As many of you probably know, The National Film Board of Canada has produced many of the most artistically brilliant animated short films ever. Luckily for all of us Turner Classic Movies is showing two and a half hours of these animated shorts. These will range in years from 1941 all the way to 1999. This block will show some of the best films produced by NFB, including Caroline Leaf's The Street (1976), Richard Condie's The Big Snit (1985) and Sheldon Cohen's The Sweater (1980). Many other amazing shorts will be included as well. The block starts at 5:00pm (west coast) and 8:00pm (east coast). It is a definite must watch for all fans of animation, so toon in all you cartoon lovers.
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.
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.
Good news fellow bronies, if you like My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic as much as I do (which is a lot), and enjoyed the first Equestria Girls Movie, the second Equestria Girls Movie is getting a limited theatrical release in the USA and Canada.
