ReFrederator Blog

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Introducing Heckle and Jeckle — sort of. Birdbrain Week continues with “The Talking Magpies”, a 1946 Terrytoon that, technically, stars Farmer Al Falfa. A bickering couple of married birds show up early in the show, and they don’t act much like any cartoon characters we recognize. Then the old geezer starts to chase them and suddenly, two stars are born! Mr. and Mrs. Magpie mutate into two preposterously resourceful smart alecks (both with male voices) who are way too fast for our silent-movie-leftover hero. They are back to being magpie and wife for the closing gag, but the damage was already done, and Terrytoons would never be the same (thankfully.) These wise guys would soon star in their own series, snapping up the pace for the entire studio!

And a word about that Talking Magpies stuff. Heckle and Jeckle were always billed as “The Talking Magpies.” I guess there was a pre-cartoon era [Read more…]

There’s an urgent WW II propaganda message in today’s Birdbrain Week offering — support your local junk drive! ‘Course, this patriotic plug is framed in a spectacularly silly cartoon starring Daffy Duck, not necessarily the most credible spokesmallard when approaching matters of national importance.

The film is SCRAP HAPPY DAFFY, the director is Frank Tashlin, and there’s plenty of rubbery animation by Art Davis. You also get a quick look at some of Daffy’s spookier looking relatives, and a cameo by no less than Adolph Hitler. How fast do you think they whipped together those scribbly backgrounds? Great Stuff!

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Dave Kirwan

We’re making a quick review of some of our favorites here at ReFrederator — so here is the return of Birdbrain Week. Our first installment is “Pantry Panic” and our star is the estimable Woody Woodpecker. In this early installment, Woody looks more goony bird than woodpecker (cross-eyed, buck toothed, with a touch of elephantiasis around the ankles) but he’s rewardingly mean spirited in a pitched battle with a hungry old cat.

Hey — does anybody else remember how quickly Walter Lantz’s main bread winner could turn cannibalistic? (Okay, so a woodpecker trying to eat a cat isn’t really cannibalism, but it’s not really normal, either!)

More feathered friends tomorrow!

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Dave Kirwan

Today is the biggest shopping day of the year, so it seems appropriate we wrap up Cartoon Starlet Week with Little Lulu making life a living heck for the harried staff of a big 1940’s type department store. And when I say ’staff,’ I mean that same fat guy with a mustache who plays a variety of roles in Lulu’s films (truant officer, dog show judge, Lulu’s father… it’s always pretty much the same fella.)

The cartoon is BARGAIN COUNTER ATTACK, and the starlet is the one and only Lulu. Happy day-after-Thanksgiving!

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Dave Kirwan

It’s Thanksgiving and still Cartoon Starlet Week, so here’s Refrederator giving thanks for all those princesses, damsels in distress and other assorted lovelies who pop up in our animated classics. We certainly appreciate the fact that they were [A] almost always pivotal to the plot and [B] a lot harder to draw than, say, your standard issue exploding duck.

Of course, no one had to draw the heroine in today’s film, RAPUNZEL …she’s a model animated by stop motion master Ray Harryhausen. He did have to design her performance, instill a proper feminine personality and add just the right winsom touch to bring the familiar fairy tale to life. No easy task, that.

But this ones a real goody, and an appropriate holiday treat for all those baby boomers who grew up watching the Thanksgiving night broadcast of Harryhausen’s classic features in the 60’s.

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Betty Boop, the ultimate Cartoon Starlet, is front and center in our current offering, A SONG A DAY. Producer Max Fleischer certainly served up a diversity of roles for La Boop — dancer, inventor, presidential candidate — today she’s a veterinarian! And, as in the case of all Betty’s occupational pursuits, the key to success seems to be a toe tapping musical number.

Well, actually, Betty’s first song doesn’t really bedpan out for the animal hospital. She has to call her mentor, Prof. Grampy to come up with a new idea. He does — a different song!

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Dave Kirwan

Kickin’ off Cartoon Starlet Week with THE LOST DREAM, a Paramount Famous production starring Little Audrey, she of the chunky ankles and ever visible frilled panties. Many of Audrey’s efforts featured elaborate dream sequences, but this one actually has a dream sequence all about dream sequences! Sheesh!

Despite the appearance of yet another regrettable Black maid stereotype, this is a cute cartoon. Able direction by Vlad “Bill” Tytla, nice voice work by Mae Questel and a great score by Winston Sharples. No credit given for the guy who did Audrey’s hair. Maybe just as well.

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Dave Kirwan

I’m always amused by old movies, cartoons and comics that try to sell us on the idea that a white person can pass as black just by applying burnt cork, coal dust, or—as in Plane Dumb—oil that just happens to be lying around a plane’s cockpit. The funny thing is that the weakness of that idea is really apparent in live action and even in comics, but transformation is animation’s playground, so it becomes fodder for a laugh. I chuckled when first I saw how when Tom and Jerry applied oil to their faces, it also transformed their lips, hair and voices. (For the record, the best such transformation is actually from a live-action show; in an episode of the British comedy The Goodies, our heroes repeatedly fall into a photo-developing chemical bath, and re-emerge the opposite colour as when they went in.)

I’m not a huge fan of Tom and [Read more…]