Intergalatic Hijinx
We have lift off on Science Friction Week with Toondom’s favorite pathological liar, Willie Whopper in “Stratos Fear.” This is vintage Ub Iwerks in full delirium mode, giving us a trip through space, crazy martians who talk backwards, a sexy dancer, imaginary creatures, anthropomorphized musical instruments, mummies, scary dentists, dinosaur bones and a ray gun that turns barnyard animals into by-products. Hmmm… what else? Oh, yeah — the head villain has the same irritating ‘Yankee Doodle’ laugh that the little gremlin uses in Bob Clampett’s “Falling Hare” (our film today was made in 1933, a full ten years prior to the aforementioned Bugs Bunny epic!)
Boy, Willie is one of my favorite forgotten cartoon stars! He’s got that cute-and-only-a-little-creepy-if-you-think-about-it-perfectly-circular body shape. They make particularly good use of Master Whopper’s contours in this film, puffing him up like a dirigible, then having him sail through the solar system!
ReFrederator is even more fantastic than usual this week, as we explore the astral outreach of an animated universe with our Science Friction Week!
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On July 24th, 2006 at 12:00 am
The Yankee Doodle laugh was a regular schtick (over)used by vaudeville & film comedian Benny Rubin.
On July 24th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Thanks for the origin on the Yankee Doodle bit. I’ve heard that thing pop up in all kinds of places over the years, was always a little shakey on what the frame of refrence was.
On July 25th, 2006 at 12:00 am
I noticed a Harpo Marx caricature; comedian cameos seems to be a running theme in these old cartoons, including balloon versions of Laurel, Hardy and Chaplin in “Balloonland” and Felix the Cat’s brush with Chaplin in “Felix in Hollywood”.
On July 25th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Yeah, and the real estate agent in “Talking Magpies” is doing a Hugh Herbet… they’re all over the place!
On July 28th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Here’s a couple others in the other cartoons you’ve posted: The “takes” performed by the car salesman in “Happy Days” are Jimmy Finlayson’s trademark reactions in the Hal Roach shorts; the mermaid hostess in “Rocketeers” is a very badly executed caricature of “Queen of the Nightclubs” Texas Guinan. (No excuse for this - she was operating wihtin a few blocks of the Van Bueren studio!) I have also seen Scrappy in “Showin’ Off” perform dancer Joe Frisco’s trademark cigar & derby routine to Frisco’s trademark music, “Darktown Strutter’s Ball.”
Ther’s loads of others - fleeting radio catchphrases of briefly popular comics, radio personalities (Tony Wons - “Are ya listenin’?”)etc. - that go by pretty fast. Warners seems to have liked using imitiators of such comics, such as Al Pierce or Joe Penner, as the basis for entire characters. A shortcut, I guess, when you have crank out cartoons on schedule.
On July 28th, 2006 at 12:00 am
Almost forgot to add - “Mr. Nobody” in “Betty Boop for Preident” is inspired by Bert Williams. He died in 1922, but would have been remembered by all or most of the cartoon’s original audience.
On July 28th, 2006 at 12:00 am
I like the slightly off beat ones. There’s a Terrytoon “Bugs Beetle and His Orchestra” where a spider does an okay Edgar Kennedy ‘face wipe’ for instance…
On July 29th, 2006 at 12:00 am
The aliens talk backwards!
Backwards talking
at 0:01:47 - “Yankee Doodle went to town”
at 0:02:01 - “Yankee Doodle went to town”
at 0:02:14 - ? “(garbled) appear traffic here, I’m not picking it up, can you? HEY!”
at 0:03:06 - “one two three four five six seven”, repeated 3 times.
Fascinating laboratory.