Expanding Cartoonal Knowledge during Quarantine

Aspiring to a faint hint of cheerfulness during the ongoing and raging dumpster fire that is the year 2020, we at Way Too Lazy To Write A Blog find ourselves, after a lifetime of seeking classic movies, still totally floored to find animation rarities we have never, ever seen!



Here's a hilarious Krazy Kat cartoon, Farm Relief, which looks a lot more like the handiwork of Friz Freleng, Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising than anything those noted in the screen credits, Ben Harrison and Manny Gould, were producing at the time (1929).



It's a hoot, not in the TV package of Mintz studio Krazy Kats distributed by Samba Pictures - and joins the Walt DIsney Silly Symphony The Merry Dwarfs, the Scrappy cartoons Fare Play and The Beer Parade and the Max Fleischer Screen Song Down by The Old Mill Stream in Cartoonland's delirious "booze movies" sub-genre.



Laughs are a must for one's mental health and well-being, so a reliable way to keep the spirits up is to watch classic cartoons.



Fascinated by the history of the art form, this movie buff particularly enjoys seeing classic cartoons featuring commentary tracks. The presence of such authors, film historians and experts as Michael Barrier, Will Friedwald, Jerry Beck and Eric Goldberg mean that even the most dyed-in-the-wool animation aficionado will learn something watching these.





Here, animator Bob Jaques (and co-host with author Thad Komorowski of the informative and entertaining Cartoon Logic podcast) breaks down Too Weak To Work, an all-time favorite cartoon of the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog and arguably one of very best ever produced by the too often disappointing Famous Studios.



Among the very best are those in which Jerry, Greg Ford and Mark Kausler offer their observations and incorporate interviews they conducted with the luminaries who made these films.



























Thanks, Greg! Thanks, Mark! While watching these classic cartoons isn't as good as hanging out with you guys in person during these very socially isolated times, it definitely helps. Cheers and thanks for your outstanding work, which is all over the documentaries I've been posting lately (including the following American Masters film about Chuck Jones).