Dealing with delightful August weather here in the Hudson Valley which has been careening between 95-104 degrees Fahrenheit and surprise thunderstorms, this blogger is, alas, a tad low on physical energy - and today shall lay low and (yet again) watch cartoons. The caveat: these cartoons were first released to movie theatres on this day, August 7.
First and foremost, released theatrically on August 7, in this case in 1937, here is PORKY'S RAILROAD, just one of a slew of fantastic black & white Looney Tunes cartoons directed by the great Frank Tashlin. In this storyline with Porky the lil' engineer racing his old reliable train and pal "Toots" against a villain driving a supercharged supertrain "The Silver Fish," the elements of Tashlin's style - rapid cutting, use of speed, imaginative camera angles and varied pacing to build comedy - power the cartoon and synchronize beautifully with the music of Carl W. Stalling. PORKY'S RAILROAD can be found on the flawed but wonderful Porky Pig 101 DVD set.
Must add to this a note that the Anthony's Animation Talk YouTube channel did a terrific job focusing on Frank Tashlin's two stretches directing cartoons for Warner Brothers.
Also released theatrically on August 7, in 1948, the following excellent Chuck Jones cartoon. It is very funny and has one of the best titles of any cartoon, You Were Never Duckier. . . Must double bill this one with the Columbia Fred Astaire - Rita Hayworth musical, You Never Were Lovelier.
Posting three versions of this cartoon, the last two with commentary.
On August 7, 1946, Walt Disney's Pluto did his bit for the Community Chest.
Walt's inspiration, Felix the Cat starred in Jack From All Trades, released theatrically on August 7, 1927. This b&w video appears to have been mastered from the colorized version from the infamous Radio & Television Packagers.
Surprisingly, did not find an actual black & white print of the original cartoon on YouTube, Vimeo or Daily Motion, given that the survival rate on the series, as silent films go, is pretty good. In full Radio & Television Packagers glory, that colorized Felix had a cheesy soundtrack and steely determination to run roughshod over the artwork of Otto Messmer and crew whenever possible. What were they thinking? This. . . "let's make a buck - this colorized version with a new title isn't under copyright!" We'll call it MISTER DO-ALL."
Now, to drag today's post even further into the mud, we'll post a banned cartoon - and banned for painfully obvious reasons. Why would we do that? Are we NUTS? Yes - unquestionably, after days of triple-digit heat, we have lost our minds. Prefacing this banned cartoon: a compilation of crystals from the Tex Avery MGM universe. This does not let us off the hook by any means but at least puts this August 7 release in context.
Said banned cartoon is the silver screen swan song of Tex Avery's ever-inept bears George & Junior. Since the Bob Clampett version of Porky Pig traversed Africa seeking the do-do a decade earlier, Avery's bumbling protagonists search for the world's smallest pygmy. It is a cousin to Chuck Jones' series starring a certain minah bird who hops distinctively to Felix Mendelsohn's "Fingal's Cave" and similar to Red Hot Rangers, with the tribesman in the same role as the little flame in the opus featuring George & Junior as both hopeless and hapless forest firefighters, with some of the poses also recalling the wiseguy mouse in Slap Happy Lion.
Yes, along with several other films from the Tex Avery and Friz Freleng catalogs, while not as horrendously offensive as the infamous Censored 11, this indeed was banned for obvious reasons and remains one of the weaker Avery MGMS.
We love the characters George & Junior, both the 1940's Tex Avery version from Henpecked Hoboes and Hound Hunters and the very funny 1990's revival of the characters by ace animation director and writer Patrick A. Ventura, it understates the obvious to note that the design of the bears' diminutive but crafty nemesis in this cartoon is grotesque in the extreme. In addition, given the ending, it's a good bet that Tex was not crazy about George & Junior and as happy to get rid of them once and for all as he was with Screwy Squirrel.
In closing, the question is, if one had the chance to tour the world showing this (with an emphatic disclaimer preceding it), for example to an audience of classic film enthusiasts, educators and indie filmmakers at any of Africa's universities, would the group respond to this cartoon with horror, anger, outrage and disgust - or end up ROFL and/or at least enjoying the gags? Only someone who has had the opportunity to travel extensively as a presenter of vintage American films, good, bad, indifferent and/or pretty darn offensive, would know.
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