Dolly Parton
Why this lady is so talented
Dolly Rebecca Parton was born in 1946 in Tennessee.
This singer-songwriter is also a successful record producer, actress, author, philanthropist, musician and entrepreneur.
She is best known for her work in country music, becoming one of the most successful female artists of all time.
Dolly Parton had eleven brothers and sisters, thus the family was “dirt poor” mentioned in the song Coat of Many Colors and In the Good Old Days, while the village where they grew up was largely Pentecostal and this form of preaching inspired much of her music.
A child prodigy, Parton appeared on TV and radio and by the age of 13 was recording for a record label also appearing at the famous Grand Ole Opry in Nashville where she first met Johnny Cash for the first time. Soon after this, she moved there permanently.
Parton wrote Put it Off Until Tomorrow and Fuel to the Flame both reaching the top ten and her first country single, fittingly enough was Dumb Blonde.
Marrying a man she met in the Wishy-Washy Laundromat, her husband has only been to see her perform one time, he has shunned publicity and prefers to write her poetry, thus, they celebrated 45 years of marriage this year.
With no children of their own but spending time raising many of Parton’s siblings she is also godmother to Miley Cyrus, Billy Ray’s daughter.
Dolly Parton had her first real blockbuster in 1973 with Jolene and I Will Always Love You the following year though Parton refused to allow Elvis Presley to cover the song because he wanted 50%. She went on to make millions from it ever since, especially when Whitney Houston covered this country classic.
Parton owns her own company “Dollywood”, which operates a theme park and attracts three million visitors every year, thus her business investment has revitalized the Appalachia area of the United States considerably making her very wealthy in the process.
Dolly Parton has been awarded more honours than almost any other female artist with 25 of her records going Gold or Platinum. With 26 number ones and 42 top ten albums her career has reportedly topped 174 million records around the world including downloads online.
She has received 8 Grammies, a Lifetime Achievement Award and been nominated twice at the Oscars.
Parton has appeared on the front cover of Playboy magazine, but refused to pose on the inside many times and Dolly the Sheep was named after her because it was cloned from a cell taken from an adult ewe’s mammary gland.
Dolly Parton truly is one of America’s best loved ladies!
Alison Steadman
Famous for winning Best Actress at the Laurence Olivier Awards aged 46, with The Rise and Fall of Little Voice, Steadman has devoted her life to entertainment and performance.
Alison Steadman OBE was born on 26th August 1946 in Liverpool, England. Marrying her long-time friend and director Mike Leigh they had two sons together; Toby and Leo.
Beginning with stage work at regional theatres starting in Lincoln, her first role was that of the seductive schoolgirl Sandy in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.
Establishing her career playing Beverly in Abigail’s Party, she did more stage and radio work to make ends meet before moving on to play lead roles in The Singing Detective, Pride and Prejudice and Gavin and Stacey.
Growing up on Merseyside, Steadman was the youngest of three sisters. She was educated in the Liverpool suburb of Childwall and met future husband Mike at East 15 Acting School in Essex during her second year of study.
1972 was the year her path crossed with Mike Leigh again. When he was in Liverpool and she was on the Everyman Theatre cast there, he asked her to be in his Hard Labour television film being shot in Manchester and they married a year later.
Following this, Alison appeared in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, Entertaining Mr Sloane and Hotel Paradiso in places like The Royal Court, The Theatre Royal and The Old Vic in London.
On the radio, Steadman’s talent for mimicry and character voices was given full rein in shows such as Week Ending, Castle’s on the Air and The Worst Show on the Wireless.
From 1982 to 1984, this actress joined Eli Woods and Eddie Braben – script writer for Morecambe and Wise – on the radio for 13 episodes of The Show with No Name which did comedy sketches.
On the big screen, Steadman has appeared in many films including Shirley Valentine, Clockwise and P’tang, Yang, Kipperbang.
More recently she has starred as Mrs Naughtie in the series Hamish and Dougal and in December 2009 she starred in the late Mike Scott’s, My Mad Granddad, on BBC radio 4.
Alison Steadman is now divorced and lives in Highgate, London. With two BAFTA nominations and a Best Actress Award from the US National Society of Film Critics for Life is Sweet in 1992, she has truly been recognised for contributions to entertainment.
Cockney Parodies
Surely the most successful team of comedians in British television history are those from Monty Python and among their best sketches, is the hilarious send-up of two notorious East End villains.
Ronnie and Reggie Kray, were infamously known as the “terrible twins” and had recently been sentenced to life imprisonment – for their reign of terror over London’s East End – when the “Piranha Brothers” was broadcast in 1970.
Written by these Pythons as part of BBC2’s hugely entertaining Flying Circus comedy series, the “Piranha Brothers” is an amusing sketch, that centred around a play on words; Cray fish are far less vicious than their amphibious cousins – the deadly, man-eating piranhas!
Doug and Dinsdale Piranha are a pair of thugs who had been intimidating the London criminal underworld, with “violence and sarcasm” bringing the city to its knees, thus John Cleese introduces the sketch via their documentary called Ethel the Frog.
The real life story of the Kray brothers and their gangland rivalry with the Richardson firm in the 1950s and 60s, is alluded to in this short funny film, with “Snapper” supposed to be “Nipper” who was the actual Detective Superintendent involved in the investigation that finally brought these gangsters down.
This comedy sketch would touch base with anyone from that era and must have helped enhance the media circus that followed the activities of the Kray Twins, thus it is a good job Ronnie and Reggie were never released to settle the score with this group of hard-faced, Footlights graduates, who were essentially making fun of organized crime; after all, George Cornell was shot dead in the Blind Beggar pub for being cheeky about Ronnie Kray in 1966!
Who better to make fun of cockney criminals than a Mancunian? Steve Coogan was clearly not “born within the sound of the Bow Bells” himself, but nevertheless that doesn’t mean he hasn’t got a sense of humour.
Alan Partridge was a fictional presenter who parodied commentators and game show hosts in the 1990s; Alan would famously introduce his guests to the studio audience with the lines: “Knowing me Alan Partridge, knowing you Terry Norton, Ahha.”
Alan’s guest on this show – Terry Norton – had recently been cleared of garrotting a nightclub owner in Leicester Square and was welcomed on to the program to talk about being an innocent man.
Terry was the quintessential, cockney wide-boy. He talks about many things: getting sucked in, getting involved in the world, owning nightclubs, boxing, villa hideaways in Spain, dark alleys and all the stereotypical personality traits you would expect from your average cockney villain!.
Alan Partridge himself, narrowly avoids a pasting for being a bit too cheeky in this highly amusing comedy chat show, that many people actually believed to be for real when it was broadcast on the BBC in 1995.
Mindless Violence
Films can often be remembered by one scene that particularly stands out and British cinema certainly has enough extreme violence to entertain the X-rated movie fan.
Scum was directed by Alan Clarke in 1979 and features Ray Winston as a young offender in Borstal. Ray, really hits the target when he disrupts a game of pool by borrowing the cue ball, putting it in a sock and using it as a sling-shot; he truly demonstrates that “he’s the daddy now” in a manner that only someone like Ray Winston can – it is a scene that has been emulated since with a bar of soap and other hard objects, but none of them quite match the original!
“The Hit” was made in 1984 and begins in South London before moving out to Spain where many criminals often thought they were safe in exile. Those days now appear to be over, but Tim Roth plays a football hooligan on-the-run in his first feature film, during the days when the Costa del Crime was still a safe haven; with great style (as an up and coming criminal, slowly rising the ranks) Roth, just had to do-a-number on a Spanish café bar while he was out there. Earning his stripes, he orders “quatro cerveza” without paying and then wrecks the joint. It is a classic scene that is a fine example of mindless violence, orchestrated by a thug who really should have been behind metal bars, rather than drinking in Spanish ones!
The Long Good Friday is the quintessential cockney gangster movie. It features Bob Hoskins dealing with an eruption in the status quo, as terrorism begins to supersede his level of criminal activity and outrank him on his own manner. Unhappy about what is taking place and desperate to find the answer “H” drags in all of his contemporaries, hangs them upside down in an abattoir alongside freezing cold meat and attempts to get somebody to talk; by rustling a few feathers as well as landing a few punches to an outspoken man, the plot begins to thicken.
The true story of John McVicar is immortalized by Roger Daltry in a 1980 film called “McVicar” that was directed by Tom Clegg. Daltry plays the part amazingly well, thus when particularly unhappy about thedining facilities offered at one of Her Majesty’s hotels, Macca shows his anger to the head waiter in a manner not often seen in such high class restaurants – John McVicar was a hardened criminal and really proves that the customer is always right!
No list such as this would be complete without the inclusion of the biopic entitled “The Krays” thus, Ronnie and Reggie Kray (known as the terrible twins of East End gangland London) are the two brothers portrayed in the movie. This scene takes very little away from an actual incident that took place in 1966, when Ronald Kray walked into the Blind Beggar pub in Whitechapel and shot George Cornell in the head; oddly enough, not one of the thirty witnesses to such a vicious murder, would pick out Ronnie Kray in the identity parade that followed – this East End gangster then walked, only to continue his infamous criminal career with fatal consequences.
If music be the food of love play on
Every now and then, somebody writes a piece of music that really is quite silly, but fun to listen to; if you hear the song first thing in the morning, it can set you up for day!
Most people have their own favourites, but some songs just seem to transcend every boundary. For example, “I’ll Be Back” by Arnee and the Terminators really is one for the grandchildren! It took Steve Wright approximately two hours – lock, stock and barrel – to write this piece of marvellous music, back in 1991. Completed during a broadcast of his afternoon show on Radio 1 “I’ll Be Back” was designed for the mid-summer raving era and strangely enough, it became a huge success. A hit single with no video (probably due to its ridiculousness) Steve Wright’s song was always quite an amusing tune to hear at 5 am in a night club; listen out for the point when it all goes silent and you think the DJ has turned off the music, then – bang – off it goes “Asta la vista baby” and you can carry on bobbing away!
“Wake Up Boo” by The Boo Radleys is a really good song to get you going first thing in the morning. It is the quintessential get-up-and-go tune that any day should start with and even if it is dull outside, you really should pretend it isn’t (just for the sake of it) before trying to have a great day, that hopefully did begin with a beautiful morning.
Noah and the Whale are incredible with “Five Years Time” because the song just sounds so, so silly when it comes on; like no other, the tune is very unique and then when you look at the video – seeing them all dance – you really know, it is not for real.
Electronic were a blend of The Smiths, New Order and The Pet Shop Boys; thus every loon can recollect a time when they just got away with murder (so to speak) and beat the system. This song is called “Getting Away With It” and really sums up some of the those laughable moments we all had growing up and putts a smile on your face every time you hear it!
The B52s are another fine example of happy-go-lucky tunes and “Love Shack” is without question one of the greatest of them all. Released in 1989 and seeing that wretched “faded sign” at the side of the road (in your mind’s eye) is enough to get you going early on in the day; it conjures up all kinds of nonsense about great fun times had when cruising about trying to find parties to gate crash in the middle of the night as a youngster. Hilarious times were had back in the day and this song – like a great many others – really does help us remember because it is jolly good fun for everyone.
Dancing in Movies
Some say that dancing should really be saved for musicals, however there are plenty of great dancing scenes in feature films and these movies really wouldn’t be the same if the actors weren’t boogieing away at some point; hence turning what would normally be a good movie, into a great one, on the basis of a fantastic dance routine, has become quite an art.
“Quadrophenia” is a 1970s rock opera by The Who and in the screen version the protagonist Jimmy, tries to out-do the “Ace Face” by climbing up on the highest part of the balcony inside the Florida Ballroom. While drawing as much attention as possible (and busting some serious moves up there in front of the whole crowd gathered below) Jimmy then launches himself into the air like Superman and dives into the club-goers, to the great astonishment of the security guards, who then launch this human cannonball even further out of the door for good!
Cameron Diaz moves really well for an actress – almost like she was born to boogie – and in Charlie’s Angels, Cameron pulls off some spectacular dancing. She is a “fit” bird in every sense and has her routine, down to a tee, in a full of energy movement of expression that really is pure entertainment.
John Travolta dances in all of his movies and has become quite famous for it, thus it is perhaps John of all people that has brought this level of excitement into films using dancing. By encouraging directors to be as creative as possible, dancing his spiced up many scripts and Saturday Night Fever is just amazing on that dance floor, when the whole place comes alight with a young John Travolta – truly magnetic – getting down and shaking his funky stuff! Cool as a cucumber, this is the first film of many where John boogies, thus making dancing his signature – nobody can truly move in movies quite like John Travolta!
Gene Kelly leaping around in the pouring rain with a police officer just staring at him has to be an all-time great; this routine transcends every age group and could easily be a child splashing around in puddles, but just happens to be a fully grown man! Perhaps then, the best dance scene in cinema does actually come from a musical after-all! Singin’ in the Rain is one of the best movies of all time and has to have one of the greatest dance scenes really, doesn’t it?
The Hit
The Hit is perhaps the best British gangster film ever made. Directed by Stephen Frears, this movie was premiered in 1984 and featured John Hurt, Terence Stamp plus a young Tim Roth in the role that surely defines his acting future!
The plot revolves around a South London criminal called Willie Parker; Willie turns informer in return for a comfortable retirement deal out in Spain, however ten years later, Parker is tracked down and kidnapped in an attempt to bring him to Paris for execution.
Drawing the attention of the police – thick and fast – by leaving a trail of destruction in their wake, the net finally closes in on this collection of crooks in a movie of inspired score, breathtaking scenery and fine acting!
Terence Stamp plays the infamous informer – Willie Parker – who is as cool as a cucumber; John Hurt is the hit-man called Braddock with Tim Roth as his young apprentice and actress Laura del Sol does a fine job of Maggie (the innocent girl, caught up in this quagmire of international crime) playing the damsel in distress.
When sentence is handed down to this gang in court, they sing Vera Lynn’s “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when….” and low and behold, ten years later, they actually do meet again out in sunny Spain.
When the day of reckoning finally arrives, John Hurt and Tim Roth come calling with terrific performances, thus Willie goes quietly having spent this period in exile preparing himself for his inevitable comeuppance.
However, on the way to Paris, Braddock changes his plans and drives off to an isolated hillside where Parker makes a run for it. Braddock shoots him in the back before killing Myron in a spectacular scene of cinematic entertainment and then Braddock has to flee into the wilderness after a struggle with Maggie.
The police are hot in pursuit and with Maggie’s help they identify Braddock trying to cross the Spanish-French border. Fatally wounding Braddock, then trying to question this dying man, Braddock only manages to wink at Maggie.
Frears builds tension throughout the movie – culminating in explosive violence – while using three generations of great British acting in arguably their best performances; The Hit is a timeless classic that pre-empts many more recent gangster films in both the UK and the United States and is recognized now as one of the great British movies!
Roger Waters and Eric Clapton composed the music for The Hit, thus the film was produced by Jeremy Thomas and written by Peter Prince. At 98 minutes long, the most surprisingly thing to any critic is that it didn’t even make a million dollars at the box office.
Quasi at the Quackadero
“Quasi at the Quackadero” is an animated short film that was directed by Sally Cruikshank in 1975, thus the cartoon follows two ducks and a pet robot to an amusement park in the future!
Two ducks and one pet robot, go off to visit a futuristic psychedelic amusement park, where time travel is exploited: it is a place where you can see your thoughts, watch yesterday’s dreams and even visit the past, thus this is quite a surreal place to be.
Quasi is the star of the show and they work their way through the Quackadero which is a sideshow type of a place; here in Quackadero land they find some amusing and interesting attractions: there is Hall of Time Mirrors, which show the future appearance of the viewer; there is a Roll Back Time Machine with a skyscraper building backwards; the Think-o-Blink Machine simulates your own thoughts; the game-show type thing is called “Your Shining Moment”; Madame Xano’s is when people can see last night’s dreams and the Time Holes are how you can lean on a railing and see three million years unfold from the past – these are but a few, of the mind bending things encountered in Quackland.
At the end of the film, viewers are told that if you trip over the rail when playing on one of the attractions – Time Hole – you will vanish into the hole forever and never escape; it is a prehistoric land from three million years back and Quasi ends up running from a Triceratops dinosaur for his troubles.
Sally Cruikshank is an American cartoonist and animator who worked on Sesame Street and developed a very distinctive style of her own; it was psychedelic and her animation was just like her paintings. Sally’s images are wonderful; they really move in a very surreal style all of their own, thus it has been said the higher the quality of media (with high definition and even three dimensional glasses) would surely make this cartoon short, even better than it already is!
The music used in Quasi was carefully selected by Sally Cruikshank and it includes: one slide flute, a xylophone, a ukulele, a duck call, a boat whistle and bagpipes. This created what Sally would call the ‘strange, gallopy feeling’ of dance-band music from the early nineteenth-century, thus, being a fan, this all adds to the strange feeling of surrealism that you get when you watch the film. This colorful short speaks volumes about the attention to detail required when making cartoons.
Cruikshank is best known for “Quasi at the Quackadero” though she has contributed enormously to the field of animation; it took her two years to draw the pictures for Quasi and she managed to finance the whole project all by herself. Working and studying in San Francisco as an editor, Cruikshank’s work was quickly noticed and she was hired to experiment in animation (plus work on television commercials) and finally, in 1972, Sally became head animator at Snazelle Films.
More recently, “Quasi at the Quackadero” has been voted into the world’s 50 Greatest Cartoons by animation professionals and in 2009, the short film was selected for preservation by the Library of Congress as part of the United States National Film Registry.
Book Revue
“Book Revue” is an animated short film that was made by Warner Bros in 1946 as part of the Looney Tunes series and the cartoon, features Daffy Duck, in a parody about books that all begin to come to life!
Daffy Duck stars in this popular cartoon which features a mixture of plots, thus the title is a play on words and has dual meaning: a “revue” is a variety show; a “review” is a written evaluation and both mix ideas, related to animation techniques in the film, to great visual effect.
Just after midnight, at a local bookstore, a small cuckoo bird appears from his cuckoo-clock, to declare the fact that the witching hour has begun. It is now the time when all of the books in the shop start to come alive. While viewers listen to Beethoven’s “Moonlight Sonata” playing in the background, the first book they see is “The Complete Works of Shakespeare” and William himself is just a silhouette on the front cover; the complete works are actually complete “clockworks” with the mechanism clicking away inside the book cover, like a mechanical toy, until of course the inner workings explode into a shower of spare parts.
Henry VIII is one of Shakespeare’s history plays and Henry howls like a wolf, then barks like a seal, before his mother calls for the King. ‘Coming Mother’ he says, as King Henry runs to mummy, who is standing by the book cover where she awaits to spank this naughty boy and teach him a lesson he’ll never forget.
When Frank Sinatra arrives, all of the fuss being made, the girls going crazy, starts to annoy Daffy Duck. Daffy then appears from a comic book to try and steal his show aback; thus, after seeing “The Invisible Man” (ironically) who appears with just gloves and a hat) Daffy shouts for the revelry to ‘STOP’ and so the celebrations screech to a halt.
Daffy then notices “Little Red Riding Hood” and heads for Grandma’s house, when the Big Bad Wolf appears. Red then screams and runs away; thus, the wolf has to chase Daffy Duck through a series of classic stories, including “Hopalong Cassidy” and “Uncle Tom’s Cabin” before he hides in the “Petrified Forest”. When the police realize what is going on, “The Long Arm of the Law” apprehends the wolf and then many of the characters from the various book covers, all celebrate loudly; they cheer and dance to “Carolina in the Morning” before the angry wolf makes one final appearance – he rises up from Dante’s “Inferno” like a phoenix and shouts out in anger at all the other book cover creatures!
Clever as this cartoon is, “Book Revue” is actually reminiscent of “The Winter’s Tale” by William Shakespeare, when a statue comes to life; likewise, the story of “Pinocchio” is emulated with the wooden doll doing the same and of course viewers have seen similar things with snowmen and scarecrows too.
Funnily enough, there is also an episode of Animaniacs called “Video Review” and just like all those silly books, the silly movies come to life too, with Daffy Duck making a cameo appearance. This animated short film “Book Revue” is now among those cartoons that have been included in the top 50 of all time, as voted by members of the animation field.
What’s Opera Doc
One of the best-known and most enjoyable animated cartoons from America, is called What’s Opera, Doc? As part of the Merrie Melodies series, this piece of comic strip was directed by Chuck Jones for Warner Bros in 1957 and it is a terrific tale of Bugs Bunny being chased by the notorious Elmer Fudd, through a parody of classical operas.
Nicknamed “Kill the Wabbit” because of that infamous line in animation history, this short film is a story that features the music of three (nineteenth-century) Richard Wagner operas: The Ring of the Nibelung, Tannhauser and Die Walkure.
Written by Michael Maltese, this “What’s Opera Doc?” sketch is six minutes long and begins with Elmer – dressed as a mighty Viking warrior – arousing ferocious lightning storms and singing his signature line: “Be vewy qwiet………….. I’m hunting wabbits.”
Managing to locate some rabbit tracks and a hole in the ground, Elmer jams his spear into Bugs Bunny’s rabbit hole – all he wants to do is: “Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit! Kill the wabbit!”
Bugs Bunny then appears out of another rabbit hole, singing his world famous signature line “What’s up, doc?” to the theme of the Ring Cycle in a hilarious and timeless piece of animation history.
Elmer wants to kill the rabbit with his “spear and magic helmet” and using his mighty powers causes lightening to strike a tree near Bugs Bunny; the crazy rabbit scarpers with Elmer chasing him, only to suddenly be stopped in his tracks when Bugs reappears riding a horse and disguised as the beautiful Val Brunnhilde.
The two enemies then perform a short ballet and duet before Bugs Bunny’s headdress falls off and his disguise is lifted. With the rabbit’s true identity now revealed, Elmer commands more lightening strikes and earthquakes to tear apart mountains in a collection of catastrophes that finally kill the poor little wabbit!
Oddly enough, Elmer is then thoroughly guilt stricken by his actions and carries the bunny’s seemingly lifeless body off to Valhalla. However, there is one final catch and twist in this rabbit tail, when Bugs suddenly lifts his head up and says: “Well, what did you expect in an opera, a happy ending?” thus, Bugs Bunny undoes the tragic conclusion.
Widely regarded by critics, fans and filmmakers alike as one of the greatest animated cartoons of all time “What’s Opera Doc?” has topped many lists and won numerous awards, including recognition by the United States Library of Congress, who deemed the cartoon to be culturally, historically and aesthetically significant.
“What’s Opera Doc?” is one of three cartoons when poor Bugs Bunny is actually defeated by Elmer Fudd, plus the short apparently took six times as much work and expense of anything similar for the time, meaning that it really does deserve some of these accolades.
The Unicorn in the Garden
“The Unicorn in the Garden” is a short story that was made into an animated film by United Productions in 1953. The story features a loving husband, who is being ridiculed by his wife for seeing this strange creature from mythology!
Written by James Thurber, “The Unicorn in the Garden” is a humorous modern fable and now his most famous, as it is often used in education and on academic courses; thus, the tale begins “once upon a Sunday morning” with a dickie bird flying around. When the man sees this thing eating roses in the family garden, he touches the end of its pointed horn and runs back into his house to tell the wife, only to be told to “go away” because “the unicorn is a mythical beast.”
He goes back and feeds the beast a lily and tells his wife again, so she threatens to send her hubby to the “booby hatch,” which is mental hospital for crazy people who have seen weird things. When the authorities are alerted and subsequently come round to the house, oddly enough, she explains the situation and they section her instead, dragging the lady away in a straightjacket. When asked about this so called unicorn, all of a sudden the man knows nothing of this mythical beast and with a big smile on his face, he watches them take his wife away (to the boobie hatch) and the moral at the end says: “Don’t count your boobies until they are hatched.”
James Thurber’s unicorn story is a wonderfully, humorous fable about the glories of imagination and the follies of bitterness, because the man here sees something unreal and his wife really isn’t impressed at all. People have two choices when watching this cartoon: to believe the man actually saw the unicorn or whether he dreamt the whole thing in order to get his wife committed. It is clear that she wanted him out of the way, but he was glad when she was sent off, thus she doesn’t smile like him (other than when she thinks he needs a straightjacket). However, the husband is victorious in the end when the roles are reversed and the wife repeats the very thing for which she tries to get him in trouble. Ironically, it is she who gets taken away.
“The Unicorn in the Garden” was really a short story, but is often included in the older literary genre known as the fable, though fables do use anthropomorphic animals for characters and this story clearly avoids such a thing.
In summary, the moving images and creative artwork are a true delight to watch in this wonderful piece of visual culture; quite unique in style, this colourful contribution to the world of animation, “The Unicorn in the Garden,” was included on the list of top 50 Greatest Cartoons, when voted for collectively by senior members of the animation field!
Felix in Hollywood
“Felix in Hollywood” is an animated short film that was made by the Pat Sullivan Studios in 1923 and the cartoon features Felix the Cat, who shares a famous scene with Charlie Chaplin.
In this silent film, Felix goes on a trip to Hollywood. There, he meets a whole string of celebrities in the first example of star-studded caricatures being used in animation; thus, Felix the Cat, manages to raise the money to go and audition to be an actor in Hollywood, but blows all of his chances, when he is caught doing a Charlie Chaplin impersonation by Charlie Chaplin himself!
Inadvertently though, when Felix becomes the hero during the filming of a western movie scene, he is actually then offered a long-term deal and this short-film finishes happily, with Felix holding his treasured acting contract in his paws!
Felix was a domestic pet cat and his horrible owner was broke so he made Felix the Cat go to find money as a film star in Hollywood. However, the cat sees a local shoe shop that is bankrupt and offers to sell the unsold shoes for the man to make money; the owner promises 500 dollars if he manages to sell them all, so Felix sticks gum all over the place making sure everyone’s shoes get damaged and ruined by treading on sticky chewing gum. The whole town then buys shoes from the bankrupt man and Felix takes 500 dollars to his master, only for the wicked man to pocket the money himself.
The crafty cat then sneaks in with the owner on his way to Hollywood and legs it when he arrives – laughing at the owner and scurrying off. When Felix signs up at Static Studio, he runs into Ben Turpin, Charlie Chaplin and then Douglas Fairbanks who is tied to a stake; Felix tries to rescue Doug (who is really only filming) by pinching a pistol and this impressed the movie director so much, that he hires the cat on the spot.
Patrick Sullivan (1885 – 1933) was born in Sydney, Australia. He was a cartoonist, film producer and pioneer in the field of animation, best known for his silent cartoons with Felix; Pat, then moved to America in 1910 after leaving New South Wales – working briefly in London as an assistant newspaper cartoonist – and when media magnate William Randolph Hearst, decided he liked Pat’s cartoon strips so much, he set up a studio to produce Sullivan’s cartoons for him, before Pat Sullivan finally went it alone.
Pat began with the series called Sammy Johnsin. Pat first wrote about Felix in the “Paramount Magazine” as a character named Master Tom in a cartoon series called “Feline Follies” thus, Mickey Mouse was beginning to steal the show in the animation world, by gaining popularity through sound being added to film; it wasn’t long before the Felix cartoons had to follow suit to keep up with Mickey’s popularity.
In summary, Felix in Hollywood is the ultimate example of an animated silent short before the talkies had arrived and is rightfully included on the list of 50 Greatest Cartoons, which is a survey that was conducted by experts in the field of animation.
A Corny Concerto
“A Corny Concerto” is an animated short film that was made by Warner Bros for the Merrie Melodies series in 1943, and the cartoon is a wonderful parody of “Fantasia” by Walt Disney.
This cartoon uses two Johann Strauss waltzes: firstly “Tales from Vienna Woods” and secondly “The Blue Danube.” Thus, this lovely piece of animation features Elmer Fudd, who appears as the composer introducing each segment. Porky Pig is the one hunting Bugs Bunny and in addition, the young duckling in the second segment is quite possibly a baby Daffy Duck!
The theatre of performance is Carnegie Hall. This conveniently becomes ‘Corny-gie Hall’ hence, the auditorium is the setting for the appearance of none other than – the one and only – Elmer Fudd. Elmer (who isn’t hunting rabbits for once) introduces the classical music, in his own giggly style; his tuxedo keeps rolling up (like a Venetian blind) when he brings on “Vienna Woods” and later, when Elmer introduces the “Blue Danube” segment, he waves his arms around and his trousers fall down – ha, ha!
Porky Pig (instead of Elmer) and his dog are hunting wabbits in the first part. It is Porky’s dog who finds Bugs Bunny hiding in a hole, so Bugs slams a book shut in the dogs face. Bugs then emerges from his “wabbit” hole, standing up like he was on stage and pirouettes as if he was a ballerina, then kicks the dog in the face before tying his tail to a tree; however, the plot thickens when Porky and the dog try to hide in a bush, only to find Bugs Bunny already there.
Then there is a shot fired. Porky and the dog see no bullet holes and it is Bugs himself who appears to have been hit by the bullet; he falls to the ground – dead as a dodo – so they start mourning him. When viewers see that Bugs Bunny is wearing a blue bra, this silly rabbit comes back to life and slaps Porky Pig in the face, before gracefully dancing off into the distance and showing the audience his sexy underwear.
“The Blue Danube” is the second bit. Of course, Elmer Fudd introduces this part, which recounts the tale of “The Ugly Duckling” thus, as the story opens, and viewers see the mother swan – gliding along gracefully – with her brood. All of a sudden, a small black duck (possibly a baby Daffy) tries to join the team, but sadly, mother goose angrily whacks him away; this poor devil, then has to swim off with a big red hand-print on his backside, so he tries again. This time he uses an underwater bubble tactic to swim alongside, but the daft duckling aggravates the mother even more and she slaps him back in the water once again.
Along comes a buzzard and swims to the music before sprinkling some salt and pepper on the baby swans. This hungry buzzard then grabs the cygnets away, but when one changes into a fighter plane and dog fights with the buzzard, it drops the babies back. These funny things then parachute down safely, but the buzzard explodes in typical animated slapstick style and this bird of prey has to strum a harp like he were on his way to heaven. The final scene shows Daffy the Duckling, quacking away alongside the rest of the family in time to the music, with only his own little reflection in the water not paying any attention.
In summary, “A Corny Concerto” has long been considered a classic cartoon. This is not just because of the sense of humor, but through being perfectly timed to the sound of music and this animated short has rightly been included in the book “50 Greatest Cartoons” of all time.
Sir Alec Guinness
Sir Alec Guinness won an Oscar for Best Actor playing Colonel Nicholson in the epic film The Bridge over the River Kwai.
Guinness is best known by children for playing Ben Kenobi in Star Wars and featured also in the Oscar winning movie Lawrence of Arabia.
There has been speculation that this actor’s father was part of the famous Irish Guinness family but his identity has never been confirmed.
By the age of 22 Alec Guinness was involved with John Gielgud in a West End performance of Hamlet; someone he would go on to co-star with many times in the future.
Signing with the Old Vic, Guinness would play many Shakespearean roles including the part of Exeter in Henry V opposite Laurence Olivier.
Now a part of theatre land in London, he adapted Great Expectations for the stage which was viewed by David Lean who would later cast Guinness in many of his movies.
Serving with the Royal Navy in the Second World War, Guinness commanded a landing craft invading Sicily and was granted leave eventually to appear on Broadway.
Believing Star Wars to be a huge box office hit, Guinness negotiated a deal for 2% of the gross, which proved to make him a very rich man. Fellow cast members have spoken highly of his courtesy and professionalism on and off the set.
He has one actor son Matthew and Guinness was the final part of the great generation of British Shakespearean actors, including: Olivier, Gielgud and Ralph Richardson.
“May the force be with you” isn’t uttered in any of the Star Wars films, despite popular belief.
Guinness was awarded honorary degrees at both Oxford and Cambridge during his lifetime and he met James Dean in 1956 when filming The Swan who showed him his lovely new Porsche. Guinness advised him to “get rid of the car or it will kill you!” and unfortunately Guinness was proved right.
“Failure has a thousand explanations. Success doesn’t need one”, is his most famous quote.
Sir Alec truly is one of the best-known and best loved English actors from the twentieth-century. He was unostentatious and reserved as a man who played a variety of roles with force and authenticity, however after the financial security given to him by Star Wars he only ever appeared in two more West End plays.
Sadly dying at the age of 86, Sir Alec Guinness had an acting career which spanned six decades. He always dreamed of being on stage as a young boy, sometimes walking the three mile journey from his home in Bayswater to the Old Vic to spend his pocket money watching performances there.
Sir Alfred Hitchcock
Sir Alfred Joseph Hitchcock KBE was conveniently born on Friday 13th of August in 1899 and appropriately enough, he grew up in the East End of London which was the official stamping ground of the infamous Jack the Ripper, followed by the notorious Kray Twins!
On the one hand, Alfred Hitchcock was destined to be involved with crime in some way shape or form. For example, the most famous story about his childhood is when he was once sent by his father to the local police station with a note asking the officer to lock him away for ten minutes as punishment for being a naughty boy – an incident that must have given him time to think creatively about villainy at such an early age. Beginning with the design of title cards for silent movies at 15, Alfred then moved on to art direct, script write and storyboard, thus he became known later – officially – as the architect of anxiety! He began directing with the “The Pleasure Garden” out in Germany during the silent movie era and then came “The Lodger” in 1927 which was the first recognizable Hitchcock film and very much in the shape of things to come. The Lodger was also famous for beginning a tradition of cameos; when the team were short staffed, Hitch appeared as an extra alongside Ivor Novello!
On the other hand, it was only a matter of time before Alfred Hitchcock was headhunted by Hollywood and dragged away from films to movies! This made perfect sense with the onset of the Second World War and as part of the UK’s brain drain to the United States, Hitchcock had to take his assistant director (wife, Alma Reville) plus their young daughter Patricia with him. Alfred Hitchcock really did become the “Thane of Thrillers” and one of the most successful directors of all time thus, his glittering career spanned six decades, making nearly 70 movies. The cameo tradition soon had to be shot as early as possible in Hitchcock’s movies so that people could concentrate on the film rather than waiting to see their beloved director!
However, there was more to Alfred than sinister movies – he did have a funny side as well. For example, Hitchcock hated eggs so much that in a restaurant scene in To Catch A Thief, he has the older, wealthy woman in the story stub her cigarette out in a fried egg, just to show his contempt! Also, when film criticism and theory were being developed in the 1960’s, everyone was using Hitchcock’s expression of moving image (like academics use Shakespeare for metaphor) and one example is the physical falling in films like Vertigo, Rear Window and North by Northwest, thus falling down metaphorically alludes to falling in love. Clearly Hitchcock became the Tzar of Terror and loved to keep audiences on the edge of their seats for as long as possible, thus he remarked once: “If a bomb explodes you get a ten second shock – maximum – and if the audience knows a bomb has been planted, you can build the suspense to keep them anxious for 5 minutes.” It was comments like this that made Alfred Hitchcock truly a master of suspense!
In summary, it seems a shame that “Hitch” never actually received an Oscar himself, though many of his films did and the Academy finally recognized him with the very first Lifetime Achievement Award in 1980 that so many greats have now received, thus the Hitchcock legacy lives on and films like Psycho will surely live forever.
The Tragedy of Macbeth
Few of Shakespeare’s plays have inspired so much moving picture as The Tragedy of Macbeth, using themes of violence, intolerance and terrorism.
Most recently, The Last King of Scotland makes interesting comparisons between two tyrants. Idi Amin of Uganda was fascinated by all things Caledonian ever since his military training with Scottish officers in the UK, beginning in 1946 as an assistant cook.
Amin and Macbeth were both courageous, resourceful soldiers whom quickly rose up the ranks before coming to power and both were interested in witchcraft. Idi Amin even had his soldiers dressed in kilts!
The 3 most acclaimed movie versions of the Shakespeare play are as follows:
(1948)
Orson Welles shot his picture in 23 days, reflecting the snappiness and punchiness of the play in performance, the way Shakespeare had intended.
Scenes involving the witches were added to increase their significance. For example, at the beginning of the film, they create a clay statuette of Macbeth, which is used to symbolize his rise and fall. It collapses in a heap, immediately after Macbeth is beheaded.
Welles introduces a totally new character. The Holy Man represents Christianity – a new religion – while the witches represented the druids of the old pagan religion.
Lady Macbeth’s suicide and the final battle between Macbeth and Macduff are depicted on screen. In the play, both scenes occur off-stage.
Many lines were cut, speeches reassigned and scenes reordered. Criticized back then, this is accepted practice nowadays showing how far ahead of his time Orson Welles was!
(1971)
Roman Polanski reveals Macbeth as a natural born killer. The director’s wife, actress Sharon Tate, was murdered by Charles Manson three years before the making of the film.
Bleak and violent, Polanski’s Macbeth was his first feature following Sharon Tate’s murder and the story is more vicious as a result of this traumatic event.
The slaughter of Macduff’s wife appeared to have been staged in an especially lurid manner that was intended to evoke the Manson murder of Roman’s own wife. Luckily, no children were killed in Hollywood as in the play!
The scene in which Macbeth murders King Duncan is shown in the movie and only implied in the original play.
Shakespeare’s Dark Lady Sonnets (127-152) were negative and bleak, written at a time in his life that his mind was thought to be diseased by the passing of his only son at a young age.
Perhaps this reflects what was on Polanski’s mind when filming his account of Macbeth so soon after the death of a loved one!
(1957)
Akira Kurosawa’s Macbeth is The Throne of Blood. The film follows Shakespeare’s tragedy, but uses hardly any of the script.
It is a dark Samurai drama set in feudal Japan. There is no Macduff and the protagonist is Washizu. The archway in the forest is the entrance to his world. Wide open early on, the arch slowly reduces and Washizu retreats into his sick inner self, like Macbeth’s world crashes around him!
The death scene of Washizu at the end makes spectacular cinematography. The unrelenting volley of arrows have a massive impact and lives long in the audience’s mind.
Kurosawa’s interpretation of Macbeth is visually fascinating and literally translated as Spider Web Castle. As with the play, the protagonist’s companion – Banquo – is killed to protect Washizus throne, only to haunt him later as a ghost.
TS Eliot claimed his favorite film was The Throne of Blood!
Oxford Revue and Cambridge Footlights
In my opinion Dudley Moore was the funniest comedian of all time.
Surely, if comedy wasn’t subjective, nobody could argue with that! Dudley was teased about his shortness and club foot as a child, so he spent time alone learning music which won him a scholarship to Oxford University. His band had the residency at Peter Cook’s club The Establishment and Moore composed the soundtracks to some of his films.
Like Terry Jones and Micahel Palin of Monty Python fame, Dudley was not a member of the Footlights. He met Peter Cook when they did Beyond the Fringe in London with Miller and Bennet who blended members of Footlights with the Oxford Revue.
Other former members of the Oxford Revue are Al Murray, Rowan Atkinson, Angus Deaton and Richard Curtis. Al Murray was the great, great, great, grandson of William Makepeace Thackeray and he studied modern history at Oxford where he was part of the Oxford Revue.
Rowan Atkinson went to Newcastle University and did a masters at Oxford and went touring with Angus Deayton afterwards.
Richard Curtis got a first from Oxford in English, he was born in New Zealand and moved to England aged 11. He won a scholarship to Harrow and at Oxford he met Rowan Atkinson. Richard Curtis founded Comic Relief after graduating.
Pamela Stevenson is from New Zealand also and a clinical psychologist though she is best known as a comedian and for her marriage to Billy Connolly.
Griff Rhys Jones is a Welsh comedian. He was mates with Douglas Adams and vice president of Cambridge Footlights when he was reading History and English.
Mel Smith went to Oxford University and met Griff Rhys Jones at the Edinburgh Fringe where they were both performing. Smith is addicted to painkillers and Rolls Royce motor cars.
Angus Deayton had a trial for Crystal Palace and read languages at Oxford. Ian Hislop was going to do PPE and ended up doing English Literature at Oxford. Paul Merton was married to Caroline Quinten for 8 years.
Peter Cook did French and German at Cambridge and became president of Footlights. Steven Fry is the director of Norwich City FC and he was expelled from Upingham and Paston (where Lord Nelson went) and spent three months in prison for stealing a credit card. He then passed the Cambridge exam and studied English. He is friends with Prince Charles because of his work on the Princes Trust.
Hugh Lawrie was born in Oxford and his father won an Olympic gold medal for rowing. Educated at Eton and Cambridge, Laurie was president of Footlights and was in the Oxford and Cambridge Boat Race himself in 1980. He is the ex boyfriend of Emma Thompson who he met at university.
John Cleese began his career at the Edinburgh Fringe before doing Flying Circus plus four Python films. He is divorced three times and the family surname was “Cheese” originally, but it was changed by his father when he joined the army in the first world war – this almost certainly destined someone in the family to become one of the WORLD’S FUNNIEST COMEDIANS. John got a 2.1 in Law from Cambridge and he met Terry Gilliam and Connie Booth when performing on Broadway in the States and dragged them over here!
Emma Thompson’s father wrote the Magic Roundabout, she did English at Cambridge and featured in the Bambi episode of the Young Ones.
So much comical entertainment has come out of the Oxbridge university system in England. Footlights and Revue can surely claim to have generated some of the FUNNIEST COMEDIANS OF ALL TIME!
Little Red Riding Rabbit
Warner Brothers made “Little Red Riding Rabbit” in 1944 and this animated short film is part of theMerrie Melodies series, thus the cartoon stars Bugs Bunny in a parody of the infamous children’s fairy tale!
This cartoon begins in the woods when Bugs Bunny pops out of the basket when Little Red Riding Hood is skipping along and singing along to “Five O’Clock Whistle” in a loud bellowing voice. Little Red Riding Hood is a bobby soxer and she is drawing as much attention to herself as possible, like many teenage girls did in 1940s’ America.
When the wolf appears in his blue dungarees he hides behind a tree and then diverts young Red along a huge mountain path, so he himself finds the shortcut to Grandma’s house; then, the wolf sees the note about Red bringing a rabbit, so the wolf sneaks inside and dresses up like Grandma, only to find a whole load of other wolves doing the same thing – they are all waiting for Red in Grandma’s bed.
Oddly enough, the wolf doesn’t want to eat Little Red in this version of the fairy tale, but he is after the nice, juicy rabbit instead. So, wolfie shuffles Little Red Riding Hood out of the door and searches for Bugs Bunny. The Big Bad Bunny then runs all around the house – in and out of doors in one of his most famous cartoon routines – and the wolf chases and chases the rabbit all over. Red keeps trying to communicate with the wolf: “What a big nose you have” and gets in his way, but wolfie corners Bugs Bunny and this silly rabbit mimes every action the wolf makes before Bugs scorches him with hot coals.
Wolf shoots up to the roof with a sore behind and when he comes down to land, he balances on two benches, so Bugs piles up huge amounts of heavy objects to weigh him down. When Bugs Bunny climbs down from piling everything he can on the wolf, he notices that Red is the one there under it all and not the wolf anymore. Where has the wolf gone?
Thus, Bugs Bunny then stands next to the Big Bad Wolf who is all dressed in green like Grandma; Bugs shares a carrot with him and the cartoon ends, with poor Little Red Riding Hood in distress, spread across the hot coals.
In summary, this cartoon “Little Red Riding Rabbit” is one of the top 50 best cartoons of all time, as voted for by members of the animation field and the girl’s name – interestingly enough – is an ironic misnomer because she actually suffers from colorblindness!
Peace on Earth
“Peace on Earth” is an animated short film that was made by MGM in 1939 and the cartoon is about a post-apocalyptic world, populated only by animals!
The cartoon “Peace on Earth” begins of course with a rendition of the original Christmas carol. The song was based upon a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow entitled “Christmas Bells” and it sends the message of renewed hope for peace in mankind. The poem was written on Christmas Day because Longfellow lost his son and wife in the American Civil War, thus various musical versions have since appeared, particularly at Christmas time.
Grandfather squirrel arrives on Christmas Eve and tells two young family members that the men in “Peace on Earth, good will to men” are responsible for the never-ending wars seen throughout history. Because war seems to be waged mainly by men, Grandfather squirrel says that wars do come to an end but will ultimately involve the last two soldiers on Earth “shooting each other” dead. With only animals left, they find a copy of the Holy Bible in the ruins of a church and use it to learn from the mistakes of the human race; thus, these animals rebuild the world as a society dedicated to peace and use war helmets to construct houses in an amazing animated tale.
Grandpa describes these so called men as “monsters wearing iron pots on their head” and they walked on their hind legs, so the squirrels are glad there are no more men around. Grandpa said that as soon as they settle one argument they “find something else to fuss about.” Thus, Grandpa uses his walking stick as a machine gun to demonstrate how these evil men behaved.
Grandpa was just a little squirrel at the time the Bible was found, but he asked the wise old owl what the book is about and the owl describes it for him. “Thou shalt not kill” is thought to be a mighty good book of rules, but it is a shame them silly men didn’t pay much attention to it! The next page says “We shall rebuild the old wastes” and almost straight away (like a load of Santa’s little helpers) the creatures get cracking and hammer away at rebuilding society. Then we see the cartoon finish to the timeless “Silent Night” with Grandpa and Grandma putting the babies to sleep in “heavenly peace” in their rocking motion bed – that has a patchwork quilt – for them all tucked away in a marvellous happy ending. How wonderful!
This cartoon features an original song written to the tune of “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” and other Christmassy related themes. There have therefore been rumours that this short animated film was actually on the list of nominations for a Nobel Peace Prize, partly because the cartoon was the first about a serious subject by a major studio – peace is symbolic right the way through the film.
In summary, this cartoon “Peace on Earth” is among the best 50 of all time as voted for by members of the animation field and it was also nominated for an Academy Award in 1939.
Rooty Toot Toot
“Rooty Toot Toot” is a short film that was made by Columbia Pictures in 1951 and the cartoon recounts the traditional song of “Frankie and Johnny” in animated form.
The traditional American song “Frankie and Johnny” is from Mississippi and it tells the story of a woman who finds out her man is cheating with somebody else. When Frankie shoots her man Johnny dead in this crime of passion, Frankie is then arrested by the police, taken to court and in some versions of the song, she is executed as well!
In this cartoon, Frankie is on trial for murdering her lover Johnny and she has been accused of shooting Johnny “rooty toot toot / right in the snoot” by the prosecuting attorney. Viewers see the tale move from the courtroom, to the bar where Frankie walks in and catches her boyfriend Johnny with Nelly Bly. They claimed to be rehearsing, but Frankie kills Johnny in a rage of jealousy and then they go back to the courtroom where Frankie is being tried for the murder.
Nellie Bly is the singer who incriminates Frankie. Frankie shouts “She’s no singer!” in court because Nellie witnessed the shooting and things don’t look good for Frankie any more. Not until her lawyerHonest John the Crook comes up with a plan;Honest John spins the jury a line and in a huge turn of events, this fiendish Frankie is found “not guilty” in court, thus, she is delighted by the jury’s quick decision.
Frankie was – allegedly – chased by bullets that accidentally hit Johnny in a weird rendition of events from a chase around town, nevertheless this swung the jury and Honest John declares he’d like to marry Frankie as part of the deal!
However, when Frankie sees Honest John sneaking off with Nell upon winning the case, Frankie is furious and grabs Exhibit A which is the gun from the first murder. She shoots Honest John the Crook in front of the entire courtroom “rooty toot toot / right in the snoot”.
That naughty Nelly really does get in Frankie’s way and that is two people now dead – this time there is no choice and off Frankie goes to jail in the final scene, all in time to the music – a music video like no other.
This cartoon was one of the high points of anything United Productions of America ever provided, thus “Rooty Toot Toot” has since become one of the most highly praised cartoons ever made, mainly because it deals with adult people in adult situations, rather than anthropomorphic creatures.
With an improved budget allowance, a thorough and exciting update to the old “Frankie and Johnny” story of jealousy and murder was enabled. Olga Lunick the dancer was in charge of the dance sequence; Phil Moore, the jazz musician, did the score; and Grim Natwick, the animator of legendary proportions, did the shots of Nellie in the witness stand.
In summary, this cartoon “Rooty Toot Toot” was voted one of the best 50 of all time by members of the animation field and the clever short film received an Oscar Nomination in 1951, conveniently providing Columbia Pictures with more funds to invest in their studios.
Cat Concerto
“The Cat Concerto” is an animated short film that was made by MGM in 1947 thus, the cartoon features Tom and Jerry playing around on a grand piano!
The stage is set and Tom is all dressed up. He quite happily plays “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2″ by Franz Liszt, while Jerry is sleeping inside the piano until of course the hammers wake the silly, mouse Jerry up. When Jerry starts conducting this famous piece to Tom, he is sitting on top of the piano in a hilarious rendition, so Tom has to flick him off and knock him on the head.
Jerry then runs underneath and smashes poor Tom with the piano lid, flattening his hands, while he is playing classical Liszt. Tom is then hitting the very highest notes with just one finger prodding the key, so Jerry tries to cut it off with a pair of scissors; he tries again and fails, so he replaces two white keys with a mousetrap. When Tom’s finger gets caught in the trap, Jerry jumps up on the keys and dances along to the music, by playing with his feet and prancing around like he owns the place.
Tom then plays really hard – bashing the keys in anger – as Jerry leaps on to the strings, so Tom climbs up to get him and continues playing the music, now with his feet. When he calms down and carries on with his fingers, he can’t keep up because the mouse is racing around on the felts and changing the tune to annoy this cat.
Tom then thumps a chord over and over (bouncing the mouse up) thus, when Jerry pokes his tongue out at Tom in mid air, the cat grabs him and buries him in the piano stool – Jerry proceeds to wind the seat up and sends it crashing down with Tom bashing into the keyboard.
This crafty cat decides to bash Jerry with the hammers and felts in time to the music, spanking him and squashing him, black and blue! Unamused as this mouse is, he breaks off some hammers and hammers the strings with the hammers (like he were playing the drums) faster and faster. Faster than the tom cat can play, Jerry changes the music ending to something else, leaving Tom an utter mess.
Jerry bows to the audience and receives all of the applause with the spotlight directly on him, carrying a big smile upon his face. Jerry has acquired a tuxedo to stand on top of the piano; however, the cat collapses and slumps all over the keyboard and Tom is exhausted by his ill-fated performance, having been completely upstaged by a mischievous mouse called Jerry.
“The Cat Concerto” was once subject to a huge controversy, mainly because Warner Bros released an identical cartoon around the same time, using a mouse to upstage Bugs Bunny: it was called “Rhapsody Rabbit” and included the same music. Both companies accused each other of plagiarism and then Woody the Woodpecker appeared in “Convict Concerto” some years later, using once again a very similar plot!
In summary, this animation “The Cat Concerto” managed to win an Academy Award in 1946 and more recently, it was selected as one of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by people high up in the field of animation.
The Barber of Seville
“The Barber of Seville” is an animated short film from 1944 that was made in Technicolor, and the cartoon features Woody Woodpecker attempting to get a victory haircut after fighting in the war!
Woody the Woodpecker arrives at a barber shop — Figaro’s — in anticipation of receiving a victory haircut. Woody then discovers that the hairdresser is out doing army training; thus, Woody attempts to do the job himself, by cutting his own hair (like he cut his own teeth) and doing all of the other customers’ hair too.
The first client is Sitting Bull or “Turkey Head” as Woody refers to him. Woody has to give him a quick shampoo; however, Woody turns this American Indian’s feathered war bonnet (headdress) into a shuttlecock. This means the Native American decides to return the favor, with good old Apache “scalp treatment” in this high class salon; hence, Woody bashes Sitting Bull over the head and then flings him out across the street, in one final insult, to leave the poor man as an exhibit in front of a tobacconist.
When his second client arrives at the hairdressers — an Italian male — the man asks for “the whole works,” and Woody blow-torches his hardhat-helmet off of his head. Woody then lathers up the man’s face with shaving cream and sings Italian opera (presumably making him feel at home) to him loudly. Woody then shaves the man and raises the chair right up to watch him fall to the ground, completely destroying his barber’s chair.
This customer is frightened by Woody, who is waving the cutthroat razor like a woodman wielding an axe, and Woody chases him around the barber shop and boxes him in to do the job as quickly as possible. When he is finished, the guy goes and slings Woody Woodpecker right the way through a glass window back inside the shop, and we see Woody revolving in the barber’s pole like he was the helical stripe seen in most barber shop windows even today!
“The Barber of Seville” was the first Woody Woodpecker cartoon to use a more streamlined sketch of his character. Previously, he had a bigger presence with buck teeth, a receding chin and thick stubby legs; thus, Woody needed to conform to modern animation standards. He pops out of a log for the first time in this animated short, saying “Guess Who?” with his signature laughing in the background as part of the opening title card sequence, which we now all know and love as fans.
This parody of Rossini’s opera has become widely regarded as Woody’s best cartoon. The speed, timing and synchronization in composing the music with the infamous “Figaro” section, is extremely well orchestrated, combining opera music with moving pictures, in a manner not really seen before Woody Woodpecker; thus, Shamus Culhane (the director) was really proud of this when the cartoon was first aired.
Opera became very popular in animation soon after color cartoons superseded black and white in the United States, thus “The Barber of Seville” is among the top 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time, according to historian Jerry Beck.
King Size Canary
“King-Size Canary” is an animated cartoon short that was directed by Tex Avery in 1947 for Metro Goldwyn Mayer and recounts the story of an alley cat, who is searching for food in garbage cans late at night.
When this alley cat suddenly spots a nice big refrigerator – full of yummy food in a house – it has to go in through the window; but, first the cat must sedate their guard dog with sleeping pills and sneak past him. There is a tin of cat food in this house and (strangely enough) inside is a mouse; thus when the cat tries to eat the mouse, he has to stop because the mouse tells the alley cat that he will save his life, later in this cartoon. This is a classic cartoon where a bottle of Jumbo-Gro turns a simple game of cat and mouse into a huge chase, escalating to a war of size.
When the cat pours some Jumbo-Gro plant formula on a pet canary, the bird grows up to 10 feet tall and the cat attempts to eat some of this nice juicy canary’s leg, by adding salt and pepper. The bird then beats the cat up, so the alley cat drinks some formula itself and so does the bulldog, thus they have all become enormous creatures by this point. Following a chase, the bulldog then tosses the bottle of formula down the chimney where the mouse now has to take a few sips (becoming one huge mouse) and then runs to the city to scare the bull doggy away. He has managed to save the cat’s life just like he said earlier. This is another of Tex Avery’s cartoons that appeals to all ages.
Now the mouse is as tall as a 20 story building, the cat thanks him for saving his life and the cat then drinks more and more and grows to the size of a 100 story skyscraper building, before chasing the giant mouse past the Grand Canyon and over the Hoover Dam. They keep swigging the potion until both get so big they are the exact same size, thus the music in “King Size Canary” is by Scott Bradley. He was one of the great orchestrators of cartoon music, meaning he has become legendary as a result. Like all other good things, this cartoon must come to an end, thus the pair shake the now empty bottle of Jumbo-Gro; because they have grown so big, they ran out of formula. The two then wave goodbye (standing on top of the Earth) having now completely outgrown the world. “King Size Canary” has been voted one of the greatest cartoons of all time by members of the animation field.
Oddly enough, Matt Groening – who hails “King Size Canary” as one of the best – actually went to the same high school in Portland, Oregon as Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny), keeping animation in the family. It is no wonder that so many people enjoy American cartoons around the world. Great cartoons really are something like priceless Da Vinci artwork; they are unique, manage to last the test of time and it is impossible to improve upon them without inventing something completely different!
Dover Boys
“The Dover Boys” is an animated short film that was made by Warner Bros as part of the Merrie Melodies series in 1942 and the cartoon, is a parody, of stories about a group of lads called the Rover Boys.
Before we meet the lads, we see this strange gentleman wander past and do a hop-skip-jump then vanish. The three lads in the film are called the Dover Boys: Tom, Dick and Larry. When the boys are introduced as attendees of the Pimento University or ‘good old PU’ these lads are all on funny bicycles; thus, it is quite strange when you see them all cycling by and they then decide to plan a day out with dainty Dora Standpipe.
The Dover Boys must fetch this young lady – Dora – from Miss Cheddar’s Female Academy and when they all ride past the local tavern on their silly bikes, we meet Dan Backslide; hence, he is drinking heavily and really knocking them back in that bar, shouting out about how much he hates these Dover Boys.
Out in the field, the lads and Dora play hide-and-seek. When Dora is counting, the lads hide in trees and trash cans and then ‘over here’ and ‘over there’ and ‘here’ and ‘there’ and so on until they end up in the tavern where the devilish Dan Backslide drinks. Dan sees his arch enemies – the Dover Boys – and quickly realizes that dainty old Dora is now alone; he seizes his chance, pinches a car and drives out to the countryside, where he finds Dora counting away beside a tree as part of the game. He then kidnaps her!
However, Dora is strapped to the tree, so Dan must free her from this tree and it is when she reaches 1500 that she finally realizes that she has been taken hostage; screaming for help from the Dover Boys, we once again see this weird and wonderful hopping and skipping man appear, to a delightful little tune.
Dan takes Dora up to a mountain cabin and locks her in there. When he makes advances toward her, she defends herself really well, until a young scout picks up on the scent and he uses a series of communication techniques to alert her whereabouts; on the double off they go – the Dover Boys to the rescue – while Dan receives a rough old time from Dora and begs for the Dover’s help. They are outside singing their alma mater on the doorstep of the mountain hut before entering and giving Dan a hiding; thus, all the lads then end up in a heap in this hideaway, while Dora and the strange skipping gentleman, head off into the sunset in one final twist and happy ending – for her at least!
This animated picture is famous for being an early example of stylized animation. This means the director used a technique to make the cartoon, that shaped heavy designs with minimal movement, instead of the more traditional Disney studio style.
In addition, “The Dover Boys” also is an early example of smear animation; thus, the characters all move suddenly with bursts of energy and a few frames of a smeared image. This technique was emulated later on, in just some Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck cartoons; thus, in summary this short film was included on the list of “50 Greatest Cartoons” of all time, by the powers-that-be in the animation field.
Duck Dodgers
“Duck Dodgers in the 24½th Century” is an animated short film that was directed by Chuck Jones in 1953 as part of the Merrie Melodies series for Warner Brothers; thus, the cartoon recounts the adventures of Daffy Duck, Porky Pig and Marvin the Martian, who are all trying to claim Planet X.
On the one hand, this cartoon features the space hero Duck Dodgers. Dodgers is played by Daffy Duck and he is dressed in a red cape, with a space helmet on his head and he arrives in his spacecraft at the 17,000th floor to see Dr IQ HI, who is the Secretary of the Stratosphere. There, Dodgers is given his instructions and they are to search for the only remaining supply of a rare atom – Illudium Phosdex – which is the element required for shaving cream. Duck Dodgers is commissioned to find Planet X in outer space where the last of this valuable shaving-cream atom is and with no time wasted, he is transported to his spacecraft. It is then that Duck Dodgers meets up with his chubby assistant and off they (at least try to) go – this silly duck has his space-rocket in reverse!
On the other hand, this cartoon features Porky Pig. Porky – who is dressed in a grey space outfit and wearing gloves – is the assistant to Dodgers and Porky finds a quicker route to Planet X than Duck Dodgers vastly more complicated one; the rotten duck then nicks Porky Pig’s big idea and takes all the credit in possibly the film’s funniest bit – as it happens, Porky Pig has noticed that the planets are all in alphabetical order and to find X you go: A, B C……..until you get there! Off they go then and finally arrive on the planet with a spot marked X.
However, this cartoon also features Marvin the Martian. Marvin lands and claims Planet X as Mars, but Dodgers has already claimed Planet X as Earth, so Marvin (very kindly) disintegrates Daffy Duck into dust with his gun; Porky Pig reintegrates him and it is clear at this point that this so called Planet X isn’t big enough for them all, thus various battles take place, which sadly result in the complete destruction of Planet X in the process. Hence, Porky gives Marvin a birthday present which is a stick of dynamite that explodes in his face and then Daffy has to resort to using his secret weapon before the cartoon finally ends. Dodgers dramatically claims the last remaining chunk of the planet as Earth (literally only a rock remains that is the size of a small meteorite) and then Dodgers pushes Marvin off, thus Marvin and the Space Cadet are seen hanging from this small chunk of planet in the final scene with Porky the Space Cadet saying: “Eh, b-b-b-b-big deal.”
In summary, “Duck Dodgers” was directed by Chuck Jones with the story by Michael Maltese and the voices of Mel Blanc – a trinity of cartoon entertainment – thus, Dodgers has been voted as one of the top five cartoons of all time, receiving a Hugo nomination in 2004 for Best Dramatic Presentation.
Duck Amuck
“Duck Amuck” is a brilliant cartoon that was directed by Chuck Jones for Warner Brothers in 1953. As part of the Merrie Melodies series, it starts with Daffy Duck all dressed up as a musketeer and ready to fight with his fencing foil.
Suddenly, the background vanishes to leave a plain white screen, hence Daffy Duck is tormented by similar incidences of disappearance like this, throughout the short film, mainly because the naughty mystery animator keeps changing the scenery.
When a different backdrop appears, Daffy Duck must leave the picture and change costumes, thus adapting his performance to match the new scene. However, the animator is one step ahead, always catching Daffy out – every time the Duck is back, the set has changed once again!
Eventually, the animator erases this daft-duck completely and his background, only to redraw Daffy as a cowboy with a guitar that makes no sound.
Mucking around with sound and scenery, Daffy is then redrawn as a sailor and falls into the water, re-emerging on a distant island only for a black curtain to fall on him, so he tears it apart whilst shouting and screaming.
Daffy Duck is the star of the show and has to then apologize to his audience for all this nonsense, before a second Daffy Duck then appears on the screen and a fight almost breaks out between the two.
Enough is enough; finally Daffy Duck demands the animator reveal himself, however before this happens, a door is drawn around Daffy that closes in on him; shutting the poor distressed duck out in one final insult, we then all see his great rival Bugs Bunny just sitting there chilling out. Bugs Bunny then says: “Ain’t I a stinker?”
Mel Blanc performed the voices in “Duck Amuck” and the story was by Michael Maltese; thus in 1999 the film was deemed ‘culturally significant’ by the United States Library of Congress and the cartoon was selected for preservation in the National Film Registry – it is now seen by many professional critics as one of the greatest cartoon animations of all time!
Part of the reason that “Duck Amuck” has become so famous, is because it works on many levels and it is a fine example of the concept known as ‘breaking the fourth wall.’ Hence, all of the shenanigans with Bugs Bunny as the animator, seem to penetrate the boundaries and restrictions normally associated with comic strips.
“Duck Amuck” includes direct speech at the audience, thus acknowledging them through this imaginary ‘fourth wall’ as if it were in the theatre. This is very unusual and is a device which has become important for comedic purposes – the same way that pantomime involves the audience – and works really well with this character, simply because Daffy Duck has such a distinctive personality.
The Band Concert
“The Band Concert” is an animated cartoon about a small, musical group conducted by Mickey Mouse. Directed by Wilfred Jackson in 1935, “The Band Concert” remains one of the most highly acclaimed Walt Disney shorts of them all.
Mickey Mouse appears in colour for the very first time in this wonderful, nine-minute film and he struggles through a distraction filled – public concert – performance in the park, while his orchestra play music from Zampa and Rossini. Mickey conducts his fun-packed musicians in a band that includes five members: Goofy is on the clarinet, Clarabelle Cow is playing the flute, Horace Horsecollar likes percussion, Peter Pig plays trumpet and the one and only “Paddy Pig” has the tuba.
Donald Duck is the only speaking character in this short Disney film and along he comes (rolling his cart through the audience) quacking away and shaking his “tush” the only way Donald Duck knows how! Donald is selling lemonade, popcorn and ice cream to the crowd and he thoroughly disturbs poor Mickey, who was having a great time leading the party in the park.
All of a sudden, out of the blue, Donald Duck jumps up on stage and in a huge insult to Mickey Mouse, starts playing his flute to the band. The band follow suit to the absolute infuriation of Mickey Mouse, who then breaks Donald’s instrument in anger and chucks it on the floor!
Donald keeps producing new flutes and continuing to play until he finally gets booted off stage, so then he starts fighting with a bee that goes across to annoy Mickey Mouse and Mickey swats it away in time to the music.
When the orchestra keep playing because they all think that Mickey Mouse is still conducting the music, Mickey is really fighting the bee and poor old Mickey Mouse is having a rough time out there, leading this hilarious performance in a timeless piece of cartoon history.
Donald then throws ice-cream at the bee and splats Mickey in the crossfire beginning a comedy of errors that culminates in Donald smashing Goofy on the head with his hammer instead of the bee.
Finally, the music reaches its crescendo as they play the “Storm” segment of the overture and an actual typhoon then swoops into the park and everyone else runs for their lives; the band continue to play however – reminiscent of the Titanic going down – and belt out tunes even when they get sucked up inside the twister.
This wonderful cartoon finishes when the band members all throw their instruments at Donald Duck, thus “The Band Concert” has now been rated in Hollywood as one of the greatest animated films of all time.
“The Band Concert” spawned a remake in 1942 called the Symphony Hour and the band members have all appeared frequently since in other cartoons, video games and theme park rides, as well as being featured at Donald Duck’s 50th Birthday celebrations; hence these colourful musicians have probably become so successful because they reach out to every generation!
The Skeleton Dance
Walt Disney made “The Skeleton Dance” in 1929 as part of the Silly Symphonies series of cartoons, and this animated short film features four dancing skeletons in a graveyard!
Part of the reason why “The Skeleton Dance” has become such a timeless classic, is the build up at the beginning of the cartoon. Disney manages to generate a really spooky atmosphere required to set the scene: There is a bat, a hanging spider, and a full moon. Look out also for the owl, the howling dog, the black cats, the wind and the rain, plus the whistling / spooky music. This all adds to the cauldron of eeriness in a great, fun-filled cartoon.
These crazy skeletons dance away in an amazingly well choreographed routine, and play substitute musical instruments throughout the cartoon-short, which is set in a creepy sort of graveyard. For instance, when the four skeletons link hands, they dance in a circle like they were school children dancing around in the school playground, and then one of them then grabs another one’s thigh bone to play him like a xylophone. It is scenes like this that make “The Skeleton Dance” so entertaining to audiences and have made it so popular.
Skeleton’s best mate plays one of the cats like a double bass and uses the cat’s tail as the strings, while one of them even dances to the Charleston with another chattering his teeth in a Skull Island type of close up – “Alas, poor Yorick!” – and wouldn’t this have been perfect to have been aired around Halloween back in 1929?
The cartoon is also noted for the Silly Symphoniestitle card that looks so authentic with the treble clef shaped like an ‘S’ like we are reading music; thus interestingly enough, this cartoon was the very first to use non-post-sync sound. This means the sound was not added later, but done alongside the animation, and this wowed the audiences at the time!
Some of this cartoon was used in “Haunted House” for obvious reasons, which also featured Mickey Mouse that same year, when good old Mickey needed some dancing skeletons to help him out for good measure.
Clearly, this early piece of animation is better in black and white; in a funny sort of way, the modern day digital and colourful age might just take something away from these skilful skeletons and it does show just how good the Disney artists were back then, who really manage to give this a creepy feel.
Because some of the original music sadly went missing, other Mickey Mouse shorts had to be used, including part of one called “The Mad Doctor,” which shows just how valuable old footage and archived material has now become to animation history.
Scenes from this wonderful cartoon have been so popular they have been used in Halloween specials and other productions by Walt Disney many times since. These silly skeletons really do move well, thus “The Skeleton Dance” is a timeless, classic piece of animation that will almost certainly live forever.
The cockerel at the end cock-a-doodle-doo-ing again adds to the graveyard atmosphere before the cartoon finishes in a similar manner to the way it started and isn’t the ending just spectacular the way the bones end up diving into a grave with just the feet left dancing around on top of the gravestone, and then getting snatched away – doomed for good?
In summary, this cartoon “The Skeleton Dance” has been referenced since, many times in popular culture, because of the entertainment value and originality of the content; thus it has been noted for many of the above reasons as being among the top 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time.
Bad Luck Blackie
Tex Avery directed “Bad Luck Blackie” for MGM in 1949. This animated short film parodies the American radio show Boston Blackie that was so popular during World War II.
Marking the very first appearance of Avery’s version of Spike (the infamous bulldog with his studded neck collar), this cartoon, “Bad Luck Blackie,” is noted because it actually launched good old Spike’s career – we then began to see him in the ever-so-popular Droopy cartoons!
As the story unfolds, we see this big bully of a bulldog mercilessly tormenting a small white kitten that only just manages to escape. Kitty goes to hide behind a trash can having been battered and beaten in all kinds of ways by this rotten animal.
Behind the trash can, she sees a bigger black cat who is wearing a bowler hat and chomps on a huge cigar; this black cat discretely offers to protect the kitten, but unfortunately guarantees ‘Bad Luck’ if you look carefully at his business cards. This is a good thing, because as we see, the first thing that happens is for the black cat to cross the path of the bulldog, causing a flowerpot to fall down and smash on his head, knocking him out cold. Thus, the so called ‘Bad Luck’ part of the cartoon has begun and this is hugely entertaining for audiences that are superstitious.
Part of what makes this cartoon so popular is the lively soundtrack, and we hear “Comin’ Through the Rye” being played in the background, which is a traditional children’s song that originated from a Robert Burns poem in Scotland. This benchmarks the cartoon as being great fun for kids!
Clearly, a high point in this cartoon is when the tables turn. The beastly-looking black cat gives the small kitten a whistle for emergency purposes, and it is only then that kitty starts to get even with the dog; when little kitty blows the whistle, and the black cat suddenly appears in the bulldog’s path, the bulldog seems to suffer horrendous bad luck almost instantaneously, and by golly, he is not happy. Strange things fall out of the sky: a cash register, a piano, and horseshoes for instance, to name but a few.
Eventually, the bulldog – Spike – paints the black cat a white colour, to rob him of all the bad luck power he possessed. It works. The cat keeps crossing his path and nothing happens; hence, the dog begins to get his own back as the score changes from side to side. Then the small white kitten jumps in a pot of black paint and acquires the amazing powers himself. Thus, when it crosses the path of the bulldog, an iron girder falls from the sky and knocks him unconscious, which forces him to swallow the whistle.
Spike starts to hiccup, he sets off the whistle and this causes everything – including the kitchen sink – to fall from the sky, and this is too much for the bulldog; he flees in terror and the cartoon ends with the two cats shaking hands.
In summary, the idea of falling objects in “Bad Luck Blackie” has been emulated many times since – perhaps most famously with a Tom and Jerry short – and it is not the first time one of Tex Avery’s cartoons, has been voted into the exclusive list of the best 50 of all-time, by senior members in the field of animation in Hollywood.
Snow White
“Snow White” is part of the animation series featuring Betty Boop that was made for Paramount Pictures in 1933, and this cartoon begins with Snow White herself, looking into a magic mirror resembling the face of Cab Calloway!
It is truly wonderful that a black and white short such as this version of “Snow White” has managed to last the test of time, thus it is clearly one of Paramount’s best, having been selected for preservation in the National Film Registry, because of its cultural significance, and it is now recognised by the United States Library of Congress as well.
As the cartoon unfolds, we see that the Queen is of course Betty’s ‘stepmama’ and she just has to see stepmother because she has heard all about the infamous looking glass. When this mirror proclaims Betty to be the ‘fairest in the land’ the Queen is understandably horrified.
This cartoon is notable for its subtle soundtrack. The Queen has a ghastly voice though, thus Queeny – who resembles Olive Oyl in looks – orders her guards to execute Betty ‘off with her head’ she says. Hence, it is her beloved Bimbo and Koko who have to drag poor Betty to the forest where she will meet with her fate.
Part of the fun with a cartoon like this is the blend of themes and characters from a whole range of mediums dating back to the early days of animation.
Luckily, the girl escapes when the tree she is tied to comes to life, and lifts her out into the snow and she tumbles down in a snowball and slides into a frozen river and becomes encapsulated in a coffin of ice. This doesn’t sound very pleasant, but down she goes to meet the Seven Dwarfs and they ski her even further down to an enchanted cave which is good fun to watch, especially for children.
With Betty out of the way, the Queen again fishes for compliments, but the mirror ain’t havin’ it so the Queen turns into a wicked witch and then the side show begins.
The Seven Dwarfs think that Betty is dead when she is frozen away and make her final resting place in the Mystery Cave, but Betty melts and comes back to life while the clown – with Cab Calloway’s voice – sings “St. James Infirmary Blues” in the weird cave full of flying skeletons, and floating ghosts. Then they dance around it in a circle of victory before the film ends.
Because the plot here differs really to the original, it is quite clearly being used to deliver a big range of imaginative animation, highlighted by the background drawings completed by the artists from the Fleischer Studios. Interestingly enough Koko the Clown preempts the so called moonwalk dance and something similar from early Cab Calloway footage in a huge rendition of the “St James” number.
In summary, this cartoon “Snow White” has now been voted one of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field and has since become part of the public domain.
Minnie the Moocher
The Fleischer Studios made “Minnie the Moocher” as an animated short film in 1932, thus this Talkartoonstars Betty Boop with her dog Bimbo, and Cab Calloway performing his most famous song!
In the first instance, we see a timeless Cab Calloway dancing away to the music before we see Betty being scolded by her parents. Weeping at the bottom of the stairs, it is up to the banister of all things to comfort poor Betty. Then she packs away her belongings, jumps out of the window and off they go.
Betty and Bimbo don’t half run and find themselves in an enchanted forest with weird things going on. Her and Bimbo work their way through an area of spookiness and find themselves near a walrus dancing just like Cab Calloway at the beginning, and the walrus sings “Minnie the Moocher” with all the ghosts following suit in an amazing animated rendition.
Betty says: “I’m not afraid, are you Bimbo?” in her ever so distinctive voice, as they enter the cave and hide themselves away but it is at this point that everything changes with the orchestra sounding menacing playing “Minnie the Moocher”.
These silly ghosts in the cave sing the whole number from behind bars and do their choreographed routine before being executed in electric chairs and “show us how to kick the gong around” in this enchanted cave. Finally, they chase Betty and Bimbo all the way back home.
Betty Boop’s parents were harsh people you see (yelling at her early in the cartoon) and this is why she has to run away with Bimbo. However, at the end when the two get home we see Betty hiding under the covers and we see her suicide note slowly getting torn up, but we still read “Home Sweet Home” sitting there on the bed so it all ends happily with Bimbo the Dog outside in his kennel.
The caricature of Betty in this animated strip shows how the young girl is evolving into the more streamlined version we know her by today, and appearing more like her usual self that modern audiences might recognise. Isn’t it interesting to see how picture-people do change as well?
Partly because Cab Calloway appears with Betty in a mixture of live action with animation, this cartoon has become one of the most famous of all time. Cab begins the short film dancing the “Prohibition Blues” and the footage of Calloway in this cartoon is the oldest known anywhere in the world, thus he is stylishly dressed and looks a million dollars.
In summary, this cartoon “Minnie the Moocher” is considered to be one of the two best Betty Boop cartoons ever made, along with the other Cab Calloway feature “Snow White” thus, not only do we see precious footage of Cab, but this performance is thought to be one of the best he ever did giving the short film vintage status.
Superman
Paramount made “Superman” in 1941 as an animated short film, and this cartoon is the first in a long series based upon the original comic book character.
Also known as “The Mad Scientist,” there is a short prologue to this cartoon and it sums up the origins of an iconic character, known by almost everyone.
”In the endless reaches of the Universe, there once existed a planet known as Krypton, a planet that burned like a green star in the distant heavens. There, civilization was far advanced, and it brought forth a race of supermen, whose mental and physical powers were developed to the absolute peak of human perfection.
But there came a day when giant quakes threatened to destroy Krypton forever. One of the planet’s leading scientists, sensing the approach of doom, placed his infant son in a small rocket ship and sent it hurtling in the direction of Earth, just as Krypton exploded.
The rocket sped through star-studded space, landing safely on Earth with its precious burden: Krypton’s sole survivor. A passing motorist found the uninjured child and took it to an orphanage. As the years went by and the child grew to maturity, he found himself possessed of amazing physical powers. Faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound, the infant of Krypton is now the Man of Steel: SUPERMAN!
To best be in a position to use his powers in a never-ending battle for truth and justice, Superman has assumed the disguise of Clark Kent, mild-mannered reporter for a great metropolitan newspaper.”
Then the story moves to the offices of the Daily Planet. Clark Kent and Lois Lane hear about death threats at the newspaper and a ransom of one million dollars is set. Clark Kent is doing the story and Lois insists on helping him, thus, Lois flies off to the villain’s hideaway which is a secluded laboratory and this madman is preparing to fire his laser beam.
As soon as Lois arrives, she gets kidnapped and gagged before being shown the crazy scientist’s beam-weapon in all its glory. He aims it at a bridge and blasts it away, so when everyone else learns of the oncoming disaster, Clark Kent changes into his Superman clothes secretly, and flies away. The crazy scientist then launches the laser beam at the Daily Planet skyscraper, but fortunately Superman arrives in time.
Superman – with all his strength – pushes away the death ray to avoid it hitting the skyscraper and fights it back. The madman raises the power and sends huge bolts of energy at Superman but Superman pounds the beam back and deflects it towards the mad scientist’s lab, and then bends the man’s weapon into a knot; this stops the beam from escaping and the thing overheats before completely exploding.
This wicked scientist’s lab begins to disintegrate. Thankfully, his pet bird manages to escape and Superman rescues Lois of course in his most chivalrous moment, before they go back to head office. She gets her story of “The Mad Scientist” though, with a special thanks to Superman, and Clark Kent winks at the camera and nods to the audience – as if to include them – and then the story ends.
In summary, this cartoon “Superman” from the Fleischer Studios has provided many of the character and background designs for more modern versions of the superhero in popular culture; thus, this 1941 animated short was voted among the top 50 best cartoon films of all time by senior members of the field in Hollywood and was nominated for an Academy Award.
You Ought to be in Pictures
Warner Bros made “You Ought to Be in Pictures” in 1940 as an animated short film that was part of the Looney Tunes cartoon series, and it features Daffy Duck with Porky Pig, both of whom are trying to become the next big star of Hollywood.
Notable for the combination of live-action and animation, “You Ought to be in Pictures” stars Daffy Duck (in a relatively early incarnation of the character) who wants to be top of the tree in showbiz.
Daffy needs good old friend Porky Pig to resign from his current position, and wants him to start doing feature length films with stars like Bette Davis; this would give Daffy a better chance of promotion with Porky out of the way.
So the little pig goes to see his mentor Leon Schlesinger to talk about his contract and they tear the thing up. But when Porky resigns, his current studio think it will only be a matter of time before he is back, and they are, of course, right!
Wishing Porky the best of luck anyway, they see Porky Pig try really hard to make it big. He sets up a studio of his own, disguises himself as Oliver Hardy, then disturbs a dancing routine in a comedy of errors, before realizing that he wants to go back to where he came from – better the devil you know, and his old studio did know best after all!
Weaving in and out of real traffic when driving around Hollywood looking for studios, Porky sees Daffy doing an audition and trying to upstage him on the Warner Brothers new set; Porky is then forced to beat up this double-dealing Daffy Duck, before returning to work with his old boss, Schlesinger.
Porky is pretty chuffed now, but Daffy still thinks his piglet friend might wish to work for him someday and star alongside Greta Garbo. Having clearly not yet learned his lesson, Daffy Duck (and it is a very young version of him) then gets completely splattered with tomatoes for his troubles, and all his bandages get soaked.
It has been said that this cartoon mimics what often happened in show business and how stars darted around from one studio in Hollywood to another, before settling down; Daffy and Porky do a wonderful rendition, of what the world of show business must be like – behind the scenes on a day to day basis – in this cartoon, and it really brings back that golden age being in black and white.
The cameos are actually the production team at no extra cost; however, the live action had to be shot in silence because on location they didn’t have access to the right sound recording equipment, and voices were dubbed in much later. Is it not fascinating to watch Porky and Daffy come to life, from being just pictures to begin with?
In summary, this cartoon “You Ought to be in Pictures” has been voted one of the best 50 animated short films of all time by members of the field in Hollywood; thus the title comes from a popular 1934 song of the same name, by Dana Suesse and Edward Heyman.
Ali Baba Bunny
Bugs Bunny appears in “Ali Baba Bunny” with his good friend and rival Daffy Duck, thus this animated short film was made in 1957 by Warner Bros for the Merrie Melodies cartoon series.
When all the treasure belonging to a rich Sultan is being guarded in a cave near the Arabian Desert, there is a rabbit burrowing underground. The guard spots this tunnelling rabbit, but forgets the magic command to get into the cave. Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck clearly make it in, but still think they are on Pismo Beach, rather than being in the desert!
Daffy Duck is complaining about the turn of events, but soon shuts up when he spots the treasure. Daffy stomps his buddy bunny into the ground, so he can have all the gold for his greedy self, but when Bugs reappears from the dirt, he proceeds to almost say his infamous lines: “What’s up duck?” because Daffy is not really a doctor, but just a silly animated duck.
Hassan then gets lucky and finally makes it through. He sees Daffy Duck dragging the loot away and Daffy asks him cheekily to call a cab (yes, in the desert, as a getaway vehicle), so Hassan swipes him with a sword; this splits the diamond encrusted hat he was wearing in half and Daffy scalpers, before bribing Bugs Bunny with a priceless gem in order to save his life from this bloke with a sword.
Hassan wields his sword at them both to terrify the life out of Bugs and Daffy. Then Bugs pretends to be the genie in the bottle offering to grant wishes and give him the treasure to claim, even though it probably belonged to these Arabians in the first place; needless to say, Daffy Duck is very unimpressed about this, because he wants the riches for himself!
After a chase ensues, the pair do an Indian rope trick with Hassan disappearing up into the clouds, while Daffy hides in Bug’s turban. Daffy Duck then runs back into the cave to empty it of treasure where part of the booty actually includes an old oil lamp, so he rubs the dust off of it.
Of course, a genie then emerges from the lamp (a real genie this time), but Daffy tries to shove him back in believing the genie only wants the treasure, so the genie zaps him with thunderbolts of magic and miniaturizes him, while Bugs Bunny legs it into his burrow and pops up on the beach as intended at the start.
Enjoying some oysters by the seaside, Bugs Bunny finds a beautiful pearl in one of them before good old thieving Daffy Duck appears once again, and he has that gem away as well, believing he is rich. Bugs Bunny shuts his tiny, shrunken little mate away inside the shell, and says goodbye in a hilarious double act parody from the Arabian Desert, that shows huge amounts of Eastern promise!
In summary, this cartoon “Ali Baba Bunny” was voted in the top 50 of all time by senior members from the field of animation back in 1994 and many of the lines spoken by Daffy Duck in the film became popular catchphrases around the date of release: “Mine mine mine!”; “I can’t help it, I’m a greedy slob—it’s my hobby”; “I’m rich—I’m a happy miser!”; and the line “Hassan chop!” were all prominent in the US at that time.
Feed the Kitty
Warner Bros made “Feed the Kitty” in 1952 as part of the Merrie Melodies cartoon series, and it is an animated short film featuring a bulldog called Marc Anthony, who adopts a small cat named Pussyfoot!
Out crawls this little treasure from a tin can. When bulldog Marc Anthony tries to hide his little kitten – Pussyfoot – from owner and mistress, he copies the kitten and plays with the cat and the kitty climbs all over the doggy in a way that doesn’t usually happen.
This bulldog (Marc Anthony) falls in love with his playmate and adopts it as his very own, but the human owner forbids him to bring it inside the house. For this reason, the beastly pair have to hoodwink their owner and hide in the house to avoid getting caught, thus the cartoon really then begins to take shape.
Kitty runs across the kitchen floor covered by a bowl and the owner (whom viewers only ever see the bottom half of) believes it to be a mouse, so Anthony grabs a key and winds it up pretending for the kitten to be a clockwork toy; much to his delight the master falls for it.
The house owner is a women and she begins to suspect something when Marc Anthony tries to hide the kitten in flour while the dog is attempting to look innocent. When the owner scoops up the flour mix to bake cookies, she doesn’t see the cuddly kitten in the measuring cup; she attempts to blend the flour in a mixing bowl with an electric food mixer, so the dog sprays himself with whipped cream to make it look like he has rabies, and this is adequate to distract the woman long enough for the kitten to climb out and hide.
Marc Anthony doesn’t realise that the kitten has escaped and sees the lady blending the mixture before cutting it into shapes and baking them as cookies in the oven. Marc breaks down in a pool of tears out in the back yard at the very thought of what has now happened.
Clearly distressed, the mistress comes out to comfort poor Marc Anthony by giving him a cat-shaped cookie, thus he doesn’t see the funny side of it oddly enough, and just cries his eyes out again instead.
When kitty calmly walks up to the bull doggy and meows, Marc Anthony is beside himself with joy, but has to keep hiding the cat from the owner. Finally, she sees the two of them together; she then allows him to keep kitty and they all live happily ever after. Such a happy ending (how nice) and what a contrast between not just a dog and cat, but huge bulldog and tiny cute kitten – how lovely!
In summary, this cartoon “Feed the Kitty” was voted one of the best 50 of all time in 1994 by senior members of the animation field in Hollywood and it is notable for the domestic environment portrayed by two pets living comfortably in a normal friendly atmosphere at the end.
Betty Boop
“Bimbo’s Initiation” is an animated short film that was made by Paramount in 1931, and the cartoon features Bimbo alongside Betty Boop.
Silly old Bimbo vanishes down (not the first, not the second) the third open manhole when he is walking down the street and gets padlocked in, before ending up in a secret underground society like he were Alice ending up in Wonderland! There is a gang down there, and when asked by the gang leader if Bimbo “Wants to be a member?”, “Wants to be a member?” he says “No” before going on a very dangerous mission.
Every time the leader of the gang asks Bimbo, “Wanna be a member?”, “Wanna be a member?” he refuses and he is sent through mysterious doorways toward a deeper basement and then out pops Betty Boop. Betty is in her original incarnation of the dog that Bimbo calls “a pippin,” but Bimbo disappears suddenly through a death trap, with his heart in his mouth; landing directly in front of the big boss leader of the gang, we find that under the costume it is actually Betty Boop in disguise!
Bimbo is quite enamored by the look of Betty Boop, so he finally agrees to join the gang and then the rest of this secret society take off their costumes to show they are all Betty Boop clones in disguise, thus Bimbo and the Boops do a happy dance to the sound of “Tiger Rag” and then “The Vamp” playing along in the background.
Fitz was the original name of Bimbo the Dog who was a cartoon character from the Fleischer Studios, and Bimbo first made an appearance in Inkwell before changing his name. Bimbo then became a star in his own right, hence featuring in the 1930 version of “Bimbo in Hot Dog” for Talkartoons, but Betty Boop soon became more popular; this meant the name had to change from Talkartoons to the Betty Boop Series for commercial reasons.
Eventually, Bimbo had to be taken away from Betty because of censorship laws that frowned upon a dog with a human girlfriend. However, many years later in 1989, Bimbo was to make his comeback and co-starred in the TV version of “Betty Boop’s Hollywood Mystery”; he has thankfully, since continued to appear on merchandising, hence giving the dog more longevity! The species of Bimbo was border collie and he was a drummer by profession.
In summary, this cartoon, “Bimbo’s Initiation,” has an almost surreal or even nightmarish atmosphere about it, thus it has become one of the most renowned short films ever made by the Fleischer Studio, and it has since been voted one of the top 50 Greatest Cartoons in the world, by senior members of the animation industry.
Bambi
“Bambi Meets Godzilla” is an animated short film that was created by Marv Newland in 1969, and it is a classic cartoon of less than two minutes in length.
Marv Newland has become synonymous with animation but was intending to make a live action film in 1969 when the deal fell through. Drawing this instead, Marv began a legendary career, thus when the credits for “Bambi Meets Godzilla” open, and scroll over Bambi in animated form – just grazing away serenely on a cabbage patch – we hear the sound of Rossini in the background to a charming rendition.
All of a sudden, Bambi looks up to find the giant foot of Godzilla crashing down upon him, and squashing the animal flat into the ground to the sound of “A Day in the Life” by The Beatles, playing along at half-speed. Godzilla then twitches his claw once after the closing credits scroll over the squished up Bambi; with Godzilla’s foot on him, there is then a lot of time devoted to the credits in this short film regarding the maker, plus to Tokyo in Japan for allowing the use of its favorite monster, Godzilla!
This short film is renowned for being funny because it has one joke and one joke only; it is quite absurd watching dear little Bambi being squashed, hence you shouldn’t really laugh but you have to.
After creating “Bambi Meets Godzilla,” Marv Newland worked mainly on animated television commercials before moving to Toronto. When Marv was in Canada he managed to design the TV ads for Sesame Street, plus some other educationally based programs, including storyboards for many TV projects and commercials in New York City.
Spells in Vancouver, Chicago and Los Angeles gave Marv the opportunity for freelancing with animation companies, hence Newland then did work on the Barbapapa TV series while in the Netherlands. Then in 1975, he founded the International Rocketship animation company back in Vancouver, where they made numerous short films with great success.
When Marv hired Gordon Stanfield, they brought more and more animation to Vancouver helping to make the place a hotbed of cartoons for that time. They also produced films for other studios and for the National Film Board of Canada, which hired them for their expertise. Rocketship worked for MTV and won lots of accolades including the Grand Prix at the Annecy International in France and many of Newland’s drawings have been painted onto postcards, thus being used by the tourism industry. This means that Marv Newland has had a lifelong and fascinating career in animation, ever since he did “Bambi Meets Godzilla.”
In summary, this cartoon, “Bambi Meets Godzilla,” has been voted one of the best 50 short films of all time by senior members of the animation field in Hollywood.
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