036 Hop And Go

Title: Hop and Go
Studio: Warner Bros.
Date: 03/27/53 (2/6 in OMAM)
Credits:
Supervision
Norman McCabe
Animation
Cal Dalton
Story
Melvin Millar
Musical Direction
Carl W. Stalling
Series: Looney Tunes
Running time (of viewed version): 7:13
Commercial DVD Availability: LTGCv6d2 (bonus)

Synopsis: Kangaroo is abused by rabbits in a jumping contest.














Comments: Black and white. Pinto Colvig as Claude Hopper; even the silhouette looks like Goofy (in the face at least). The background looks WB-like, but the characters do not. This cartoon is very irritating; not helped by Colvig's voice, as I hate extended idiocy. Why are the rabbits Scottish? And why do they hate Claude? Sounds like some unusual audio. Like effects and music dubbed in at certain points. Cool chalk looking lines in the anti aircraft section. Rabbit hats have color continuity issues. Throw away mammy joke with no racial imagery. I'd say the cartoon might be trying to comment on how strength proud jocks can be goaded into leaving their shattered bodies in the burning rubble of enemy lands, but I just hate it too much to give it that kind of credit.

035 Jungle Drums

Title: Jungle Drums
Studio: Famous
Date: 03/26/43
Credits:
Direction
Dan Gordon
Animation
Orestes Calpini
H. C. Ellison
Story:
Robert Little
Jay Morton
Musical Arrangement:
Sammy Timberg
Series: Superman
Running time (of viewed version): 1:59:08- 2:07:00 (7:52)
Commercial DVD Availability: Image Superman, official DVD, etc.

Synopsis: Lois crashes in a jungle, is almost tortured by Nazis, gets bailed out by Superman.



















Comments: Shadow shot. Nazis in KKK robes. I'm waiting for Indiana Jones to show up... Again, the stength is in the backgrounds. They have to make the faces realistic, so they avoid them whenever possible, thus hoods, silhouettes, etc. I'm unsure if the natives are Africans or not. If it's Hitler at the end, it's possibly the least recognizable Hitler of the year. Terrible terrible voice acting. Lois wore heels into a combat situation. She deserves to die. Hitler apparently listened to American propaganda radio. And stands like the presidential portrait of JFK...

BoxOffice March 27, 1943

BoxOffice March 27, 1943

(truncated text source)

p30?
"Also at Metro is being launched a series of cartoons featuring stories known to the citizenry of Latin-American nations. . ."

Spanish main titles will be used with American sub-titles, since they are intended for release in the United States as well as foreign countries. The entire series will be under the supervision of Executive Producer Fred Quimby."

p43?

"for Fighters." by OWI cartoon, "Dumb Hounded," The will be shown before the feature. company has announced the following schedule: April 5— Dallas, 20th-Fox, 2:30;"

Weird numbering and "Showmandiser"; image of short reviews below, including the Flying Jalopy, Kindly Scram and Bravo Mr Strauss:

034 Professor Small and Mr. Tall

Title: Professor Small and Mr. Tall
Studio: Columbia
Date: 03/26/43
Credits: -
Series: Color Rhapsody (?)
Running time (of viewed version): 7:32
Commercial DVD Availability: -

Synopsis: Unfunny pair breaks mirror, has extended run of unfortunate events.













Comments: Columbia's level of abstraction in '43 always surprises me. It reminds me of later Famous cartoons, which I am more familiar with. "Peanuts, popcorn, vitamin pills". Horrible voice on the red haired guy. Tall is small and Small is tall. There's a ghost in an old car; doesn't seem like anyone's mother tho. Idiotic-ly bad version of who's on first with small/tall. Ghost turns into crack Hitler (complete with gunshot to the head suicide). Silhouettes abound. Not an ugly cartoon, but borderline unwatchable.

033 Egg Cracker Suite

Title: Egg Cracker Suite
Studio: Walter Lantz
Date: 03/22/43
Credits: (-)
Series: A Foolish Fable, if the Woody Woodpecker and Friends print is to be believed
Running time (of viewed version): 6:56 (with golfing intro, which is 0:14)
Commercial DVD Availability: WWCE3

Synopsis: Rabbits work decorating Easter eggs.






















Comments: Dull and regimented opening walking, tho cleanly animated (they're practically heigh hoing their way off to work). The last Oswald cartoon. Hardly even counts as Oswald; it's the extremely changed Four Color version. An attempt at an Easter cartoon, tho it did not catch on as such as far as I can tell. As it inspires just about no holiday joy in me, I can understand the failure. It's fortunately not so sickly sweet as it first appears, but it still suffers from trying to be sweet. Squeezing flowers for their color is interesting. The checkered face bunny is especially Kozik-like, tho the cartoon generally is; Preston Blair couldn't have been at Lantz around the time, since the Red Hot cartoons were showing up at MGM. The newborn ostrich has bedroom eyes. Something a bit sinister about bombing places with Easter baskets. A disturbingly high percentage of the eggs involved here have live birds inside them. One chicken has a dotted look line. The jazz score is wrong for this (in my aesthetic opinion; this is not a judgement as to being not original to the cartoon).

This marks the 25% complete point in terms of shorts for the year.


(note I covered this in Love Hate Cartoons)




I own the background painting above from this cartoon.