ReFrederator Blog

The tail wagging end of our Man’s Best Friend Week is a Little Lulu cartoon from 1948, “The Dog Show-Off.” Lulu and a funny looking little boy try to push off the kid’s pooch as a dog show contestant. This gives the Paramount Famous Cartoon Studio an opportunity to drag out every flea-bitten ‘dog breed’ visual pun you can imagine (boxer, bird dog, mexican hairless, spitz — it goes on and on and on…) There’s also a dogs-who-look-just-like-their-human-masters sequence for those who like their animated humor even more literal minded. This stuff is all kinda funny in a groan inducing fashion, but the rest of the cartoon is actually pretty good on it’s own terms. And I love that image of the wet sheep dog!

Not only is “The Dog Show-Off” the end of Man’s Best Friend Week, it was also the end of the Little Lulu series at Paramount — they wouldn’t [Read more…]

For those who like their films generically titled we have “Boy Meets Dog” (although, if “Snakes on a Plane” is any evidence, there may not be as many of you as we first thought.) Today’s Man’s Best Friend Week installment is a Walter Lantz production supposedly based on the popular newspaper comic, “Reg’lar Fellas,” although that strip’s “reg’lar” characters hardly appear. This one was also underwritten by Ipana Toothpaste as a kind of low key advertisement — very low key, as it turns out. The story has nothing at all to do with teeth which makes the repeated references to dental hygiene all the more awkwardly inappropriate (and, you know, kinda weird).

Okay, okay, OKAY, you say, but how is the cartoon? Well, pretty good actually — we’re back with 1930’s pixies trying to teach cranky ol’ Papa a lesson in an elaborate dream sequence. Nifty, imaginative stuff, with a lot of [Read more…]

Well, as many of you already knew, ReFrederator has been experiencing some technical difficulties that prevented us from posting this week’s cartoons. Everything seems okay now — we certainly apologize for keeping one and all from their daily cartoon fix. Hope you have time today to play ‘catch-up’ and can download Monday’s and Tuesday’s films as well as today’s!

We’re off to Chuck Jones land today with “Prest-o Change-o” wherein two pooches spend hours and hours and hours sniffing around a magician’s props. Jones trotted out his pair of curious pups in several toons around this time, and of all their appearances, this has always been my pick of the litter.

The big news here is that the rabbit in a hat turns out to be an unmistakable Bugs Bunny prototype (who guffaws with an equally unmistakable Woody Woodpecker prototype laugh!) Since this is a sorta psuedo-Disney mid-thirties affair, the wise guy tormentor receives an [Read more…]

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

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

Happy Labor Day!

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

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

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

For your free subscription [Read more…]

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

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

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

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Dave Kirwan