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
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