What!! No Dessert?

Old Educational ad from the Film Daily. No mention of cartoons ... but captures my sentiments perfectly. It's healthful!

Animation Station De-luxe

A while back, over at Mark Mayerson's blog,  Mark did a post on the varying standards of equipment used during animation's 'golden age' and linked to an article by JJ Sedelmaier on his collection of vintage equipment in which he disassembles a mid-30's Fleischer disc. That reason alone makes it worth mentioning here but it also reminded me of this entry in the Fleischer 'Animated News'.

When I first happened upon this I though it might be a gag. The Animated News is full of them-many gently ribbing Max for his low bowling scores, mandolin playing etc. I took this to perhaps be a joke on Max's mechanical obsessions but once I saw JJ's disc with it's unique clamping mechanism I realized that it was a possibility that the set-up above could have indeed existed - Flip-O-Scope and all!

Don't see it here though in (I think) the inking department of the Fleischers New York studio

Or here in (presumably) the animation department of the Miami studio

Whether it did or not though remains a mystery (well, to me anyway). I've never seen a photo of it if it did. Still, I'd be curious to know if any of those desks with their distinctive trim and name card holders ever survived?

Ghost of a Post

 "Miss Betty Boop"

 "Send her in". If I had my druthers every voice in cartoons would sound like Billy Murray.

Over at "She Blogged By Night" Stacia is posting a terrific set of early 30's "cheesecake" Halloween  glamour shots. I love how the surreal elements of the Fleischer cartoons almost seem to actually exist in these. After you've finished oggling our Miss Betty Boop go cheggitout!

 But, for now, you should concentrate. CON-CEN-TRATE...

That's because lumpy ghosts are coming to greet you.

 Love the hands on this one. Fleischer animation flies by so fast it's easy to miss how many wonderful little details are in each shot.

Our "ay yi yi" ghost has moved south from the graveyard in "Swing You Sinners". A ghost can't haunt a damp graveyard forever y'know...

Of course, the real star of "Is My Palm Read" is, for me, "Bunko" the Ghost. Kind of like driving down the highway and suddenly being hit by the Goodyear Blimp. What the hell just happened? The world needs more Bunko the Ghost. Much more ...

The DVNR is pretty bad on this scene but it flies by pretty fast so here they are so you can get a better look.

Happy Halloween!

Vive Betty!

I'm always surprised when I see how well received the Fleischer cartoons were in Europe at the time of their release. While other would be animated cyphers, outside Mickey Mouse,  failed to make an impact it seems the french embraced Betty Boop almost immediately. There is even a possibly apocryphal story that Jean Paul Sartre was a fan. Who knows?  Anyway, here is an article from a french newspaper, Minerva, from 1934 in which child stars (of whom she is included) are featured...

Betty Boop on DVD?

Evidently this news goes back to March (I missed it) but Olive Films (the company that has been licensing pictures from Paramount in recent years) has licensed the rights to all of the non-PD Betty Boop cartoons from Paramount/Viacom.  Personally I would love to see a good release of 35mm Screen Songs and Color Classics (which would really shine) but, if this is happening, it's great news. There is talk of remastering which I understand Olive has been careful with on their recent releases "Colossus of New York" and "The Space Children".  Hopefully they will use care in choosing the best materials - even if it means the old Republic LD transfers.  Leaving out the PD cartoons seems kind of silly though.

If the set only had 'Betty Boop's Penthouse' it'd be worth the asking price. 

Click the link  to get to the the mention of it today at DVD Savant.

Here is the mention of it from a few months back at the Home Theater Forum.

If anyone out there can correct me on any of this let me know.

Happy 4th

Meanwhile...

In the off model department: this weird Australian release poster for 'Mr. Bug' (cribbed from ebay) to haunt your nightmares.