With Criterion releasing Watership Down last year, the company has announced it will also be releasing another animated work of art, Fantastic Planet in June. Criterion is known for releasing some of the greatest and most artistic live action films in the best quality available, and with huge respect to the art of film. However an animated film can be just as artistic and brilliant as any live action film and it is good to see Criterion is realizing animation as great art.
Fantastic Planet is a 1973 politically minded and very abstract Sci-fi animated feature film from director René Laloux, and with some brilliant artwork from Roland Topor. This film is an intelligent, and highly artistic film fable based off of Stefan Wul's novel.
I am hoping because of this that more animated works of art will be released by Criterion in the future.
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.
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.
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.
Tom and Jerry have a long line of direct to video movies. These feature films began in 2001 with a quite entertaining entry Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring (directed by James T. Walker). This would mark the last time William Hanna would work with the characters as he would die shortly after it's release. This however would be Followed by many other movies released the same way. These would range from great to entertaining to pretty darn bad.
Tom and Jerry Tales was made to be a return to the style of the classic theatrical shorts. While this show doesn't reach the heights of the classic theatrical shorts, it is entertaining and is probably the best made for TV version of the cat and mouse duo. Each half-hour episode would be made up of 3 shorts about the same length as the classic cartoons. These 3 shorts would often all relate to one similar theme. Joseph Barbera would serve as this TV show's executive producer, and would even write some episodes. However he would die after the first season and therefore wouldn't be able to work through the show's second and last season. Two of the main people working on this show were Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone, who have made good careers out of reviving classic cartoon characters. They have also worked on the T.V. shows, Duck Dodgers, The Looney Tunes Show and Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated. This show premiered in 2006 and ran into 2008.
After that show began Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone would take over the direct to video movies, again the quality of these would not be consistent. One film of great note would Tom and Jerry: A Nutcrackers Tale. This is one of the best of the series, but more importantly it was based off an idea by Joseph Barbera. The film would be finished after he passed away, and dedicated to his memory. These films are still being made.
The most recent version of the duo is The Tom and Jerry Show. This show created by Bob Jaques and directed by Darrell Van Critters, is well written but simply has too bad of animation to be as funny as it should be.
What does the future hold next for Tom and Jerry, I don't know, but there is talk of another theatrical feature, and more, but for now this is the end.
It's time to look at more of my favorite Christmas cartoons.
First up is a Popeye cartoon from the legendary Fleshier Studio. The Fleshier Brothers were the first to bring Popeye to the screen and this is one of the earliest Popeyes. In fact it is the fifth one. Though Dave Fleshier like always is the credited director it is often times believed that the first animator listed did much of the directing as well. In this cartoon that man is Seymour Kneitel, who was studio owner Max Fleshier's son in law. He would also be in charge after the Fleshier Brothers were fired and the studio was renamed Famous Studios. This is a funny cartoon, with some excellent background work. So enjoy from 1933, Seasons Greetinks!.
Next up is another Popeye cartoon this time from Famous Studios. It was directed by Izzy Sparber, who was one of the most prolific Famous Studios directors. It was written by Jack Mercer, the voice of Popeye. This is a very entertaining cartoon that is among Famous Studios best Popeye cartoons. So from 1955 here is Mister and Mistletoe.
Next up is a cartoon from the Van Buren Studios. This studios films were distributed by RKO until RKO got the rights to distribute Disney cartoons, later. This is important to mention because this cartoon was made to be showing on the opening night of the RKO Roxy theater, later to be renamed The Rockefeller. The theater opened in December 1932. This is why the theater at the beginning of the cartoon Santa Claus gives us the theater. This is to make the theater seem like a Christmas present to the people. This is also the cartoon that introduced the Van Beruen studios new cartoon star, Cubby Bear, who is a thinly disguised Mickey Mouse copy. This was not uncommon for the studio. In 1931 the studio was sued by Disney for making cartoons with two mice characters who looked just like Mickey and Minnie. This cartoon was believed to be released in 1933 for a while yet thanks to Film Historian J.B. Kaufman, and others we now know when and for what it was originally released for. It was thought this way because Van Beurn would release it to other theaters in 1933, but it played first in 1932 as part of the opening of the RKO Roxy. This charming cartoon was directed by Mannie Davis, who would later become one of Terrytoons most prolific directors. This cartoon was appropriately titled Opening Night and here it is.
As I have mentioned in a previous post Only Yesterday is the only Studio Ghibli film not to be readily available to American audiences. However it is finally going to be released in the U.S.. It will be released theatrically nation wide on February 26, 2016, and will later be released on Blu-Ray and DVD. It will however have a U.S. premiere showing in New York on January 1st. So be excited my fellow Studio Ghibli fans, I know I am.
