ThadBlog

In the days of blogging and online video, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone post one of the spectacularly unsuccessful animated adaptations of Al Capp’s Li’l Abner from Screen Gems. So I guess I have the honor (?) of posting one first.

This one, “Sadie Hawkins Day” (1944, D: Bob Wickersham), actually came out pretty well. The same can’t be said for the others though.

Don Brockway has had his own blog up for awhile now, but I thought I’d plug it here anyway. He always posts something of interest for Disney and old movie fans, like this piece on what happened to Bobby Driscoll, Disney’s first child star. Don also has the Internet’s only shrine of Kathy Beaumont (voice of Disney’s Alice and Wendy).

Hans Perk has started posting the drafts from Disney’s classic feature, “Alice in Wonderland”, the feature everyone loves to hate. This is some pretty enlightening stuff, as I learned when Hans generously xeroxed the whole thing for me over a year ago. Wait till Hans posts the drafts for the later scenes, as I was very surprised at how very little Kimball did of the Mad Tea Party.

I’ll be honest and say that “Alice” is my favorite of the classically animated Disney features (I know it isn’t his best film, just my favorite). I just love the nightmarish insanity of it, reinforced by the beautiful drawing and animation.

One of the greatest ‘happy accidents’ in the Golden Age of animation is probably the 1948 Screen Gems cartoon “Flora”. The names of the crew working on this short (Alex Lovy, Cal Howard) were never really attached to any other cartoons that were more than run-of-the-mill quality. It’s also interesting because this was part of the last few Columbia cartoons done under the Katz-Binder production team, and those usually turned out horrible and sloppy (see Kitty Caddy and Lo the Poor Buffal).

The staging in this cartoon is really reminiscent of something Chuck Jones would do at Warners, with its morbid theme and ending (the only thing really lacking is stronger posing and animation, the exception being some scenes of the dog by Grant Simmons, a regular of Tex Avery’s MGM unit for years). Darrell Calker’s score gives this cartoon a big lift too, and Gerald Mohr as the narrator was a great choice.

I’m reposting this as I have a better copy of this short now than when I posted it last year. Hope you enjoy it.

Some of my favorite Warner cartoons are these hilarious Sylvester & Tweety shorts from the early 50s. Freleng had a great crew on his hands, with the likes of Virgil Ross, Art Davis, Hawley Pratt, and Paul Julian. This particular short, “Putty Tat Trouble”, is a real favorite of mine.

The Ross segment (the gags with Tweety an the drinking bird) is amazingly subtle and perfectly drawn. The Davis scenes (the pipe and shotgun gag and the cats on ice) show that not only he drew his characters funny, he made them move funny. There is some great, uncredited animation by John Carey in this film too.

I love Pratt’s design of the poverty-stricken cat (and he sure is, just look at the contrast between his apartment and Sylvester’s!). The smaller eye is a great touch and adds to his manginess.

This one also sports my favorite ‘hidden gags’: “FRIZ - America’s Favorite Gelatin Desert”, and a beautiful caricature portrait of Freleng by Julian. The soundtrack for this cartoon by Stalling is one of my all-time favorites too.

Forgive me, but a glitch in Windows Media Maker cut off the last ‘S’ in the subtitles on the scenes by Virgil Ross and Art Davis.

More stuff to waste time…

Woody Woodpecker pretty much went into a downward spiral after the 1940s, with a less antagonistic attitude and a higher pitched voice every season. One interesting aspect that the animators never seemed to get rid of from Woody though was his libido. And interestingly, he was always trolling for real women, not female woodpeckers (save two shorts with Winnie Woodpecker). I know there’s even later examples, but this is all I can get for now.
The Screwdriver - 1941

Woody Dines Out - 1945

Woody the Giant Killer - 1947

The Mad Hatter - 1948

Scalp Treatment - 1952

Belle Boys - 1953

Hot Noon - 1953

Socko in Morocco - 1954

Alley to Bali - 1954

Convict Concerto - 1954