We're pleased as pomegranates to see a slew of classic cartoons turn up on websites other than YouTube. First off, there's Internet Archive, which we have relied on recently for posts about our favorite silent movie comedians. Among our favorites remains the comic who was also a stop-motion animation innovator, Charley Bowers.
Of course, these comedy heroes include the one, the only Felix The Cat!
While on the topic of silent era cartoons, must note the growing selection of Fleischer Studio, including entries from the original Out Of The Inkwell series.
There are also a bunch of Fleischer Screen Songs on Internet Archive. This is good, as neither the Fleischer nor Famous Studios Screen Songs have been released on Blu-ray as of yet. Some turn up periodically on Steve Stanchfield's Cartoon Research Thursdays.
As the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog ponders the San Francisco Giants' hiring of Tony Vitello, longtime head coach of the 341-131 Tennesee Vols juggernaut, as the new manager, we doff our fedoras worn by Tex Avery to Internet Archive, Vimeo, Cartoon Research and Devon Baxter and close today's post with two very funny Looney Tunes directed by Norman McCabe. Both never fail to crack me up - it's this cartoon fan's fervent hope that historians Mike Barrier and Milt Gray interviewed Mr. McCabe at length regarding his 50+ year animation career.
Enjoyed writing last week's post so much that a followup is absolutely necessary. We shall start with my favorite of all the post-Otto versions of Felix. The style of the 1995-1997 Twisted Tales series recalls Fleischer more than Messmer, but who cares - it's still lots of fun and extremely imaginative. Several super-talented people we are acquainted with worked on the series.
Speaking of super-talented, animator and comics artist Milton Knight, among the directors who worked on The Twisted Tales Of Felix, posted the following 1933 Krazy Kat cartoon by the Ben Harrison and Manny Gould crew, Russian Dressing. I'm a big fan of the Your Favorite Cartoon Moments videos on Milton's YouTube channel.
One of the best cartoons from the Harrison & Gould crew at Mintz, in this pre-Code rubber hose animation aficionado's opinion, is The Broadway Malady (1933). I personally prefer it to The Broadway Melody!
The following early talkie Krazy Kat is another favorite and a link between 1920's Disney and early 1930's Harman-Ising WB. Looks like Friz Freleng, Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising, Rollin Hamilton and other soon to be Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies animators worked on this extremely entertaining cartoon, packed with 1929 style funny animals, way-out sight gags and, of course, Prohibition-flaunting heavy drinking.
On the topic of animators, film producers and alcoholism, here's Felix Woos Whoopee, arguably the very best opus from the last three seasons of the Felix The Cat series. While producer Pat Sullivan by that time had been done in tragically by the bottle, Messmer's prodigious talent kept the series going into those dawn of talkies days. One wonders if Felix would have hung on a bit longer accompanied with sprightly soundtracks by, for example, Carl Stalling, Gene Rodemich or Jimmy Dietrich.
And, speaking of Gene Rodemich's peppy music, here is a cat-dominated Van Beuren cartoon we like a great deal. Don't mess with kittens!
We tip our top hats to UCLA Film & Television Archive for the following restored (and cat-packed) Max Fleischer Color Classic!
Next up: Bob Clampett's memorable and hilarious The Hep Cat (1942), noted in the previous "Feline Follies" post. Love it for the theme song alone - it's tough to top "I love the goyls and the goyls love me, just like the Sheik Of Araby."
After all, we love Bob Clampett - and especially his classic Martian invasion cartoon Kitty Kornered (1946).
The following two Chuck Jones cartoons feature the playful kitten character Pussyfoot and his protector Marc Anthony the bulldog. In both cartoons, the cuteness works quite well.
Closing today's Feline Follies: the extremely funny Friz Freleng cartoon Birds Anonymous (1957), which successfully skewers 12-step groups, insufferable moralists, Sylvester the cat and animated cartoon conventions in one fell swoop.
Today's cornucopia of WAY TOO MANY CLIPS, inspired by viewing Jack Kinney's excellent noir-toon Duck Pimples and that "sleuth in training" tested by a Richard Haydn type in the way out Columbia Phantasy cartoon The Vitamin G-Man yet again, involves detectives in animation. That means the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog has been. . . Watching The Detectives.
Chuck Jones' Deduce, You Say (1956) strikes me as the best Sherlock Holmes spoof among the hundreds in cartoondom. The usual suspects - Ken Harris, Abe Levitow, Ben Washam, Michael Maltese, Maurice Noble, Mel Blanc and June Foray among others - shine brightly as usual. Did not find a complete version of this online, but the three minutes of Daffy Duck as an utterly inept Sherlock here conveys the Bleeker Street flavor - and the likelihood that Chuck Jones was an A. Conan Doyle fan.
We now segue to 1960, plunging into the TV-toon era with the following. . . Q.T. Hush, produced by Animation Associates. Have had a soft spot for this series since it ran on TV way back when.
This, along with the 1949-1950 version of Crusader Rabbit by Alex Anderson and Gene Deitch's Tom Terrific are among my favorite animated cliffhangers and I love the opening theme that reminds me of Hammond B-3 ace Jimmy Smith. Find the character designs frequently very clever. Here's one of the "capers."
From 20+ years later, there was Inspector Gadget, a TV series with a heckuva theme song and a good premise. Go go gadget femur!
The satiric stop-motion of Robot Chicken took on Inspector Gadget with its usual cutting edge.
Those of us of a certain age, much older than the Inspector Gadget and Robot Chicken audiences, just think of GET SMART and The Bill Dana Show!
On to the topic of terrible theatrical cartoons produced between 1930-1960, here's Buddy a.k.a. Mr. Excitement in Buddy the Detective.
There are two viewpoints here. . . One is that there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to ever watch any Warner Brothers cartoon from the period that commenced when Leon Schlesinger established an in-house animation studio in 1933 (beginning with the infamous - and infamously unfunny - Buddy's Day Out) and ending with the 1935 arrival, not a moment too soon, of Fred "Tex" Avery.
There's something to this; many 1933-1935 Warners cartoons are indeed, unlike the features starring Jimmy Cagney, Bette Davis, Barbara Stanwyck, etc. pretty lousy.
Among the turkeys: arguably the single worst cartoon ever released by Warner Brothers, the Merrie Melodie GOIN' TO HEAVEN ON A MULE, made in 1934.
The other viewpoint is that most of these are not all that bad and both entertaining and enjoyable when viewed through the right lens, provided the point of comparison is not Pinocchio, Fantasia, the Fleischer Supermans and the best of the best from 1940's Warner Brothers and MGM.
Infinitely less terrible - actually quite good - is the following 1954 opus from Famous Studios, Private Eye Popeye. It's an international adventure framework, quite entertaining and indicates what the crew at Famous could have done with the right storyline. Formidable voice talents Jack Mercer, Mae Questel and Jackson Beck are in top form. Beck plays a jewel thief and does his usual excellent job.
Famous Studios could still succeed when avoiding formula, which is the case with Popeye cartoons from late in the run such as this one and Insect To Injury (1956). There’s no Bluto, eliminating the tired Popeye vs. Bluto over Olive scenario, which Famous Studios beat like the horse in the 1935 Fleischer misfire Be Kind To 'Aminals’. Screen credits note Famous/Fleischer veterans Seymour Kneitel, Tom Johnson and Frank Endres.
Screen Gems, of course, contributed a unique and uniquely strange Sherlock Holmes sendup, The Case Of The Screaming Bishop, to the mix. Along with Deduce, You Say, this is by far the most British of the sleuthing lot and both the stellar voice work and original gag mind of John McLeish are evident throughout.
The running gag about "the best bones of all go to symphony hall" refers to a radio commercial - "the best bones of all go to Carnegie Hall" - from Your Hit Parade.
Tex Avery made a cartoon for MGM featuring a detective based on character actor Fred Kelsey. It is more in the whodunit school than the gumshoe school and, as is Tex' custom, loaded with gags, many extremely funny.
Never to be undone, Bob Clampett at Warner Brothers created the masterpiece THE GREAT PIGGY BANK ROBBERY, starring Daffy Duck as "Duck Twacy." Is this the greatest of all WB toons? It's certainly way up there on the short list. Clampett's crew clearly had a field day bringing to life Chester Gould style bad guys. Rod Scribner's super-rubbery animation alone is worth the price of admission.
In closing, noting that there were at least 500 sleuthing cartoons that could have been included, again, here's Watching The Detectives.
Pondering the recent passing of animation giant Ray Harryhausen, I forgot that today, May 8, 2013 is the centennial of Bob Clampett's birth.
Now, the project Bob may have been the most proud of was one he didn't get to complete: his plan for an animated feature based on Edgar Rice Burroughs' John Carter Of Mars. The excerpts seen here recall the Fleischer Superman series in style and approach.
Perhaps animation experts Mark Kausler, Jerry Beck, Leonard Maltin and Mike Barrier know the specifics of why the project was shelved, and who Bob pitched it to.
We'll follow that "what might have been" clip with several choice morsels of animated mayhem, crazy classic cartoon delirium by Mr. B and the talented Termite Terrace boys!
Porky's Hero Agency (1937)
Porky’s Party (1938)
What Price Porky (1938)
Porky In Wackyland (1938)
The Daffy Doc (1938)
Porky's Last Stand (1940)
Birdy And The Beast (1944)
Hare Ribbin’ (1944)
Russian Rhapsody (1944)
Draftee Daffy (1945)
Book Revue (1946)
Kitty Kornered (1946)
(Sorry, not posting any Clampett WB cartoons from the infamous Censored 11 - the readership at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog is paltry enough as it is!)
Don't have much to say at the moment, so I'll post a classic Looney Tunes cartoon. Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng all made some pretty amazing contributions to the black and white Looney Tunes series. Here's a particularly fun one directed by Bob Clampett. Love the theme song, hilarious voice work by Mel Blanc and Sara Berner, and the cheerfully wacky spirit of the animation.
To appreciate the many original touches in Eatin' On The Cuff, check out John Kricfalusi's shot-by-shot breakdown.
I'm raising my soon to be significantly less than half-full glass to Bob Clampett. He's definitely among The Beatles of cartoon directors (with Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin - perhaps with Friz Freleng as either "5th Beatle" Billy Preston or Pete Best). I am proud to have worked, in collaboration with animator, filmmaker and historian Mark Kausler, on one of the first published filmographies of his work way back when (uh, I was a zygote at the time, really).
For a bit of background on Bob's career, check out this superb post on David Germain's blog.
Then take a gander at this remarkable scene, by ace animator Robert McKimson, from one of Clampett and crew's masterpiece Book Revue. This is followed by the complete cartoon.
Bob Clampett is very important to me personally. On the same day when I met Bob in the 70's, I bought my first 16mm films. He was uncommonly nice and generous with his time to me, then a goofy 17 year old long-haired guitarist obsessed with music and old movies (now I'm the same thing, only 51). He was also very supportive of my efforts to get recognition for animation as an art form - at that time, cartoons and comedy in particular got the full Rodney Dangerfield treatment.
At least to me, Bob was absolutely effusive in his praise of other artists, more interested in talking about stuff that inspired him - whether it was the exciting swing music of Duke Ellington or the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Willis O' Brien's innovative stop-motion animation in THE LOST WORLD or Tex Avery's cartoons - than about his own work. He loved his collaborators and mentors; his eyes lit up whenever I said the words Rod Scribner, Manny Gould (for non-animation buffs, these were just two of the brilliant animators who contributed virtuoso work to Bob's cartoons) or Tex Avery. He was also the only "Golden Age Of Cartoons" icon I heard praise lesser known but important animation directors as Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising and Sid Marcus. All of this was in stark contradiction to a lot of things that were said and written about Bob during his lifetime.
Raise your glass and enjoy any one of the amazing WB cartoons directed by Bob Clampett, one of the greatest animation visionaries and comic minds who ever lived.
