A week from today, April 6, the Psychotronix Film Festival returns to the Orinda Theater for a scintillating springtime extravaganza.
We celebrate April Fool's Day a few days late and the birthday of movie comedian Grady Sutton a day early!
Time to celebrate Easter retroactively and the right way - the Psychotronic way, starting with Bugs Bunny!
The Psychotronix Film Festival is baaaaaaaaaaaack - with yet another devastatingly delirious deluge drawn from Our Celluloid Past!
The April 6 program will be as refreshing as springtime!
And, indeed, what would spring be without pickles?
Our overstocked 16mm archive is bursting at the acetate seams yet again with some of the coolest odd-ball films you are likely to see.
What would a Psychotronix Film Festival be without classic TV ads and Soundies?
And kidvid gone wrong, terribly wrong?
The place: Orinda Theater 2 Orinda Theatre Square, Orinda, CA 94563 The time: 8:30 p.m. PST
Orinda Theater Movieline: (925) 254-9060
Attendees at the Orinda Theater show note: a few weeks after kicking off April with a cool Psychotronix show there, we shall get the merry month of May off to a roaring start with a KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill College in the Los Altos Hills.
Yes, Virginia Mayo and Virginia Weidler, there will be a "Mayday" KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival - 31 years, 5 months after our first show - at Room 5015 on Foothill College on May 4.
It dawns on us, stuck for a topic as usual, that today, March 22, is International Goof Off Day. Yes, the experienced goof-offs at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog here are not kidding - there actually is a International Goof Off Day. Thank you, Sandra Boynton, for the following apt International Goof Off Day illustration!
Shall devote International Goof Off Day to weapons-grade goofing off by a certain favorite character from Walt Disney Productions, not Mickey Mouse. Minnie Mouse, Donald Duck, Clarabelle Cow or even the 1920's version of Oswald the Lucky Rabbit but (drum roll). . . Goofy.
The Goof debuted in the 1932 Mickey Mouse cartoon Mickey's Revue as the chortling "Dippy Dawg."
We'll kick this International Goof Off Day tribute off with one of Disney's best short cartoons, Tiger Trouble!
There are three names I associate with The Goof. First and foremost, need to pay tribute to the artist responsible for designing the character's angular style and specific movements: the brilliant and gifted animator Art Babbitt. While it is difficult to determine where to begin, given Art Babbitt's many contributions to Disney animation history, Michael Barrier's interview with Art is a fantastic place to start.
Jack had a knack for directing the best of the best Goofy cartoons, starting with Goofy’s Glider. Kinney's direction, splendid animation and the always florid and sternly stentorian narration of the Jack Barrymore-esque John McLeish equals laughs.
Goofy then became, after the hilarious How To Ride A Horse segment in The Reluctant Dragon, the ultimate sports champion. Such classic "Sport Goofy" cartoons as The Art Of Skiing, Art Of Self Defense, How To Fish, How To Play Baseball, How To Play Football, The Olympic Champ, Tennis Racquet and Goofy Gymnastics followed.
Last but not least, the third name we associate with the Goof is the one, the only, the incomparable voice of the Goof, vaudeville and circus performer Pinto Colvig.
Very few in animation excelled as storyman, gag writer, musician, songwriter and voice artist. Colvig was all of the above with Disney, Lantz and Fleischer Studios.
Pinto's distinctive voice even turns up in a few Warner Brothers and Tex Avery MGM cartoons.
The Southern Oregon Historical Society devoted a one hour episode of The Southern Oregon History Show to Pinto Colvig
Big time thanks for the laughs, all of you, from Walt to Art to Fred Moore to Jack's brother Dick and pal Roy Williams to Pinto to Jack Kinney's crew of ace animators (John Sibley, Ed Aardal, Hugh Fraser and Jack Boyd, sometimes supplemented by "Nine Old Men" luminaries Milt Kahl, Ward Kimball and Woolie Reitherman)!
One of the key things, in addition to our pets, that got this household through many months of lockdown in 2020-2021 was watching The Silent Comedy Watch Party, presented with wit and panache by intrepid film historians, authors and curators Ben Model and Steve Massa on Sundays.
On this Sunday, St. Patrick's Day, the series will return to YouTube for its 4th anniversary extravaganza and episode #100 - HOORAY!
One of the many things I love about the series is that, unlike 99% of silent era comedy programs, The Silent Comedy Watch Party does not limit the focus strictly to The Big 3, Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and Harold Lloyd.
While we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog love those guys, unquestionably the other silent movie laughmakers, lesser known but often hilarious, richly deserve kudos, bravos and huzzahs for their contributions to film humor.
It's noteworthy that acrobatic Al St. John, the ever-persnickety Johnny Arthur and wacky redhead of silents Alice Howell - all very funny performers - are featured in Silent Comedy Watch Party episode #100.
The following graphic for Silent Comedy Watch Party episode 50 shows just a few of the amazing comics featured in the series.
The dyed-in-the-wool silent comedy aficionados at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog extend big time thanks to The Silent Comedy Watch Party for repeatedly delivering big laughs during 2020, a difficult time (even for those fortunate enough to not lose family members and friends to coronavirus) and continuing to do so with good-natured enthusiasm in only slightly less bat guano crazy 2024.
There is a treasure trove of vintage comedy and animation screenings going on right now in New York City, with very cool shows across the country from The Empire State in Orinda, California from my friends from the Psychotronix Film Festival happening on April 6.
Tomorrow night, classic comedy expert Nelson Hughes celebrates the tenth anniversary of his series That Slapstick Show with TEN hilarious Pre-Code 2-reelers, some featuring the poet laureate of "the slow burn," character actor/comedian/director Edgar Livingston Kennedy, at QED Astoria in Queens.
Prints are courtesy of the Library of Congress! Tickets are available for That Slapstick Show: Pre-Code Comedieshere. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. Classic comedy films begin at 7:00.
If you happen to be the most intrepid and physically hardy of film buffs, reside in NYC and have the time free, you could attend the two matinee shows of sheer animated splendor from the Max Fleischer Cartoons: The Art & Inventions Of Max Fleischer retrospective at MoMA and then head for QED Astoria for big laughs courtesy of Edgar Kennedy and his world-class comedian pals!
Say hello to intrepid curators Thad Komorowoski and Nelson Hughes if you have a chance - and dig those excellent Hal Roach comedies and Fleischer cartoons!
Cartoons by Fleischer Studios are, peg boards down, the all-time favorites of the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog.
When it comes to classic cartoon goodness, Uncle Max delivers!
Saturday, April 6 the Psychotronix Film Festival crew, led by Sci Fi Bob Ekman, Scott Moon and Robert Emmett from KFJC, shall rock the house with an evening of big screen fun at the Orinda Theatre.
Yours truly, who unfortunately lacks a working Star Trek teleportation device or an unlimited travel budget, will, much to his chagrin, not be there for the psychotronic festivities at Orinda or the April 10-14 shows by the San Francisco Silent Film Festival, but shall be on hand (with 16mm reels) - trains, planes and automobiles willing - for the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival at Foothill College on May 4.
And, if current cinema floats the glass bottom boat for San Francisco Bay Area cineastes, South Bay residents can check out San Jose's Cinequest film festival this weekend. The 2024 edition of Cinequest extends through St. Patrick's Day.
This blog has posted about the amazing and ever-inventive animation of Fleischer Studios numerous times over the 1,328 posts thus far.
The inspired work of Fleischer Studios remains, over a century after its first films for J.R. Bray were distributed to movie theaters, revered among animators, filmmakers and classic movie aficionados.
The studio that created Ko-ko, The Inkwell Imps and Betty Boop and successfully brought Popeye and Superman from the comics to the silver screen unquestionably are the favorite cartoon producers of this blogmeister and the KFJC Psychotronix Film Festival.
We're thrilled to hear that at NYC's MoMA, Fleischer Studios will at long last get their long overdue due.
Max Fleischer's granddaughter Jane Fleischer Reid has been working with historian, author and film restoration expert Thad Komorowoski and the best of the best cartoonologists and restoration experts - on making this tribute a reality.
Thad covered this epic animation retrospective in his February 28 post on Cartoon Research, Fleischer Cartoons at The Museum Of Modern Art. Thad writes: It’s been a wonderful privilege and pleasure to be part of the Fabulous Fleischer Cartoons Restored initiative for the past few years. Spearheaded by Jane Fleischer Reid (Max’s granddaughter) and in cooperation with Paramount and many international archives, this is the little restoration project that could.
It’s shown what’s possible with the right people in the right jobs, at the right time in history. Not just me, but Steve Stanchfield and his team at Thunderbean Animation, Fleischer licensee Mauricio Alvarado, Sam Davis, Ciara Waggoner, Devon Baxter, Jack Rizzo, Ray Faiola, Ben Model, Mark Kausler, Bruce Lawton, Paul Mular, Ray Pointer and Brandon Adams have all been pitching in and hard at work bringing these classics back to glory never thought possible.
The ingenious filmmaking of Max, Dave, and Lou Fleischer, Dick Huemer, Doc Crandall, Grim Natwick, Willard Bowsky, Dave Tendlar, Seymour Kneitel, Shamus Culhane, Myron Waldman, and so many others has been neglected for so long, and it’s so befitting their work is being shared and celebrated right where it was created.
This isn't the first time a Fleischer retrospective has hit New York City, where these cartoons were produced - Tommy Stathes of Cartoons On Film has done several NY animation programs featuring Ko-Ko, The Inkwell Imps, Bimbo and Betty Boop - but the first this writer can think of that is a multi-day extravaganza showcasing 35mm archival prints of these superlative animated cartoons.
The disturbingly detail-oriented here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog have added hyperlinks to each of the titles that will be shown in MoMA's week-long retrospective.
Strongly and emphatically suggest reading Thad's Cartoon Research piece first and then peruse the above lists - giving thanks to the many super-talented artists who brought these outstanding animated cartoons to life - the aforementioned Bowsky, Tendlar, Crandall, Huemer, Natwick, Culhane, Kneitel and Waldman plus Ted Sears, Berny Wolf, Al Eugster, Nick Tafuri, George Germanetti, Orestes Calpini, Jim Tyer, Rudy Zamora and many more.
If you don't and can't be there, buy this Blu-ray.
There are excellent books about the studio that created Koko and Betty Boop, beginning with one by Max Fleischer's son Richard. We are big fans of Richard Fleischer's feature films, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and The Narrow Margin especially, and got a big kick out of this book.
The guy who writes this blog is a Talkartoon lovin' film collector/programmer/DIY curator slipped a few 35mm Fleischer cartoons into his three Pre-Code Follies shows at the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum and spent much of his 4+ decades of schlepping 16mm projectors and reels around to various San Francisco Bay Area venues presenting the highly imaginative work of 1920's and 1930's New York animators.
Until Thursday, this animation aficionado shall spend some quality time with Out Of The Inkwell, starring the one, the only Koko the Clown.
