Now, let's enjoy some quality time watching cartoons produced by the Fleischer studio!
Arguably, this blog's favorite animated cartoon produced by the studio where all the Fleischer animators ended up after Max and Dave got the boot, Famous Studios, with honorable mentions to the excellent musical WE’RE ON OUR WAY TO RIO (1944) and the hilarious SHAPE AHOY (1945), remains Popeye in THE HUNGRY GOAT, directed by Dan Gordon.
We extend big time kudos, bravos and huzzahs to Max and Dave Fleischer, the numerous super talented artists who created cool cartoons at their studio and to Paramount Pictures, which made dough-re-me aplenty not just from Ernst Lubitsch and Josef von Sternberg flicks, but from making Betty Boop and Popeye nationwide movie stars.
Photo by Christopher Walters Tomorrow is Halloween - YAY! Today's post begins with coming attractions, starting with Vincent Price in The House On Haunted Hill!
Then with psychotronic trailers. . . Tarantula!
And THE CRAWLING HAND (1963)!
And the extra cheesy THE CREEPING TERROR!
The Creature Of The Walking Dead trailer is so cheap, it actually shows the ending of the film!
Now for some spooky gothic comedy, starting with THE LAUREL & HARDY MURDER CASE (1930).
The boys dig up dead bodies in HABEAS CORPUS (1928)!
A Bluebeard storyline is the cornerstone of the Laurel & Hardy short subject OLIVER THE EIGHTH.
In closing, it's Halloween cartoon time!
After all, Halloween monsters live such interesting lives!
The 2026 World Series is here, just short of a century after the following footage was shot!
To celebrate, let's post cool cartoons and comedies about baseball. Leading off, here's one of our favorites, Abner The Baseball.
Next at bat: Ub Iwerks' intrepid Willie Whopper, followed by Popeye and Gandy Goose.
Friz Freleng and his Merrie Melodies crew tackled the national pastime quite well a decade before making the epic Baseball Bugs.
Tex Avery made the hilarious Screwball Football for WB in 1939, so it's no surprise that he eventually followed that with a gag-filled opus on baseball.
Would be no surprise if Tex saw Jack Kinney's How To Play Baseball and regarded it as a challenge. Disney animator Dave Bossert wrote all about How To Play Baseball here.
Pondering Charles Gardner's extensive Cartoon Research series Cartoons At Bat, we now transition from animation to live-action.
None other than Babe Ruth appeared in Harold Lloyd's classic SPEEDY.
It's amazing that, given how Buster Keaton loved baseball, he
did not star in a film about the national pastime until 1935. While there were bits about baseball in College and The Cameraman, no extended pieces have Buster bringing comedy, acrobatics and athleticism to the diamond.
The 1935 Educational Pictures baseball 2-reeler One Run Elmer demonstrates Buster's ability to make entertaining comedy on a $1.98 budget.
With an episode of Dumpsterpiece Theatre, an enjoyable and very psychotronic YouTube series from a few years ago. Why? Dizzy Dean, Daffy Dean and Shemp Howard!
On Sunday morning, the first in October, shall we be industrious and fruitful? No, I don't think so, definitely not. Feel more like this guy right now!
So this Sunday, we're watching 1950's commercials, starting with our favorites, Bob & Ray, as Bert and Harry Piel.
The Wizard Wick Deodorizer Company gently reminds overworked and under-appreciated 1950's housewives that offensive odors linger in your home for hours!
Can't wait to celebrate National Jell-o Week!
Don't forget, modern gas brings home automation!
The gang here especially likes animated cigarette commercials.
Relax - it's light up time!
Instead of the dance of the hours today, it's the dance of the marching cigarettes.
On the topic of marching cigarettes, animation and painting genius Oskar Fischinger beat everyone to the punch.
Indeed, we Way Too Damn Lazy To Write a Blog love love love stop-motion commercials, especially those produced by Joop Geesink's Dollywood.
It is our pleasure at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog to celebrate both our 20th anniversary of blogging AND National Silent Movie Day with a bunch of classic cartoons. Leading off: that guy responsible for Andy Panda, Woody Woodpecker, Chilly Willy and Smedley (the dog voiced by Daws Butler), Walter Lantz!
Batting second: a mosquito. Now it's INSECT TIME, courtesy of Winsor McCay.
In The Roaring 20's, suave and debonair Felix The Cat is the predecessor of The International!
Here, Otto Messmer's Felix the Cat tangles with a germ - not The Germs, A GERM.
And. . . speaking of silent era cartoons, some of the best of the best were produced by the Fleischer Studio, reknowned for Koko The Clown ("Out Of The Inkwell"), Betty Boop and the inventive animated version of E.C. Segar's Popeye from the Thimble Theatre comic strip.
The silent movie-crazed (and movie crazy) gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog shall be posting mass quantities of our personal favorite classic comedy short subjects and cartoons for the occasion!
Very talented scribes, terrific silent film experts and ridiculously knowledgeable cinephiles will be celebrating National Silent Movie Day 2026 with cool writings. A few of the posters have been on our blogroll for quite a few years now - and with good reason - and the gang here is thrilled that Silentology, Silver Screenings, CrÃtica Retrô and nitrate glow in particular are still at it, consistently creating great content.
We'll close today's post by whetting the appetite for silents with some excellent 1920's cartoons, beginning with pre-Mickey Mouse Disneys. These were produced back in the days when the likes of Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising and Friz Freleng were, rather amazingly, working for Walt.
And. . . can't finish without following those with some Otto Messmer cartoons!
Labor Day Weekend is here! Our first Labor Day cartoon, Mess Production (1945), features the ever-industrious Popeye, not aided by rat bastard Bluto. There's a clever and funny re-use of concepts central to the Fleischer Popeye cartoons A DREAM WALKING (1934) and LOST & FOUNDRY (1937).
Next up, a not exactly subtle pro-business time capsule created for the Chamber Of Commerce in 1954 by John Sutherland Productions. Thanks, Prelinger Archives for posting!
The following Labor Day opus, a song of praise for hard workin' roller ball bearings and how they protect locomotives from the dastardly Kid Friction, was produced by UPA and narrated by Stan Freberg. It's just one of many terrific animated films on Mike Kazaleh's YouTube channel.
What would Labor Day be without commercials?
Portafilms in Ann Arbor, Michigan produced the following short film, very in the Cartoon Modern style, as the previous commercials were. Thanks for discovering and posting, Steve Stanchfield/Thunderbean Animation!
And, speaking of Cartoon Modern, am a big fan of the Terrytoons produced by Gene Deitch, especially in CinemaScope. Jerry Beck wrote about 'em here and we at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog wholeheartedly agree! While none of these imaginative and unusual cartoons are specifically about Labor Day, they're included today because we love 'em.
Every Labor Day Weekend, the Cinecon Classic Film Festival rocks the vintage celluloid. This year's festival, the 62nd Cinecon, is at the Nuart Theatre on 11272 Santa Monica Blvd. Hope this blog's readers can make it to West Los Angeles, enjoy the big screen fun and the special guests the festival books. Kudos to all involved!
In a few weeks (on August 28), a new movie based on Warner Brothers Animation and desert dwellers Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner hits movie theaters.
While well aware that Warner Brothers Animation and Road Runner stalwarts Chuck Jones, Mike Maltese, Lloyd Vaughan, Ken Harris, Phil Monroe and Ben Washam are long gone, this trailer looks pretty darn good. Nonetheless, the Coyote vs. ACME preview emphatically sparks an uncontrollable urge to watch Road Runner cartoons!
Will's over-the-top performance in the Fly High Duluth sketch is a personal favorite and the ultimate statement on bad bands, enhanced by Fred Armisen as the group's animated and overenthusiastic drummer. Love the fact that both host Scarlett Johansson and the entire SNL cast are involved.
When everyday life, the annoyances of old age and unrelentingly lousy 2026 get the gang here feeling down, a fantastic way to get to that better place involves vintage Warner Bros. cartoons from 1935-1955 and the both gloriously unhinged and intergalactic country singers Clancy T. Bachleratt and Jackie Snad.
And, in closing, we respectfully tip our Michigan J. Frog top hats to the desert dwellers and all involved in making Warner Brothers cartoons and the high-wire sketch comedy at Second City, Groundlings, Upright Citizens Brigade, etc. Thanks to all who bring the laughs!
Memorial Day Weekend is here. 2026 still looks like this.
So that means it's time to cheer up by watching lots of vintage WW2-era cartoons on Memorial Day Weekend.
A good way to celebrate Memorial Day a few days early is with the World War II version of Popeye. In particular, we're big fans of the early Famous Studios Popeyes and Noveltoons directed by Dan Gordon!
And Private Snafu. . .
Snafu's close cousin was Mr. Hook.
In addition to all-time favorite World War II propaganda cartoon Der Fuehrer's Face, Walt Disney Productions made numerous wartime flicks, some as theatricals, others as training films.
The best closer for Memorial Day Weekend after all those service comedies starring Laurel & Hardy, Abbott & Costello, Martin & Lewis, etc. is Bugs Bunny.
Spoiler alert and best line from the following Chuck Jones cartoon: "so they're inducting rabbits".
These cartoons cheer the crew up here as we wish we could have trekked out to Ohio for big screen fun at this weekend's Columbus Moving Picture Show film festival and also bid farewell to The Late Show, one of our favorite TV programs going back to the 1990's David Letterman years.
This weekend, we pay tribute to pioneering animation producer and director Walter Lantz (1899-1994).
Posted a Lantz cartune-filled salute to Walt and Woody back in December 2024, but dang it, that ISN'T ENOUGH!
Do we LOVE Woody (both the woodpecker and San Francisco Giants curveballing LHP Kirk "Woody" Reuter), Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Andy Panda, Buzz Buzzard, Chilly Willy, and the excellent Swing Symphonies and Musical Miniatures series?
Yes, emphatically!
Here's Walter with his wife and ace cartoon voice artist Gracie Stafford Lantz (the voice of Woody Woodpecker after the departure of voiceman/storyman Ben Hardaway).
Walter Lantz began producing cartoons for J.R. Bray back in the silent era, with the Dinky Doodle, Unnatural History and Pete The Pup series. Walter appears in many of his silent era productions!
Over his many decades producing animated cartoons, Mr. Lantz was assisted very aptly by, to name just a few extremely talented collaborators, directors Shamus Culhane, Tex Avery, Dick Lundy, Alex Lovy, Don Patterson, Sid Marcus and Jack Hannah, animators Pat Matthews, Grim Natwick, Emery Hawkins, Manuel Moreno, Bill Nolan, Clyde Geronimi, Ray Abrams, Les Kline, Laverne Harding, Paul Smith, Art Davis, avatars of layout, backgrounds and character designs Philip DeGuard, Art Heinemann, Ray Huffine and Art Landy, storymen Ben "Bugs" Hardaway, Milt Schaffer and Cal Howard, voice artists Dick Nelson, Lionel Stander, Daws Butler, Dallas McKennon and (sometimes, before 1941) Mel Blanc, plus excellent music men Jimmy Dietrich, Frank Marsales and Darrell Calker.
Indeed, our mission, just a few days short of Walter's 127th birthday on Monday, is to continue deluging you with vintage Walter Lantz "Cartunes", starting with Oswald The Lucky Rabbit.
The gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog remain enthusiastic about the Lantz Ozzies of the early talkie era.
Here's the color segment (preceding the Ted Eshbaugh Studio's Goofy Goat Antics and the Disney Silly Symphony Flowers And Trees) starring Ozzie from the 1930 Universal feature THE KING OF JAZZ.
A caricature of Paul Whiteman, bandleader and star of The King Of Jazz appears in an Oswald The Lucky Rabbit cartoon, My Pal Paul.
Lantz' Oswald cartoons from 1929-1931 are filled with wonderful, cartoony, imaginative, way-out ideas and Bill Nolan's extra rubbery animation.
We close this too brief homage to the great Walter Lantz with cartoons directed by the equally great Tex Avery during his brief second stint there. That's right, the Tex Avery, whose first act after leaving the employ of Walter Lantz and joining the ragtag Leon Schlesinger Studio, producers of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, was to create "Termite Terrace" and give the middle finger to that other more famous Walt. Avery directed Porky's Duck Hunt (1937) and A Wild Hare (1940), effectively throwing down the gauntlet.
As always, the blazing and ever-inventive comic genius of Tex Avery is quite something to behold. Too bad Tex never met Buster Keaton when they were both working on the MGM lot.
Today we salute the innovative producer, director and animator Norman McLaren.
A splendid post from Scotland.com adds: Norman McLaren (1914–1987) was a pioneering Scottish-Canadian animator, director, and producer renowned for his innovative work at the National Film Board of Canada (NFB).
A pioneer in hand-drawn, abstract, and pixilation animation, he won an Oscar for Neighbours (1952) and a Palme d'Or for Blinkity Blank (1955).
That means it's time to get pixillated!
NEIGHBORS may be the first pixillated film this film buff ever saw in which the menacing creatures were humans and not prehistoric monsters!
A few years before the Beatles discovered Ravi Shankar, his soundtrack is a cornerstone of pixillated McLaren opus A Chairy Tale.
Along with the films of Oskar Fischinger, McLaren's work got this movie buff, unlike the viewer played by Mel Brooks in The Critic, to be just fine with colors, shapes, lines and movement synchronized to music as the beating heart of a short film, as seen in BEGONE DULL CARE.
Also admire anyone who would think of scratching the emulsion of the film and seeing what the heck happens! No budget, no problem!
Submitted for your approval, a selection of vintage Norman McLaren art films - he made over 60 - that make this blogger want to see them again.
Why are these shapes and designs so hypnotic? I don't know - play it again!
