Worst Irish Accent Ever?
Can anyone say for certain who voiced Phony Baloney? For that matter, what is Phony Baloney? A leprechaun? How timely to be making references to “Fibber McGee and Molly” in 1954, too (okay, to be fair, it was on the air until 1959).
At best I can guess, some kind of Irish Sailor.
Any good Tyer animation in this one?
He does look a little like the Irish bricklayer who kept getting blocked from climbing up the ladder in “Rhaposdy in Rivets”. As far as genealogy, I think he was the Terry story department’s attempt to revive the Col. Heeza Liar-type character from 40 years earlier (or Baron Münchhausen, if you want to go with the original source material), and his face does have a few traces of the Colonel’s design.
As to why Terry and his crew thought this would work in 1953, who knows? (though if there was some cross-pollination between the writing crew here and the ones who came up with Commander McBragg a decade later, I wouldn’t be surprised).
“For that matter, what is Phony Baloney? ”
The reincarnation of Willie Whopper of course.
Can’t say for certain, Thad, as my knowledge of Terry’s cartoons is pretty crappy. Since it doesn’t sound like a voice actor (who would have cost Terry some $), my guess would be it’s Tommy Morrison (as I was under the impression he also did voices), but I’d have to listen to some other voice samples. While Tom Cruise was funny losing his Irish accent in Far and Away, or whatever it was called, this one’s just stunningly bad.
Phony is an Irish stereotype. So naturally, the cartoon’s racist. ;)
And I wasn’t left disappointed. I heard the standard Terry splash and car brake sound that seems to have been in every Terrytoon.
After re-watching this (I’ve just watched this same print for the first time yesterday)I had to run to re-watch the best Irish accent ever in a cartoon, which is that of the African lion (it kills me every time) in “The Lion’s Busy”.
Yes. Definately yes. It’s as flat as a deflated pankcake.
The base of a character telling his story at a Police Station also seems to slightly mirror Terrytoons’ “A Hare Breadth Finish”.
Looks like Carlo Vinci’s animation in the court scenes, but I couldn’t bear to watch the rest.
It’s the same voice that did imitations of Bert Lahr (as the Cowardly Lion) and Hugh Herbert in other Terrytoons. In-house, I would guess. Probably the only people Terry ever paid for voice work were Roy Halee and the people who sang in the back-up vocal ensembles.
I’ve seen this cartoon dozens of times before–back in the seventies, CBS would run Terrytoons every morning in the time slot before Captain Kangaroo. It’s not so bad as far as Terrytoons go. That aligator, snake and bird chase animation looks like Tyer’s work. although some of it might be recycled from another cartoon. Those jungle/everglades backgrounds look like they were recycled from another cartoon.
I’ll actually go so far as to say that I don’t hate this cartoon, but I’ll admit it’s a strange choice for a main character, and the dialect humor is like something left over from vaudeville.
I don’t know if there was any serious attempt to make a new star out of this anachronism, but they did make another one involving P.B.’s exploits amongst a tribe of headhunters. You might want to try digging that one up. It’s generally more of the same outdated gags (it’s a Terrytoon folks) but I love the unexpected, absurdist punchline at the end.
Thank goodness for the Jim Tyer animation that comes late in the cartoon…
It sounds to me like the fellow who did the British-accented magpie (Heckle? Jeckle?) doing PB’s voice. Truth told, I’ve heard worse Irish accents (community theater abounds with them). Phoney Baloney is a truly odd choice for a star character–even with his obvious antecedents in humor/animation history.
This almost feels like a contemporary Famous Studios one-shot. With a better score by Winston Sharples, and slicker animation, it could’ve easily passed muster as a Noveltoon. (I’m really not sure if this is a complement.)