ReFrederator Blog

I am, always will be, a sucker for obscure cartoon charters from the 1930’s. Willie Whopper, Hunky and Spunky, Scrappy, Little Cheeser, Flip the Frog, Farmer Al Falfa, Gabby, Wiffle Piffle, Puddy the Pup, Pooch the Pup, Bosco, Cubby Bear, Kiko the Kangeroo, Buddy, Tom and Jerry (not the cat and mouse characters, but the same named human beings who looked a little like Mutt and Jeff with little black jelly bean noses.) These are MY people… well, people, mammals, amphibians, whatever.

I love the fact that several of these animated footnotes, forgotten though they be, actually had long and relatively successful careers. Many of them came with their own jaunty theme songs and some of them were even merchandised aggressively. A few years ago, I was at an antique show and saw some gorgeous bisque figurines of Columbia cartoon star Scrappy. The dealer selling them didn’t have a clue who or what ‘Scrappy’ was and had cooked up her own alternate universe back story for the little guy, justifying a pretty steep asking price (she claimed he was Betty Boop’s little brother.)

Many of these characters and more of their ilk will be on full display on ReFrederator. An old time cartoon a day, hand delivered to you. What a concept! The launch is just around the corner, so hang in there!

Dave Kirwan