081 The Merry Kittens

Title: Merry Kittens
Studio: Van Beuren
Date: 05/31/35
Credits:
Directed by
Burt Gillett and Tom Palmer
Music by Winston Sharples
Series: Rainbow Parades
Running time (of viewed version): 6:37
Commercial DVD Availability: TTRP

Synopsis: Kittens taunt dog for no good reason.

 

Comments: Breathing under checked fabric. You know what Triumph the Insult Comic Dog sings about cats? Well, it's true here. The dog looks like a tightly wound terrier in the first place. Seltzer leads to slight fattening; one of the most cartoony things that happens in a Rainbow Parade. Bounding. I'd say this should be Foxy Terrier based on its date, but there's nothing smart about the dog.  

080a The Foxy Terrier

Title: The Foxy Terrior (as spelled in OMAM)
Studio: Van Beuren
Date: (5/31/35, but probably not)
Credits: -
Series: -
Running time (of viewed version): -
Commercial DVD Availability: -

Synopsis: -

Comments: Per Steve Stanchfield by way of http://animatedviews.com/2010/thunderbean-roundup-van-beuren-studio-cartoons-and-other-strange-and-commercial-rarities/ , this is probably just a working title for Rag Dog. Included for completeness and to address the issue of it possibly being missing.

The dog in the art above is supposedly from Foxy Terrier according to the Howard Lowery gallery that was selling it; it  has a parrot and the dog from Merrie Kittens and Scottie find a Home and Rag Dog. But I don't think there's a parrot in any of those.

080 Opera Night

 

Title: Opera Night
Studio: Terry
Date: 05/31/35
Credits: -
Series: -
Running time (of viewed version): 5:06
Commercial DVD Availability: -

Synopsis: Uses the names Romeo and Juliet, but really it's more of a mouse fights a cat.

Comments: Opening (for however this print has been cut, so it may not be the original opening shots) involves matting based on windows. Theater goers. Big haired conductor. I assume it was a specific conductor who had that trait, not conductors in general. Second sword fight in a row. Mouse goes all Indiana Jones and ends up shooting the cat dead (in the context of the play) instead of engaging in the sword fight. Very Mickey looking mouse. Very cartoon modern like car shot. Animated staircase. Not good, but there's a lot of energy in the chase scene at the end. 

Realities

Once again, life will likely be interrupting this blog. I started this year with a four month cushion of entries. However, buying a house two months ago has cut that cushion to two months.
Now, it's possible that I might get going fast enough to keep on track for the year; I do still have about a two month cushion. But there's a good chance I am not going to stay on track. I'm not sure yet if I will keep the blog going at a slowed not-in-keeping-with-the-year pace or if I'll just put it off and put the rest up in the irght time frame in 2013. Time will tell. Now I have to post some entries in the blog queue so they don't run out in the next week.

079 Choose Your "Weppins"

 

Title: Choose Your "Weppins"
Studio: Fleischer
Date: 05/31/35
Credits:
Directed By
Dave Fleischer
Animated by
David Tendlar and George Germanetti
Series: Popeye
Running time (of viewed version): 6:09
Commercial DVD Availability: Popeye v1d2

Synopsis: Criminal escapes, tries to pawn shop's own knives across the street from cop he escaped from, has sword fight, is reacquired by police.

Comments: Open with handcuffs. Wimpy as a cop. Yeah I don't like this Popeye voice. Olive and knife play. Living knives. Dandy criminal. Popeye's spinach makes his rapier less, uh, flaccid. "Limp" would be a pretty lateral choice of words. Then they use their fingers. Broken looking fingers. Popeye does some cowering. 

078 Springtime Serenade

 

Title: Springtime Serenade
Studio: Lantz
Date: 05/27/35
Credits:
Series: Oswald / Cartune Classic?
Running time (of viewed version): 8:10
Commercial DVD Availability: WWv2

Synopsis: It's spring and there's cleaning and then it's not spring anymore. In color!

Comments: Irritating songs. Turtle courting. Groundhog (coincidentally writing this Groundhog week). "Bevare!". The tepid reds don't do much for Oswald. Living gloom. Murder gloom for greater happiness! Black face gag. Pretty late in the season for a spring cleaning cartoon. I note a '34 copyright on the title; I wonder what happened. It may just be the dates are wrong for this one. Oswald skin color is not pure white. Reusing the groundhog footage. Maybe they'll put out his eyes so he can't see his shadow. It's hard to remember that it was supposed to be funny to see crows associated with scarecrows. The combination is now only intellectually ironic.

This and two of the three next cartoons are on commercial DVDs.