Wrapping up 1943

So goeth 1943.

Columbia was low man in the quality department this year, but they were moving towards the future in the looks. And they had some interesting, effective cartoons. Next low was probably Famous; the Popeyes that are good seem good in spite of themselves, and there are some terrible cartoons at the end of the year. Then Pal; I'm not entirely convinced my putting them here doesn't have a lot to do with the quality of the transfers I have available to me; at the same time, Famous might rank a bit above the Puppetoons. Then Terry, as they had some bad cartoons, but don't let it fool you; there were plenty of great entries, especially in the Gandy and Sourpuss series. Next Lantz; no bad cartoons, but their highs weren't especially high. Then Disney; funny, easy going, they don't just belabor the point for an entire cartoon like most of the '39s. Then MGM; the Avery cartoons are largely great, the Tom and Jerrys solid but mostly unremarkable, and the rest good enough. And finally, WB; huge output, mostly very solid. The very best cartoons of the year might fall in the Avery camp (tho I would need to mull that a bit for highest individual honors), but the number of very good cartoons out of WB gives the studio the edge.

Now it's back to the future past with the Cartoons of 1935, getting into gear again in about a month. Update your Google reader subscription/RSS feed/Blogger subsubscription accordingly.