ReFrederator Blog

“Strictly Super Week” concludes, suitably, with “Secret Agent” (1943) — the last theatrical Superman cartoon released. Like many of the second season installments, this one has a World War II plot line (Helpful hint to aspiring Nazi spy rings — next time, you might want to tone down those Katzenjammer accents, and pick a ring leader who doesn’t look like Adolf Hitler with a monocle!) Multiple gunfights and car chases — and a nick of time rescue on a pivoting bridge.

Some odd trivia factoids: (A) Clark Kent/Superman has virtually no dialogue — two words, to be exact. (B) This is the only film in the series not to feature Lois Lane (away on assignment?) Instead Supe consorts with a heroic blond double agent. (C) That ever present patriotic subtext in all things Superman, bubbles over here with a very literal, flag waving finale!

ReFrederator returns on Monday with a new theme. Your animation vaccination, [Read more…]

Our favorite researcher/producer Jerry Beck has posted a bit of tangential cartoon history on his latest Cartoon Brew post, just in time for our Superman week. The Superman cartoons director and co-producer Dave Fleischer was ousted from the series after nine cartoons, and while he went on to a career in at Screen Gems and Universal, he also briefly appeared in a couple of Republic features. Jerry gives some background and links to clips on YouTube.

–Fred

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Our favorite interplanetary immigrant (he gave new meaning to the term “illegal alien”), a female reporter who is foolhardiness incarnate, Sammy Timberg’s psuedo-Sousa theme music, and a rampaging dinosaur that seems to triple his proportions with every succeeding shot — what’s not to love in Max Fleischer’s “Arctic Giant?” After an expository minute or two, this 1942 Superman cartoon starts to move at a pretty good clip. The title critter demolishes a godzillion dollars worth of prime Metropolis real estate before Supe even shows up (I’m not quite sure why Clark Kent has to take a taxi to Monster Central, but the cab does serve as a handy dressing room.)

Lots of action and lots of fabulous wide angle shots of the wide hipped reptile doing his destructive thing. To get her story, Lois Lane all but jumps into the critter’s jaws before being rescued at the absolutely, positively last nanosecond. And, oh yeah, [Read more…]

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OK, I’ve got to admit it…at 54 years old, I still love
Superman. And so, for me, it’s great to have the best of Fleischers supertoons.

I know he’s less cool than Batman, he’s geekier than Spiderman, he’s old fashioned in every way. But, you know, I kinda dig him. Maybe it’s those great 10 cent silver age comics, or the great George Reeves TV series. I dunno.
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I tellin’ ya! We wrap up “Insect Infestation Week” with the jolliest, toe tappingest, happiest-go-luckiest slab of 1930’s cartoonery imaginable — “Ain’t Nature Grand” starring Bosco. An early Harman and Ising Looney Toon finds our hero frolicking big time with birds, fish and assorted fauna before some really big bugs decide to torment the guy with normal sized wasps, just for the sheer hell of it. Love Bosco’s scat singing, his dance with the frogs and especially that thing Bosco’s head does whenever he gets hit in the cranium!

Major P.C. warning! This is a Bosco cartoon. Bosco is not an “imp,” a “scamp” or any other delicately phrased euphemism. Bosco is supposed to be a little black man, rendered in the style deemed acceptable in 1931. That means he looks like the caricature of a blackface performer. Other than Bosco’s appearance and jazzy, high falsetto voice, there’s virtually no content in [Read more…]

Wooooo! We’re talking old. Way old. Very, very old. From 1930 (and it looks older than that!), comes “King of Bugs,” an RKO/Aesop’s Fable. This was a halcyon era in American animation — every cartoon character had that ubiquitous minstrel face design, so all you had to do is add a couple of antennae to any ol’ doodle and… voila! Instant insect!

Come to think of it, the hero in this epic only has one antenna. No matter. That’s a relatively minor issue in an universe that allows little bug-rabbits and bug-tortoises to freely mingle with all the more generic insect types. As the plot rattles on, the hairy spider turns out to be a dastardly villain (big duh!) and the title character reveals himself as… well, pretty much a big jerk! Methinks it’s time the general population considered some sort of bug democracy.

ReFrederator. Cartoons in all shapes and species, [Read more…]

The legendary mariner, Popeye, superhuman dynamo, protector of the weak, hero of mythic proportions versus… a bunch of bugs? Well, yeah, that’s pretty much the deal here. The one eyed gob is trying to save his suburban home from termites in “Insect to Injury.” The sailor man is just too stubborn to call the Orkin man, I guess. Truth be told, until they break out the spinach can, this one plays a lot like a Donald Duck cartoon — plenty of destruction and frustration gags.

But here’s the thing — it’s actually a pretty good cartoon, way above average for a mid fifties Popeye entry. At about this time, Paramount Famous Studios were slacking off all over the place, cutting budgets, reusing old stories and old footage, and greatly simplifying the house style. But this 1956 film is fairly inventive, with very full animation — and the backgrounds are rendered with far [Read more…]