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.
St. Patrick's Day 2025 is right around the corner, on Monday. We know many will be getting hammered as they raise toasts to Jimmy Cagney and Pat O'Brien on Sunday night.
This blog's suggestion to young hard-partyin' folks (decades younger than this old geezer teetotaller blogger is), by all means, DON'T drink green beer, especially that Green Rooster stuff from Neptun/Carlsberg!
Trust me on this, don't drink St. Patrick's Day green brew - you will live to regret it!
Pondering what's best for St. Patty's Day viewing always involves cartoons. Famous Studios made several Noveltoons starring a bunch of freakin' leprechauns. Of these cartoons, The Wee Men (1947) is tops!
Always liked Phony Baloney, Terrytoons' tall tale tellin' Irish answer to Baron Munchausen.
Of course, it is required by law that all leprechaun-laden cartoons be followed by cheesy St. Patrick's Day commercials.
The first sign that you really got blasted on St. Patrick's Day is that you want to eat Lucky Charms.
Alas, I'm compelled to admit it - I WANT a Shamrock Shake!
Animated St. Patty's Day fun invariably begins with the question, "remember that Porky Pig cartoon with the leprechauns?" I do - and here it is, followed by an excellent review of this Chuck Jones classic from Anthony's Animation Talk.
Since this blog spotlighted Friz Freleng just a few weeks ago, Looney Tunes Collectors Choice volume 3 is out on Blu-ray, and we missed the Chuck Jones centenary for some inexplicable reason 12 years ago, that means. . . today is as good a day as any to travel from the absurd to the sublime and the sublimely absurd, which means it's high time we tip a top hat to Merrie Melodies master Chuck Jones a.k.a. Charles M. Jones. Here are what are arguably his best known three cartoons.
Duck Amuck (1953)
Here, the late great Robin Williams, no doubt a big time Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies fan boy, gives Chuck an Academy Award!
The first documentary I recall seeing on Warner Bros cartoons (on the heels of the epic and groundbreaking Film Comment article about animation by Greg Ford and Mark Kausler) was CAMERA 3 THE BOYS FROM TERMITE TERRACE (1975). It's also a blast from the past for me since I saw both Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett (live in person) in 1975! The one-hour TV special's host is a very young John Canemaker. Tex Avery, the ringleader of Termite Terrace, does not appear in the Camera 3 special, but Friz Freleng, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Mel Blanc do.
A number of worthy documentaries spotlighting the great work of Chuck Jones and his colleagues followed.
And, now for some interviews.
Here's Chuck on the Dick Cavett Show in 1979.
Don't know how many episodes of The World Of Cartooning with Mike Peters exist, but two feature Chuck Jones!
The first Chuck Jones cartoon I remember seeing was DAFFY DUCK AND THE DINOSAUR (1939), a Merrie Melodie which got frequent run on local TV stations way back when.
After a stint as a cel washer with the Ub Iwerks Studio, Chuck was hired by Leon Schlesinger and ended among the various renegades and rapscallions in Tex Avery's crew at Termite Terrace.
He would animate in the crews of Tex Avery, Ub Iwerks (whose studio made a few Looney Tunes cartoons subcontracting with producer Leon Schlesinger) and Bob Clampett before getting his own production unit in 1938. Whether Chuck directed any sequences during his stretch working with Bob Clampett's crew I don't know - would need studio drafts for corroboration.
When head animator Robert McKimson passed on the opportunity to direct, Chuck Jones got to helm Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies, starting with The Night Watchman.
Jones' early directorial efforts were by far the most Disney-esque cartoons ever to emerge from Warner Brothers Animation. Tops among them would be the highly imaginative 1941 Looney Tune JOE GLOW THE FIREFLY, which features a beautiful score by Carl Stalling - that guy who started with Disney.
Among the most Disney influenced cartoons of all to emerge from the Chuck Jones crew was TOM THUMB IN TROUBLE (1940).
One starts seeing a change in style from this Disney-influenced approach to the wackier Looney Tunes credo in such cartoons as PORKY'S CAFE, featuring the porcine powerhouse with the short-lived pantomimist character Conrad the Cat.
Best starring Porky Pig opus by the Chuck Jones crew?
Well, possibly in a tie with the horror-influenced cartoon SCAREDY CAT, that would be THE WEARING OF THE GRIN, a leprechaun-filled tale distinguished by demonic dancing shoes.
If one Merrie Melodie or Looney Tune can be identified as the key transitional piece in Chuck Jones' 20+ years as Warner Bros. cartoon director, that would be THE DRAFT HORSE (1942). The aforementioned Greg Ford's commentary track on this cartoon, which features the stellar character animation of key Jones collaborator Ken Harris, elaborates.
The transition to the zany Looney Tunes style continues further in The Dover Boys At Pimento U (1942), a hilarious spoof of 1890's morality tales. The voice acting genius of one of our favorites at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, the inimitable John McLeish, is a key factor in the success of this cartoon.
Sometimes Mr. Jones remade his early Disney-influenced cartoons. THE CURIOUS PUPPY was recast with wiseguy mice Hubie and Bertie.
Inevitably in a Chuck Jones tribute, we find it's time for more cartoons!
LOVE the commentaries that were on the DVD releases of these cartoons.
Again, to the outstanding animation of Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies stalwart and classic comedy aficionado Chuck Jones, we extend respectful tips of battered top hats worn by Marcel "Tweedy" Perez, Max Linder, Charlie Chaplin & Roscoe Arbuckle (in THE ROUNDERS) and tipsy Arthur Housman in a 1932 Laurel & Hardy 2-reeler!
It's December 26, Boxing Day! My favorite way to celebrate both Premier League Soccer and HAPPY FISTICUFFS DAY is with classic comedy. Chaplin the reluctant pugilist in CITY LIGHTS works for me!
How do we follow Chaplin? With the great movie comedy teams of yore, beginning with Laurel & Hardy in ANY OLD PORT (1932).
What Boxing Day entertainment can equal Laurel & Hardy? Our pals, The Three Stooges, who actually get story credit on the following, their second Columbia 2-reeler, PUNCH DRUNKS (1934).
PUNCH DRUNKS emphatically illustrates what Stooge-o-philes have long suspected, that Curly Howard's prodigious comedy talent was held substantially in check by how he, Moe and Larry were subservient as Ted Healy's Stooges. The break with Healy, who is terrific in such feature films as SAN FRANCISCO and HOLLYWOOD HOTEL, worked out well for all concerned.
For some reason, spending Boxing Day with The Three Stooges brings to mind Warner Brothers cartoons. Turns out there were actually Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies featuring boxing matches very early on, long before the Termite Terrace days.
There, in the screen credits of this 1932 Looney Tune, is the guy who worked on more WB cartoons than anybody, Friz Freleng.
The following Merrie Melodie, COUNT ME OUT, is a tie with BARS & STRIPES FOREVER as the best cartoon made by the directing duo of Ben "Bugs" Hardaway and Cal Dalton.
For some reason, this blogger finds the ever-cheerful yet unbelievably clueless Egghead, distinguished by his "Joe Penner" voice, to be weirdly endearing.
Not to be outdone, Chuck Jones took on Marquis Of Queensberry rules and brought Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd into the ring in TO DUCK OR NOT TO DUCK.
Never to be outdone, a few years later Chuck Jones and crew produced the boxing cartoon to end all boxing cartoons - Bugs Bunny in RABBIT PUNCH, a perennial favorite of this blog.
At Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, every year, the ceremonial December 26 blog entry shall feature the 1929 Fox comedy short subject Waltzing Around.
Waltzing Around stars the darkest, zaniest and most unpredictable of all movie comedy teams, Bobby Clark & Paul McCullough.
It's among only two existing examples of the team's 1928-1929 series for Fox.
All conventions involving boxing sequences in comedy films are turned upside-down, and the results are hilarious.
Paul McCullough has much more to do in Waltzing Around than he does in the team's subsequent RKO series, and, not surprisingly, he is very funny!
We sincerely hope more of Clark & McCullough's 1928-1929 Fox comedies turn up.
