Today we will look at more uses of classic comedy teams in animation.
If you are a fan of both Hanna-Barbera cartoons and Laurel and Hardy films, Laurel and Hardy Cartoons, should hold an interest for you. This TV series premiered in 1966. Unlike The New Three Stooges, or the Abbott and Costello cartoons, both Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy had died by the time this TV show was created (Laurel just the year before in fact), so neither of them provided their voices for the show. The voices were provided by Larry Harmon (Stanley) , and Jim MacGeorge (Ollie). Luckily the voices were spot on imitations. While they obviously were not as good as playing Stan and Ollie as Stan and Ollie were, they gave great vocal performances that diehard Laurel and Hardy Fans should still enjoy. It is also well worth noting that Larry Harmon was also the creator of the show. The show was produced and directed by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (for their own studio, Hanna-Barbera). Hanna and Barbera have rightly been called the kings of Saturday morning. In the 1950's and 1960's their company had been putting out the highest quality of TV animation of anyone in America (except maybe the excellent Peanuts TV specials). This cartoon definitely proves that point as this is an expertly made show. This series is also much closer to the original Laurel and Hardy style than Hanna-Barbera's Abbott and Costello show was to Abbott and Costello. The characters are the same Stan and Ollie that Laurel and Hardy fans love from their films. Even with the limited TV-budgeted animation many of their famous facial expressions were captured quite well. So for Hanna-Barbera fans and for Laurel and Hardy fans this show should be a treat, containing just enough of the charm from both to please both sets of fans.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4aUtaARCvKQ
Next comes a cartoon staring Flip the Frog. Flip the Frog was created by Ub Iwerks. Ub Iwerks was as close of a person came to being a partner with Walt Disney. He had in fact co-created Mickey Mouse with Walt. He was one of the great technical innovators in the history of animation, and one of the most talented animators of all time (animating nearly all of the first Mickey Mouse cartoon by himself in a record time). So it seemed natural that when he started his own cartoon studio it would be highly successful. However that was not the case. What Ub had in technical innovation, he lacked in story telling. While many of his studio's cartoons looked great, they were bogged down by boring stories, uninteresting characters and unfunny jokes. Shamus Culhane in his autobiography "Talking Animals and Other People" told a story about how Ub's idea of a joke was having an irregular number of cylinders under a car's hood. The first series to come out from this studio was Flip the Frog. This cartoon was the last cartoon of the series. Ub would later return to Disney, and make some amazing technical advancements, especially in the area of combining animation and live action. This cartoon features caricatures of three Hollywood comedy teams, Laurel and Hardy, The Marx Brothers, and Buster Keaton and Jimmy Durante. Keaton and Durante may not be commonly thought of as a comedy team, but they were paired in quite a few films at this time (unfortunately ones that were pretty sub-par and below both comedians' talents). So from 1933 and directed by Ub Iwerks here is Soda Squirt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5AJKSlZtf2Y
Last for today is a classic Disney cartoon. This one is full of Hollywood caricatures put in positions of classic fairy tale characters. Most of these caricatures are done by a man named T. Hee. T. Hee was a great animator who specialized in celebrity caricatures, and would later work as a writer for UPA. T. Hee had also worked on 6 classic Warner Brothers cartoons, 4 of which are full of celebrity caricatures (The CooCoo Nut Grove, Porky's Road Race, Porky's Romance, Porky's Railroad, Speaking of the Weather, The Woods Are Full of Cuckoos). He was also a writer for Disney's feature films, The Reluctant Dragon, Make Mine Music, and Victory Through Air Power. This cartoon features Laurel and Hardy as Simple Simon and the Pie Man, roles that were considered for the actual Laurel and Hardy in their 1934 film, Babes in Toyland. So from 1938 and directed by Wilfred Jackson, here is Mother Goose Goes Hollywood.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F2LkRqhp4Zc
_Michael J. Ruhland.
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