ReFrederator Blog

We wrap up “Mother Goose Week” with another Friz Freleng Merry Melodies offering, “Foney Fables” from 1942. Spot gags all about fairy tales — lots of wartime jokes and plenty of catch phrases.

For me, the most interesting aspect here is an odd little cinematic experiment worthy of Pudovkin. Mel Blanc attaches two of his most familiar, well established voice characterizations onto a couple of one-shot bystanders. The goose that lays the golden egg abruptly starts talking like Daffy Duck and, well, I guess that’s supposed to be part of the joke. But the boy who cried wolf talks, even stands and poses like Bugs Bunny, and the effect is startling. The same voice that makes a lanky rabbit so confident, so spunky, so likable seems pretty darn obnoxious when coming out of the mouth of a freckle faced humanoid adolescent. Which is, apparently, the point. Things don’t work out too well for [Read more…]

We’ve still got that “Mother Goose Week” thing going with today’s gem, “Poor Cinderella” (1934), first of the Fleischer Color Classic series, in fact, the first color cartoon released by the studio and Betty Boop’s only non-black and white appearance — quite the landmark film!

And it’s a really good one too! Betty as a strawberry blonde, some neat 3-D effects, a closing gag that always gets a great audience reaction — this one’s got a lot going for it. There’s also a wistful theme song, “I’m Just a Poor Cinderella,” courtesy of that dynamic team of Tobian, Mencher and Scholl. Just don’t start humming the darn thing for more than twelve seconds, ’cause it carries the Woolite Jingle Curse, namely that it will nest in your brain for 24 hours minimum, AND WILL NOT GO AWAY!!!!!

In fact the only real debit the film offers is the character of Prince Charming, seen [Read more…]

Two Frederator podcast records.

ReFrederator hits #1 in three days.

Channel Frederator jumps to #7.

Okay, so we’re only on day three of ReFrederator, and we already need to issue an apology to our even-larger-than-hoped-for faithful audience. One of the issues we face with using public domain cartoons is the wide amount of sources from where we get the material. Often times, someone, somewhere along the way, fiddles with the film for reasons known only to said fiddler. Case in point: today’s film, “Pigs in a Polka”. We mistakenly used a version containing some awkward voice over-dubbing. And now we’re ashamed. So ashamed, in fact, that we found the non-dubbed version and we’re replacing the earlier film. As much as we hate being corrected, if any of you purists out there ever catch us not using the best copy of a film available to ReFrederator, let us know. And we promise to be more careful from now on.

– Eric

:::::UPDATE: It’s all fixed, the original cartoon is [Read more…]

Today’s “Mother Goose Week” entry is yet another ‘Big Bad Wolf’ item, a great Oscar nominated Merry Melody from 1943 called “Pigs in a Polka.” It’s the story of the Three Little Pigs, set to Brahms’ Hungarian Dances — the kind of classical music/cartoon mayhem match-up that was a specialty of director Friz Freleng.

The gang at Warner Brothers dosen’t just give a nod to Disney’s iconic 1933 version; they fearlessly rip off character designs (check out ‘Practical Pig’) and lampoon specific gags and situations from Uncle Walt’s earlier take on the folk tale. And in case audiences were a little slow getting the point that this was a spoof on you know who, the whole thing starts off with a Fantasia-like parody (an idea Bob Clampett recycled in “Corny Concerto” released six months later.)

Hard to realize there was a time when people DIDN’T automatically associate stuff like the [Read more…]

In just two days your subscriptions have made ReFrederator the #6 podcast in the world. A Frederator podcast record in chart position and speed of ascension.

Of course, [adult swim] is still ahead of us, in spite of the fact they’re going to run Saved by the Bell.

–Fred

I’m really proud of the launch of ReFrederator.

Completely leaving aside the idea of setting up yet another production (and a daily one at that) that doesn’t generate the money it takes to run it, we’re stoked about the ideas involved.

We get to honor the great cartoons and cartoonists who build the business we work in.

We get to bypass the media giants whose great (seriously) businesses are so big that they can no longer support things that audience like, but not enough to be on television.

Our company is small, so we can all talk about the creative and business decisions that affect our lives and your enjoyment.

And everyone gets a laugh.

–Fred

Mother Goose Week continues with “Wolf! Wolf!”, the Terrytoon version of “Little Bo Peep” from 1944. In the typically dark cartoon universe of the 1940’s, Miss Peep is really a wolf in drag, playing a mean trumpet, courtesy of a soloist in Phil Shieb’s studio orchestra.

Mighty Mouse shows up late in the proceedings to, of course, save the day (he’s Mighty Mouse… that’s what he does.) Still pretty early in MM’s career, and he’s lookin’ kinda puny in a pale pink costume. But at least now he is called ‘Mighty Mouse’ — the rodent of tomorrow, spent his first season of cartoons, zooming around under the alias of ‘Super Mouse.’

This one was directed by Mannie Davis, and it’s got that weird thing in it about the dry brush streak Mighty Mouse has trailing behind him when he flies. When convenient, the streak, supposedly an optical illusion, could suddenly assume concrete, physical [Read more…]

Whoa — we kick off the ReFrederator podcast with “Humpty Dumpty”(1935), the quintessential Ub Iwerks Comicolor Cartoon which is to say the quintessential thirties cartoon; singing, dancing, an eccentric color pallet and a theme song you’re not likely to hear any place else on the planet (”Spooning in a Spoon.”)

Iwerks specialized in character designs featuring bulbous, rounded contours, so a cast consisting entirely of eggs (including a sexy chorus line!) must have been a dream come true. As usual in this series, there is obsessive attention to the damnedest details (note that our hero, Humpty Dumpty Jr. is an upright egg, while Easter Egg and the villain are designed broad end on top.)

And, of course, the whole darn plot hinges on the most obscure joke imaginable! (SPOILER: Eggs in boiling water come out HARD BOILED! Get it? That’s why the sweet little heroine takes a dunking and pops up [Read more…]

Welcome to the wonderful world of ReFrederator. Fred, Eric and Dave are allowing me to post my two cents - which I’ll do on occasion - or maybe I’ll just post a cool image relating the the cartoons presented this week.

The picture above is from POOR CINDERELLA (1934) which you’ll be seeing later this week. This was Max Fleischer’s first seroius attempt to compete with Walt Disney. Fleischer had been beating Disney with innovation after innovation - sound cartoons, feature length films, three dimensional backdrops, educational & commercial animation - but it was Disney who was winning the awards and achieving international success (due to his great strengths in storytelling, and innovative personality animation).

By 1934, Fleischer was producing the biggest cartoon star of the decade - Popeye The Sailor. On a roll, Fleischer put everything he had into Poor Cinderella - including his leading lady Betty Boop, his new “Stereo-Optical [Read more…]