Box Office Magazine. Think they may have even filled in an issue or two since I posted last. Anyway, it's terrific archive - check it out!

A scary Xmas to all and to all a good night.

Seymour Kneitel Blog

2011-11-19T00:15:00.000-08:00

Cartoon Genuis

Now here's an early Christmas present. Seymour Kneitel's daughter (& Max Fleischer's grand daughter!) Ginny Mahoney has kindly set up a blog honoring her father. For me, Kneitel's cartoons are at the very top amongst the best ever! So, don't delay-go here to be treated!!

Pure Gold

2011-10-10T11:37:00.000-07:00

Today I am showcasing another cartoon from the WTF department: the Scrappy cartoon 'The Gold Getters' (released March 1, 1935) animated by dependable duo Sid Marcus & Art Davis (& crew). Sure, it's not on anybody's top ten list but there's some funny gags, some nice rubbery cartoon animation, weeeeird timing and, well, a lot of head scratching in general. What more could you ask for?

SEQ 1: Some guys are sifting through some crap. This is what people did before the internet. Crap sifters came in a variety of decorative colors and styles.

Hemorrhoidal mules were a key demographic. This image later appeared in a series of popular medicinal cream ads in the Saturday Evening Post.

Not everyone could afford crap sifters however. The less advantaged had to make due with body hair.

Some learned to eat the crap while sifting out the nuggets with their teeth. This was a life lesson they learned early.

Gray nuggets, of course, were known as a delicacy and the prices they could fetch were capable of supporting any number of gambling or alcohol habits for as long as six weeks!

Of course, the cultural center of any such mining community was 'Ye Old Saloone'. Families would come from miles around to see the nightly ye old drunk beatings.

As times were difficult bartenders in such establishments allowed only one drop of acid per mug.

By this time in the cartoon, Scrappy already has his pile of gray nuggets so, one might think, there's no place for the cartoon to go from here. But Marcus & Davis have an ace up their sleeve...

That's right, I'm talkin' about a giant hideous head!

I have no idea when this practice started at Mintz but it certainly had an antecedent in 'The Match Kid' (released May 9, 1933) which is a veritable smorgasbord of giant hideous heads!

Upstream industrial effluents were widely known to cause milk to be highly toxic to the crap sifting community. Depression era saloone keepers happily capitalized on the situation by renaming the beverage "milk with a *pop* *pop* *pop*".

Meanwhile tobacco expectorate and filthy butt cans continued to delight children of all ages.

I kid a lot but you know if Sony ever did put out a collection of Mintz cartoons I'd be first in line, pushing senior citizens and children out of the way, to get the first copy! I love this stuff.

And seriously, once you get this song in your head you'll never shake it out.

Golden.

2011-09-12T07:41:00.000-07:00

For many, when the the Fleischers started their own color series in the manner of the Silly Symphonies, the cartoons lost their edge. Admittedly there are examples which confirm this, the Hunky & Spunky series for example. However there are plenty of anomalies: films no other studio (with the possible exception of Iwerks who, at the time, was primarily staffed by ex-Fleischerites) would create - especially Disney. One such excursion into the bizarre is a film that often slips my mind (along with the equally great 'Kids in the Shoe') when thinking of the best entries to the Color Classics series: Greedy Humpty Dumpty.

It'd be nice to see the original color for this film. Is this really three strip Cinecolor? I'm guessing it is but the Fleischers' first Technicolor film, 'Somewhere in 'Dreamland' (released January 17, 1936), was released several months before 'Greedy Humpty Dumpty' (released July 10). It seems, however, to have been used sporadically in the films which followed with some, like 'Play Safe' (October 16), using Cinecolor and others, like 'Hawaiian Birds' (August 28) using Technicolor. Regardless, and I know I beat this drum for every Color Classic post I do, 35mm would do much to reveal layers of detail that help to explain why these films rank amongst the best of the 30's.

By 1936, the release year of 'Greedy Humpty Dumpty', Dave Tendlar was already directing a group of his own having left Bowsky's a year earlier. Once off the hook as a head animator Tendlar dove into the workload with formidable zeal. In 1936 he was directing in practically every series the Fleischers had going with the exception of the Screen Songs. At the time of 'Greedy Humpty Dumpty', and after some personelle shifting through 1935, Tendlar's group finally settled on: Tendlar, Bill Sturm, Joe Oriolo, Eli Brucker, Nick Tafuri and recent arrival Graham Place.

Gag cartoon of Tendlar from 'The Animated News'

It's hard to think of any cartoon of the 30's which delights more in cruelty and greed than Greedy Humpty Dumpty. What an insufferable jerk! And yet this is cartoon without a hero and we stay with regent asshole through the length of the picture. Are the denizens of Fairy-Tale Land oppressed under his regime? It seems so ... but their indifference to being whipped is pretty mystifying. In fact, their sanctimonious chiding and the joyous zeal with which they build the tower, fully cognescent that it will mean the end of the big egg ("the bigger they come, the harder they fall"), doesn't exactly make them clearly sympathetic either. This is the sort of moral indifference which clearly defined the New York studios over the west coast.

The even timing of the sheep could be an example of the meddling of the Fleischers' checker Nelly Sanborn. She was known to ask inbetweens of drawings she felt were too far apart and raised the ire of many an animator. It certainly seems like a mistake and yet there is something otherworldly and hypnotic about it as the two doe-eyed pilgrims sway back and forth like reeds under water.

The same basic gag occurs in the later 'All's Fair At The Fair'. The timing here is quicker and funnier but less hypnotic.

A batch of characters resembling those of 'Kids in the Shoe'. GHD begins with much chiding. Are we supposed to sympathize with these characters ...

or the character that's whipping them?

But the moral question of greed and it's consequences is not really the focus of 'Greedy Humpty Dumpty'. Rather it's more of a framework, a ruse almost, on which gags and funny animation could be built. Fairy Tales, with their clearly defined moral boundries, were strange territory for the Fleischer animators who were likely more influenced by the similar moral ambiguity and rough & tumble action of NY newspaper comic strips of the era (& before) over the more rarified world of professional children's book illustrators. But that statement may not be entirely true, as a number of Fleischer animators belonged to illustration societies, so it may have been a more conscious choice to steer from the more subtle but less immedietly legible (and less funny), approach of children's books. I have no idea.

I do know this however: GHD has the greatest arm animation in the history! I recommend the Greedy Arm Dance for anyone who has experienced a windfall. Try it for yourself and be amazed at the results!

Be aware though that The Greedy Arm Dance can only lead The Greedy Step Dance. You will need to grow a third foot but the results are worth it!

Of course the biggest shock of 'Greedy Humpty Dumpty' is who the character was based on: none other than Dave Fleischer! Dave wasn't new to being caricatured in Fleischer cartoons. In fact you can see him as a mountain in my post in 'Hide and Seek'. However, you have to give him credit for being a good sport about being so mercilessly mocked in 'Greedy Humpty Dumpty'. From all accounts Dave was a pretty likable guy. What inspired Tendlar to turn him into a greedy demagog I have no idea!

Do you see the resemblance? Allow me to clarify...

See it now?

Dave wasn't the only one to be caricatured though. Wearing a straw boater and spinning in a washtub (in a vat of gold cement no less!) is what appears to be none other than Max Fleischer. Can't be certain of course, and Tendlar isn't around to ask, but Max (sans boater) was depicted similarly in many gag cartoons of The Animated News (the studio's in-house newsletter).

Aside from funny action, Greedy Humpty Dumpty employs quite a lot of difficult perspective scenes as the Fairy Tale characters building the tower steps just in time for Humpty to dance across them. A number of techniques of GHD, such as use of cut outs and FX animation, would be employed later in the Superman cartoon series. The crumbling tower, for instance, seems to predict the crumbling fortress of the first Superman cartoon.

Crumbling fortress of the first Superman cartoon (1941).

'Greedy Humpty Dumpty' is certainly an oddity. The joy of the cartoon is to be found in the animation and design, which is pretty amazing at times, and the relish Tendlar & Co. find in taking the greedy action to an utterly ridiculous apex ... and then destroying everything-including the main character! Not sure of the moral message of it all ... but then again neither, I think, did Tendlar!

Who'd have thought the secret to riches was a jagged axe?

Wonderful horrible greed.

Still on hiatus...

2011-08-29T07:33:00.000-07:00

Still on hiatus whilst I ponder all new freak posts. In the meanwhile here is a drawing that I can neither defend nor explain. See you soon...

Update: just received this e-mail from Tracy who was featured on Cartoon Brew a little while back.

Hello. I recently started a blog/website featuring my polymer
creations which are inspired by cartoons from the 1920s and 1930s. I
would really love a shout from your on your blog, if you think it's
appropriate, and I would be more than happy to feature your site in my
sidebar as well. I really, really really love the work that's on your
site and I want to use images to inspire more polyflavour pieces.

She does jewelry based on Iwerks' Hells Bells and I think she's captured the 30's cartoon funk very nicely. If I were a girl (hey, pipe down!) I'd wear her stuff.

Cheggitout!

Human Deformities Redux

2011-07-07T12:19:00.000-07:00

Things are beginning to pile up a bit here at Crazy Town Industries (I have named myself CEO, Treasurer, Janitor, Image Management Consulting Ambassador*, and Fridge Cleaner) but before I send the blog into hibernation for a bit I thought I'd follow up with a Crandall cartoon from the later 30's.

*-this position comes with epaulets

By the time of 'Never Should Have Told You' (1937) the Screen Song series was, much like the Betty Boop series, in decline. Sweet bands proliferated and most of the tunes were pretty lame*. There were exceptions though such as the two featuring The Westerners: 'The Hills of Old Wyomin' (1936) & 'Twilight on The Trail' (1937). Nat Brandywynne sounds like he should be more terrible than he actually is. Actually it's not a bad tune and Maxine Tappen pulls off a pretty decent Peggy Lee style vocal. Not terrific but certainly pleasant enough and even has a nice trumpet break...

*-the quality of gags & animation remained high though. Fleischers' was the most consistent studio of the 30's. The skillful movement and the constant inventiveness of the cartoons remained strong practically to the studio's demise.

But I digress. That is because the late 30's also gave us one of the most bizarre and utterly wrong (yet so right) characters ever in cartoon history: the great and powerful Wiffle Piffle! Most sources claim Tom Johnson as the creator of the character but to look at him I wonder if it couldn't have been Crandall. The two basically split the Screen Songs between them during this period and even supporting characters appear in both artists' films. While the rest of the industry were refining the exact proportions of cuteness Crandall & Johnson knew what the public really wanted: human deformities! It is important to remember that at this time the only hope of a decent livelihood a Piffle could expect was working in Bouncing Ball Cartoons. Anyway, you will see the Piffle in his full range of emotions:

Sleepy.

Smoking.

Electrocuted.

Melting.

medicated.

Welcome to the enchanted kingdom of The Bronx! It's Two Reel to be true!

Where men bite dogs.

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T02:28:00.001-07:00

From my crazy town to yours. The image is from a terrific cartoon:

Parade of the Wooden Soldiers

The Greatest Cartoon Ever Made

2011-06-25T11:06:00.000-07:00

Continuing my series on The Greatest Cartoon Ever Made which began in 2008 with The Greatest Cartoon Ever Made I present today The Greatest Cartoon Ever Made. Fleischer cartoons could get pretty weird but there's a special category for 'Hide And Seek' (Released May 26, 1932).

It was animated by history's crustiest animator: Roland 'Doc' Crandall! The animation gets pretty crude at times. Some of it even resembles Terry animation from a few years previous. Crandall preferred to work on his own and from the film itself I can see why! Welcome to the inside of Doc Crandall's brain - I'd turn back if I were you ...

Scene 1-Pervert looks through window...

Bimbo is a cop for some reason. Pants are falling down. Mickey & Minnie flee the area...

How many perverts have their own business card? Wait, don't answer that ...

This cartoon has it all: Lechery, Goats On Ropes.

Sausages

Razzberry sputtering motorcycle anuses. Calling Dr. Freud...

Character Designers take note: a prop can also be two separate characters. Class dismissed.

Yes.

Who needs The Human Centipede when we've got 'Hide & Seek'?

I kid a lot but Crandall had a wonderfully raw expressiveness to his stuff. You'd never see something like this from one of the west coast studios. Urban anxiety permeates throughout. Nobody did this like the Fleischers!

Mount Dave.

Enjoy your weirdo pie!

Note: the cartoon ends with an asian stereotype. Not the kind of thing I endorse here, hence this warning, but for sheer strangeness, and it is pretty strange, I decided to post 'Hide & Seek'.

Box Office Magazine Online

2011-05-27T22:28:00.000-07:00

Wow, there's a lot of old trade periodicals getting posted on-line. I just came across this through a post on Joe Dante's new blog. Still have yet to piece through all of it but happened across this old Terrytoon ad. Wonder if there's anything else interesting in there?

How about this one? There IS a Santa Claus and he wants to EAT YOUR SOUL!

Pudgy The Watchman Mosaic

2011-05-21T22:45:00.000-07:00

Haven't tried this before ... I thought I'd take a crack at a mosaic for the 1938 Betty Boop cartoon Pudgy The Watchman. Fleischer boards differ quite a bit from the storyboards of today, which often need to be designed to be understood six months later by people in another country. Depending on the show some modern boards are practically mini-layouts. Not the case with Fleischer boards. They are more akin to what are today called 'thumbnail boards': a loose gestural description of the cartoon's action which is submitted to the director before adding the detail. At Fleischers, since the director was responsible for laying out the picture and was not only there to answer questions through the length of production (from animators under the same roof) , but also animating on the show itself, I can understand that there was no need for specific detail. Unbelievably the footage sheet still exists for 'Watchman' which solves some mysteries but creates a few others. Sc.25B, for example, is listed as being both by Harold Walker & Tom Johnson. Some scenes were animated as one scene & split up according to the fielding. Sc. 25 for example was split into 25, 25A & 25B though presumably (?) done as a single scene*. Sc.08 is indicated in the board as done by both Feuer (on page 2) & Johnson (page 3). I suspect Sc.8 was done by Feuer as part of Sc.6 but I don't know for sure. Sc.8A is my designation. Etc. There is no indication of who animated the scene of the cat winking (I designated Sc. 12B) - could this have been part of Sc.12A fielded in? If any of you Fleischer experts out there can answer or correct me on any of this speak up! To get an idea of how loose the board is and to see the footage list visit here (you will have to scroll down a bit).

BTW-the crew for Pudgy the Watchman was:

Tom Johnson

Harold Walker

Frank Endres

Otto Feuer

Tony Di Paola

* - a closer inspection indicates Sc.25A was probably done as a separate scene. The BG differs slightly from 25 & 25B indicating it is not just fielded in. 25 & 25B could have been done as one scene and split up however.

Click to enlarge

Film Daily

2011-05-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

Blogger was out yesterday but I wanted to post this link to The Film Daily Archive. Animation stuff is a little thin from what I've been able to go through (the last issues dating from 1929-the first year of sound) but there are quite a few Krazy Kat ads (example above) and a few other things worth hunting for and plenty interesting ballyhoo from Hollywood's prime. The 1929 issues favor Columbia, Warners & Fox. So, no Fleischer ads* but a few interesting for Krazy Kat & Columbia shorts. Some nice ads for silent Universal horrors (like 'Cat & The Canary') in there as well. Haven't gone through the earlier issues yet but if I come across something I'll post it.

*at least no renderings of Koko that I've been able to find. Plenty of reviews & interesting articles though which can be found by doing a search inside in the 'search inside' box on the tp right of the screen of each issue. I'll be pouring over these for months to come undoubtedly.

Ravin' Bout 'The Raven'

2011-04-20T13:17:00.000-07:00

Hey folks-I took the opportunity to update my 2009 post of Fleischer Studios' 'The Raven'. You like lengthy internet rants? Well look no further. "Hoot Mon, he's ruinin' my rug ... and he's drinking my scotch"!

16mm Castle Terry Boxes

2011-03-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

Courtesy of Bob's cleaning purge comes these 16mm Castle Terry boxes. I love the colors in this one! Above Kiko can be seen punching out his own name. He was known to be self-destructive in this way.

Man, that Kiko drawing got some mileage. It first appeared in a series of promotional posters issued in 1937 on the subject of 'Red Hot Music' - probably the best Kiko.

This one is a bit tattered however Farmer Al's 16mm obsession led him to a life of near sensory deprivation. He was not known to emerge from his sooty bunker, wherein was stored the likes of 'Roman Punch', 'Club Sandwich' and the early masterpiece 'Monkey Meat', except for only the most basic (and depraved) of human functions. A later autopsy confirmed Farmer Alfalfa's actual age to be 23.

You mean I could have OWNED 'Holland Days'? Farmer Alfalfa's purchasing of liquor for minors was something he'd ultimately be arrested for in May, 1936. The trial dominated entertainment headlines until Mickey Rooney went berserk with a hacksaw in November of that year.

Nice copy of "I Ain't Got Nobody"

2011-03-24T18:26:00.000-07:00

This has been up for a year but I just stumbled over it: a clear copy of one of the best Fleischer Screen Songs: I Ain't Got Nobody (1932). Cheggitout!

Bowsky & Tendlar in 1934

2011-03-17T13:13:00.000-07:00

1936 gag cartoon of 'Prof' Bowsky from The Animated News.

After a long delay I am back with my post on the pairing of (at least by the credits) Willard Bowsky & Dave Tendlar in 1934. Records do not exist of the crews at that time but our first glimpse of the crew compliments occur in The Animated News issues starting in 1935. 'King of the Mardis Gras', for example, lists the Tendlar crew as: Tendlar, Graham Place, Bill Sturm, Nick Tafuri, Harold Walker & Eli Brucker. The same year the 'Preview' for 'Dizzy Divers' lists the Bowsky crew as: Bowsky, Nick Tafuri, Harold Walker, Bill Sturm, Tex Hastings, George Germanetti & Graham Place. So, as you can see, people were getting shuffled around.

Figuring out exactly who is who in a Fleischer cartoon is the sort of jigsaw fellow cartoon clubhouse pal (and Fleischer fanatic) Bob Jaques has spent a lifetime trying to unravel. The trail gets spottier the earlier you go into the 30's. Crew records either don't exist or I've never seen 'em. Naturally, this post like everything on this blog is my own personal take on the subject. After all the link that carries you here is 'journeytojohnsbrain' isn't it? Hey! Wipe your feet before you come in!

Gag cartoon of Dave Tendlar by John Stanley, May '35

I'm not sure why I keep landing on 1934 as a year of interest. From the output of films that year there is a sense of coalescing of talent. The raunchy approach that had marked so many of the best Fleischer cartoons the years previous was, for the most part, left behind while the quality of the animation improved if moved a smidgeon more towards the clinical. In fact a number of gag cartoons in the Animated News the year following (1935) make reference to "Keeping it Clean". While 1934 is generally regarded as the year the code caught up with Betty it was also the year Popeye's popularity skyrocketed into the stratosphere. So, 1934 was a transition year for Fleischer Studios.

1935 gag cartoon by an inbetweener seems to be confusing the likeness of Tendlar with that of Bowsky.

Didn't start out that way though. "Red Hot Mamma" (released in February) really evokes the earlier period of Fleischer cartoons. Metamorphosis, hallucination and moral ambivalence (hell is a place where even a horny devil can't catch a break) predominate as does the 'Mystery Cave' convention of earlier masterpieces "The Old Man of the Mountain" & "Snow White". This is true blue Betty: saucy, tough and swingin' in an environment spawned of the supernatural. No doubt about it-it's a great cartoon. Fortunately 1934 is also the year cameraman Charlie Schettler started sneaking backgrounds into his briefcase. As a result we can see these backgrounds today.

In hell, everyone is allowed to be a pyro!

The gag of the tails connecting with electrical bolts must have been interesting enough to be used twice: here & again with the electric eels in "Betty Boop's Lifeguard"

Hot stuff!

Bowsky & Tendlar's next collaboration, the Screen Song "Lazy Bones" (released in April) is a little harder to assess. Most of the issue with this particular cartoon stems from the awkward animation of the horses and the prosaic nature in which the race is presented. The problem of Fleischer horses is often used to scewer the animation as primitive but 1934 was still pretty early and none of the Disney cartoons of that year featured animation of a realistic horse. By the time of 'Alladin & his Wonderful Lamp' perhaps they should have figured it out but, as Greg Ford accurately points out in his commentary for 'Alladin', Fleischer cartoons are a 'different animal altogether'. 'Lazy Bones' is no where near Fleischers' best but, as duds go, it's still a pretty good cartoon-testimate to the level of craftsmanship that existed there. It was the second film, after the better 'Boo Boo Theme Song', to feature Borrah Minivetch & His Harmonica Rascals. Their live action sections were edited out of both films in the extent 16mm versions I've been able to see.

"Realistic" animation & the Fleischer style did not make good bedfellows. The same thing happens in the animation that bookends the later "Time For Love". The result is off putting but "Lazy Bones" has some great stuff worth holding out for!

"Aw, just two minutes mooore" It's always good to hear the voice of Popeye inexplicably emanate from a different character.

Those put off by the weirdly animated horses at the beginning miss this wonderful 'slice-of-life' moment at the end. Times is tough fer Lazybones.

January 1935 review of 'Lazybones' from 'Box Office Magazine'

Lazy Bones was probably the first official affiliation between Hoagy Carmichael and Fleischer Studios. A snippet of his famous 'Stardust' can be heard in the Screen Song 'By The Light of the Silvery Moon' and, of course, he composed the songs for Mr. Bug.

Bowsky & Tendlar's next collaboration was a Popeye cartoon: "Shoein' Hosses" (released in June). I hadn't seen this in a while and my memory of it often reverts backs to that horrible 16mm version we all had to suffer through for years. We were damn lucky to get that Popeye DVD set! Again, 'Shoein' Hosses' could be seen as a simple by-the-numbers fight story between Popeye & Bluto. The blacksmith shop certainly sets up the kind of environs we'd see later in, not surprisingly, the Tendlar directed 'Anvil Chorus Girl'. Looking at 'Shoein' Hosses' again I was struck though by it's incredible simplicity (& crystal clarity!) of staging, timing and posing. Man, that burned out 16mm must have really distracted me from this great cartoon! Even though the subject may not be that exotic, this film is a master class in so many things that are missing from contemporary animated fare.

This simple action explains everything you need to know about Popeye's motivation in 'Shoein' Hosses'. No needless exposition of how much he has fallen in love with Olive, why or that he is even in love at all. It's not important - he wants to impress Olive.

But hey, nobody's perfect ... as evidenced by this perspective shot that makes the horse look 4 times the size of Popeye! Either way the scene is hillarious. Horse racing (& the gambling connected) was a favorite pastime of the Fleischer animators. Horses factor into two cartoons Bowsky & Tendlar did in '34. One wonders if the choice of subject related to their interest in the sport?

When Bowsky & Tendlar returned to the Betty Boop series a change feels like it has taken place. The lechery so evident in 'Red Hot Mamma' seems absent-replaced by an ineffectual Lifeguard called 'Fearless Fred' who had first appeared in the first Fleischer cartoon to be released in 1934: the Doc Crandall & Tom Johnson directed 'She Wronged Him Right'. Still, 1934 was a transitional year and 'Betty Boop's Lifeguard' (released in July) probably has the sexiest Betty animation of any of her cartoons as she cavorts as a mermaid. Thanks to it's annoying song ("It's Fweeeeeeeedie") it's not an easy cartoon to get through in spite of it's gorgeous animation. Patient observers however will note the film ends with a very Crandall-like dragon, a la 'Snow White'. The animation in general seems to shift towards that rawer Crandall style at the end too leading this observer to wonder if any of that rotating Crandall crew participated in the animation of 'Betty Boop's Lifeguard'.

EFX animation was one of the things that showed a marked improvement in 1934. Compare the rolling surf that opens 'Betty Boop's Lifeguard' with that of the earlier Tendlar cartoon "Is My Palm Red" to see what I mean.

Gimme 'tree-trunk-leg-spaghetti arms' Betty any day (hubba) but could this be Betty at her sexiest?

A Crandall like beast.

The Crandall connection feels, if anything, stronger in the next cartoon credited to Willard Bowsky & Dave Tendlar: "Shiver Me Timbers" released only a few weeks after 'Betty Boop's Lifeguard' indicating some of the Tendlar/Bowsky films of 1934 must have been warehoused awaiting release. "Shiver Me Timbers" feels like an early 30's Fleischer cartoon. The animation is little funkier than Betty Boop's Lifeguard but contains all the hallmarks of that earlier hullucinatory approach in films like 'Snow White'. It gets into a darker place though, then the films I've mentioned above, and the anxiety laden nightmare-like plot (where were Popeye, Wimpy & Olive coming from at the beginning? Why are they so indifferent to the scary metamorphosis occurring all around the haunted ship?) led many a tyke to hide behind the family sofa. Doesn't get much better than that.

Possibly the most ominous beginning in cartoon history!

Pure surrealism. Olive & Wimpy are scared but I'd be running for my life at this point!

This great panic drawing of Wimpy is only on-screen for a few frames. I've reproduced here. It's an amazing scene.

Nobody strokes Popeye and gets away with it!

The last film of 1934 credited to Bowsky & Tendlar, "The Little Dutch Mill" (released in October) is a strange mix of old, new and foreign by way of the Disney Silly Symphonies series. The cute boy, girl & duck of the piece seem like intruders and their gingerbread village way outside NY City limits but there is still a lot of great stuff happening in 'Little Dutch Mill'. Lack of sincerity is sometimes leveled at the Color Classics but LDM's 'rehabilitation not retribution' moral as interpreted by the Fleischer animators (he is rehabilitated but also emasculated!) seems as sincere a reaction as you could ever get from a bunch of macho he-man NY animators. What really distinguishes 'Little Dutch Mill' is the chance we have to see something like an early Fleischer cartoon as it would have been interpreted in color - a valuable window! The Color Classics aren't for everyone but I have no doubt that a 35mm print of the Cinecolor (red & green) "Little Dutch Mill" would delight the eyes much in the way the WHV 'Popeye Meets Sinbad' exposed layers of detail unseen by anybody in decades.

The scene that opens 'Little Dutch Mill' shows a strong Art Deco influence. I feel that Fleischers interpreted this style to animation better than any other studio of the 30's.

Sure, it seems like a strange universe for the Fleischers to be inhabiting but there's fun stuff happening in this cartoon.

A wonderfully expressive pose of 'The Miser' looking here almost beatnik-like.

Intruders.

Of all the films I've mentioned there are probably only two that could be considered bonified classics: Red Hot Momma & Shiver Me Timbers. Still, for those who can suffer through what may seem like shortcomings of the others there is great stuff to be seen. By 1935 Tendlar was leading a group of his own many of whom, as I mentioned at the start of this post, were also working for Bowsky. One wonders if there was any animosity between them over that? The cartoons they did together in 1934 skirt the mundane at times but, in my opinion, succeed though sheer drawing skill, ingenuity and graphic might. You will always be surprised by something you didn't expect to happen in a Fleischer cartoon!

An interesting epilog to this post is this cartoon which appeared in the November '35 issue of The Animated News. I've heard tell he was out on the coast to visit relatives. Did he make the studio rounds? I've never heard anything about it. In fact, I'm not even sure the Coast is the California coast! At any rate Bowsky returned to Fleischers where he stayed until joining the army in WW2.

Electric Eels!

2011-02-19T12:13:00.000-08:00

I had forgotten about this turn for the wonderfully surreal in the gorgeous (but admittedly trite) 'Betty Boop's Lifegaurd' (Willard Bowsky, Dave Tendlar 1934). Are they light bulbs or glowing eyes looking at you!? More of my thoughts on the Bowsky/Tendlar collaboration of 1934 in a future post...

Mr. Bug at the Cinematheque

2011-01-22T15:04:00.000-08:00

I'm leaving the blog to go dormant for a while, as I'm sure some of you have already noticed, but didn't feel right about not saying anything about a recent screening in my area of Mr. Bug Goes To Town which played here last Sunday.

Crispen Glover and Charlie Chaplin on the same bill? What kind of crazy town is this?

The Pacific Cinematheque is a small art-house theater in downtown Vancouver. The screen is not too large but large enough to approximate the scale of a 35mm. The audience drew mostly young animation students and a few families and their kids.

This was the first time I had ever seen it with Paramount Logos and original titles. This re-issue titled version above has been the only way I've ever been able to see it for years! For those curious the 'Mr. Bug Goes to Town' titles are the identical font to the one above. However the truck-in starts in the right spot!

If you look at the title card that follows 'HOPPITY GOES TO TOWN' above there's a bit of a jump. The camera shot was restored in this print of 'Mr. Bug Goes To Town' beginning properly in a deeper blue part of the star field before panning off to the planet below. The soundtrack starts with the Paramount Logo which was new for me as was the logo itself: almost a Puppetoon version-wish I had snapped a photo!

I'm not sure if it was just because I was hearing the soundtrack through a theater's sound system but the sound on this was probably the best I've ever heard. Fleischer soundtracks occasionally come off as a little thin or distorted. This could be due to the transfer but the AMC version which I'm using to illustrate this post suffers from this ... only very slightly ... but I noticed the difference with last Sunday's 'Mr. Bug'. It really sounded great - very clear and full!

According to Jerry Beck, the film is a recent restoration from the UCLA Film & Television Archive struck from the negative they have there. It screened in LA in recent months and Jerry was able to tip off the Cinemateque's program director where to find it. Of the versions I know of (which now number 4 - one of which is 16mm) this Japanese Print is as close an approximation of what was shown ... though not quite as dark. If anybody can clarify any further drop me a comment!

The AMC version is also missing a line: Mr. Bumbles reply to Smack & Swat's "It's us, boss". The line was present in the UCLA print.

Of course one always hopes that some day this and some of the other goodies, like the newly restored Raven, which are housed at UCLA will get green-lit for a still Paramount controlled Fleischer DVD retrospective. I know they have good materials on the Color Classics, a series poorly represented (in beat, dark & faded 16mm prints) in the DVD market for years, but that's the subject of another rage ... er I mean post.

JOYEUX NOEL

2010-12-23T21:21:00.000-08:00

From the December 1935 issue of the Fleischer Animated News (click to enlarge). Happy Holidays & thanks for visiting my brain in 2010!!

John Kirby in 'Shakespearian Spinach'?

2010-12-04T11:59:00.000-08:00

Well, the video is still out so this week so I thought I might offer up what is still available to me: audio - and a mystery musical passage from the 1940 Max Fleischer Cartoon: "Shakespearean Spinach".

The cartoon, 'Shakespearean Spinach', was released in January 1940: well into Fleischer Studios' Miami stay. From what I have read the move was advantageous in some ways more than others. While the lush climate must have been overwhelming for bunch of urbanites outside of New York for the first time there still was the matter of how the heck to conduct business when so far away from it. It must have been a crazy amount of telegrams securing long distance all the various services required for a cartoon film studio to operate - especially in the wild and wooly 30's! As I understand it, one of these problems was music. You weren't likely to find the top musical talent as simply in Miami as you would have in New York in the 30's. This is why, as I understand it, the music (or parts of it) were farmed out to New York and Los Angeles. This long distance approach could have meant the increased likelihood of being short on music when production of a cartoon was finishing. Was this going to stop production? Heck no!

Four years prior to the Fleischer move there began a new strip of nightclubs located on NY's 52nd street. Among them were: Leon & Eddie's, The Famous Door, Kelly's Stables & others. The idea was to have a street of clubs which offered different varieties of jazz music: from dixieland to swing and, ultimately, bebop. It was an area where musicians as different in style as Art Tatum and Eddie Condon could be heard directly across the street from each other. It was at 52nd Street's Onyx Club that John Kirby and his 'Orchestra' (actually a sextet) made it's home. The Kirby band (at the time known under the monicker "Biggest Little Band In The World") forged it's way in the jazz world with light, but incredibly tight, ensemble swing arrangements of popular classical melodies. The practice of 'swingin' the classics' was generally despised by serious music critics but the public ate it up. Besides there was no royalty to pay to record such tunes! Soon everything was getting the swing treatment: from Bizet's Carmen to Dvorak's Humoresque to Flotow's Martha.

Which brings us back to the mysterious music heard in the 'third act' of Shakesperean Spinach. Oddly enough it was around 1941 that ASCAP pulled all the songs it owned from the radio necessitating the use of such royalty free songs. Whether this impacted Fleischer Studios (or if the exact chronology lines up) I don't know. What I do know is that at every time I watch 'Shakespearean Spinach' I am quite certain I am hearing Martha as performed by The John Kirby Orchestra. Or rather a 78 of the John Kirby Orchestra as a distinct change in the compression of the soundtrack is clearly audible. The practice of using 78 rpm records to 'sweeten' or otherwise fill out soundtracks certainly wasn't new to animation. At least one of Iwerks' Willie Whopper cartoons made use of 78 records by Jelly Roll Morton but it was unusual by 1940 standards. Back in New York the Fleischers could have hired John Kirby for a soundtrack (as they had with Cab Calloway & Louis Armstrong years earlier) but once in Miami, virtually Siberia as far as the Music Industry was concerned, were they backed into using a record? I can find no recording of Martha by John Kirby in my collection so I can't be sure. I think I have all the commercial records through 1941 ... but they also recorded for Radio. For those interested here is the link to 'Shakespearean Spinach".

The passage I'm referring to occurs roughly between the following points (below). You will have to let it completely load before you can scroll to the correct point.

(4:50)

(6:30)

Is it John Kirby?

Charlie Shavers & John Kirby pose before the Onyx 'O'.

I can't give definitive proof but here is John Kirby performing 'Bounce of the Sugar Plum Fairy' and, again, at the end of this link performing a movement from Beethoven's 7th Symphony. Take a listen and maybe you can solve a mystery.

Mr. Elephant Goes O' Town

2010-11-27T10:50:00.000-08:00

Well it's almost that magical time of year: the time when people think red, green & gold is a good color combination (it isn't) and fireside hard liquor ads warm us with their televisiony glow. And what better way to kick off the liquor season then with this Color Rhapsody released October 4, 1941! Occasionally funny, occasionally disturbing but mostly alcohol verite, 'Mr. Elephant Goes to Town' is no work of genius. That honor most certainly goes to 'Man of Tin'.

These are fairly new to me as well - I was missing a couple years of the Columbia discs. Amazed to discover some of them have original title cards intact!

Mr. Elephant is a moron.

Mr. Elephant is a stereotype.

Case closed.

Case Open: Liquor lovingly rendered.

Preferred drink? The malted variety. Hey, this is a class establishment!

There's some nice drawings in Mr. Elephant goes to town, occasional bits of nice animation (like Mr. Elephant fleeing the owl above) and the requisite wormy floaty of the late 30's Columbia studio. In a way it isn't as intrusive in a cartoon almost singularly dedicated to the joys of alcohol. The film was released two months to the day before Fleischer Studios' 'Mr. Bug Goes To Town' (December 4) so one wonders if this film was perhaps Columbia exercising some control over over it's similarly named Capra films: 'Mr. Deeds Goes To Town' (1936) & 'Mr. Smith Goes To Washington' (1939)?

Mr. Elephant has a wormily animated conscience that stares back at him from his drunken stupor. I hate it when that happens.

Oh yeah, that night-I thought I deleted those photos!

I did WHAT?!

Is this funny or pitiful? Columbia wasn't afraid to go to those bizarre areas - who knows what they were thinking? Those nubby hands are kinda cool though...

Running into the reflection: a moment of horror any drunk can relate to. 'Man, that guy looks terrible!'

Even a wormy animated conscience needs a belt every now and then.

'Tis the season...

Sorry folks, DVD drive troubles this week so you will just have to imagine as best you can the full 24 bit blogsensory experience that is 'Mr. Elephant'. When I get the problem worked out I'll post the cartoon. In the mean time clamor here for the Mintz cartoons on DVD.

Oops...

2010-11-21T22:06:00.000-08:00

Time is tight again so I must delay yet another week "Mr. Elephant Goes To Town" about a character who Mr. Bug, Mr. Smith and Mr. Deeds all scrupulously (and wisely) avoided. Here is sample of the kind of wormy floaty goodness to come. You will be amazed and then go to town.

Now with hippos

2010-11-14T13:55:00.000-08:00

Messing with template fever. Just like the old blog but now with demented Terry Hippos. This will probably change a few times before I settle on what's back there. And speaking of Hippophants...

Coming Soon: Genius.

Ruminating

2010-11-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

After rushing up a bunch of posts for Halloween I think I'm taking a break this week. Just adding a few bugs (like my two favorite B's: Betty & Bowsky). In the meanwhile I'll see if I can't come up with something interesting to write about ... and don't forget to scroll to the bottom of the page for an extra-special bonus (courtesy of a bouncing ball) ...

Halloween: The Witch's Cat

2010-10-31T12:43:00.000-07:00

Whew, it's a rush to get this year's Halloween post up. This year's pick is the 1948 Mighty Mouse cartoon: The Witch's Cat. As far as Mighty Mouse cartoons go this one is fairly routine: mice are having fun, cat shows up & acts like asshole & MM beats on him. Even Jim Tyer, an animator on this film, seems a little more hemmed in than usual. The real star of Terrytoons of this vintage, for me, is the color styling which was amazingly sumptuous. The Mighty Mouse cartoons may be a pattern-made thing but it's hard to take your eyes off of them!

Ooo La La!

Happy Halloween!

Go here now!

2010-10-28T08:40:00.000-07:00

Go here now! Bring them on we cry! Dee-eye dee-eye dee-eye!

Halloween: The Ghost Town Frolics

2010-10-23T17:08:00.000-07:00

A bit rushed this week for posting but thought I should get up this little gem from the Lantz Studios: The Ghost Town Frolics (Released Sept.5, 1938). The period of Lantz during what freaks (like me) call the 'crappy Oswald' period has, to a certain degree, been over vilified by cartoon fans over the years. Sure, they're kinda floaty and a bit boring but this is the era when Lantz animation technically began to gell. They had a long way to go to get from the funky early 30's Lantz (my favorite period) to meet the polished animation demands of the 40's. I suspect Terry saw the writing on the wall too as the late 30's Terrytoons begin to predict their later style. This particular cartoon may suffer from somewhat weightless animation but is superbly handled in volume rotation and has many other aspects of interest. This not unlike the problem which occurred at Mintz years earlier although, by 1938, with the exception of a few of the Rhapsodies, that studio had pretty much flown off the guard rail.

a quickly cobbled together pan from the beginning (Click to enlarge). The ghosts are haunting a ghost town. If you are a ghost - follow the sign.

The ghosts are unemployed. Bummer.

They're bitter.

UPDATE: Gasmask Ted kean eyes have uncovered that the image of the ghost reading the 'How To Lose Friends and Scare People' is actually a parody of a November 1937 issue of Judge. Thanks Ted!

A few have dead end jobs.

These are the lucky ones...

The writer is asleep-naturally.

At least in this world of despair there is still booze.

Neat Efx animation, a cool dog design and a bunch of rubbery condom ghosts plus, as an added bonus, monkeys - what more could you ask for! We're three sheets in ... what?

Halloween Rustlers

2010-10-17T12:07:00.001-07:00

Here's a well remembered Halloween image from my childhood. As I recall the candy inside was terrible but I loved the graphics on the bag.

Halloween: The Herring Murder Case

2010-10-16T13:01:00.000-07:00

Here's the story of the murder.

You better hold your breath.

It's all about the herring

who met a sudden death.

Keep your eyes on this detective.

He knows just to do.

Now watch BIM-BO find a clue.

Gus Gorilla, star of radio, may have worn patches on his sweater but they were not put there to make him appear intellectual. They were to cover the holes in his elbows.

Last week's post, 'The Nut Factory', got me to thinking about other cartoons of the Mystery genre. Remember that at this time the term 'horror' was seen as having a negative connotation and US studios were still feeling cautious about the reaction . Thus supernatural elements were often cross-bred with safer, more traditional fair in the Murder Mystery vein: the most successful being likely Universal's 'The Cat & The Canary'. When 'Skeleton Dance' was released in 1929 it must have been an overwhelming sensation. Throughout the 30's studios vied to get their own piece of the ghoulish goulash.

April-June, 1932: Ape vs. Reaper. 'The Cuckoo Murder Case' (left) 'The Herring Murder Case (right)

Things must have become pretty competitive. Broadly speaking, within three months of each other in 1932 two competing studios, Ub Iwerks & Max Fleischer, would release a version of the same film: The Cuckoo Murder Case (Flip the Frog, released April 27, 1932) & The Herring Murder Case (Bimbo, released June 26, 1932). I know the beginning of both of these must be based on a film of that time. Can anybody out there let me know what it is? Well, anyway, both films begin with murder and pit a detective against quasi-supernatural circumstances. However, beyond the penetration of the basic arc, they are quite different with Fleischers possibly out-doing Iwerks in the surrrealism department and Iwerks outdoing Fleischers in bizarre acting. For me, if there were a contest (& I wouldn't say there was), it's seriously my kinda contest!! They are both amazing but this post is about "The Herring Murder Case". . .

There are no credits for THMC and, aside from Culhane and Eugster I have no idea the animation crew.

A herring is shot and the entire world goes apeshit. No headlines, no reporters, they just know. The Fleischers aren't going to wait to hurl the audience into a weird situation.

Koko is upset and flying on mushrooms. This looks like it could be Culhane.

Culhane claimed that this was the model for Koko in THMC. That book did contain some forgeries (redraws) and this could be one of them. A few scenes of Koko do deviate stylistically in this direction but most, like below, base themselves on the standard model for Koko.

Sucks to have to squint through a print this rough isn't it? This same print has been circulating for years - most recently on the Garage Sale discs. I'm glad to see it in any form (& if you're here you feel the same way) but can you imagine being able to see this office well? Even a blown 16mm (but with a solid soundtrack as not all of them have) still hints at the density of detail in those Schenk backgrounds. There's some great business with Koko too in this office scene - wonder who animated it?

Was it Culhane who complained that one of the weaknesses of Fleischers was that a house would be depicted suddenly growing eyes and springing to life straining an audience's conception of a house? If this scene is an example, the comment shows how 'of-their time' an artist is always in danger of. Of course, Disney Studios very strictly curtailed anthropomorphism or action without explanation as part of their modus operandi and the rest is history. No fun animation had already started...

But in spite of the Disney inch toward a more conservative but commercial approach to animated characters, in 1932, Fleischer Studios was possibly at it's creative peak. The style which, like the later Cubby Bear cartoon below, mixed both cuteness and hideousness is not only fun to watch but had real heart too. Hey Gus, can you lend me your hanky? What the HELL ....?

Salvador Dali gets a nod in this sequence. There are plenty of amazing things to discover with every viewing of "The Herring Murder Case". Bits of Dave Fleischer business, background painter Schenk's illusionary touches or the animators exuberance and facile workmanship ... not to mention a fantastic soundtrack: this is prime Fleischers and I'm sure you think so too.

Coolest spider ever! It's a little octopus!

And as an extra Halloween bonus this weird afro-cuban jazz influenced jam 'The Limp' by The Nat King Cole Trio recorded for Standard Transcriptions ( an LA based supplier of radio discs) in February 1939. If you see a zombie staggering down the road this Halloween don't worry it's just a person killing themselves with alcohol. Until I limp into my next post...

un-hunh. un hunh. un-hunh

Halloween: The Nut Factory

2010-10-09T20:10:00.000-07:00

Well, we're coming up again on probably my favorite pseudo-holiday all year long. No religious affiliation required (unless you're one of those wackos who run around in the woods) - everybody can join in! As a kid I couldn't believe there was actually a day dedicated to Frankenstein. It was as though the contents of my head were suddenly appearing in department store windows and shelves everywhere! Cartoons benefitted greatly from this coincidental 'holiday' and, in fact, many of the best cartoons ever made (in my opinion) were those which in some way revolved around the supernatural. It was ready made material for animation. I've covered a number of these in previous years and, although the list is dwindling, I hope to get a few more examples up this year. Enjoy!

One of the things that I love so much about the New York school of animation was their total misunderstanding of cuteness. Cubby Bear, the unforgettable star of the Van Bueren Studios from 1933-1934, was just such a creature. A look at the only existing poster (that I know of) for Cubby reveals two glaze-eyed characters, mid twirl, punctuated psychotic animals and the disembodied head of an expressionistic horse!

The merchandise from Van Beuren wasn't much better. Can you imagine any kid wanting to snuggle with these? Talk about Halloween Horrors! "Mommy, my stuffies smell like ashtray and yelling!"

'The Nut Factory', which was released Aug. 11 1933 and directed by future Terrytoons animator Mannie Davis, perhaps owes a mild debt to the earlier Fleischer cartoon 'The Herring Murder Case' but is so completely off the wall that you really have to see it to believe it. While the similarity to Mickey is obvious so too is the similarity to Bimbo: star of just-across-the-street Fleischer Studios. In terms of narrative (?) structure if there ever was an heir to 'The Male Man' at a studio other than Fleischers this is it! It's all about the dentures!

How do you top a ladies room gag? Follow it with an outhouse gag!

Oh, by the way, there's a haunted house. The logic is sound: ladies room + out-house + haunted house=perfection. Class dismissed.

Bats and another Fleischer influence: the multiple doors of 'Bimbo's Initiation'! Van Beuren rain is great isn't it? Moody and wonderful.

and fantastic ghosts!

A forgettable character maybe but an unforgettable cartoon. Watch and be mystified...

Coming soon ...

2010-10-02T23:28:00.001-07:00

A great ad from the Frank Driggs collection (click to enlarge)

The Gloom Chasers!

2010-09-12T17:21:00.000-07:00

Oh man, this is a good one: Scrappy in 'The Gloom Chasers' animated by Art Davis and Sid Marcus and released January 18, 1935. Okay, I know all you Warners fans out there see this stuff as kind of squishy and pointless. Maybe even the artists who drew it felt that way (tho Marcus & Davis certainly had help) but that's not what I see on screen. In fact, the quality of the animation is quite exceptional in my opinion. Lively stuff. Plus the sort of weird touches that one might expect of a studio in New York. Mintz Studios was, after all, a transplanted NY studio and, at various times, employed artists migrating west from that city. It's hard to believe a year later the series would crash against the rocks with stuff like 'Scrappy's Camera Troubles'! . I've read that Sony is now in the process of making their library available on-demand. Let's hope someone over there likes cartoons! Ya all know a blown out 16mm (though I'm glad to have anything) in crummy Blog-O-Vision is no match for the fine grain of a 35. Ah man, I need a spit cup just to think about it!

Fruity children are here to dance your blues away ... four times!

"Take that teeny tiny twubble". Sure it's annoying but after the third pass you'll be humming it all day. But stick it through ... bizarre stuff is gonna happen!

I love the incidental characters in Mintz cartoons. Davis' style was a tad blander than Huemer's (he began as Huemer's assistant) but still interesting to look at. Oh, and Scottish people are cheap (even though they are probably quite generous).

A similar set-up a la Huemer era Scrappy (Sunday Clothes, 1931).

Of course, the dust bowl was no laughing matter during the depression. People in that area of the country were giving up. Suicide was rampant and people just starved to death. I think, after living through something like that, I might want a little triteness. Or perhaps the whole thing was a gag. Culhane wrote in his auto-bio that people in Florida laughed at 'The Grapes of Wrath'. Who knows?

and speaking of ... haven't we been here before? Y'know I'll agree we see too much of this cycle but you know what else: It's a really nicely animated cycle. I love the perspective as the boys draw their fingers across the plane of the camera pointing right at the audience. These were the days when audiences might sing along in a theater if they liked the song!

Hillbillies are enraged by fruity children (leatherface not pictured)

'Gloom Chasers' answers the question: "Yes, but what of the pitchfork?"

Sweaty horses are aroused by young boys.

The cow transforms from hideous ...

...to hideous!

and the clouds do their auto-erotic cellulite dance.

What more could you ask for?

Van Boring!

2010-09-08T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here's something that should be noted here: a run of Frank Tashlin's infamous parody of Van Beuren: Van Boring! Cheggitout! The similarity to 'The Little King' (a Van Beuren Studios cartoon series) only adds to the irony. Now if only someone would find a run of Dick Huemer's 'Good Time Guy'!

Carnage!

2010-09-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

The Mintz Studio background department shows us even dust bowl ravaged animals can be beautiful in this horrific moment in 1935's 'The Gloom Chasers'. Click to encarnage.

More on this terrific Scrappy cartoon coming soon!

Fine Art & Cartoons Pt. 2

2010-08-28T11:50:00.000-07:00

Winsor McCay, George McManus and others visit the Museum of Natural History in the live action prologue to 'Gertie The Dinorsaur' (1914)

Today I thought I'd wrap up Winsor McCay's 1926 letter to cartoonist Clare Briggs. This section is, in a way, even more interesting than the first half. McCay seems at times
to be waffling back and forth between genuine sympathy for Briggs, promotion of the Federal Schools (for which he was an advisor) and his own insecurities about his drawing. That's my impression anyway. There's a lot of sage advice here though
and as relevant as it's ever been. Part 1 can be read here. Other than that I agree with Mom and Pop...

1945 reprint cover of selected Nemo strips (click to enlarge). The artwork looks as though it may have been done by McCay's son.

I do not know if correspondance schools have done much toward making cartoonists or not. If a young person has funny ideas and can act them in spirit, I do not see why they cannot be taught to draw them on paper. I was a long time finding out what kind of board, ink and other utensils were needed. I did not know that one should draw his cartoons bigger than they were to be when made into cuts. I did not know about the quality and quantity of lines for good clear reduction. If the correspondance schools will teach all these necessary methods of procedure to one who has comedy in him, together with an untiring liking for hard work then they will make a cartoonist. I do not think they can teach one to be funny or how to dig up ideas for cartoons, but they can guide one into the way of handling ideas with pen and ink or with the brush. If one think he has the cartoon ability in him, try a correspondance school. It will come or it will not. If it does not, do not blame the school. If you are capable you have spent little money finding out, which perhaps was worth the outlay, since you might have wasted lots of time for nothing!

Back cover of the 1945 reprint book (click to enlarge)

1914 Chicago review for 'Gertie' (click to enlarge)

While the most recently released 'Gertie' on DVD (titled 'Winsor McCay: The Master Edition') is sharper than ever before, the speed of playback on the animated section seems really sluggish - especially when compared to 'Little Nemo' (1911). For those seeking this title out on DVD I would recommend the earlier Image disc: 'Animation Legend: Winsor McCay'.

Start drawing and do not stop-draw everything you see, no matter how badly; don't let someone making fun of you and do not let praise of your drawings influence you-99,999 times out of 100,000 the people who praise you do not know what they are talking about. I would rather have someone say my drawing was bad than have him say it was good. Every drawing you make is better than the one you made before. Don't take yourself seriously-nor your drawing. The drawing you think is good today may turn out tomorrow to be so badly done you will be ashamed for showing it yesterday. You should never be satisfied. Always try and do better. Aunt Emma says it's the best she ever saw; Uncle John agrees with Mom and Pop that you are wonderful. Smile and thank them-that's all, but don't believe them. There is a cruel editor to come later and slam you, but continue on, if it is in you-if it is not, quit and get a real job. Work! WORK!! That's all there is to cartooning.

All's Fair At The Fair - Pan

2010-08-19T09:21:00.000-07:00

Just a composite pan I threw together (and was still on my drive) from the amazing Color Classic "All's Fair At The Fair" (1938) from the French 35mm (but through VHS blur). There's a teeny bit missing on the right. More on this cartoon later...

The Winnah Is...

2010-08-18T10:55:00.000-07:00

For those of you who thought I meant Gabby Hayes I am profoundly sorry. For those of you who voted for the town crier from 'Gulliver's Travels' or a hunk of green clay over one of the most important pacifists of the 20th Century, may god have mercy on your soul...

Then again, considering this was the question, I suppose all three could be interpreted to something pretty disturbing...

Where does the time go?

2010-08-16T08:03:00.000-07:00

Only one day left to cast your vote (in the sidebar)! Stay tuned for the adequate conclusion!

"Do You Want it Parted on this Side?"

2010-07-27T11:37:00.000-07:00

From fine art daydreams to real world nightmares comes this Screen Song cartoon released December 5, 1931: My Baby Just Cares For Me. It's weird going through those Screen Song discs (alas some in the lowest-fi 16mm possible) that while some cartoons, like 'You're Driving Me Crazy', get watched a lot others somehow get glossed over. I always skipped over 'My Baby Just Cares For Me'. Maybe it was the Bosko-ness of the jockey's face that lead me to believe it was only a string of crude stereotype gags. Such cartoons are not all that common in the Fleischer cannon (less so then, for instance, Warners' cartoons) but they do happen. How wrong I was! I have unearthed the Greatest Cartoon Ever Made. Prepare yourself...

Meet Bimbo's half brother: Bingo. If you are walking down the street in a Fleischer cartoon your feet should come out of your shoes. This much is certain.

Trash piles were enchanted places in those early Fleischer cartoons.

Did I leave my web-cam on?

"Do you want it parted on this side?"

"Noooooo"

A portrait of this man should hang over every cartoonist's desk with the word 'Genuis' superimposed.

This scene defies description. I have no idea who animated it but it seems he must have been going through something heavy. Or maybe somebody handed him a model sheet of a hippo. Who knows?

Great scot!

sputter...

I wanna wake up now! I wanna wake up now!

Moral of the story: tongues are vital.

Stereotypes? Yes. Demented? Very. Your journey is just beginning...

Fine art and cartoons

2010-07-11T00:28:00.000-07:00

If 'Gertie The Dinosaur' (1914, McCay's second film) wasn't the first personality animation it was a milestone in it's development.

Last week the academy made an announcement that further defined exactly what constitutes an animated feature. Reading some of the replies it occurred to me that another debate, what exactly is a cartoon, is still raging today after over 100 years of the comic strip and 99 years after McCay first released his pioneering animation Little Nemo! I don't have the answer but I thought I'd transcribe the first half of McCay's letter to cartoonist Clare Briggs from 1926. Most of you probably already have this on your book shelf somewhere but it's a great early insight to the issue ...

Letter From Winsor McCay to Clare Briggs: 1926

The greatest contributing factor to my success was an absolute craving to draw pictures all the time. This was in me-I did not decide that I would draw pictures anywhere and at any time. I didn't say to myself, "I must keep in practice or I must improve my drawing." I just couldn't stop drawing anything and everything. I did not do this just to amuse someone else or show how good I could draw. I drew alone to please myself. I never cared at all whether anyone else liked my drawing, nor did I get discouraged when I made a bad one. I never saved my drawings. I would give them away to anyone who wanted them or I would throw them away. I drew on fences, blackboards in school, old scraps of paper, slates, sides of barns-I just could not stop-like a whistling boy. As I said before, this was not a set plan to be a great artist. I had no ambition to be anything-I drew to amuse myself, like the harmonica playing kid I used to know who is now a great musical director and arranger. I do not think I had any more talent for drawing than other kids had, but I think it was the interest I had in making them that brought out what perfection I have. I am just as interested today in drawing as I was when I was a kid-and that is some time back-but much as it might surprise those who know me, I never thought in my whole life of what I was going to be paid for the drawings I was making. I just drew and drew, the pay came automatically. I would never be where I am if I had not kept drawing all of the time, no matter how much talent I might have had.

Clare Briggs Old Gold ad from 1927. "Hasn't a cough in a carload" - now that's the kind of scientific research I can get behind! Click to enlarge.

McCay answers the age old question - which is better: skating or booze?

I never realized there were two different cuts of 'Little Nemo' (1911). As those who have seen it will know, the first half of the film consists of McCay demonstrating how he draws the Little Nemo characters (Impie, Nemo and Flip) with the second half consisting of the animation. The Cinematheque Quebecoise version (which was most recently issued on the 'Winsor McCay: Master Edition' DVD is missing the scene below wherein McCay is seen quickly thumb nailing the characters in charcoal at large scale. This is the Blackhawk version which is available on the Kino disc "Landmarks of Early Cinema".

The importance of an art education should be important, of course, but you cannot educate a man in music and make him a great composer unless he has the feeling of of music in him. If a man or a woman have no artistic feeling within, all the art education in the world will not make artists out of either of them, but they might be better artists than a cartoonist would be who had been educated in cartooning but had no humor in him. A cartoonist must act his characters. He must feel within him the characters he draws. He cannot draw a man laughing unless he laughs himself. He cannot draw an angry man unless he is angry himself. By this I mean he must feel the way clear to his fingertips just as the figure he is making is depicted. A man might go out and paint a beautiful landscape or a beautiful picture of the human figure, but he is copying nature. Men who paint or draw from life-roses, skies, objects of this and that, still life etc.-are merely copying what they see. They are called artists. The cartoonist must create, he must seein his mind a situation, maybe full of life and comedy, maybe still of dramatic or tragic. He must draw it with all the feeling he has in him-without models or other aids artists call to hand.

The Blackhawk version also differs from the Quebecoise version in what's missing. Namely all the footage between these two frames - including the dramatic truck in to the animation camera holding drawing 1. Another difference, of course, is that the Quebecoise version comes from a partially hand colored print whereas the Blackhawk version is totally B&W. On the other hand, the Blackhawk version has a bit more of Flip moving the cigar in his mouth immediately following 'Watch Me Move'. Maybe someday these two will get combined (and registered - a problem with the color section of the Quebecoise print) to give us the full 'Little Nemo'.

I was too busy to do my usual 4th of July post. I even missed the Boston Pops which I never miss! Can't see how they could have topped Neil Diamond last year though. Oh, and click to enlarge this page from the 1945 Nemo reprint (originally published July 3, 1910)

This above page from the Fleischer Animated News addresses a similar issue as the McCay letter above. The responses are fascinating and I'm quite sure grist for lengthy debate. My opinion? These are all master entertainers. It's still interesting to think about the different contexts (letter to a young cartoonist/in-house newsletter), artistic mediums (comic strip/animation) as well as the difference in opinions. Click to enlarge.

Well, there you have it. I'd like to know if the original letter from Briggs to McCay still exists? I'd love to know it's contents! Stay tuned for part two. Okay, now clear out! We gotta squeeze in another five showings by 9! Don't make me take out 'Dutch Treat' again!

Better Play Safe!

2010-06-20T15:02:00.001-07:00

Over at Popeye Animator ID, fellow cartoon clubhouse pal Bob Jaques is doing an entire week dedicated to Dave Tendlar. So, I thought I might respond in kind (but less substance) with a post on the Tendlar directed surreal masterpiece from 1936: "Play Safe"! If you are visiting here regularly I'm sure you've seen the film, which was released October 16 1936 and has languished on various PD videotapes and DVDs for decades. Recently, however, a very good (if a little splicey) 35mm print appeared in France and was later released to DVD (alas PAL only) on a compilation called 'Saved From The Flames'. It is from this print (although this one is a dub from French television) that I have opted to illustrate this post. You will understand why below...

A model from 'Dangerous Crossing': the working title of 'Play Safe'.

Whether or not the original title cards still exist for 'Play Safe' I can't say. It seems certainly possible. The best so far has been for the 'Somewhere In Dreamland' DVD set (above) which compiled all the Color Classic 16mm prints (some good, some awful) with recreated title cards and Paramount logos.

When the Color Classics were issued to television they suffered even worse than the Betty Boop cartoons which lost only their Paramount logos. This hideous 16mm red title card is how most of us got to know 'Play Safe' - issued on any number of poorly produced public domain videotapes and discs. Whether the same red card exists on the 35mm materials in existence in North America is again, to me, a mystery.

'Le Petit Mecano' was recently unearthed in France. Note the mistake: 'Play Safe' was released in red/green Cinecolor.

Above is a split screen demonstrating the difference between the oft reproduced 16mm PD print of 'Play Safe' and the 35mm from France. Below is the complete frame from the 35mm French print.

The kid wears a train conductor's hat, plays with a train set and reads books on trains while playing in a yard that opens directly onto busy rail tracks. And his only guardian appears to be a dog. Maybe the parents were spending the weekend in Atlantic City.

At first I thought this shot might be making use of the model train we later see criss-crossing through the mountains during a setback scene. However, on closer inspection it looks to me as though we are looking at a finely rendered series of painted cardboard cutouts placed horizontally under the camera. There are a lot of techniques going on in 'Play Safe' that are not immedietely noticeable.

When the Paramount cartoons were issued to French television, new voices were hired to re-dub the dialog. Fortunately there is almost no dialog in 'Play Safe' (and the music track was left alone) making this scene is the only real give away, aside from the title cards, that we are watching a foreign print. I believe the line replaced is: "Aw C'mon. I wanna watch the twain".

And, speaking of 'twains', this is what you get when you ask a bunch of New Yorkers to be cute 'n cuddly: an old man missing his dentures!

Another 'multi-media' shot. I believe the boy and EFX are cycles of cell animation while a card cutout of the boxcar is possibly being animated directly under the camera. All this while a BG pan is going!

Rail travel and it's dangers were on the minds of many depression era movie goers: the most famous of which was probably this 1933 Warner Brothers film.

Tendlar's trademark 'flutters' make a number of appearances in 'Play Safe'

By the mid-30's audiences must have lost patience with surrealism for it's own sake as was the case with the early Betty Boop and Screen Song cartoons. In later Fleischer cartoons such as 'Wotta Nightmare', the surrealism was limited to dream sequences. In many ways, however, 'Play Safe' is a call back to those earlier surreal cartoons.

This astonishing sequence is the first to make use of Fleischers' extrodinary 3D setback process. The effect is considerably flattened on 16mm. I've made these images large so you can have a better look.

Look how happy he is to be in a tangle of rail spikes, rivets and sharp steel girders! Nowadays you have to shell out 200 bucks for a videogame controller but, back in the 30's, all a boy needed was a iron bar and a hammer for hours of entertainment!

The Tendlar 'flutter'

Those dials are freakin' me out, man! Truly a great moment in Fleischers' animated history. Wish I could tell you who animated it! Eli Brucker does not, unfortunately, have a Tintype in any of my copies of The Animated News. I asked Fleischer guru Bob about him and all he could give me is that he would not cross the picket line during the Fleischer strike. The Tendlar crew around this time consisted of: Tendlar, Graham Place (who ended up with Waldman on the great 'All's Fair At The Fair"), Bill Sturm, Nick Tafuri, Harold Walker and Brucker.

BET-TER PLAAAY SAFE. (click to make big and scary)

Now that's what I call an antic!

A classic Fleischer 'Mystery Cave'.

It's this scene that tipped me off that I must be looking at a flat image. The dry brushing is clearly man-made.

Tendlar's 'flutter' nicely handled with dry brush.

And we end on a scene of pure hideous affection.

I originally ended this post with my usual malarky about the Color Classics being just as valid as the Silly Symphonies as works of art with their own reason for being blah blah blah etc. Frankly though, it doesn't really need saying - the cartoons do truly speak louder than any aggregate tome of contentions. Enjoy but blogger video (or Youtube or any other cheezy internet source) is no way to see this cartoon.

It's that time again...

2010-05-28T18:44:00.000-07:00

After the relative seriousness of the last two posts it seems like it's WTF time again here at Crazy Town. I first mentioned 'Dutch Treat' here. These were in the days before I had figured out how to upload video but now, lucky you, you can have the fully immersive Blogger Video experience. I can practically smell the tulips!

Welcome to the future...

I Heard

2010-04-29T12:17:00.000-07:00

Today I thought I might try and write a few words one of the best ever Betty Boop cartoons: I Heard. The cartoon, which was directed by Willard Bowsky and had as it's footage champion (as indicated by the second animation credit) Myron Waldman, probably doesn't need championing. If you are visiting here I'm sure you've seen it. However, it's a film so rich with visual imagery I felt it was worth posting just to showcase some of those images. In terms of hard information I'm afraid I don't have much to offer but what I can I will provide here. Beyond that I can only offer my personal observations. I hope you will agree.

Sadly, not much seems to be known about Willard Bowsky - at least that is available to the public. I can't find a 'Tintype" (biography) on him in any of my copies of the Animated News. Probably the best bio I have read so far on the man, short as it is, can be read here. Culhane, in his autobiography, painted him as something of a sycophant (which should be taken with a measure of salt) but it seems he was known as the office 'he-man' and for having a conservative outlook. One possible glimpse into his character could be below: a biography of storyman Joe Stultz that Bowsky wrote for the Animated News.

(click to enlarge)

Waldman we do know a bit about - being one of the longest lived Fleischer animators. In brief: he began his career at The Fleischers' in 1930 first as an opaquer, then as an inker and finally as an inbetweener before moving into animation first with Kneitel's group and then with Bowsky's. These were the days when a person could work their way up in the animation business! Later, of course, Waldman would be promoted to 'head animator' (with a group of his own) at the studio. That group consisted variously of Waldman, Ed Nolan, Hicks Lokey, Lillian Friedman, Herman Cohen, Frank Endres and Ted Vosk and were sometimes dubbed 'Waldman's Wascals'!

Don Redman is not so well known to jazz history today but, in his day, was one of the busiest arrangers working in the business. He played with Fletcher Henderson's band, began arranging for McKinney's Cotton Pickers and later arranged for many top big bands including Count Basie and Jimmy Dorsey. During the 50's he settled in as Pearl Bailey's musical arranger. He died in New York on November 30, 1964. Duke Ellington said of him: " Don Redman was one of the really great people, a guy everyone loved. He was a great writer and arranger, a forerunner whose ideas have been copied and have re-appeared in various guises right down the line". 'Chant of the Weed', the song which opens the film, was recorded for the Brunswick label on Sept. 9 1931 and was a favorite of composer Hoagy Carmichael. 'I Heard' was waxed (shellacked?) again for Brunswick on October 15, 1931. 'How'm I Doin? (Hey Hey) followed a few months later on February 26, 1932.

A class act: Don Redman & His Orchestra (click to supersize!)

The tendency to think of jazz and animation as inhabiting hermetically separate worlds belies the fact that, outside of Harlem, Times Square (where Fleischer Studios was located) was practically the epicenter of jazz worldwide. Many jazz clubs could be found mere blocks from the studio (such as Roseland and The Hollywood Inn) while the second floor of the Studebaker building at 1600 B'way (four floors below Fleischer's) had it's own jazz club: The Silver Slipper. Formerly The Cinderella Ballroom, it was here that jazz pioneer Bix Beiderbecke had debuted with The Wolverines in 1924. So, the air being thick with the stuff it was inevitable that jazz and animated cartoons should meet!

Don Redman & His Orchestra dispense some good advice:

Try Getting A Good Night's Sleep (Brunswick, 1932)

People, animals and sentient objects are all slave to Don's music in 'I Heard' and all work together to operate the mine. No exposition necessary.

Like a lot of Fleischer cartoons of this era, this is a fun-house world of secret doors, chambers and surprise devices.

The characters work to the music for each other. Not a bad lesson actually.

And everyone's invited - even the vermin!

Wow, what a fantastic face! 'I Heard' is full of 'em.

Fleischer cartoons often work with tempo progressively building. Here it is explicated by the rush to return to work. Music, background, layout, animation and even sound effects all mesh in this single scene in a way I don't think I've ever seen in another cartoon - even from the Fleischers! It's astonishing.

There's still time for a dirty joke however.

A great Betty pose and another secret door. This cartoon is so chock full of stuff which exists strictly to surprise and delight. As pure a sense of showmanship as you could ever hope to find.

I love the weird animation on Bimbo in this scene. Look at those creepy eyes! The three note musical motif here seems almost lifted from 'King Kong'!

A lot of early 30's cartoons delve into the notion of submersion or descent into weird dark worlds. 'Magic Mummy' come to mind. However, the difference is in the tempo. 'I Heard' puts the viewer in the driver's seat here and yanks them through and down like a roller coaster dropping from a high peak. The sense of danger is there and the rule of gravity applies and yet the rope grabbing hold of itself is there to remind us we are not in the world of reality.

and a ghost lighting a cigar with the lit fuse of a bomb? Just about as cool as you can get!

Pure cartoon bliss - what more can be said?

The end titles as they should be...

'I Heard' was released toward the end of a banner year for Fleischer Studios. Some of the other titles released earlier that year were among the studio's best ever including: 'Betty Boop's Penthouse', 'Aloha Oe', 'Boo Boo Theme Song', 'The Old Man of the Mountain' and others. If Fleischer Studio history were divided into epochs 'I Heard' would fall almost at the end of the first epoch of sound. Soon, Betty would have to make way for the second epoch which would see the studio branch into color films and Popeye's ascent to super stardom. That I will save for a later post...

Greenbriar cartoon links

2010-04-12T11:51:00.000-07:00

If you are a 30's cartoon nut like I am I'm sure you are aware of John Mcelwee's 'Greenbriar Picture Show'. Last week he posted a bunch of rare Oswald trade ads that still have me drooling so I thought I might post a convenient set of links to his other cartoon posts which all contain rare ads! Here they are:

Greenbriar on Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Greenbriar on Color Classics

Greenbriar on Van Beuren

Greenbriar on Popeye 1

Greenbriar on Popeye 2

Greenbriar on Superman

Greenbriar on Flip the Frog

Krazy Kat: Lil Ainjil

2010-04-10T09:14:00.000-07:00

Today I am showcasing a much hated cartoon: 1936's 'Lil Ainjil'. At least one artist who worked on the film hated it too. From Leonard Maltin's book I. Klein went on record: "Ben Harrison said to me, 'Gee, this is a great chance for a cheater.' Of all things! Here's the first opportunity to make a real Krazy Kat, and he says 'chance for a cheater'. Whoever was the background man there really made drawings ... but it was a senseless story, throwing bricks, and that was the end of it. I was terribly disappointed."

Maltin then goes on to write: "The cartoon, LIL AINJIL, is just as bad as Klein remembers it being". Ouch!

But I'm not sure it's as bad as all that. A contingent of fans of the Popeye comic strip have decried the deviation of the animated series from Segar's original for years. Most recently Jules Feiffer in his intro to the recently published 'Popeye: I Yam What I Yam' has said: " The animated Popeye didn't bother with character, wit, or nuance. There was but one story, repeated thousands of times in endless versions: Popeye fighting Bluto over Olive Oyl and only able to win in the end because he was lucky enough to find a can of spinich. Jeez!"

Indeed Feiffer's comment could just as easily apply to the Krazy Kat film and I. Klein is correct in his assesment of the story of that cartoon. I won't be the one to say that 'Lil Ainjil' is a misunderstood classic. Rather I see it as an experiment somewhat as I view the first Popeye film. One wonders how the animated Popeye might be viewed today if the series had ended with 'Popeye the Sailor'?

Of course there are significant differences between the two. The Popeye strip was virtually at the zenith of it's popularity when the Fleischer cartoon was released in 1933. A penniless working stiff who took no guff was just right for movie audiences in perhaps the worst year of the depression. Popeye was a populist character. Adding to this was the perfect union of earthy (and sometime bawdy) humor as well as graphic style shared both by comic strip and animation studio. This is not to mention the voice of Popeye which was so appropriate it is hard to imagine the character sounding like anything else.

a somewhat shaky start to a great series: Popeye the Sailor (Fleischer Studios, 1933)

Krazy Kat, on the other hand, was an esoteric strip: an intellectual tour de force. In terms of it's story and satire it was much denser than Segar's strip and has, in fact, been credited with inspiring it. However, it was an increasingly cerebral strip by the 30's - at least until the Kat got hit with the brick. A work of great art, no doubt, but not the stuff of mainstream entertainment.

KK daily from 1938. The punchline is: "atavism"! Not exactly working stiff humor. (click to enlarge)

In fact, early animated versions of Krazy had gone back to the silent days where the character, similarly refashioned to the mainstream, had landed with giant thud. When the character was revived at Columbia, in the early 30's, audiences had already been familiar with the comic strip (and perhaps the first animated version) for over a decade. By 1936 if 'Lil Ainjil' had been a faithful adaptation I doubt the public would have taken much notice.

1916 ad for the animated Krazy Mach 1

At the time of Krazy's revival in the early days of sound cartoons producer Charles Mintz was essentially focused on producing a competing series to the wildly successful Mickey Mouse. This is probably most noticable in the voice when Krazy speaks, which is most Mickey-like, and in some of the stories which remake earlier Mickey shorts.

However, at this time the studio was also feeling a strong influence of the Fleischer Studios, by way of emigrating animators, possibly, or other reasons since lost to history. In this way, the Mintz version of Krazy Kat has a lot more in common with Bimbo than with Herriman's character or Mickey Mouse: a rorschach ink-blot at the mercy of wild, and often bizarre, landscapes and situations. Whether or not this is strength is a matter of conjecture but it is something which is not discussed as often in the literature of animation history. As someone who (plainly from this blog) likes his cartoons weird I firmly see this as a plus!

Bimbo and Koko are harassed by a chemically induced Frankenstein's monster in

Betty Boop's Penthouse (Fleischer Studios, 1933)

Krazy sneaks a peak with telescopic eyeballs in Svengarlic (1931, Mintz Studios)

Which brings us back to 'Lil Ainjil'. 1936 is the year Mintz cartoons went directly down the drain. The next Krazy Kat cartoon to follow, "Highway Snobbery" (released August 9th) has it's charms but the cracks were becoming ever more evident. By "Krazy's Newsreel" (October 24) the series had pretty well smashed against the rocks. The year previous the character had undergone a metamorphosis from ink-blot character, in the manner of Bimbo, to a more human boy-like design. A few good cartoons were produced under this newly designed version, such as 'Hotcha Melody' (released March 15, 1935) but, overall, the change did not effect an improvement in the quality of the cartoons. The anthropomorphism and the bizarre situations which had marked the early Fleischer material (and which Mintz continued to employ longer than any studio) continued to be an essential ingredient. However, the quality of animation took a drastic turn for the worse. "Lil Ainjil' resides at the very precipice of a tailspin unprecidented in the history of animation! Certainly not the best entry in the series but not as 'bad' as Maltin's statement of opinion either. I can think of a lot of cartoons worse than 'Lil Ainjil'!

Personally, I see the cartoon as an experimental misfire but a fascinating one none the less. Krazy Kat certainly wasn't the accessible character that Popeye was (or as well suited to action) but the characters are drawn fairly faithful to the original strip (for the first time in a sound cartoon) and fully fleshed out as dimensional characters inhabiting three dimensional space. The rubbery action, and movement, never slow down which gives the cartoon a certain gyroscopic energy. As I said, I wouldn't qualify 'Lil Ainjil' in the top ten best Krazy Kat cartoons but any proper retrospective of the series would be remiss to ignore it.

Senseless? Sure, but there's still fun stuff going on here!

The drawing in the cartoon is amazingly solid and the inbetweening astonishingly precise. These are expert draftsman.

Early Terrytoons: The Champ!

2010-03-27T13:08:00.000-07:00

I would be lying if I said I was a huge fan of the Terrytoon cartoons produced early in the sound era. Like the early Van Bueren studio cartoons (Waffles & Don anyone?) they are best viewed one or two at a time as opposed to, for example, Fleischers' who can sustain over a lengthy viewing of multiple cartoons. I still like 'em though and I will say that perhaps no other series of that time has ellicited from me the kind of belly laughs as those early Terrytoons. Okay, not all of the laughs are necessarily intentional. Even in their day, Terry was threatened to clean up his act or face termination. However, there still remains a fluid, frenetic energy (and violence) which is genuinely funny and, perhaps thanks to Terry's philosophy of just getting on with it, a freeness of gags that drew from just meeting the schedule by any (and I do mean any) means necessary. There's some funny expressions too!

Regarding the copious amount of re-use I have been told that the Terrytoons of this vintage, as they were released to theaters, were somewhat different in content and that the 16mm company which released the cartoons to the Barker Bill television show (the BB theme is heard at the beginning) cut in some of the re-use to cover what they considered offensive material. Whether this is true or not I have no idea. I've never been able to compare two different versions.

Which bring us to today's film 'The Champ' (released September 20, 1931): a scathing expose of professional boxing and payola. Okay, it's not quite that. Actually, I don't know what this cartoon is about. It has lots of mice though!

A stadium infested with vermin - how could this be anything other than a Terrytoon?

"Damn, that monkey looking at his watch is amazing - we gotta find a way to stick it in a couple more times"

I'd love to have been a fly on the wall at Terrytoons.

"Waitasecond, somebody might notice. I got it: add a cat!"

What the hell just happened?

If you need a chicken to lay an egg in a hat while at a boxing match you should always remember to take your mallet.

I like the photo of himself Farmer Al hangs over his bed. Nicely covers the hole in the plaster and reminds him of happier times.

Good morning, rage!

More infestation. More rage.

Now they're stealing the food? I thought they were after the bag of money?

And now they're stealing the house? Well, I guess that contains the food and the bag of money (not to mention a snappy portrait of Al) but I'm still confused. Farmer Al and the Champ celebrate their victory with a catatonic stare into space.

The end ... or is it just the beginning?

Disney Dullness (& Warners Weakness)

2010-03-11T18:17:00.000-08:00

Well, today I've decided to do a little op-ed piece. Okay, it's an incendiary rant. Hey, I promised ill-informed opinion in my very first post so, finally, here 'tis! Enjoy?

Reading here and there on the internet lately I've noticed the pendulum of opinion swinging mightilly back to those old workhorse studios for which already too much has been written: Warner Bros and Disney. The morbid seriousness with which the cartoons of these studios is dissected has well past the point of engaging (or constructive) discussion and so, all other avenues having been discussed or, perhaps, understanding of the subject unclear, that old chesnut (repeated for decades and taught in animation schools as gospel) is again trotted out: Disney & Warner Bros equal sophistication while all others represent primitivism. And I don't see an end in sight for this outlook either as kids who grew up with warm & fuzzy memories of 'Feival Goes West' or 'Rock-a-Doodle' look in depth to see that those films were based, clumsilly perhaps, right out of the Disney textbook. Thus: Disney textbook equals warm & fuzzy memory. The same is probably true also of Warner Brothers' cartoons. These have enjoyed syndication longer than the cartoons of any other studio in history. We all grew up watching Chuck Jones.

Much of the trouble may be based from Shamus Culhane's autobiography: 'Talking Animals & Other People'. There is no doubt that his book is an invaluable resource and really the only extensive first person memoir of the 'golden age of animation' . However, Shamus Culhane was not all that interested in animated cartoons. He preferred fine art and took great pains in his book to emphasize so. His experience in animation is depicted as mostly an unhappy affair and, horrible working conditions aside (if we are to believe him unquestioningly), he probably would have lived a happier life as a painter, sculptor, engraver or what have you. Disney, and it's aspiration to European-ize it's cartoons into something which wasn't a cartoon at all but fine art worthy of the academy (an aspiration never quite achieved BTW) was the closest thing he ever encountered to what he should have been doing in the first place. Cartoons were not his thing.

For a book that pretty much trashes everything Fleischer Studios ever did, Culhane seemed to have no problem using the characters on the cover.

Admittedly, this blog is biased toward certain studios but I am surprised by the continual flouncing those cartoons receive on such a regular basis from other sights. In showing my love for these studios I try not to do so at the expense of cartoon series I don't like. Invariably, however, I find myself reacting, knee-jerk, to the stuff that's written elsewhere. It's all my opinion of course but at least I have the sense to say so and am doing so right now!

I'm not immune either. The Disney/Warner history has so saturated the discussion of animation history in general that the aims of those studios are generally regarded as the aims of animated cartoons in general. The only kind of beautiful is Disney beautiful. The only kind of funny is Warners funny. Other studios are only relevant in what key personnel ultimately ended up at those two studios. Thus Mintz is only relevant for employing Emery Hawkins and Art Davis. Fleischer only relevant for employing Grim Natwick. And so forth. That the work of these men might be to fufill a different need or style than Disney or Warners (even in trying to imitate Disney each studio had a unique aesthetic approach) this is usually regarded as 'rough work' -a lead in to the main act - or second class work. Even the artists themselves, probably still scrabbling for work at the end of their careers, weren't likely to praise a vanished studio incapable of providing work over an existing one that could. This is a fact I rarely hear discussed. But, to get to my point, I often find myself conversationally justifying a lesser known studio's cartoons by way of the familiar names of Warner or Disney artists. Obviously, I am a masochist.

It's not that I totally dislike Disney and Warners' cartoons. Like any other studio of the 30's they had their standouts. My problem is with comparing a Fleischer cartoon from the early 30's with a Bugs Bunny cartoon from the mid-40's. Over a decade later the style of animated cartoons had changed, became much more formalized. At Disney animators tortured themselves to recreate, drawing by drawing, exactly what Laurel & Hardy did naturally and more effectively - in a fraction of the time! Just watch 'Mother Goose Goes Hollywood' (a late 3o's Silly Symphony) if you don't believe me. Damn that looks painful! According to Culhane it was part of the animator's training to copy, frame-by-frame, the films of the silent movie comics. So the goal of the 40's, at least at Disney (and strangely at odds with it's desire for academic legitimacy), seems to have been to create Buster Keaton!

Ow, that looks as difficult as it probably was - a big distraction.

I don't mean to knock the cartoons of the 40's. Terrytoons, for example, didn't hit their stride until the 40's while Famous Studios were able to merge the fluid dimensionality (and lyricism) of the earlier Fleischer style with a more conventional comic style. Walter Lantz studios were able to 'up the ante' on Bugs by creating the truly malevolent Woody Woodpecker. As everyone knows Disney was solidly in the feature business by the 40's. I can see what all the fuss is about. They were great at what they did and totally unique to Disney. Of course no cartoon studio was more financially successful or popular in the 40's than Disney and this, no doubt, is where the Disney superiority legend begins. Disney understood better than any other studio chief, that the way to bring in business was to promise that his cartoons would be nothing but wholesome - not a word which would describe the cartoons of any other studio at the time.

To get an idea how different the ambition of the Fleischer Studio, as described by Max Fleisher, here is an excerpted letter Culhane included in his book:

"During the span of years from 1914, I have made efforts to retain the "cartoony" effect. That is, I did not welcome the trend of the industry to go "arty". It was, and still is, my opinion that a cartoon should represent, in simple form, the cartoonist's mental expression. In other words the "animated oil painting" has taken the place of the flashiness and delightfulness of the simple cartoon.

In my opinion, the industry must pull back. Pull away from the tendencies toward realism. It must stay in it's own backyard of "The Cartoonist's Cartoon." The cartoon must be a portrayal of the expression of the true cartoonist, in simple, unhampered cartoon style. The true cartoon is a great art in it's own right. It does not need the assistance or support of "Artiness." In fact, it is actually hampered by it."

For it's time, Max's words were seen by Culhane as lacking in vision but I don't see it that way. For me, these are the words of a person who understands the medium he is working in.

Warners is a little different to assess. The popularity of those cartoons derives cumulatively over decades of easily accessible syndication packages on television. If the North Pole had a television station it probably ran 'One Froggy Evening'. The truth, however, is that Warners had the heaviest output of any cartoon studio of the 40's - in some cases two to one over the next nearest competitor. They were a volume business much more than, for instance, what Terrytoons has alleged to be. As a result they had to crank the stuff out fast ... and it often shows. It is not surprising that the limited animation techniques (and BG style) of early television animation would have been pioneered here. The frequency of repeated gags, verbatim story lines and re-use animation match, if not rival, any of Terry's cost cutting measures. A studio with that kind of schedule, statistically speaking, cannot help but produce a greater number of duds. That they were able to meet their schedule at all, at the quality they were able to achieve, is quite remarkable but as I said: a lot of duds. To me, Warner cartoons have always felt most to reflect the factory circumstances under which they were created. Terrytoon artists may have been miserable but it doesn't register on the screen.

Gadzooks!

The human mind is a funny thing though. It likes a clear linear historical narrative and much of how animation history has been written has been retro-fitted to what came later and that will be known to the reader. Perhaps in future histories we will read of how Disney & Warners were merely a ramp up to the creation of 'The Simpsons'!

So, what is it about 1930's cartoons that makes them great? Personally, I admire their flexibility (figuratively and literally) in suspending logic, their bountiful inventiveness (both mechanically and thematically), their musical Joi de vivre, their unquenchable optimism and their tendency to greater risks than cartoons of later eras. They could be expertly drafted (sometimes astonishingly so) but humble. They were capable of lyricism even when the subject matter may have been ugly, crass or banal. They extolled regular life amongst the poor yet were supreme fantasies. They had heart too - a feeling that we are getting a glimpse of the person behind the pencil and that, in my opinion, is what great art is all about. And, of course, they were funny.

Popular Science issues on-line

2010-03-07T09:12:00.001-08:00

Just happened on this: Popular Science has posted an on-line searchable archive of all (I'm guessing) of their issues. As you all know, Max Fleischer once worked for the magazine and was featured in some of their articles. I think a number of these have already been posted at Cartoon Brew but I have yet to do any real digging to see what other animation stuff might be in there. Thought you might be interested...

Van Beuren Produces a Classic (!): Magic Mummy!

2010-02-28T18:48:00.001-08:00

16mm re-issue title card for 'Magic Mummy'. The original was released February 7, 1933

It's hard to believe Van Beuren cartoons screened theatrically. Like the work of Jim Tyer (who worked at VB early in his career) the early cartoons, which were released by the Pathe beginning in 1929 and later by RKO up through 1936, are primarily enjoyed as a cult phenomena nowadays. Admittedly those early efforts (Waffles & Don and the only slightly different Tom & Jerry) are pretty strong stuff for the uninitiated. I myself can't watch can't watch more than two at a time. They are really messed up. As hard as it may be to believe these cartoons were actually sold it's almost as hard to believe that there could be a true classic amongst their ranks.

Finding a good print of the film is easier said then done however. Above are frame grabs from two separate prints: one is a public domain print which has been in circulation for years while the one below is from the recently released Thunderbean Tom & Jerry set. Unfortunately the Thunderbean print is badly scratched (& stained) throughout (but sharper) while the PD print is cropped and (at least in the copy I have) badly pixilated from compression. In fact, it looks as though it may have even been converted from a lo-res Youtube video. To illustrate this post I have opted to use the Thunderbean print but I would love to see a less compressed version of the former. If anyone out there can recommend where I might be able to find 'Magic Mummy' in reasonable shape on DVD (it appears on a number of PD discs I haven't seen) - or better yet a 16mm print (!) - please leave me a comment or shoot me a g-mail! Incidently, if you haven't seen the film you can go here and come back to see if you agree with my observations...

As true an expression of rubber hose joy as was ever expressed at the sound of music. Don't you flap your arms when you are happy? FYI Tom is the tall one and Jerry the short one.

Car 44, where are yooou.

Cop Love.

Expert cartoonologist Bob Jaques has expressed to me on a number of occasions how astonishing (& unexpected) the hands are in this piano playing scene. You'd never get away with something like this today. Haven't you heard? Cartoons are not allowed to be crazy anymore. Why we are teaching children to be dour and hopeless I have no idea. I blame the popularity of 'The Dark Knight' (with their parents!).

If you need a roadmap for what's going on in this prison you'd better look elsewhere.

"...a mummy has been stolen from the museum"

The car picks up the scent of mummy. I wonder what that smells like?

Suddenly the film turns a corner as 'The Phantom' (my designation, the character's name is not mentioned) creeps past a ruined building in a cemetary. The scene suggests (at least to me) a building bombed out by war which adds a sudden mood of dread. A similar mood shift occurs in the Cubby Bear cartoon 'Nut Factory' as Cubby, in the search for dentures, wanders into a haunted house half way through that cartoon. Likewise Bimbo abruptly finds himself in similarly supernatural surroundings in 'The Male Man' (1930, Fleischer Studios) after several minutes of unrelated mail gags. This approach, if it was intentional, never out-lived the early 30's.

'Magic Mummy' (Van Beuren/RKO, 1933)

'Taken For A Ride' (Charles Mintz/Columbia, 1930)

Another odd artifact is the grave represented as hideout. The very same thing occurs in the earlier Krazy Kat cartoon 'Taken For A Ride' (1930). Could both cartoons be drawing on an even earlier source?

'Magic Mummy' suggests many things to me: historical photos, old movies (particularly Zita Johanne in 'The Mummy'), even archeology! The Phantom character always reminded me of something I had seen before but couldn't quite pin down until just recently: the Egyptian crocodile god Sobek! Could this have been the inspiration for MM's main heavy?

Zita Johanne in 'The Mummy'

Another astonishing element to the film is the expressiveness of the Phantom's hands. It's quite unbelievable that such sophistication could have existed in a Van Beuren cartoon! Go back to that Youtube video (linked at the beginning of the post) and scroll through slowly and see if you don't agree. The animation was evidently credited to John Foster & George Stallings as had most of the early T&J's. However, this is around the time the studio received an influx of new talent (and future animators of Famous Studios, Fleischer and others) giving the cartoons a more polished look than they had in years previous.

No Tom & Jerry cartoon is complete without the obligatory 'flesh rending' scene.

Through the wall they go to ... someplace...

'Magic Mummy' is also a cartoon about levels and decending into them. Adding to the dream-like effect are the two similar pianos on each level. Like a dream, one idea suggests another while changing it slightly.

Whoops, a shooting error (the coffin disappears for 2 frames) or perhaps a couple of inbetweens were missing from the scene. Who knows.

Is this the love a skeleton has for another skeleton or a skeleton has for a good cigar?

Another expressive scene with the skeleton band conducted by The Phantom.

Meanwhile Tom and Jerry are in a drain pipe for some reason.

"Yeeeeow" "The joint is pinched": The best classic 'triple duty' voice performance in history (the same voice actor is giving the lines of both Tom, Jerry and The Phantom!) until the immortal lines "Miss Betty Boop"/"Show her in" from 'Is My Palm Red' (Fleischer Studios, Feb 17 1933) was released - ten days later!

The Phantom flees deeper into the subconscious...

Where the hell are we now?

Fighting eyeballs.

Jerry rescues the casket while hanging his bosom buddy Tom out to dry with the Phantom.

"The mummy. The mummy. The mum-mum-mum-mum-mummy!"

Uh oh, the casket is filled with Tom's corpse. Is anyone else reminded of the final scene in 'Public Enemy'?

'Public Enemy'

Iris out as Jerry bashfully surveys the carnage...

Like I said, those early VB's are an acquired taste and I'm not sure if I've really acquired it myself - they're that weird. They were no competition for Fleischer (who were located directly across the street in NY's Times Square) as I see it but, taken apart, 'Magic Mummy' is at least a happy accident and one well worth visiting.

Spring Cleaning

2010-02-19T14:59:00.000-08:00

Well, to be honest it looks like the video is shutting down on Blogger at least at the moment. I'll be going through in the next little while and removing video that doesn't work while eliminating some of the more 'verbal diarrhea' posts. I'll be leaving up all the images tho.

Fun With Plants!!

2010-01-21T12:34:00.000-08:00

In leu of the missing video here are some more images from the 1935 Krazy Kat cartoon 'Garden Gaieties'. I wouldn't qualify this as the best Krazy Kat (or even in the top 10) but it's a fun cartoon showing more than a little influence from the Fleischer Studios. Enjoy...

(Garden Gaieties, released Aug 1, 1935)

Consider this: Could the Mintz Studio have been a pioneer in the field of animated potatoes? The mind boggles ...

(Tears of an Onion, Fleischer Studios, released February 26, 1938)

Okay, I'm actually scared now.

Scrappy's Trip To Mars

2010-01-10T18:04:00.000-08:00

'How d'ya doodle oodle oodle oodle oodle doooooo'

New Years Thoughts

2010-01-01T01:52:00.000-08:00

From January '37 of The Animated News. Charles Schettler worked in the camera department.

Is it over?

2009-12-26T20:43:00.001-08:00