Swell Cels
September 4th, 2008
Channel Frederator Blog
Archive for the ‘Classic’
Have an Egg-cellent Holiday Weekend!
August 28th, 2008
In honor of Labor Day, enjoy this early Disney cartoon, “Alice’s Egg Plant”—from the Alice series, natch! The portrayal of Little Red Henski (a Communist Rooster set on unionizing the factory) is extra amusing, considering Walt’s later run-in with the Cartoonists Strike of 1941.
Th-th-th-that’s Audio, Folks!
July 6th, 2008
Mel Blanc radio shows are available for downloading on this page of The Internet Archive. The scripts are extremely corny, but it’s worth it to hear dozens upon dozens of voices coming out of the mouth of one of the all-time amazing audio artistes.
After making an impact playing various characters on Jack Benny’s radio show (including the voice of Benny’s car, Maxwell) Mel was given his own program and The Mel Blanc Show ran from September 3, 1946 to June 24, 1947. Blanc didn’t play all the supporting characters, as guest voices included Jim Backus (later the voice of Mr. Magoo) and Bea Benaderet (later the voice of Betty Rubble on The Flintstones).
Mel starred as the owner of a Fix-It Shop (yes, such things did once exist!) A typical episode would find Mel facing some sort of relationship complication with his girlfriend Betty (Mary Jane Croft, who appeared as Betty Ramsey on I Love Lucy). But it [Read more…]
Patriotic Animation: “Ben and Me”
July 3rd, 2008
In 1953, Disney released “Ben and Me”. This Oscar winning short was adapted from the children’s book of the same title, by Robert Lawson. While the book was based on more historical fact, the film aims for entertainment. The film serves both as a sort of biography of Ben Franklin, and an overview of the American revolution.
Have a great Fourth of July weekend, and don’t throw fire crackers with your animating hand!
Cartoon Clips
June 26th, 2008
If you don’t watch a lot of trashy Reality TV (I admit it, I do!) you probably missed last night’s episode of Sheer Genius, the hairstyling competition show on Bravo. Why post about it here? Because the challenge this week was to give your model a hairstyle based upon one of a select group of cartoon characters. The animated icons were: Wilma Flintstone, Betty Boop, Judy Jetson, Lucy from Peanuts, Jem, and Marge Simpson.
Here are three of the best interpretations: a Marge, a Betty, a Wilma, and a (Grown-Up) Lucy. Lucy won.
Strangely, they kept talking about capturing Lucy’s “innocence”, which is not exactly the first adjective that comes to mind (well, my mind) to describe this clever, high-strung, and rather manipulative young lady!
(Now if only Top Chef would have the Swedish Chef from the Muppets on as a guest judge!)
Oh, Pooh! I wish I spoke Russian!
June 24th, 2008
Thanks to Boing Boing for bringing this Russian version of Winnie the Pooh, called Vinni Puh, to my attention. The state sponsored animation house Soyuzmultfilm crafted its own version of the Pooh tales back in the 1970s. They have their own distinctive style (I love the scribbly backgrounds) and the overall feeling is less delicate and more goofy than the E.H. Shepard interpretation we all know so well.
(By the way, it seems that Shepard ended up hating Pooh. Silly old bear!)
Thinking Pictures goes into detail about Russian interpretations of Pooh here. (Warning: It’s a brainy essay and uses words like Gemütlichkeit and Gemeinschaft. Mickey Mouse is apparently Gemeinschaft.)
And if you are hankering for more Soviet silliness, enjoy these additional Vinni Puh adventures:
The Cats Behind the Cats
June 23rd, 2008
“All The Cats Join In” from Make Mine Music is one of my favorite cartoon shorts. It’s got a great swingin’ track, cute Fred Moore girls, fluid animated jitterbugging, and ice cream! If you click on the links below and visit two highly recommended animation blogs, The Blackwing Diaries and Mayerson on Animation, you can get a detailed peek into the making of this clean-cut classic.
Mark Mayerson: PAGE ONE, PAGE TWO.
Blackwing (Jenny Lerew’s blog): PAGE ONE, PAGE TWO.
Lerew has tons of additional Fred Moore info on her site and sketches of assorted Fred Moore girls, including this sassy lass from “All the Cats Join In.” YOWSA!
Father’s Day charaters: Augie Doggie and Spike
June 15th, 2008
There have been many Hanna Barbera characters with personalities based on famous actors and personalities. The Flintstones had their Honeymooners influences, Jabber Jaw sounded a lot like Curly from the Three Stooges, and Doggie Daddy (from the series of Augie Doggie cartoons) was no different. While he sounds like Jimmy Durante, his character and his relationship with his son are actually borrowed from two earlier Hanna Barbera characters, Spike and Tyke, who were created while they were at MGM. Spike’s son Tyke first appeared in the 1949 short “Love that Pup”.
The main difference (other than breed of dog) would be the character of the son. Spike’s son Tyke is seemingly much younger than Augie, as Tyke cannot speak, only bark. Perhaps the time difference in first appearances would account for the aging of the son? Tyke was created in 1949. If he continued to age in real time, he would be very close [Read more…]
Carl Urbano, HB animator.
June 9th, 2008
WARNING! INCOMING GAME! “ReBoot” Makes A Come Back
May 30th, 2008
The cult hit (and WAY ahead of it’s time) television series “ReBoot” is poised to make a come back. For those that don’t know the show, it was the first 100% CG series on television. It ran from 1994 to 2001. It celebrated all things computers, and is thus a great geek show.
From the site for the new film:
The last television episode of ReBoot aired in November of 2001 with a cliffhanger episode that left viewers wanting more. Through websites and online forums, die-hard fans continued to speculate, predict and in some cases fictionalize the next chapter in the ReBoot story.
Fast forward to 2007. Rainmaker Entertainment teamed with Zeros 2 Heroes Media to give ReBoot fans the power to decide which of five new concepts have the most merit. Over four weeks, thousands of comments, ratings, blog posts and votes poured in.
If you were a fan of the series, head on over to the site and give [Read more…]
