Like many cartoon fans I was introduced to many classic Hollywood celebrities through classic cartoons. Here we are going to look at some uses of some celebrities who were turned into cartoon characters. We are going to look at classic Hollywood comedy teams in cartoons.
The first cartoon we will look at is "A Tale of Two Kitties"(1942). This cartoon features caricatures of Abbott and Costello here turned into cartoon cats and renamed Babbitt and Catstello. Babbitt is voiced by Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies writer Tedd Pierce. Catstello is voiced by voice actor legend Mel Blanc (Who voiced most of the main Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies male characters). These two characters were meant to be the characters of the cartoon however another character stole the show. That character was Tweety who would of course become one of the main characters of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Now Tweety was never referred to by name in this cartoon, but on his original model sheet he was called Orson, but still the character is recognizably Tweety. In his first three cartoons ("A Tale Of Two Kitties"(1942), "Birdy and the Beast"(1944) (where Tweety was first given his name), "A Gruesome Twosome"(1945)) Tweety had no feathers. This is because his original design was based off a nude baby picture of Bob Clampett, who directed those first three Tweety cartoons. Tweety was also much more sadistic in the hands of director Bob Clampett. The initial idea for Tweety was that he was a very sadistic and violent character who would fool cats by the fact that he looks and acts cute. The character would be changed to what we know him as today after Bob Clampett left Warner Brothers to start a television career (Where he created the characters of Benny and Cecil). Friz Freling would become Tweety's main director and would pair him up with Sylvester the Cat.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFC9vnZY93k
Next up comes another cartoon based around Abbott and Costello. This time it is a 1960's television cartoon by the kings of 1960's television cartoons, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Here Bud Abbott is actually voiced by the real Bud Abbott, and Lou Costello (Who had passed away in 1959) was voiced by Stan Irwin. Unfortunately Stan Irwin tried too hard to sound like Lou Costello and unlike the real Lou Costello, Irwin got pretty annoying at times. The show was good enough to make up for this though. It had the great writing, music, and voice acting (not including Stan Irwin) that made Hanna-Barbera cartoons of the 1960's so great.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_H3ZRaVGts
Now we look at another television cartoon series this time centering around The Three Stooges. This 1965 TV show "The New Three Stooges" featured both live action and animated segments. The live action segments were directed by Edward Burns (who had been on director on some of the classic 1940's and 50's live action stooge shorts), and the animated segments were directed by David Detiege (Who had been a writer for Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies during the 1960's). David Detiege was also a writer for this show. The Three Stooges (then Moe Howard, Larry Fine, and "Curly" Joe DeRitia) played themselves in this show. They both appeared in the live action segments and did their voices in the animated segments. While the animation was very cheap and crude, the show still maintained a great charm, and some of the classic humor that made The Three Stooges famous.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mJExAQHuFXU
Lastly (For this post) we are going to look at a classic early Looney Tunes cartoon from 1933 staring Looney Tunes first main character the now forgotten Bosko. Bosko came to being when Hugh Harmon and Rudolf Ising left Walt Disney and made a pilot film for a new cartoon series. The pilot film was called "Bosko the Talk-ink Kid"(1929). Obviously talkie films were new at this time. When shown to producer Leon Schlesinger it was accepted and a new series called Looney Tunes was formed in the year 1930. When Merrie Melodies was created in 1931, Hugh Harmon became the sole director of the Looney Tunes, and Rudolf Ising became the sole director of the Merrie Melodies. While many of these cartoons resembled Disney more than the what we of with these two series today, this cartoon is probably the most Looney Tunes like Looney Tunes cartoon from this era. It is also one of the best of Hugh Harmon's early Looney Tunes. It was though one of the last cartoons from the Harmon and Ising period of Warner Brother's cartoons. They would move to MGM and take the character of Bosko with them, and continue making Bosko cartoons for the next 5 years as well as creating many other great cartoons at MGM. Of course Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies would continue to be two of the best cartoon series ever made (In my opinion the two best cartoon series ever made) even without two of their founding Members. The reason this cartoon is included here is because it features some great caricatures of Laurel and Hardy and The Marx Brothers.
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=bosko%27s+picture+show&FORM=HDRSC3#view=detail&mid=A86AE4163DB8AB964043A86AE4163DB8AB964043
Unfortunately that video is a censored version of the cartoon. If you want to see why watch the video below, and if you want to see the uncensored version look for "Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 6".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2qu9zrYCP0
-Michael J. Ruhland
Wednesday, August 20, 2014
Monday, August 18, 2014
Cat and Mouse Games: The History of Tom and Jerry (Part 3)
When many animation fans see Gene Deitch's name on a Tom and Jerry cartoon, they go out of their way to avoid it. So what do I think of this most hated of eras of my favorite cat and mouse duo? In all honesty I don't think it's that bad. In fact I would say I have seen much worse happen to Tom and Jerry (such as the 1980 TV show by Filmation studios, "The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show" (We will get to that monstrosity later)). Now don't get me wrong I by no means think they are as good as the Tom and Jerry cartoons from William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. There are some bad cartoons during this era (Dicky Moe, Switchen Kitten), but there were some I actually believe to be pretty good (The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit, Buddies Thicker Than Water, Tail in the Trap, It's All Greek To Me-ow, Down and Outing).
In 1960 since MGM's animation studio was closed, it was decided to ship the making of the Tom and Jerry series overseas. It was shipped to Czechoslovakia. Where former employee of the American animation studios, UPA and Terrytoons, Gene Deitch, had just moved in 1959 (He was a director at Terrytoons (Where he created the character of Tom Terrific), and an animator at UPA). The Job of directing had been turned over to Gene Deitch. However Gene Deitch was not a fan of Tom and Jerry. Deitch wrote "Personally, as a UPA man, I had always cited Tom & Jerry cartoons as the primary bad example of senseless violence - humor based on pain - attack and revenge - to say nothing of the tasteless use of a headless black woman stereotype house servant". Another problem that had faced this team was that many of the animators had never seen a Tom and Jerry Cartoon. Deitch also wrote, "Even if the spirit was willing to give it an honest try, the fact remained that these communist-era, isolated animators had never in their lives seen even one Tom & Jerry cartoon! I had seen more than a few, and in spite of my ideological distance, I did appreciate the perfect craftsmanship, the expressive animation, with its exquisite timing, the endless gag inventiveness, and the characters' incredible damage survival". Also plaguing them was the much smaller budget they had to work on.
Due to these cartoons being imported from a communist country MGM did all they could to hide that fact. While these were among the only Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons to not say "Made in Hollywood, USA", there was no mentioning of where they were made. Names like A. Booresh,
Victor Little, S. Newman , M. Clicker and V. Marsh appeared in the opening credits, instead of Antonín Bure_, Václav Lídl, Zdenka Najmanová, Milan Klikar, and Věra Mare_ová.
While William Hanna and Joseph Barbera made 114 theatrical Tom and Jerry cartoons, Gene Deitch only made 13. Naturally the best parts of these Tom and Jerry cartoons were things that did not relate to the previous cartoons. There was a great sense of surrealism, and strangeness to these cartoons. This sense comes from the sound effects, music, and animation. It also occasionally features a few great moments of satire, such as "The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit" (1962). These cartoons have their own entertaining charm (in my opinion). Even though they are very different from other Tom and Jerry cartoons and aren't as good as the Hanna and Babera classics, I enjoy them quite a bit and will continue to do so.
If you want more information about Gene Deitch's Tom and Jerry cartoons (From the man himself), or if want to know where I got the quotes from, click on this link:
http://www.awn.com/genedeitch/chapter-twentyone-tom-and-jerry-the-first-reincarnation
To Be Continued...
-Michael J. Ruhland
In 1960 since MGM's animation studio was closed, it was decided to ship the making of the Tom and Jerry series overseas. It was shipped to Czechoslovakia. Where former employee of the American animation studios, UPA and Terrytoons, Gene Deitch, had just moved in 1959 (He was a director at Terrytoons (Where he created the character of Tom Terrific), and an animator at UPA). The Job of directing had been turned over to Gene Deitch. However Gene Deitch was not a fan of Tom and Jerry. Deitch wrote "Personally, as a UPA man, I had always cited Tom & Jerry cartoons as the primary bad example of senseless violence - humor based on pain - attack and revenge - to say nothing of the tasteless use of a headless black woman stereotype house servant". Another problem that had faced this team was that many of the animators had never seen a Tom and Jerry Cartoon. Deitch also wrote, "Even if the spirit was willing to give it an honest try, the fact remained that these communist-era, isolated animators had never in their lives seen even one Tom & Jerry cartoon! I had seen more than a few, and in spite of my ideological distance, I did appreciate the perfect craftsmanship, the expressive animation, with its exquisite timing, the endless gag inventiveness, and the characters' incredible damage survival". Also plaguing them was the much smaller budget they had to work on.
Due to these cartoons being imported from a communist country MGM did all they could to hide that fact. While these were among the only Tom and Jerry theatrical cartoons to not say "Made in Hollywood, USA", there was no mentioning of where they were made. Names like A. Booresh,
Victor Little, S. Newman , M. Clicker and V. Marsh appeared in the opening credits, instead of Antonín Bure_, Václav Lídl, Zdenka Najmanová, Milan Klikar, and Věra Mare_ová.
While William Hanna and Joseph Barbera made 114 theatrical Tom and Jerry cartoons, Gene Deitch only made 13. Naturally the best parts of these Tom and Jerry cartoons were things that did not relate to the previous cartoons. There was a great sense of surrealism, and strangeness to these cartoons. This sense comes from the sound effects, music, and animation. It also occasionally features a few great moments of satire, such as "The Tom and Jerry Cartoon Kit" (1962). These cartoons have their own entertaining charm (in my opinion). Even though they are very different from other Tom and Jerry cartoons and aren't as good as the Hanna and Babera classics, I enjoy them quite a bit and will continue to do so.
If you want more information about Gene Deitch's Tom and Jerry cartoons (From the man himself), or if want to know where I got the quotes from, click on this link:
http://www.awn.com/genedeitch/chapter-twentyone-tom-and-jerry-the-first-reincarnation
To Be Continued...
-Michael J. Ruhland
Monday, August 11, 2014
The Fleischer Brothers and Feature Length Animation
Max and Dave Fleischer are two names that get pushed aside too often when The Golden Age of American Animation is discussed. However we all have at least a passing knowledge of their Popeye, Betty Boop, and Superman cartoons, and fans of silent animation might know the "Out of the Inkwell" series as among the best cartoon series of it's time. Too few people though know about their two feature length films though. Now these films were not hits at the time they were released, and they are much less known now. However these are very entertaining and important films that I believe should not be overlooked. They were in fact the first and the only American feature length animated films not made by Disney during the 1930's and 40's. They were also the first American animated films to give credit to the voice actors, a practice very uncommon in those days.
"Gulliver's Travels" (1939) began it's life (not counting the classic book) as an idea of casting Popeye as Gulliver. While this certainly would have made an excellent film, this is not the direction they would choose to go. The character of Gulliver in this film was much more realistically animated then anything that had come out of the Fleischer studio before, and was purposely in stark contrast with the more cartoony little people of Lilliput. This was achieved through rotoscoping, a device pioneered by The Fleischers for their "Out of the Inkwell" series. Rotoscoping is a term for when an animator traces over live-action film (usually filmed for the purposes of being rotoscoped), and it is normally used to achieve more realistic animation.
"Gulliver's Travels" (1939) had little to do with the classic book. We never saw Gulliver visit any island other than Lilliput. Even then great liberties were taken with the time he spent on Lilliput. However the film doesn't suffer too much from this, because it exist as it's own entity, and should not be looked at as simply an unfaithful adaption of a great book. The film maintains much of the beautiful animation, great voice acting, trademark humor, and great storytelling that makes the Fleischer cartoons such classics. It remains a very enjoyable movie, and I recommend it highly.
For some reason the Fleischers believed the character Gabby (from "Gulliver's Travels" (1939)) would be a huge hit in a cartoon series of his own. The brothers turned out to be completely wrong on this case. While I personally don't find the character that annoying (many do) he is not a particularly interesting or funny character, and was easily a fault in an otherwise great movie. Naturally this series did not become a hit, and remains as the only truly bad cartoon series the Fleischer Brothers ever made, but with how much great entertainment the brothers have given us this is easy to forgive.
For their next feature length film The Fleshiers wanted to make an adaption of the of "The Life of the Bee" by Maurice Maeterlinck. They however could not get the film rights to the book, and so a similar original story was made. "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941) became the first American feature length animated film not to be an adaption of a book, despite the original intention. One of the writer's who helped create this new story was Looney Tunes/ Merrie Melodies writer Tedd Pierce, who was loaned from Warner Brothers specifically for this film. He is defiantly part of why the movie turned out so well. Pierce also provided the voice for the villain in the movie, C. Bagley Beetle. Also included in the voice cast were Pinto Colvig (Disney writer, animator and voice of Goofy), Jack Mercer (Fleischer Brothers animator, Famous Studios writer, and voice of Popeye and Felix the Cat (the 1959 "Felix the Cat" TV series not the theatrical Felix cartoons)), and many more talented voice actors.
The opening credit sequence of "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941) used another animation device the Fleischers had pioneered. This device was the use of 3D backgrounds. This was accomplished by putting 2D animation cells in a 3D set, and filming it like that. This device worked great, and the depth in the backgrounds is truly amazing. Strangely though this device has rarely been used since, despite the affect it has on audiences. This might be due the complexity of this operation, or the invention of the Disney multiplane camera (A discussion for a later date), but whatever the reason it is a sad loss this device never caught on. For an example of this device in action here is a classic Popeye cartoon that uses it to great effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9bU9Mi8grQ
Despite Dave Fleischer being credited as the only director of "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941). The beginning of the movie (after the opening credits) was directed by legendary animator Shamus Culhane (who animated the Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho musical number in Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), and directed some of the best Woody Woodpecker cartoons). This scene naturally worked out very well as it gave us time to get to know the characters without ever boring the audience.
"Mr. Bug Goes to Town" turned out to be a great movie that can even be considered an improvement on "Gulliver" which should not be a surprise once you look at the great crew that worked on it. However the film had not been the hit it should have been. Some have blamed this on the film being released too close to when Pearl Harbor was bombed, other have blamed this on Paramount (The studio that distributed the Fleischer's films) not giving the film enough attention, but whatever the reason it had a terrible affect on the world of animation. The Fleisher Brothers closed their studio, and Paramount now got their cartoons from Famous Studios. A sad end to the life of one of America's greatest animation studios.
For a better discussion on the reasons "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" was a box office failure take a look at this article from Cartoon Research.com.
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mr-bug-and-hoppity-go-to-town/
-Michael J. Ruhland
"Gulliver's Travels" (1939) began it's life (not counting the classic book) as an idea of casting Popeye as Gulliver. While this certainly would have made an excellent film, this is not the direction they would choose to go. The character of Gulliver in this film was much more realistically animated then anything that had come out of the Fleischer studio before, and was purposely in stark contrast with the more cartoony little people of Lilliput. This was achieved through rotoscoping, a device pioneered by The Fleischers for their "Out of the Inkwell" series. Rotoscoping is a term for when an animator traces over live-action film (usually filmed for the purposes of being rotoscoped), and it is normally used to achieve more realistic animation.
"Gulliver's Travels" (1939) had little to do with the classic book. We never saw Gulliver visit any island other than Lilliput. Even then great liberties were taken with the time he spent on Lilliput. However the film doesn't suffer too much from this, because it exist as it's own entity, and should not be looked at as simply an unfaithful adaption of a great book. The film maintains much of the beautiful animation, great voice acting, trademark humor, and great storytelling that makes the Fleischer cartoons such classics. It remains a very enjoyable movie, and I recommend it highly.
For some reason the Fleischers believed the character Gabby (from "Gulliver's Travels" (1939)) would be a huge hit in a cartoon series of his own. The brothers turned out to be completely wrong on this case. While I personally don't find the character that annoying (many do) he is not a particularly interesting or funny character, and was easily a fault in an otherwise great movie. Naturally this series did not become a hit, and remains as the only truly bad cartoon series the Fleischer Brothers ever made, but with how much great entertainment the brothers have given us this is easy to forgive.
For their next feature length film The Fleshiers wanted to make an adaption of the of "The Life of the Bee" by Maurice Maeterlinck. They however could not get the film rights to the book, and so a similar original story was made. "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941) became the first American feature length animated film not to be an adaption of a book, despite the original intention. One of the writer's who helped create this new story was Looney Tunes/ Merrie Melodies writer Tedd Pierce, who was loaned from Warner Brothers specifically for this film. He is defiantly part of why the movie turned out so well. Pierce also provided the voice for the villain in the movie, C. Bagley Beetle. Also included in the voice cast were Pinto Colvig (Disney writer, animator and voice of Goofy), Jack Mercer (Fleischer Brothers animator, Famous Studios writer, and voice of Popeye and Felix the Cat (the 1959 "Felix the Cat" TV series not the theatrical Felix cartoons)), and many more talented voice actors.
The opening credit sequence of "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941) used another animation device the Fleischers had pioneered. This device was the use of 3D backgrounds. This was accomplished by putting 2D animation cells in a 3D set, and filming it like that. This device worked great, and the depth in the backgrounds is truly amazing. Strangely though this device has rarely been used since, despite the affect it has on audiences. This might be due the complexity of this operation, or the invention of the Disney multiplane camera (A discussion for a later date), but whatever the reason it is a sad loss this device never caught on. For an example of this device in action here is a classic Popeye cartoon that uses it to great effect.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9bU9Mi8grQ
Despite Dave Fleischer being credited as the only director of "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" (1941). The beginning of the movie (after the opening credits) was directed by legendary animator Shamus Culhane (who animated the Hi-Ho-Hi-Ho musical number in Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" (1937), and directed some of the best Woody Woodpecker cartoons). This scene naturally worked out very well as it gave us time to get to know the characters without ever boring the audience.
"Mr. Bug Goes to Town" turned out to be a great movie that can even be considered an improvement on "Gulliver" which should not be a surprise once you look at the great crew that worked on it. However the film had not been the hit it should have been. Some have blamed this on the film being released too close to when Pearl Harbor was bombed, other have blamed this on Paramount (The studio that distributed the Fleischer's films) not giving the film enough attention, but whatever the reason it had a terrible affect on the world of animation. The Fleisher Brothers closed their studio, and Paramount now got their cartoons from Famous Studios. A sad end to the life of one of America's greatest animation studios.
For a better discussion on the reasons "Mr. Bug Goes to Town" was a box office failure take a look at this article from Cartoon Research.com.
http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/mr-bug-and-hoppity-go-to-town/
-Michael J. Ruhland
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