The Oscars' Greatest Snub

"What's Cookin' Doc?" (Robert Clampett, 1944) via MySpace
(Thanks to GoldenAgeCartoons.com)

Secrets to a Successful 30-Year Marriage #8

Donna and I like to travel together -- some even whisper "as a couple," taking epic automobile trips around the United States.

To celebrate our anniversary, we're discussing -- my people with her people -- an excursion which could roll us to Canada and the traditional lovebirds' retreat, Niagara Falls.

I'm told my parents honeymooned at Niagara Falls, nearly 70 years ago. I wouldn't know. I wasn't invited.

I wasn't around either, but, obviously, they were thinking only of themselves.

Kids.

*sigh*

Anyway, we'd like to visit, too, especially after seeing this exciting travelogue....


"Niagara Fools" (1956) via YouTube

Cartoon Carnival: Super Football Follies

Popeye the Sailor in "You've Gotta Be a Football Hero" (Dave Fleischer, 1935) via YouTube



Merrie Melodies: "Screwball Football" (Tex Avery, 1939) via YouTube



Goofy in "How to Play Football" (Jack Kinney, 1944) via YouTube

Seeing Spots!

Image via Wikipedia

Fifty years ago today, Jan. 25, my world and similar universes belonging to third grade buddies were rocked with an additional phenomenon joining our still warm "The Flintstones" buzz, launched four months earlier. The much-awaited Walt Disney full-length animated feature, "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" was released in American theatres to its initial audiences.

For a glorious winter, we classmates were obsessed with the cartoon puppies in peril and their crooked dognappers, led by the odd, creepy, evil Cruella De Vil. "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" was the second touchstone of our shared childhood pop culture trifecta, alongside Fred, Wilma, Barney, Betty, and Dino. The third was bubbling under, nearly three long years away, with John, George, Paul, and Ringo.

I love this film. It is a vivid visual treat, splashed with color, action, and humor. The revolutionary, although somewhat primitive, Xerox-aided animation technology imbues the picture with a "sketchy," contemporary quality unseen in previous Disney projects, leaving an attractive, improvised aura to the work which one-half 100 years later underscores and champions the wonderful hand-drawn art, a classic trade now sadly dripping away to robotic computers.

Back in 1961, while we all hummed the movie's Kanine Krunchies product placement jingle, my friends taught themselves to draw remarkably accurate recreations of these beloved critters. I was too impatient to become a credible artist, so I took every opportunity to watch and rewatch "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" and absorb all 6,469,952 spots.

I counted 'em.

I hope I remembered to carry the Pongo (72 spots).



"One Hundred and One Dalmatians" Original 1961 Theatrical Trailer via YouTube



"One Hundred and One Dalmatians" (1961) TV Commercial via YouTube



"Kanine Krunchies" Jingle From "101 Dalmatians" via YouTube

TV Pilot Video: 'Adventures of the Road-Runner'

Image via Wikipedia

The fun things I learn from GoldenAgeCartoons.com, like this:

[Animation director] Chuck Jones found himself in a "Quit or you're fired" situation around 1962 when it was discovered that he moonlighted on the film "Gay Purr-Ee" for UPA. But before his departure, Jones created a pilot for a potential Road Runner TV show. The show wasn't picked up, but the pilot was released as a theatrical featurette called "Adventures of the Road-Runner."

...Parts of the new footage used in this featurette / pilot were edited into "To Beep Or Not To Beep" (1963), though Milt Franklyn's music was replaced with Bill Lava's. Years later, further footage was edited into two more shorts for TV, "Road Runner A Go Go" and "Zip Zip Hooray."

The Oscar-nominated 1953 cartoon, "From A to Z-Z-Z-Z," is also recycled here, oddly, but obviously for financial considerations to pad the episode. Dick Beals, the voice of Speedy Alka-Seltzer, speaks for the young Ralph Phillips and his companion.

I'm not fond of Wile E. Coyote when he talks, as he (Mel Blanc) does in this pilot, because it feels of filler material and impairs the pace and tone of the characters' cartoons. The Road-Runner and his nemesis work best as sight gag comedians. Meep meep....



"Adventures of the Road-Runner" (1962) via YouTube



"Adventures of the Road-Runner, Part 2" via YouTube

I Got Nuthin'

Consolation Video: Dave Powers & Dave Powers: Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" via "The Piano Guy" and YouTube
Thanks to Yowp.

Lucille Ball Cartoon: 'My Favorite Husband: George's Christmas Present' (1949, 2010)

Lucille Ball, Richard Denning via Wikipedia

I find myself inside a holiday miracle!

A day or so before Christmas, by happenstance, I listened to a previously unheard-by-me episode of "My Favorite Husband," the radio sitcom starring Lucille Ball. This series, of course, was the basis for TV's "I Love Lucy." The show I heard, "George's Christmas Present," first aired across America on Dec. 16, 1949.

Jump ahead to this afternoon, and, by happenstance, I discovered the very same episode has been recently Flash animated by Wayne Wilson, nicely, too. What are the chances of that occurring?

Here is the animation in three parts with co-star Richard Denning, plus Eleanor Audley and personal favorite Frank Nelson.

I'd sure like to see more of these, Miracle Central.



"My Favorite Husband: 1949 Christmas Show, Part 1" via YouTube



"My Favorite Husband: 1949 Christmas Show, Part 2" via YouTube



"My Favorite Husband: 1949 Christmas Show, Part 3" via YouTube
Thanks to Yowp.

Bob and Doug McKenzie: 'The 12 Days of Christmas'

Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as Bob and Doug McKenzie: "The 12 Days of Christmas" via YouTube

Meanwhile...

Morty's napping in the Christmas tree. Where else?

What follows could double for his surveillance video....


Simon's Cat in "Santa Claws" via YouTube

I Got 'Nuttin' for Christmas'

Consolation Video: "Nuttin' for Christmas" (1955, song; 2009, animation) via YouTube

Fred and Barney: Smokin'

"'The Flintstones' Cast for Winston Cigarettes (Record Player)" via YouTube
It is a bit surprising that I didn't become a smoker. When I was a kid, cigarette ads on television were as commonplace as westerns. I was maybe 10 around the time this commercial for Winston appeared. I shied away from tobacco, although "The Flintstones" was captivating and influential to me.

I never ate a brontosaurus burger either.

I did take a forceful shower under an elephant's trunk. I found the tepid nasal fluids cleansing to be lacking. Subsequently, I was forced to hire and bring in a hedgehog to sneeze on me.

Conditioner.


More: "Bedrock's Smoking" | "Back to Bedrock"

Wile E. Coyote vs. Road Runner Redux: 'Wiley vs. Rhodes'

Image via Wikipedia

I'm a devotee of Chuck Jones' Road Runner cartoons of 1949-65, so this live-action fan homage / update is of special interest. Nice work.

As a young boy, I was also fascinated by the cartoons' sumptuous art direction, depicting the stories somewhere in the strangest American deserts. Through adult travels around the southwest, I've observed the terrain and concluded Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote reside somewhere in the Utah-Arizona zip codes. The new video was set in Moab, specifically, to my eye, at Arches National Park.

What a wow -- and the perfect location!

See why my wife and I have long considered relocating to Moab, since our first visit in 1995 and as recently as this past spring. At any moment, I may pick up the phone and have ACME ship us on out.




"Wiley Vs. Rhodes" from ApachePictures on Vimeo
via Cartoon Brew

Big Weekend

Big weekend, "Tangled." 

Afterwards, we got comb-outs and dished boys.

Thanksgiving Cartoon Carnival

"Jerky Turkey" (Tex Avery, 1945) via YouTube 


Daffy Duck in "Holiday for Drumsticks" (Arthur Davis, 1949) via YouTube 


Tom and Jerry in "The Mouse Comes to Dinner" (William Hanna & Josepth Barbera, 1945) via YouTube
Thanks to GoldenAgeCartoons.com

Separated at Birth: Jerry Mouse and Stewie Griffin

Gene Kelly with Jerry Mouse and Stewie Griffin in "The Worry Song" from "Anchors Aweigh" (1945) via YouTube

Remembering Stoney Curtis

On Sept. 29, actor Tony Curtis died. The following day was the 50th anniversary of the premiere of "The Flintstones." Curtis, as it so happens, is fondly recalled for having voiced his caveman incarnation in a 1965 episode, "The Return of Stoney Curtis."


"The Flintstones: The Return of Stoney Curtis" Excerpts (1965) via YouTube
I'm Mike Durrett, your slave boy.

I've always wanted to say that.

Back to Bedrock

Fifty years ago this morning, I opened my eyes to a great new old world -- a place called Bedrock. The previous evening, "The Flintstones" debuted on prime time network television and I was there.


"The Flintstones" Show Opening (1960) via YouTube

Image via Wikipedia

The strange, comical, prehistoric universe of Fred and Wilma and Dino Flintstone, plus their nifty neighbors, Barney and Betty Rubble, was too delicious for this 8-year-old Neanderthal to resist. My friends, too. "The Flintstones" became the first communal obsession of our youth, followed, three months later, by Walt Disney's "One Hundred and One Dalmatians" and, three years down the path, Beatlemania.

What had been intended as TV's first animated sitcom for adults — note the product placement for Winston cigarettes — was hijacked by children. We loved the show and were soon teaching ourselves to doodle the characters' pictures during school. I can draw Fred at the click of a pen or the hammer of a chisel.


"The Flintstones" Winston Cigarettes Commercial and Winston End Credits via YouTube
It wasn't long before producers Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera revamped the concept to pander to kids with the introduction of tot Pebbles (followed quickly by Bamm-Bamm). Great move, boys. The moment that happened — February 2, 10,000 B.C. (We were on tape delay) — the show was altered and ruined forever.

The TV rule of "adding brats to beloved formats doesn't work" was proven once again, or so I told "Lucy" loser Little Ricky.

The chums and I were out of there, moving on to something else, maybe Arithmetic, but probably "The Jetsons."

My first-run "Flintstones" experience was entirely in black-and-white, which was the broadcast norm in 1960. On this page, I've featured the original opening sequence from seasons one and two of the series, plus the end credits for Winston. My memory is the cigarette company was an alternating sponsor, so not prominent each week; therefore, here's a somewhat reworked *generic* closing taken from the color elements.


"The Flintstones" End Sequence (1960) via YouTube
I prefer the early "Flintstones" title sequences. I owned the vinyl record of the superior, jazzy theme, "Rise and Shine," and played the tune incessantly in my bedroom. There were additional musical selections, including the toe-tapping "Split Level Cave."

But, after 48 years of repetitive TV exposure, the updated "Meet the Flintstones" title footage is better known. I like it well enough. With its drive-in theatre imagery, how could I not?


"The Flintstones" Updated Opening via YouTube


"The Flintstones" Updated Closing via YouTube
Eventually, the animation was expanded to include Pebbles and the Rubbles, joining Wilma, Fred, Dino, and the cat on their night out at the movies:


"The Flintstones" Opening With Pebbles and the Rubbles (1964) via YouTube
The closing with the children and Barney and Betty can be seen in this foreign adaptation, although the music track is different than in the U.S. version:


"The Flintstones" Closing With Pebbles and the Rubbles (1964) via YouTube
Now, I must go take a shower. Cue the elephant...

Cartoon Carnival: Porky Pig's Dueling Do-Dos in Wackyland

An interesting video places the Wackyland sequences from two classic animated cartoons side by side. Wikipedia gives some background....

    Image via Wikipedia

Hey, it's the weekend! I'm slacking.

"Porky in Wackyland" is a 1938 animated short film, directed by Robert Clampett for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of Warner Bros.' Looney Tunes series.

In this film, Porky Pig goes hunting through a Salvador Dalí-esque landscape to find the Do-Do Bird for a very large bounty. In 1994, it was voted #8 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field and in 2000 was deemed "culturally significant" by the United States Library of Congress, who has selected the short for preservation in the National Film Registry.

Furthermore:

A color remake of "Porky in Wackyland" was supervised by Friz Freleng in 1948. Re-titled as "Dough for the Do-Do," the remake was released in 1949. The films were nearly identical, in many cases appearing to match frame-by-frame in certain details, albeit with Porky's appearance updated and the voices having evolved, and many of the backgrounds being different.

Here is the comparison video, followed by the original cartoons in their appropriate Wackylands.




"Porky in Wackyland X Dough for the Do-Do" via YouTube


"Porky in Wackyland" (1938, Robert Clampett) via Revver


"Dough for the Do-Do" (1949, Friz Freleng) via Revver

Cartoon Carnival of the Weird!

I finally made it to one of the recurring "Bizarro Saturday Morning" programs at the Plaza Theatre in Atlanta. The shows are compiled by Cartoon Network animator and voice artist C. Martin Croker, who may be best known as the villainous throats of Moltar and Zorak on "Space Ghost Coast to Coast."

As you might imagine, cartoons were the core attraction, but live-action kiddie TV commercials of the '70s and footage pretending to be animated were also featured, along with my first-ever episode of "Ultraman." Good heavens, that's bad stuff. Any self-respecting guy in a rubber Godzilla suit would not be caught dead in this series. Nope, much too sophisticated for the ruin.

The picture party was billed as "Weirdest of the Weird!! ... An Oddball mash-up of Nostalgia and bits of Weird-o Coolness" in meh, medium-tech 16mm.

I've located several of the high points to share with you, although the nap I enjoyed during the Ludwig Von Drake material I am keeping all to myself.

The first video is "Coffee Shop," one episode in the abysmal 1960 made-for-TV Popeye package dumped on cute little kids like me. At eight, I recognized these shorts were lifeless and would have had to aspire to reach up to awful. Nevertheless, this particular film has gained some sarcastic attraction on my end after a half century.

Olive Oyl and Brutus morph into newly disheveled beatniks much to establishment Popeye's bewilderment. They are so unintentionally uncool that they have become cool. Cool.



Popeye the Sailor in "Coffee House" (1960, Jack Kinney) via YouTube
Next, "How to Catch a Cold" is A-level animation, full-tilt from Walt Disney Productions, but it is a thinly veiled commercial for Kleenex Tissues, hidden within a lecture on germ warfare, juiced with plenty of cartoon slobber and snot. Cool. Cool.



"How to Catch a Cold" (1951) via Google Video
Ahead, the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes production team won an Oscar for "Best Documentary Short Subject" in this government propaganda slurping the Public Health Service. The resulting puddle of hyperbole could use some Kleenex.



"So Much for So Little" (1949, Chuck Jones) via YouTube

Cartoon Carnival

Tom and Jerry in "The Yankee Doodle Mouse" (William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, 1943) via YouTube



Popeye the Sailor in "We Aim to Please" (Dave Fleischer, 1934) via YouTube

Hare Way To the Stars | Viral/Other | SPIKE.com

Bugs Bunny and Marvin the Martian in "Hare-Way to the Stars" (Chuck Jones, 1957) via Spike