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.
Because Halloween is coming up, I am going to share with you some great theatrical cartoon shorts with a spooky theme.
Our first film is a classic Disney cartoon. This is the first Silly Symphony cartoon. As much as Walt Disney loved Mickey Mouse, he wanted to be known for more than just Mickey cartoons. Carl Stalling, Disney's current musical director (later the musical director for Warner Brothers' animation department) came up with the idea of doing a series of musical based shorts. He came up with a rough idea of skeletons dancing to music. That idea would result in this film. The majority of the animation of this cartoon was done by a man named Ub Iwerks, who was at this time Disney's right hand man (he also co-created Mickey Mouse with Walt). Ub was one of the greatest animators to ever live, though when he was called away to head his own cartoon studio, he films would suffer from his lack of story and gag sense. However he would come back to Disney as a special effects man, where he made great advances combining live-action with animation with such films as The Three Caballeros and Mary Poppins. This film was directed by Walt himself. Distributors were originally worried about releasing a cartoon that they considered too gruesome, and did not want to release the film at all. However the cartoon ended up being a huge hit. A man named Joesph Barbera was in fact inspired by seeing this cartoon in theaters to go into the field of animation. So from 1929 here is The Skeleton Dance.
Our next film is everything you would except from a pre-code Betty Boop cartoon. That is because it is a pre-code Betty Boop Cartoon. This of course means that this cartoon is quite weird. Unfortunately by 1934, partly because of the production code, the oddness and pure surrealness of these cartoons faded away, but before than these cartoons were on the same level of surrealness as Bunnel and Dali's Un Chien Andalou. Though on all the Fleshier Brother cartoons list Davce Fleshier as the director, many historians now believe that the first animator listed often times took over the more traditional director duties, though Dave definitely had a big influence on these films. So this cartoon would be traditionally directed by Willard Bowsky, who was a regular animator/director at the Fleshier Studio. So from 1933, here is Betty Boop's Hallowe'en Party.
Our next film is a Walter Lantz Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon. Oswald was created by a man (you may have heard of him) named Walt Disney. This was before their was a Disney studio, so these cartoons were made for Universal Studios. Oswald became one of the most popular cartoon characters of the silent era. Walt Disney wanted a raise and when approaching Universal short department head Charles Mintz, he found out Mintz wanted him to take a pay cut. Walt Disney refused and Charles Mintz hired away Walt Disney's unit, and took control of the cartoons himself. This was the reason for the creation of Mickey Mouse. However Mintz time in charge was brief. Head of Universal, Carl Leamele would fire Mintz and put Walter Lantz in charge of Universal's cartoon unit. Lantz never truly understood the character of Oswald, but his Oswald cartoons were full of enough imaginiation and just plain weirdness to make up for this. Though Lantz's first Oswald cartoons were silent films, he would usher Oswald into the talking era. This cartoon would be a parody of the 1925 silent film version of Phantom of the Opera (directed by Rupert Julian, and staring Lon Chaney). Our film is called Spooks was directed by Lantz himself, released in 1930, and has a fantastic ending joke.
Last for today comes a fairly early Tom and Jerry cartoon called Fraidy Cat. Like many of these earlier Tom and Jerry cartoons this film is bit slower than we have grown to be used to for Tom and Jerry, and designs may look a bit off. However that does not mean that this is not a charming cartoon in it's own right. It features some quite good character animation and a great joke involving a vaccum cleaner. Like all the Tom and Jerry cartoons up until 1958's Tot Watchers this film was directed by William Hannah and Joesph Barbera. The radio show Tom was listening to near the beginning was a real radio show called The Witching Hour, and the woman doing the voice you hear was Martha Wentworth, who actually did the voice for the radio show. She did many voices for animation for various studios, she also voiced Owl Johnson's mother in I Love To Singa, Porky Pig's teacher Miss Cud in I Haven't Got a Hat, The Nanny in 101 Dalmatians, Daffy Duck's Wife in His Bitter Half to name a few. You can see her in Live action in Orson Welles' The Stranger as the character of Sara. Anyway while this may not be the best Tom and Jerry cartoon, it is quite entertaining.
Again I am going to take another look at one of the most overlooked animation studios of the golden age of Hollywood animation. This is of course the Terrytoons Studio, a studio whose films I have a personal fondness for.
The first film we are going to look at is called Pink Elephants from 1937. This cartoon was directed by George Gordon, who directed a lot of Terrytoons around this time. He would also later work as a director for some of Hanna-Barbera's TV shows, such as Superfriends, and The Smurfs. This is important to bring up because of a writer on this film. This cartoon is written by a man named Joseph Barbera, who spent a very brief time working on Terrytoons. In fact I fail to find another Terrytoon he worked on. Interestingly both Barbera, and Gordon would be working on cartoons for MGM a year later. This clever and creative cartoon is definitely a highlight among Terrytoons of this period, and a good cartoon in it's own right. I do apologize, all I can find of this cartoon is a TV version that was cut for time. I do not know what is missing. Let this serve as a reminder of how important film preservation is, especially to us film buffs.
Next up comes quite an odd 1944 Mighty Mouse cartoon called The Wreck of the Hesperus. In this cartoon Mighty Mouse saves the passengers on that famous ship. This film even uses narration taken from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's famous poem. It was originally thought that the Terrytoons Studio would make quite a few cartoons in the same vein, but Paul Terry (studio founder) decided that audiences would rather see Mighty Mouse fighting a villain, than saving people/mice/whoever from a disaster. This film was directed by Mannie Davis, who was one of the most prolific Terrytoons director, and had worked with Paul Terry on the silent Aesop's Film Fables cartoons, before the Terrytoons Studio was formed. Though he would stay with the Van Beurn Studio (Aesops Film Fables Studio with it's name changed), until 1933 (Terry was fired in 1929), he moved to the Terrytoons studio the same year and stayed there until he retired in 1961. Davis had also worked at the Raul Barr'e Studio (on Mutt and Jeff cartoons) and the Fleshier Studio (on Out of the Inkwell cartoons) as an animator, before any of this. This film is an entertaining little cartoon, that while not a classic has it's own charms.
In 1955 Paul Terry, about to retire, sold the studio to CBS. CBS put UPA animator Gene Deitch in charge. Deitch was not at all a fan of Terrytoons' previous output, and wanted to completely reinvent the studio. He would get rid of all of the main characters including popular ones such as Mighty Mouse, and Heckle and Jeckle, and replace them with new ones. These characters included Sidney the Elephant, Clint Clobber, John Door Matt, and Gaston Le Crayon. The films would also show much more of an apparition for modern art design.The look of the cartoons would be much more stylized. A perfect example of a Terrytoon of this time is our next film Flebus, directed by Ernest Pintoff and Gene Deitch himself. This brilliant little film is much closer to a UPA cartoon than a Terrytoon. In fact it doesn't even resemble an earlier Terrytoon. However the great design work by Pintoff, Allen Swift's great voice work and the brilliant script by Pintoff, makes this a great cartoon, and possibly the best Terrytoon of the Deitch era. So from 1957 enjoy this great cartoon.
Great news to all those who love Shaun the Sheep Movie as much as I did. It is getting a sequel.
No release date is known at this time. I also do not know who will be distributing the film to the U.S., hopefully it will not be Liongate again since they did a disservice to it when it comes to advertising and letting people know this exists. Hopefully with the show being shown on Cartoon Network it will recive more advertising, though it didn't get advertising for being shown there. However I am excited no matter what, and hope it will meet the greatness of the first film (However even if it doesn't meet the greatness it could still be a brilliant movie). Directors/writers Richard Starzac and Mark Burton had talked about the idea of a sequel earlier, so hopefully the will return to direct/write this film. So be excited everyone be excited.
Great news fellow American Studio Ghibli fans. Isoa Takahata's 1991 film Only Yesterday is finally going to get a U.S. release in 2016. This has been the only Ghibli film not to be released in the U.S.. So for us American Fans this is a new page in the history of not only one of the greatest animation studios to ever exist, but also one of the greatest film studios to ever exist.
This film is going to get both a Blu-ray/DVD release and a theatrical release. This is going to be brought to us by the company Gkids. So be excited everyone, I know I am.
75 years ago today a certain wascally wabbit made his film debut. Even though the Warner Brothers' cartoon department had been experimenting with a rabbit character since 1938's Porky's Hare Hunt. That cartoon was directed by Cal Dalton and Ben Hardaway. Even though that rabbit character had little to tie him to Bugs Bunny, the later rabbit's name would come from co-director Ben Hardaway's nickname Bugs.
The first actually Bugs Bunny cartoon would be 1940's A Wild Hare. This film would be directed by Tex Avery. Bugs' first words would be "What's Up Doc". Tex Avery came from Taylor, Texas, and according to him "Doc" was a common slang term used there when he was growing up, so he used it heavily for that reason. Bugs' voice was provided by Mel Blanc, who claims that he got the voice because he was told that this would be a tough character, so he decided to combine the two toughest voices in Americia, and therefore combined a Brooklyn accent with a Bronx accent. Though Tex would claim that Bugs was based off of Max Hare in Disney's Tortoise and the Hare, though there is very little of an obvious connection. The highlight of A Wild Hare was Robert Mckimson's fantastic animation of Bugs' fake death. He would later animate a very similar scene for 1944's Old Grey Hare, directed by Bob Clampett. Tex was not very happy with the finished film, and felt that he should have put more laughs in than he did. However audiences loved the cartoon, and demanded more of the rabbit character, who would get his name in his next film, 1941's Elmer's Pet Rabbit, directed by Chuck Jones.
In his film debut The Wise Little Hen (also his voice actor Clarence Nash's film debut) he played a supporting role in a basic fairy tale based Silly Symphony cartoon. He easily steals the film. Donald's easy to recognize, but always so easy to understand voice was provided by Clarence Nash. Walt had heard Nash do voices on the radio. He was impressed and Nash came over to audition. When Walt heard him do his Duck voice, he knew that was perfect for the duck character in this cartoon. Clarence Nash would not only do the Duck's voice in this 1934 film, but he would continue doing it until 1983's Mickey's Christmas Carol.
Notice that in the previous cartoon Donald never lost his temper. His trademark temper tantrums would first appear in his second film appearance Orphan's Benefit. This cartoon would also be the first time he and Mickey Mouse would share the screen. This 1934 cartoon is in black and white, but would be remade in color (and with later character designs) in 1941.
Donald would appear in many more films (both short and feature-length), comic books, TV shows, and much more. He would soon replace Mickey as the most popular, character in the Disney shorts (partly because as a non-role model he could get away with things Mickey couldn't).
