“Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur” —early Daffy Duck. Early Chuck Jones, too. About the time this one was released, other directors like Bob Clampett and Tex Avery were bending time and space, trying to figure out just how fast and outrageous you could make a cartoon. Meanwhile, Jones was over in the corner, trying stuff that was completely different —films with humor based on anticipation, rather than surprise. Relaxed. Deliberate. Unhurried. We’re talkin’ SLOW here. Laurel and Hardy slow. Jack Benny slow.

So, it’s not surprising Casper Caveman talks like Benny in this one. In fact, the whole cartoon kinda has a Jack Benny radio show vibe going for it; everything is leisurely paced, with the big laughs grounded in solid characterization. And the voice impersonation is pretty good too (years later, the real live Benny did his own voice for a Warners cartoon, but I think the guy doing the impression here is [Read more…]]]>

“Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur” —early Daffy Duck. Early Chuck Jones, too. About the time this one was released, other directors like Bob Clampett and Tex Avery were bending time and space, trying to figure out just how fast and outrageous you could make a cartoon. Meanwhile, Jones was over in the corner, trying stuff that was completely different —films with humor based on anticipation, rather than surprise. Relaxed. Deliberate. Unhurried. We’re talkin’ SLOW here. Laurel and Hardy slow. Jack Benny slow.

So, it’s not surprising Casper Caveman talks like Benny in this one. In fact, the whole cartoon kinda has a Jack Benny radio show vibe going for it; everything is leisurely paced, with the big laughs grounded in solid characterization. And the voice impersonation is pretty good too (years later, the real live Benny did his own voice for a Warners cartoon, but I think the guy doing the impression here is Jack Lescoulie.)

Actually, I get a big kick out of the bitchy little caveman who wears boxer shorts under his animal skin. I sorta wish the Looney Toonsters had brought him back in later cartoons (I know… at the end of this one he’s, ummm, dead. But so is Daffy, and that didn’t seem to slow down his career!)

It’s Celebrity Impersonation week at ReFrederator. If you care for caricatures, check in tomorrow!

Dave Kirwan

SUPERMAN!

Perhaps the greatest innovation of the Fleischer Studio: a cartoon that tells a dramatic story. A science fiction story.

Whereas cartoons were previously the domain of funny animals, fairy tales and parodies, the SUPERMAN cartoons pioneered a new genre for animated films.

The series was unequaled for decades, and has inspired today’s generation of superhero animators, live action directors and auteur Japanese animators.

[Read more…]]]>

SUPERMAN!

Perhaps the greatest innovation of the Fleischer Studio: a cartoon that tells a dramatic story. A science fiction story.

Whereas cartoons were previously the domain of funny animals, fairy tales and parodies, the SUPERMAN cartoons pioneered a new genre for animated films.

The series was unequaled for decades, and has inspired today’s generation of superhero animators, live action directors and auteur Japanese animators.

Back in those days, dramatic comic strip characters were primarily adapted to movie serials (think Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers). Republic Pictures (the King of the “B’s”) tried to get the rights to make a chapterplay of SUPERMAN. But Paramount Pictures outbid Republic for the movie rights - and handed the character to the Fleischer Studio in Miami. The Fleischers had made a success out of a previous comic strip strongman, POPEYE. Could they do it again? Even the Fleischer’s had doubts.

The first cartoon, simply titled SUPERMAN, was nominated for an Academy Award (it should have won). It’s a visual feast! The score and Superman theme by Sammy Timburg is amazing. Seventeen super-masterpieces were produced by Paramount between 1941 and 1943.

Enjoy THE BULLETEERS. It’s a perfect piece of 1940s pulp fiction - and the forerunner of today’s brand of motion picture super spectaculars.

Jerry Beck

For successful transfer from funny papers to movie screen, Popeye certainly takes the cake… or spinach quiche if you prefer. In 1929 Elzie Segar introduced the squinty sailor in his pre-existing comic strip “Thimble Theatre.” and Bam! — an instant hit. Just four years later the character became a major movie star overnight, thanks to the wonderful cartoons produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave.

The Fleischers never tried to imitate the long curlicue narratives of the Popeye’s newsprint existence, but the animators borrowed a lot from the original, including Segar’s flavorful cast of characters (Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, the Jeep, the Goons, et al. )

Today’s Comic Strip Week installment is a classic from 1936, “Popeye with Little Swee’ Pea”, the first onscreen appearance of the tough little baby, Swee’ Pea. In the funnies, Swee’ Pea was Popeye’s adopted son, but the animated versions were always a little vague about the kid’s [Read more…]]]>

For successful transfer from funny papers to movie screen, Popeye certainly takes the cake… or spinach quiche if you prefer. In 1929 Elzie Segar introduced the squinty sailor in his pre-existing comic strip “Thimble Theatre.” and Bam! — an instant hit. Just four years later the character became a major movie star overnight, thanks to the wonderful cartoons produced by Max Fleischer and directed by his brother Dave.

The Fleischers never tried to imitate the long curlicue narratives of the Popeye’s newsprint existence, but the animators borrowed a lot from the original, including Segar’s flavorful cast of characters (Wimpy, Poopdeck Pappy, the Jeep, the Goons, et al. )

Today’s Comic Strip Week installment is a classic from 1936, “Popeye with Little Swee’ Pea”, the first onscreen appearance of the tough little baby, Swee’ Pea. In the funnies, Swee’ Pea was Popeye’s adopted son, but the animated versions were always a little vague about the kid’s exact relationship to everybody else. In the cartoons, his big claim to fame seems to be his indestructibility — Swee’ Pea is always crawling through factories, state fairs and such, miraculously escaping injury, while our man, Popeye takes a shellacking trying to ‘protect’ the tyke. Same deal here, only this time they’re at a zoo.

Man, I love the way Popeye moves in these old cartoons!. When they brought our nautical hero to life, those folks at Fleischers invented some of the goofiest walk and run cycles in animation history. He’s got a great strut early in the film (with an odd little quick-shuffle to accent the rhythm of the music he’s humming.) But when Popeye ‘runs’ in these early films, he employs an arm pumping, two feet at a time hop that’s the damnedest thing you’ve ever seen! (And, hey, don’t those 3-D backgrounds look great?)

Tomorrow ReFrederator goes to super heroic lengths to deliver a cartoon classic!

Dave Kirwan

Hot Damn! We’re continuing the world’s first daily classic cartoon podcast! For the next few days ReFrederator will be throwing the spotlight on films based on popular comic strips.

We kick things off with a real curio from 1936, “Happy Days,” a one shot pilot for a proposed series based on funny paper favorite “Reg’lar Fellas.” Well, it WAS a favorite back in the twenties and thirties — kind of a comic strip version of “Our Gang,” only without the ethnic diversity (most of the characters had last names like Duffy, Riley and Flynn.)

The Ub Iwerks studio produced this first film incarnation of the strip, carefully adapting their distinctive house style to reflect some of creator Gene Byrnes’ own look and technique. Byrnes drew his cast of characters (Jimmie Dugan, Pudd’nhead, Pinhead, Bullseye the Dog, et al) in a sort of pleasant correspondence school manner that is surprisingly well mimicked here. [Read more…]]]>

Hot Damn! We’re continuing the world’s first daily classic cartoon podcast! For the next few days ReFrederator will be throwing the spotlight on films based on popular comic strips.

We kick things off with a real curio from 1936, “Happy Days,” a one shot pilot for a proposed series based on funny paper favorite “Reg’lar Fellas.” Well, it WAS a favorite back in the twenties and thirties — kind of a comic strip version of “Our Gang,” only without the ethnic diversity (most of the characters had last names like Duffy, Riley and Flynn.)

The Ub Iwerks studio produced this first film incarnation of the strip, carefully adapting their distinctive house style to reflect some of creator Gene Byrnes’ own look and technique. Byrnes drew his cast of characters (Jimmie Dugan, Pudd’nhead, Pinhead, Bullseye the Dog, et al) in a sort of pleasant correspondence school manner that is surprisingly well mimicked here. The animation team also knocked themselves out to approximate the strip’s brand of verbal humor.

Alas.

The typical Iwerks cartoon used dialogue as an occasional seasoning, but this one is slathered over with really, really corny one-liners and over the top reaction takes. The effect is a little weird and kinda funny in a totally unintentional way.

A subsequent “Reg’lar Fellas” cartoon series did not materialize, so Iwerks released “Happy Days” as the part of its ComiColor series. Later, Walter Lantz used the characters in one cartoon, and there was a live action movie too. Eventually, the comic strip fell out of favor about the same time little boys stopped referring to each other as “Reg’lar.”

An obscure cartoon based on a forgotten comic strip. ReFrederator keeps alive traditions that were dead years before you were born! Tomorrow — one tough Gazookus!

Dave Kirwan

We say goodbye to Just Plain Weird Week with something called “The Devil’s Ball”, which is actually a fragment from a much longer French film called “The Mascot” created by the great Russian animator Ladislas Starevish. Don’t look for any plot — most of that has been edited away in this version (although, for the record, the original is about a toy dog saving a little girl from scurvy, so rest assured this clip is just the tip of the iceberg as far as refined oddness goes.)

If the elegant creepiness of the animated puppets seems eerily familiar, you may be a child of the eighties. This same clip was rerun relentlessly on the old cable TV standby “Night Flight” (does anyone else remember that weekend goulash of rock videos, documentaries and stock footage?)

[Read more…]]]>

We say goodbye to Just Plain Weird Week with something called “The Devil’s Ball”, which is actually a fragment from a much longer French film called “The Mascot” created by the great Russian animator Ladislas Starevish. Don’t look for any plot — most of that has been edited away in this version (although, for the record, the original is about a toy dog saving a little girl from scurvy, so rest assured this clip is just the tip of the iceberg as far as refined oddness goes.)

If the elegant creepiness of the animated puppets seems eerily familiar, you may be a child of the eighties. This same clip was rerun relentlessly on the old cable TV standby “Night Flight” (does anyone else remember that weekend goulash of rock videos, documentaries and stock footage?)

Monday we are off stripping down to basics with Comic Strip Week at ReFrederator.

For your free subscription to ReFrederator, click
here, or visit iTunes!

Dave Kirwan

Today we witness the tragic spectacle of Flip the Frog denying his noble amphibian heritage. By time he made “Funny Face,” one of his last films, the once proud puddle jumper had all frog references in his movie credits removed — now he was just plain Flip (”Flip” — how catchy! How trendy! How sad!) Then he underwent excruciating cosmetic surgery to have a talking Halloween mask of a human boy attached to his own God given slimy head — all in pursuit of a forbidden inter-species romance with a little girl. Oh, call me old fashioned, but this whole affair makes me r-e-a-l-l-y uncomfortable. And besides, by this point, it’s not like he was looking all that much like a frog in the first place!

[Read more…]]]>

Today we witness the tragic spectacle of Flip the Frog denying his noble amphibian heritage. By time he made “Funny Face,” one of his last films, the once proud puddle jumper had all frog references in his movie credits removed — now he was just plain Flip (”Flip” — how catchy! How trendy! How sad!) Then he underwent excruciating cosmetic surgery to have a talking Halloween mask of a human boy attached to his own God given slimy head — all in pursuit of a forbidden inter-species romance with a little girl. Oh, call me old fashioned, but this whole affair makes me r-e-a-l-l-y uncomfortable. And besides, by this point, it’s not like he was looking all that much like a frog in the first place!

Not that the cutey-pie in question has any right to throw stones. She obviously had Betty Boop’s face grafted onto her skinny little Ub Iwerks designed body.

P.C. alert! Some cartoon characters of Asian and African decent show up, decked out in full stereotypical display.

For your free subscription to ReFrederator, click
here, or visit iTunes!

Dave Kirwan

Just Plain Weird Week trundles on at ReFrederator with “The Snowman,” a 1932 classic from Ted Eshbaugh. This is the cheerful story of a jolly little boy and his jolly pet seal who live above the jolly arctic circle, having a jolly old time with all the other jolly animals until one day when they build a snowman who comes to life AND BECOMES A HIDEOUS, FLESH EATING MONSTER WHO WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND DEVOUR YOU ALIVE EVEN IF YOU HIDE IN A CHURCH, BECAUSE HE’S EVIL!!! EVIL, I TELL YOU!!!

Yeah, well, this is the same Eshbaugh who gave us “The Sunshine Makers”, so you knew the ride was gonna be a little twisted. No telling how many baby boomers sought therapy in their middle years as a direct result of multiple childhood veiwings of this golden oldie.

And things just get weirder tomorrow.

For your free subscription to ReFrederator, click
here, [Read more…]]]>

Just Plain Weird Week trundles on at ReFrederator with “The Snowman,” a 1932 classic from Ted Eshbaugh. This is the cheerful story of a jolly little boy and his jolly pet seal who live above the jolly arctic circle, having a jolly old time with all the other jolly animals until one day when they build a snowman who comes to life AND BECOMES A HIDEOUS, FLESH EATING MONSTER WHO WILL HUNT YOU DOWN AND DEVOUR YOU ALIVE EVEN IF YOU HIDE IN A CHURCH, BECAUSE HE’S EVIL!!! EVIL, I TELL YOU!!!

Yeah, well, this is the same Eshbaugh who gave us “The Sunshine Makers”, so you knew the ride was gonna be a little twisted. No telling how many baby boomers sought therapy in their middle years as a direct result of multiple childhood veiwings of this golden oldie.

And things just get weirder tomorrow.

For your free subscription to ReFrederator, click
here, or visit iTunes!

Dave Kirwan

Today’s Just Plain Weird Week installment, “It’s A Bird,” comes direct from our Wotthehell Department. It’s the story of a guy looking for a metal eating bird, using a worm dipped in aluminum paint as bait. Sounds plausible.

[Read more…]]]>

Today’s Just Plain Weird Week installment, “It’s A Bird,” comes direct from our Wotthehell Department. It’s the story of a guy looking for a metal eating bird, using a worm dipped in aluminum paint as bait. Sounds plausible.

We owe this early 30’s bit of whimsy to the imagination of circus performer turned sign painter turned pioneer animator turned silent movie comedian turned sporadically employed Renaissance man, Charley Bowers. For decades, the guy was a footnote to a footnote in cinema history, but his odd mixture of live action comedy and goofball puppet animation has been somewhat re-discovered in recent years. What else? Oh, yeah — his character designs look like they were a big inspiration to Dr. Seuss.

For your free subscription to ReFrederator, click here, or visit iTunes!

Dave Kirwan

[Read more…]]]>

Okay. What we were thinking, see, was a week of off-the-page oddball cartoons — a collection of films just a little too offbeat to classify as anything else than Just Plain Weird. We’re outta the box today with “Felix Woos Whoopee” wherein Felix the Cat ties one on, then stumbles home to face the wrath of Mrs. the Cat. In between he encounters an endless series of hallucinations ranging from rubber sidewalks to gorilla monsters with little angle wings. Except maybe he DIDN’T go out that night, ‘cuz the whole thing turns out to be a dream in the end. I think. Hard to tell. Well — rest assured, this is a crazy one.

As they say, I’ll have what HE’s drinking.

For your free subscription to ReFrederator, click
here, or visit iTunes!

Dave Kirwan

[Read more…]]]>

We’re wrapping up our Popeye-a-thon here at ReFrederator with a odd little novelty from 1954 —”Popeye’s 20th Anniversary.” Look’s like the old salt is the guest of honor at some sort of tribute banquet. Apparently no one thought to invite any other cartoon characters (except for Olive Oyl and Bluto) so a bunch of movie star caricatures show up instead (one can only imagine the likes of, oh, say Buzzy the Crow or Little Audrey steaming at this obvious snub.) Good thing Popeye remembered to bring his movie projector along to liven up the party.

By the way, math was not Paramount’s best subject — at this point Popeye had been appearing in animated films for a little over 21 years!

Things get a little strange around here next week. Check out Just Plain Weird Week starting Monday.

For your free subscription to ReFrederator, click
here, or visit iTunes!

Dave Kirwan