Reviews

This is a wonderful little cartoon that had been pretty much forgotten for decades until it recently started showing up in vintage cartoon DVD sets under the title it was given in the 1940's, "Christmas Night." Otto Soglow's comic strip character, The Little King, had just been created in 1931, and this is one of the first times he appeared on screen. The Little King is an adorable and endearing character--a king who prefers to live like his working class subjects. In this cartoon, he befriends two very gritty bums on Christmas Eve, and together they prepare for Santa's arrival. The animation is beautiful. Sometimes blocky and abstract, while at other times more cutesy and full of detail. While almost entirely free of dialog, the cartoon is entertaining, completely understandable, and moves a brisk, enjoyable pace.

Sadly, it may have been the lack of dialog and simplicity of The Little King (in the comic strip, the king never spoke and ancillary characters did only rarely) that caused it to never really become successful in moving pictures. By the '30s, talkies were all the rage, and cartoon characters were expected to crack jokes or sing witty songs in addition to physical comedy.

In 1929 the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit series (originally created by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks in 1927) was taken over by Walter Lantz and Universal Studios. I know that Disney purists would never deign to watch any of these post-Disney Oswald productions, but some of these cartoons are actually pretty cute. "The Plumber" is actually a very well animated story about Oswald's many failed attempts to control a water leak in his house as well as his extremely disobedient son (which actually makes one question why he is the "lucky" rabbit). This is a talking picture, but like many early talkie cartoons, it has very little dialogue and relies mostly on sight-gags; There is however a cute little song at the beginning, "Ain't Gonna Rain No More." I enjoyed the amount of absurd actions and anthropomorphized objects in the Oswald household, which kept the story going in spire of its lack of plot. It's a little disconcerting to see such Disney-esquire animation and gags in a non-Disney film, but the cartoon really is very well made and was an absolute pleasure to watch.

Disney fanatics know all about Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, Walt Disney's first popular cartoon animal hero. For the uninitiated, this character was created by Disney and Ub Iwerks, and they made 20+ successful Oswald cartoons in 1927 and 1928. This is not one of the more original or inventive Oswald cartoons, but it's very well animated and, even at this early date, features unmistakable Disney-quality characters and stock gags. In this one, Oswald hops the bandwagon and joins the army. They're sent to what seems like a WWI trench-based battle against Germany where the bombs fly and Oswald pines away for his bunny girlfriend back home. It's a little frantic, but still entertaining. I especially enjoyed seeing Oswald attempt to strangle what looks a lot like a very early Mickey Mouse prototype, since this kind of explicit cartoon violence would soon disappear from Disney's later, more family-oriented fare.

This is one of the later, '60's T&J shorts that features a heavy, jazzy soundtrack, bright animation colors, and sudden, over-dramatic physical movements. The plot is very simple. Jerry is frustrated because on one side of his wall lives Tom, fiercely protecting a huge round of cheese. On the other side of the wall lives yet another vicious, mouse-hating cat. Jerry has an epiphany: get the two cats to unknowingly attack each other through the wall.

The jokes from then on are all pretty predictable, but done in a very energetic, cheerful way that is thoroughly enjoyable. But that's all there is. No big surprises and no variation in plot. Just two cats shooting at each other through a wall until Jerry, of course, drives them both out of the house. Personally, I have mixed feelings about the cartoon's final joke; while cute, it oddly suggests that Jerry is either clueless or just cruel, and I don't like to think that he's either!

You know, I had never really liked Baby Huey much until I saw this cartoon. Baby Huey really can be appallingly stupid, which is unusual for a cartoon's protagonist. But watching poor Huey's mother try so desperately to have a child, only to end up with an enormous and doltish Huey, is somewhat endearing, as is her never-ending optimism and love for her son, even after everyone else declares him a menace and a loser. Huey's enormous size and appetite frustrates everyone in the barnyard, and they eventually banish him and his mother. As they're leaving, their fellow ducks are attacked by a wolf. Thankfully Huey's size also comes with super-natural strength and resilience, and the poor wolf proves no match for Huey's innocent "games." This cartoon is fairly well-animated and very entertaining, even if the ending is obvious from the start. It's still sweet and actually has me now rooting a bit for poor, brainless Huey.

These later Tom & Jerry shorts directed by Abe Levitow all have a snappy, bright feel to them. They're excessively sound tracked in a way that today sounds a bit dated, but if you give it a chance, it's fun and brisk, and I always feel giddy when Tom goes *spat!* against something hard and the music plays a loud, jazzy "foo-whou-wow!" There's no real plot here -- Tom wants to surf but is repeatedly thwarted by some silly obstacle. The funniest one here is the starfish stuck to Tom's head that has its own expressions as well as complimenting Tom's. Yeah, it's not as good as the T&Js from the 40's, but it's cute and clever and very colorful, and a fun way to pass 6 minutes of your life.

"Two Chips and a Miss" diverts from the typical Chip & Dale formula of Chipmunks vs. Donald (or whatever Disney main character they happen to be pitted against) to give viewers a rare glimpse into the social world of chipmunks! Apparently, they don't just collect acorns and dig holes -- they have their own clothing style, hit music, and nightclubs! It's rather refreshing to see Chip & Dale pitted against each other instead of against a hapless gardener or nosey pooch. And it turns out that Chip & Dale are actually pretty good singers! Several years before Alvin, Simon, and Theodore recorded their first hit album, the folks at Disney had discovered that "chipmunk" singing was actually quite fun. I suppose the story lacks a substantial plot, but it's just so charming, and I have such fond nostalgic feelings associated with it, I can't help but be a cheerleader for this cartoon. I loved it as a child, and it still brings a big smile to my face.

Sigh... Why can't cartoons be made like this anymore? The plot line is so simple -- an angry dog (soon to be known as "Spike") is after both Tom and Jerry, who have to learn to work together to get the better of him. The pacing is perfect--not too frantic, but never dull. It's a little disconcerting to see a more crudely drawn Spike lacking the personality he would later have, but he does act much more like a real dog in this cartoon. I especially like the soundtrack of "Dog Trouble." Jerry's musical "laugh" is adorable, and Tom's jazzy trombone motif is classy and catchy. So many cartoons today feel hyper and disorienting. The classic era of Tom and Jerry couldn't be more different than this. I feel like I could easily find my way around the T&J house, and I even have a good idea of the furniture and dishes I might find there. This careful use of physical space, quality music, and even pacing creates a cartoon that is pleasing and entertaining for any age viewer.

I am so very, very grateful that Gene Deitch stopped making Tom and Jerry cartoons after this. I can sort of appreciate some of his cartoons as representative of an era--a sparse, artsy, '60s look with a harsh, "hip" sound. But aside from that, all these cartoons are terrible. "Carmen Get It" is probably the Deitch cartoon that I hate the most passionately. I've always loved the musical Tom & Jerry cartoons. In the 1940's these cartoons were elegant tributes to the music they were they were using. "Cat Concerto" even won an Oscar, although "Mouse in Manhattan" is my favorite. "Carmen Get It," like all Deitch cartoons, tries to repeat this previously successful formula, but fails entirely.

The sound and animation quality is appalling. The images are choppy and uneven--backgrounds and characters disappear and reappear, and all movement is jerky and unpleasant. The classical music they are supposedly focusing on, Bizet's Carmen, is continuously interrupted with acrid sound effects and Steven Konichek's repetitive themes. Eventually the music from Carmen is abandoned entirely as Jerry "mixes up" the musical notes and harried Tom is forced to conduct increasingly fast and difficult music. This could be fun to watch, but it just isn't. It isn't done with any sort of beauty or style. The music is abused and wasted, and the images on the screen are unattractive and unmemorable.

This is one of my least favorite Charley Chase shorts. The setting is a newspaper office, and a whole cast of characters is introduced at the beginning of the film. But actually, all the brain power I spent trying to learn who the characters were was completely unnecessary--the setting and characters don't matter at all. There's no real plot here--it's April Fool's Day, and everybody tries to pull a prank on everybody else. Too many of the pranks are predictable: dribble glass, rubber hammer, ink on a chair, etc. The only real laugh I got out of this was towards the end, after the editor's wife calls to say that her house is on fire, but of course nobody believes her. The ending is predictable, although still cute. I also was disappointed in the rather dull way that the movie is filmed. I'm used to Charley Chase films having a snappier editing style and camera work that really takes advantage of the set locations. This one just didn't live up to Charley's other work.

Some people love Charley Chase, others think he has been rightfully forgotten. Well, I'm on the pro-Charley side -- I think he's an underrated genius, and I was thrilled to be able to find this gem of a short on a newly released DVD. All Wet is a short little film with no real plot. It's just Charley trying in vain to get to the train station to pick up some puppies. But the film has a snappy pace and scads of unexpected, subtle little jokes. The scene in which Charley and a brawny piano-carrier push the car (almost) out of the mud is one of my favorite silent film scenes ever. This scene deserves to be a better-remembered classic.

Technically, this cartoon leaves a lot to be desired. The drawings are very basic, and the animation is crude. The version I saw had also aged badly (or perhaps was poorly filmed in the first place), and I could barely make out what was written in the dialog bubbles. But in spite of that, I enjoyed this cartoon. It's a simple joke that's still relevant today--a woman does everything she can to lose weight, but in the end she's fatter than ever. Silly and simple, but with a wonderfully funny surprise moral at the end. This cartoon and others like it are available on the Library of Congress website. Be sure to check out Tom Powers' even funnier morality tale, "The Phable of a Busted Romance."

In general, Tom Powers' cartoons have very basic and cheaply made animation style. Nobody Holme is especially simply drawn--he looks like a slightly fleshed-out stick figure. But the saving grace for his cartoons is usually their wit and bizarre, unexpected endings. This one, alas, is actually quite straight-forward. The big gag is that Nobody has to create an explosion in order to get his car to run. While he does this, Gloom and Joy shoot at each other for no apparent reason. And that's about it. Heck, the cartoon is only 1 and a half minutes long. Not really enough time to create an actual plot or point. Anyway, for those who might want to check out some of these early cartoons, this and several other Powers cartoons are now available on the Library of Congress website!

I don't know why I dislike the Katzenjammer kids so much, but I just don't find them appealing. They play mild pranks, but the only result is the almost-a-thrill of seeing the big fat dad scratch his head in puzzlement and then open his mouth and eyes really wide. That's not much of a pay off. While I'll sound like I have the shortest attention span in the world, even at a mere 7 minutes, I thought this cartoon was much too long. Very little actually happens, and it seems that several times footage was repeated. The only sequence that I found amusing was when the mom is baffled that her ball of dough has come to life (it's actually the much-abused kitty covered in dough!).

I confess that I don't know anything about Tom Powers or his comics, but I'm guessing that his "Phables" cartoons are parodies of the morality tales that I imagine were common in the early 20th century. I had first assumed that this cartoon was just such a morality tale, until half way through it takes a hilarious turn, and it just stays absurd from then on. I'm not sure what the moral at the end of the story means, but it still made me giggle. My only complaint is with the animation and filming quality. With a storyline this clever, it would be nice if it had cleaner and clearer animation. Even for 1915, this cartoon seems pretty low-budget.

I'm not sure why the ratings for this cartoon are so low. Sure, it starts out pretty blandly--Bobby has trouble pushing his goat into a barn. Surely even in 1916, an intransigent farm animal as humor was a little old hat. But I thought the exchanges between Bobby and his neighbor were delightful. Yes, Bobby's neighbor is drawn as a stereotypical black boy with poor grammar, but he's also a worthy adversary for Bobby and ends up saving him from a bear in the end. The animation is nothing fancy, but it runs smoothly, and the cartoon's plot twists took me off guard and made me chuckle, which is about the best that you can hope for in a mere 5-minute cartoon that's almost 90 years old!

I just can't bring myself to call this serial "good" film-making in any way. If you like things that are old and kitschy, as I do, then "Trail of the Octopus" could be worth seeing. I was lucky enough to be one of the lonely dorks in the audience at the Library of Congress screening, and I sat through all 5 hours (is that all it was? seemed a lot longer!) of this film in absolute silence, even though by the end it was pretty painful.

The first few episodes are great! The hero is smart, handsome, and athletic, and the heroine is adorable and spunky. The filmmakers ably dealt with their low budget by making excellent use of real locations, such as the beautiful manor house and some breathtaking California rock cliffs by the ocean. The plot seems clever--there's something about a talisman, murder, an Indiana Jones-like archaeologist--everything you need in a grand adventure! But the story just goes on and on, and the longer it goes on, the less sense it makes. Suddenly there are evil Chinese people, then they're in China, something something about white slavery and international conspiracies. Then, whatever it is that the heroes have accomplished, they're commended for by President Wilson! Hooray! In the final episode, the writers must have realized that they had failed to incorporate the title of the films, "Trail of the Octopus," into the story line in any way whatsoever. So Wilson babbles something about the head Chinese henchman having "tentacles like an octopus," and the story is over. What??? I really wanted to love this serial, but it just became too ridiculous, even for me. But if it were re-released and accompanied by some snappy music, it could be a fun watch--just don't expect it to have a satisfying conclusion or make any sense.

This was the first Felix cartoon I'd ever seen, and I was amazed at how humorous and fun a cartoon could be even as early as 1925. Although the pacing and tone of the cartoon feels very basic (more like a moving comic strip than the short mini-movie we now expect), the pace clips entertainingly along, and the ending actually did surprise me!

This is not really a good cartoon. Popeye cartoons are notoriously poorly animated, but this seems even unusually cheaply done. Margie Hines is just plain irritating as the voice of Olive Oyl, although thankfully Mercer's rantings are still pretty funny. Overall, it feels sloppy and thrown-together. The only redeeming aspect of this cartoon is the clever scene of Popeye wrapping up the entire contents of a room into a rug viewed from directly above.

Dishes and foodstuffs sing, dance, impersonate celebrities, and finally join together to battle a monster made of dough! Do the utensils ultimately win the war? I'm not telling, but the results look deee-licious!

Pointless, but incredibly entertaining.

Although the animation is quite simple, the story line is engaging and the visual puns actually fairly funny. It's true that by this time the Popeye cartoons seemed to be a decade behind what Disney or Warner Brothers were doing in animation, but if you're a Popeye fan or have an interest in wartime cartoons, this one is a small gem.

Just from the summary you can probably get a very good sense of what this cartoon is all about. No surprises here -- Barney has no patience for the wild, albeit adorable animals around him, and then gets his comeuppance several times over. The cartoon has no dialog other than a few lines coming out of Barney's radio. But it's still enjoyable to watch, in large part because of the careful way it's animated -- this nighttime wilderness is indeed dark and mysterious, often bathed in blues. Light is cleverly used, keeping some things hidden in the dark until Barney shines his flashlight on them. And the opening sequence, where the camera zooms in on Barney through a 3D forest is just lovely.

The animation is adorable and nicely done for how early this cartoon is. And the songs are catchy and fun. But there's just nothing very original or remarkable about "Shanty Where Santy Claus Lives." The plot-line is incredibly straight-forward and obvious, and even the toys are fairly predictable and behave relatively normally. A much better cartoon featuring Depression-era pathetic orphans who get a surprise visit from Santa is the 1936 "Christmas Comes But Once a Year."

This is one of my favorite Tom and Jerry cartoons. There isn't much plot, but everything that happens is just so delightful, funny, and beautifully animated, it's hard not to love. Tom's bratty alleycat friends are always fun to watch, and Tom is definitely at his most helpless and adorable. For old music fans, Baby Puss features a dozen great old standards brilliantly orchestrated.

Poor Tom and Jerry! They never got the love and respect that Disney and Warner Brothers characters got, but Tom and Jerry's classic episodes made in the '40's and '50s are just as clever and almost as well animated as their more prestigious cartoon neighbors. "Little Runaway" is wonderful. The runaway seal is adorable, and Jerry's tap dancing routine with a dead fish is one of the funniest things I've ever seen in a cartoon. Scott Bradley's music, as always, complements the animation perfectly.