ReFrederator Blog

“Pudgy Takes A Bow Wow” stars Betty Boop’s cutesy-poo little pooch in a tale of vicious backstage rivalry — well, actually, the micro-mutt gets into a fight with an alley cat while Betty is giving a live performance. Since this cartoon was made after the production code was enacted and Betty’s act no longer includes racy songs and costumes, but instead consists mostly of a series of hurtful ethnic stereotypical impersonations, some exciting distraction is not entirely unwelcome. Things start in the dressing room, spill out into the wings and pretty soon we have a full scale battle center stage, making something of a stooge out of La Boop. Great Stuff!

The late Myron Waldman is credited as lead animator here — he seems to have specialized in a lot of the funny animal stuff at the Max Fleischer studio around this time. Pudgy, as a character, was always more interesting when his oh-so-adorable [Read more…]

We’re all about pooches and pups as we unleash Man’s Best Friend Week. Yestreday’s toon “Mutt in a Rut” stars that Pluto wannabe, Dogface, one of Paramount/Famous Studio’s parade of character knock-offs (Herman and Katnip were imitations of MGM’s Tom and Jerry, Baby Huey was an imitation of Warner’s Baby Bear, Little Audrey was an imitation of, umm, well, Paramount’s own Little Lulu — but that’s another story.)

The plot for 1949’s “Mutt” is pretty much stolen from Disney’s “Pluto’s Judgement Day” back in 1935. Still a fairly good cartoon. Dogface torment’s a little kitten, is knocked unconscious, thinks he has died. The animated version of puppy heaven is very creative, full of some neat ideas, but, irony of ironies, it’s when things go to hell that this cartoon gets really funny (also, more than a tad sadistic!)

Come sniffing around tomorrow and we’ll have another canine cartoon classic!

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Last of our Crazy Cop Cartoons today — “Bars and Stripes Forever,” a Merry Melodie from that unsung directorial team of Ben Hardaway and Cal Dalton. The directors may be unsung, but that doesn’t stop cartoon convicts from breaking into song, even while they’re breaking out of jail!

Our little narrative is set in a prison populated with dog-humanoid guards and dog-humanoid inmates, all overseen by ‘Warden Paws’, a guy who dithers around doing a fairish Hugh Herbert imitation. I’m thinkin’ voice genius Mel Blanc provides most of the big laughs this trip — love the con on his way to ‘The Chair!’

Speaking of pooches, that’s what we have in store for you next week (albeit the four legged variety!) Check out Man’s Best Friend Week starting Monday.

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Dave Kirwan

Just when you thought it was safe for the kids to watch old cartoons, that nice young fella, Flip the Frog, starts dashing around hotel corridors, looking at naked women through keyholes!

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We have this Crazy Cop theme going, but today it’s more like Cops and Robbers as we present the first of two prison pictures we’ve scheduled for the week. “Jolly Good Felons” finds that funny paper favorite, the Little King taking a tour of the Royal Prison, where everything starts out orderly, but ends up as a knock down riot (not necessarily a laugh riot, mind you, but a riot none the less.)

I’ve always been bowled over by how hard RKO/Van Beuren worked to simulate the original style and humor in the Little King films. By 1934, a whole heap of comic strip creations had found their way into the movies, but the studios usually took drastic liberties with these pre-sold properties. And, let’s face it, the pudgy potentate sure didn’t look or act like a typical animated star of the era — he always seemed like something you could get away [Read more…]

Porky Pig as policeman — now, there’s a matter that demands further investigation! In today’s film, Officer Pig and his ever sneezing bloodhound, Eggbert, seem to be in charge of some sort of 1943 style Homeland Security activity (no yellow, orange or red alert here, gang — this is one of Warner Brothers’ last black and white cartoons.) And the operative word is ’silly.’ Porky wears a silly Keystone Kop suit, he chases a silly spy (Missing Lynx) who puts on silly disguises — we even have to sift through two minutes of silly signs in the beginning of the cartoon before we see any actual animation!

One of Warners’ unsung cartoon directors, Norm McCabe, piloted “Confusions of a Nutzy Spy” using lots of tricky angles and very stylized background art. Of course, one reliable thing about these wartime toons — you’re never far from a Hitler gag or a ‘V for Victory’ [Read more…]

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Hey those happy little guys are back! RKO/Van Beuren recycled the model designs from “The Sunshine Makers” for the dwarfs in “Molly Moo Cow and Rip Van Winkle,” made later the same year (1935.) This time out the gang seems to be drinking stronger brew than that sunshine juice from yesterday’s epic, so it’s not surprising things turn from cheerful to rambunctious pretty quickly.

Actually, the dwarfs and Old Rip himself are really supporting characters in this toon, directed by Burt Gillett and Tom Palmer — the title Moo Cow is the main attraction here. The bovine buffoon starred in a handful of cartoons about this time, but never caught on as a popular character — maybe that certain androgynous quality had something to do with it. I mean, her name is Molly, right? And she is a cow, right? But there is no udder. And that voice definitely is male. So, [Read more…]

Our pixie theme rolls on with today’s installment, “Sunshine Makers” — certainly the “Casablanca” of elf cartoons.

In a pre-Prozac world, relentlessly cheerful gnomes bottle sunshine (and, apparently, contentment) to distribute throughout the countryside, like little psychotropic milkmen. Meanwhile, some goblins dressed like undertakers seem to have the misery franchise sown up — they spend most of their day skulking around, singing about how great it is to feel rotten. Pretty soon it’s attitude adjustment warfare, with the sunshine makers forcing everyone to get happy WHETHER THEY WANT TO OR NOT! A classic!

This is a pretty notorious cult favorite, theatrically released in 1935, but also used as an advertisement for Borden Dairy (check out the titles on this print.) Ted Eshbaugh, who directed “Sunshine” for RKO/Van Beuren had a habit of producing happy, jolly cartoons all featuring a rather dark subtext if you think about it too hard, so let’s not. [Read more…]

How would you like to be an invisible elf on the wall during the story conference for today’s cartoon?

“Okay, so there are these live action kids, see? And they put a lot of mice in a doll house, see? And one mouse turns into a cartoon, see? And then he tells them a story about an old elf who uses a magic potion to turn lizards into, ummm, birds, then more potion that turns toads into, errrr, squirrels, then even more potion to turn mice into… into…. into…. little devil-guys! Yeah, little devil-guys! See?”

One suspects the writers may have been sampling some magic potion of their own.

“Spinning Mice” is a 1935 Toddle Tale, part of a short series of live action/animated shorts produced by Burt Gillett, who also co-directed this one. If the idea was to add a touch of realism showing footage of real boys and [Read more…]