Creepy Cartoon Celebration #2

In celebration of Halloween, today we are going to look at some more creepy themed cartoons.

Our first film will be a classic Donald Duck cartoon called Trick or Treat. This cartoon is directed by one of Disney's greatest short directors, Jack Hannah. Jack Hannah was one of the two directors to add more slapstick energy into the Disney shorts (the other was Jack Kinney). Many of Hannah's shorts (while maybe not to the same level as say Looney Tunes, or Tom and Jerry) where pure slapstick romps, and very funny cartoons to boot. He specialized in directing cartoons with Donald Duck and Goofy, and he introduced audiences to the characters of Chip and Dale. Jack Hannah was probably the greatest Disney director to never work on a feature. However his shorts have as much life and energy, and are just as great of films as some the classic Disney features. He would go on to direct at the Walter Lantz Studio, starting in 1960, and directed some quite enjoyable shorts there (though not up to his Disney films). Notice that Witch Hazel is voiced by June Foray in this cartoon, this will come into play when I discuss our next film. So enjoy one of my favorite Halloween cartoons.

Our next film is another time June Foray voiced Witch Hazel. this time for a Looney Tunes cartoon staring Bugs Bunny called Broomstick Bunny. This not the first Warner Brothers cartoon in which Witch Hazel appeared, but the first one in which Foray voiced her for Warner Brothers. In the previous Warner Brothers cartoon with Witch Hazel, Bewitched Bunny, she was voiced by Bea Bernadette. (Spoiler: In this film Witch Hazel takes a beautiful potion and is transformed to look like June Foray herself.) This film was directed by animation legend Chuck Jones, who had directed the previous Warner Brothers Witch Hazel cartoon. Chuck Jones had a knack for combining subtle humor with not so subtle humor, and it is perfectly shown here, where even little facial expressions can get big laughs(a trademark of many of Jones' films). There would be two more Witch Hazel cartoons in the future, A Witch's Tangled Hare (directed by Abe Levitow), and A Haunting We Will Go (directed by Robert McKimson), both of which June Foray would provide her voice. I don't not know how two studios got to use the same character, especially with the same voice but enjoy the cartoon, it is quite good.

Last for today comes a  classic Fleischer Brothers Popeye cartoon that actually scared me as a little kid. This film is Shiver Me Timbers. This is an early Popeye, and this is evident by that fact that William Costello is providing his voice here. Costello was the sailor's first voice. However the success went to his head, making him be replaced by Jack Mercer. Jack Mercer would add even more charm to the character by ad-libing a lot of dialog. Mercer started as an inbetweener at the studio, but his love of doing imitations is what lead him to be the sailors voice, because one day the Fleischer brother heard him do an imitation of Popeye. Though Dave Fleischer is credited as the director, much of the directing was done by William Bowsky, and this is usually true of the top credited animator on Fiescher cartoons.

-Michael J. Ruhland