Cartoons in Love

So with Valentines Day, just around the corner today we are going to look at some cartoons with a theme of love.

Our first cartoon for the day is a sweet and charming little Mickey Mouse cartoon from 1933 called Puppy Love. This film was directed by Wilfred Jackson. Jackson was one of the all time great Disney directors. His early Silly Symphonies are among the best of that series, his work as the animation director on Song of the South is fantastic, and he would become one of the directors for such feature films as Fantasia (The Night on Bald Mountain segment), Cinderella, Alice in Wonderland, and Peter Pan. As was true of all the early Mickey Mouse cartoons of this era, Walt Disney, himself voiced Mickey.

For Valentines Day, what is better than a serenade, especially when that serenade is done by cartoon cats. So up next is a fun little operatic Terry-Toon from 1950 called If Cats Could Sing. Around this time Terry-Toons were doing many operatic cartoons most of them staring Mighty Mouse. This film was directed by Eddie Donnelly, who was one of the main Terry-Toons directors at this time. 

 

Our next cartoon stars the world's greatest lover, Pepe Le Pew. From 1949 it is For Scent-imental Reasons. This was the third Pepe cartoon, and the first to win an Oscar. It is in fact the second Warner Brothers' cartoon to win an Oscar, the first was Tweetie Pie (the first Tweety and Sylvester cartoon). Pepe Le Pew was somewhat based off the character Pepe Le Moko. Mostly based off the characters use in 1938's Algiers (a remake of the French film Pepe Le Moko), when he was played by Charles Boyer. This film was directed by the great Chuck Jones, who directed nearly all the Pepe Le Pew cartoons. This is one of Pepe's best films.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x2j6qkg

Our last film for today is a much darker and more experimental film than the previous three. From 1991 it is Two Sisters directed by Caroline Leaf. What really separates this from the previous three though is that this is not about romantic love, but rather about sisterly love, and very misguided sisterly love on top of that. This film came from the Natoinal Film Board of Canada, which is the home of a lot of more experimental animated shorts, than nearly any other studio. This film is not only a good short, but a great work of art as well.

 

-Michael J. Ruhland

"The Glassworker" Pakistan's First Hand Drawn Animated Feature Film in the Works.

Usman Riaz's The Glassworker will mark the very first hand drawn animated film to come out of Pakistan. The animation style will be heavily influenced by Japanese anime.

Usman Riaz is a musician, currently studying at Berklee College. Along with the animation and directing, he will also be composing the music for the film.

The film will about a boy who grew up working in a glass factory, and falls in love with a girl who works there. Riaz hopes that this will open the door for more great art to come out of Pakistan using this method.

To make sure the film will be top notch, Riaz is doing a Kickstarter to make sure it will be possible, you can find it here:  https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/manostudios/the-glassworker-an-animated-film-directed-by-usman.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Shout! Factory Films joins the Foreign Animation Distribution Game with "Long Way North"

Shout! Factory Films has gotten the rights to release the French animated feature film  Long Way North in the U.S.. Shout! will release the film in theaters sometime in Fall 2016, tough the film will have an earlier release at  New York International Children’s Film Festival on February 26th. Shout will also be in charge of the film's U.S. Blu-Ray/DVD/Amazon Prime/Netflix releases as well. They will also be in charge of English Dubs as well.

Long Way North is directed by Rémi Chayé. This is his debut as a director, but he has been an assistant director on two fantastic movies, Tomm Moore's The Secrect of Kells, and Jean-François Laguionie's The Painting.

I am excited about this and hope that Shout! Factory Films, will do this with more foreign animation in the future.

-Michael J. Ruhland