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"Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" —early Daffy Duck. Early Chuck Jones, too. About the time this one was released, other directors like Bob Clampett and Tex Avery were bending time and space, trying to figure out just how fast and outrageous you could make a cartoon. Meanwhile, Jones was over in the corner, trying stuff that was completely different —films with humor based on anticipation, rather than surprise. Relaxed. Deliberate. Unhurried. We're talkin' SLOW here. Laurel and Hardy slow. Jack Benny slow.
So, it's not surprising Casper Caveman talks like Benny in this one. In fact, the whole cartoon kinda has a Jack Benny radio show vibe going for it; everything is leisurely paced, with the big laughs grounded in solid characterization. And the voice impersonation is pretty good too (years later, the real live Benny did his own voice for a Warners cartoon, but I think the guy doing the impression here is Jack Lescoulie.)
Actually, I get a big kick out of the bitchy little caveman who wears boxer shorts under his animal skin. I sorta wish the Looney Toonsters had brought him back in later cartoons (I know... at the end of this one he's, ummm, dead. But so is Daffy, and that didn't seem to slow down his career!)
It's Celebrity Impersonation week at ReFrederator. If you care for caricatures, check in tomorrow!
Dave Kirwan
IT'S A BIRD, IT'S A PLANE, IT'S...
SUPERMAN!
Perhaps the greatest innovation of the Fleischer Studio: a cartoon that tells a dramatic story. A science fiction story.
Whereas cartoons were previously the domain of funny animals, fairy tales and parodies, the SUPERMAN cartoons pioneered a new genre for animated films.
The series was unequaled for decades, and has inspired today's generation of superhero animators, live action directors and auteur Japanese animators.
Back in those days, dramatic comic strip characters were primarily adapted to movie serials (think Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers). Republic Pictures (the King of the "B's") tried to get the rights to make a chapterplay of SUPERMAN. But Paramount Pictures outbid Republic for the movie rights - and handed the character to the Fleischer Studio in Miami. The Fleischers had made a success out of a previous comic strip strongman, POPEYE. Could they do it again? Even the Fleischer's had doubts.
The first cartoon, simply titled SUPERMAN, was nominated for an Academy Award (it should have won). It's a visual feast! The score and Superman theme by Sammy Timburg is amazing. Seventeen super-masterpieces were produced by Paramount between 1941 and 1943.
Enjoy THE BULLETEERS. It's a perfect piece of 1940s pulp fiction - and the forerunner of today's brand of motion picture super spectaculars.
Jerry Beck
One Tough Gazookus Which Hates All Palookas...
For successful transfer from funny papers to movie screen, Popeye certainly takes the cake... or spinach quiche if you prefer. In 1929 Elzie Segar introduced the squinty sailor in his pre-existing comic strip "Thimble Theatre." and Bam! — an instant hit. Just four years later the character became a major movie star overnight, thanks to the wonderful cartoons produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave.
The Fleischers never tried to imitate the long curlicue narratives of the Popeye's newsprint existence, but the animators borrowed a lot from the original, including Segar's flavorful cast of characters (Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, the Jeep, the Goons, et al. )
Today's Comic Strip Week installment is a classic from 1936, "Popeye with Little Swee' Pea", the first onscreen appearance of the tough little baby, Swee' Pea. In the funnies, Swee' Pea was Popeye's adopted son, but the animated versions were always a little vague about the kid's exact relationship to everybody else. In the cartoons, his big claim to fame seems to be his indestructibility — Swee' Pea is always crawling through factories, state fairs and such, miraculously escaping injury, while our man, Popeye takes a shellacking trying to 'protect' the tyke. Same deal here, only this time they're at a zoo.
Man, I love the way Popeye moves in these old cartoons!. When they brought our nautical hero to life, those folks at Fleischers invented some of the goofiest walk and run cycles in animation history. He's got a great strut early in the film (with an odd little quick-shuffle to accent the rhythm of the music he's humming.) But when Popeye 'runs' in these early films, he employs an arm pumping, two feet at a time hop that's the damnedest thing you've ever seen! (And, hey, don't those 3-D backgrounds look great?)
Tomorrow ReFrederator goes to super heroic lengths to deliver a cartoon classic!
Dave Kirwan
As Featured in the Funnies
Hot Damn! We're continuing the world's first daily classic cartoon podcast! For the next few days ReFrederator will be throwing the spotlight on films based on popular comic strips.
We kick things off with a real curio from 1936, "Happy Days," a one shot pilot for a proposed series based on funny paper favorite "Reg'lar Fellas." Well, it WAS a favorite back in the twenties and thirties — kind of a comic strip version of "Our Gang," only without the ethnic diversity (most of the characters had last names like Duffy, Riley and Flynn.)
The Ub Iwerks studio produced this first film incarnation of the strip, carefully adapting their distinctive house style to reflect some of creator Gene Byrnes' own look and technique. Byrnes drew his cast of characters (Jimmie Dugan, Pudd'nhead, Pinhead, Bullseye the Dog, et al) in a sort of pleasant correspondence school manner that is surprisingly well mimicked here. The animation team also knocked themselves out to approximate the strip's brand of verbal humor.
Alas.
The typical Iwerks cartoon used dialogue as an occasional seasoning, but this one is slathered over with really, really corny one-liners and over the top reaction takes. The effect is a little weird and kinda funny in a totally unintentional way.
A subsequent "Reg'lar Fellas" cartoon series did not materialize, so Iwerks released "Happy Days" as the part of its ComiColor series. Later, Walter Lantz used the characters in one cartoon, and there was a live action movie too. Eventually, the comic strip fell out of favor about the same time little boys stopped referring to each other as "Reg'lar."
An obscure cartoon based on a forgotten comic strip. ReFrederator keeps alive traditions that were dead years before you were born! Tomorrow — one tough Gazookus!
Dave Kirwan
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