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, we do a rare midweek post to pay tribute to the one, the only Friz Freleng (August 21, 1904 - May 26, 1995).
Along with his fellow Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies directors Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett and Frank Tashlin, Friz Freleng is among the kings of cartoons.
Friz Freleng's seven decade career in cartoons makes him one of our all-time favorites from the world of animation.
He began as an assistant animator with Walt Disney Productions, both in Kansas City and in Los Angeles, and was among the studio's young crew of very talented animators (Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising, Rollin Hamilton) in the 1920's. Friz is in the following photo (from Michael Barrier's website) at the bottom left.
Since both Walt and Friz possessed hot tempers, that didn't go well, as duly noted in the late Jim Korkis' Cartoon Research article The Friz & The Diz. However, Mr. Freleng did get along just fine with fellow ex-Disney animators Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising and would subsequently work on numerous Harman-Ising productions released by Warner Brothers. These included the first Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.
He would animate and sometimes direct numerous Merrie Melodies cartoons in 1930-1933.
Not long after independent producers Harman and Ising got the boot as cartoonmakers for Warner Bros. and the decision was made to establish an on-site cartoon production unit, Friz would settle in as the main director at the new Leon Schlesinger Studio.
He directed a slew of Merrie Melodies from 1934-1938.
As enthusiastic aficionados of Hollywood star caricatures cartoons, we love Freleng's 1936 Merrie Melodie THE COO COO NUT GROVE.
The Andy Devine sendup in the western spoof My Little Buckaroo (1938) is a hoot!
Freleng briefly ended up at MGM after leaving the Leon Schlesinger Studio in 1938. Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoonmeister Joe Barbera remembers Friz.
While not every comics luminary translates to the silver screen as well as E.C. Segar's Popeye, Freleng's entries in MGM's short-lived animated version of the popular Katzenjammer Kids comic strip, a.k.a. The Captain & The Kids, are quite good.
Upon his return to Warner Brothers in 1940, Friz Freleng began an extended winning streak.
HERR MEETS HARE features Hermann Goering as a villain (as he and his ilk were in real life). A driving force in later Chuck Jones cartoons, Mike Maltese's utter disdain for the bombastic music of Richard Wagner, is a key factor in this gem. Love the commentary by film historian and animation expert Greg Ford.
Another memorable World War II cartoon from Freleng and his crew is Daffy The Commando (1943).
Best expression of the twisted relationship between Bugs Bunny and always moronic Elmer Fudd? STAGE DOOR CARTOON!
HARE TRIGGER and BUGS BUNNY RIDES AGAIN emphatically demonstrates how Freleng and crew (among many, animators Gerry Chiniquy, Ken Champin, Manny Perez, Virgil Ross and Art Davis, storyman Tedd Pierce, layout ace Hawley Pratt and all voice artists, led by Mel Blanc) mastered the western spoof.
Was Yosemite Sam was based on Friz?
The dynamic between steaming lil' hothead Yosemite Sam and always cooler than cool Bugs Bunny resulted in numerous hilarious cartoons.
Bunker Hill Bunny hit the Bijous, Roxies and Radio City Music Halls on September 23, 1950. The diehard cartoonologists at Anthony's Animation Talk watch the cartoon and elaborate. . .
Friz Freleng made a slew of lesser known humdinger cartoons in the late 1940's and through the 1950's.
The extremely funny Each Dawn I Crow was released theatrically on September 24th, 1949.
It is in a sub-genre, along with fellow WB cartoons Tom Turk & Daffy and Holiday For Drumsticks, that features a storyline involving poultry finding a way to not end up as tonight's entree.
Freleng and crew just kept on cranking out very funny cartoons through the 1950's and into the early 1960's.
Am especially fond of Three Little Bops (1957) the musical sendup of Three Little Pigs featuring Stan Freberg and the swingin' sounds of Shorty Baker.
And that recalls the hilarious Birds Anonymous, in which Sylvester joins a 12-step group.
To suggest that Mr. Freleng's work as director, animator and producer proved most formidable for well over half a century would be quite the understatement; his re-emergence as co-producer at De Patie-Freleng Enterprises (DFE) resulted in some of the very best animated cartoons of the 1960's and early 1970's. David DePatie remembers:
Here at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog, we're especially fond of DFE's The Pink Panther - as is the family cat.
As always, the focus on the great work of Friz Freleng brings up how one can thank someone for a million laughs!
Two 20th century greats were brought into the world on the 21st of August. One was responsible for a million laughs, the other a million concerts and countless outstanding recordings. We're talking cartoonmeister Isadore "Friz" Freleng and a bandleader with a flair for supple yet subtle piano, William James Basie a.k.a. "The Count" - two powerhouses from Kansas City! Both entertained audiences from Torrance to Toledo to Timbuktu starting in the 1920's.
The name I have seen on the silver screen and orthicon tube the most times is very likely Friz Freleng. Imagine someone whose name is in credits as frequently as William "One Shot" Beaudine whose films are, for the most part, actually good. That would be Friz!
Freleng, a cohort of Walt Disney and his gang of animators (Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising, Rollin Hamilton) in the 1920's, would work on numerous Harman-Ising productions released by Warner Brothers, including the first Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies.
Friz would be among the dream team of directors who cranked out inspired cartoons for Warner Brothers animation: Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Robert McKimson and Arthur Davis.
We'll start today's post with a documentary about Friz' amazing seven decade career as a producer-animator-director and Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies master.
Friz was also interviewed in 1980 as part of the Animafeastival event curated by Toronto film archivist Reg Hartt.
Freleng made a slew of lesser known but outstanding cartoons in the 1940's and early 1950's.
A favorite of the gang at Way Too Damn Lazy To Write A Blog is THE TRIAL OF MR. WOLF, which is riotously funny and preceded Tex Avery's MGM masterpiece RED HOT RIDING HOOD.
Of the WW2 propaganda toons DAFFY THE COMMANDO is among the best of the best.
Not to be outdone, Friz and his ace story writers (Tedd Pierce and Mike Maltese) followed a cartoon in which Daffy Duck takes on Hitler with HERR MEETS HARE, featuring Hermann Goering as a villain (as he and his ilk were emphatically in real life). The Mike Maltese disdain for Richard Wagner which would be a driving force in later Chuck Jones cartoons is a key factor in this Freleng gem. Love the commentary by film historian and animation expert Greg Ford.
Freleng was a master of the western spoof. It was said that Yosemite Sam was based on Friz!
Friz was also a jedi master of the extended chase and featured many variations on the chase within the twisted relationship between Bugs Bunny and ever-moronic Elmer Fudd.
The guy who writes this blog, a kid during the 1960's who watched The Addams Family, The Wild Wild West and Get Smart religiously - and also saw It's A Mad Mad Mad Mad World on the big screen at our long-gone local movie palace - knew who Count Basie and Duke Ellington were because, in the halcyon days before the current mirage of many choices but in effect many less choices, jazz bands appeared often on television.
A few years later, this blogger would be among the rock generation kids who listened to rock & roll and progessive rock but also sought out jazz.
The extent to which jazz, even fairly gnarly modern jazz, was seen before 1971 on American television is astounding.
Often, swingin' sounds could actually be found on 1950's and 1960's television, especially on such programs as The Nat King Cole Show, Here's Edie, Art Ford's Jazz Party and The Hollywood Palace (where frequent hosts Bing, Frank, Sammy and Dino were clearly fans of the big band sound).
The early 1960's lineup a.k.a. The Atomic Band, often appeared on television. Here is a concert which remains available on one of the Jazz Icons DVDs.
Bugs Bunny's favorites, The Duke Of Ellington, The Count of Basie, The Satchmo of Armstrong and sometimes even The Earl Of Hines would appear on TV in those days. American jazz would continue to be featured on European television, but seldom were seen anywhere on American TV. Even rock music got phased out once the 1970's ended; the point came when rockers would only be seen as guest stars on Saturday Night Live and SCTV (especially John Candy's glorious The Fishin' Musician sketches).
The BBC sometimes did music lovers a tremendous favor by featuring interviews with and about jazz greats, such as this one with Count Basie by fellow pianist Oscar Peterson. Once in a blue moon, these interviews would be shown on PBS or be used in documentaries.
The earliest appearances of The Count on 78s I've heard would be the 1920's and 1930's recordings of Bennie Moten's band.
While more in the Fats Waller stride school at this juncture, Basie drives the Moten band as surely as he would the powerhouse editions of the Count Basie Orchestra on The Atomic Count Basie and Sinatra At The Sands.
The recording of Lady Be Good by Jones Smith Incorporated was a watershed and featured the casual and smooth (while always soulful) musical genius of saxophonist Lester "Prez" Young.
That said, there are silent film clips, dubbed in with Basie recordings, from the orchestra's famous performance from the 1938 Randall’s Island outdoor concert.
The early 1940's edition of The Count Basie Orchestra appeared in a bunch of Soundies, all prized by 16mm film collectors. There was a fascinating piece on the Hi De Ho blog about how Cab Calloway met Count Basie and that they worked together at one point. Footage of those two bandleaders working together would be even more prized than Cab's killer Soundies and Paramount 1-reelers.
In the following Soundie, vocalist Jimmy Rushing brings blues to the Basie mix in his rendition of TAKE ME BACK, BABY.
Fans of crooners got hip to Basie via his many collaborations with Frank Sinatra.
Sinatra-Basie, followed by It Might As Well Be Swing, are particularly wonderful albums and preceded Frank's memorable appearance with The Count Basie Orchestra on The Hollywood Palace.
Sinatra At The Sands, featuring the Count Basie Ocrhestra and charts by Quincy Jones, remains one of the Chairman Of The Board's most played and celebrated albums.
"Corner Pocket" is one of the cornerstones of the 1960's Count Basie repertoire.
The formidable Joe Williams does the honors on vocals on numerous 1950's and 1960's Basie records.
Closing this post: our all-time favorite photo of The Count. This one's a gem from the Library Of Congress collection, snapped by William P. Gottlieb, celebrated chronicler of mid-20th century music. This was shot at NYC's Aquarium Club and successfully captures both Basie's musical brillance and something essential about who he was.
