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.
Sunday, January 1, 2012
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I think that Famous cartoons was quiute good, when they was still in Florida - the rest is quite bad.
ReplyDeleteWB have a lot of great releases, but they have a lot of crap too, like "Hiss and Make Up", "Tin Pan Alley Cats", "Wackiki Wabbit" and "Tokio Jokio", "Hop and Go" and so on. "A Corny Concerto", in fact, is one of their baddest cartoons of the year - it have a lot of errors.
I can't say that Columbia was the low man that year - Terrytoons' is uglyest of all. Columbia was one level with WB, I can say. The only difference in moslty B&W cartoons. Lantz cartoons not bad, but not as good as viewers want.
Of course, Disney and MGM was the best studios, every year.
While I can readily understand an argument that someone thinks Disney and MGM may be the best studios of 1943, that claim (especially about Disney) does not hold up for me for 1939. Nickramer and I had a related argument last year, I believe, although it may have centered on his belief that Disney just shouldn't have been ranked worst by me. But it really deserved ot be ranked worst in '39.
ReplyDeleteThe only reason I can think of to rank Columbia over Terry in '43 is if you like the cartoon modern look and don't like soft high golden age style. But that doesn't seem to be the case with you. So why in particular do you prefer Columbia to Terry?
"it have a lot of errors" should be a band name or an album title...
You're right about Colubmias in 1943, because of theirs designs. But it don't means that I'm modern-designs-lover!
ReplyDeleteTerrytoons was just bad visualy. through some dances is nice done.
When I said about "errors", I mean errors, and especially what they want when they released this cartoon.
Ted, I particulary agree with you about your 1939 commentaries, but it should be no secret for you that WB, Columbia, Fleischer/Famous, Lantz and Terry produced short films in the category of animated films, which can be called poor area.Less luxurious and prestigious than the more ambitious cartoons by Disney or MGM.
My problem with the Disneys of '39 is not that any of the are badly executed frame to frame, it's just that they are almost all uninteresting. Which is a much worse problem from my perspective than having some bad cartoons and some good/funny cartoons, even if the good/funny cartoons have some technical execution issues.
ReplyDeleteI understand, but it doesn't have any sense to most auidence - people love rich, ambitious cartoons by studios like Disney or MGM. And no matter how bad in any other terms they are. I simply hate a lot of SS released in 1935, but auidence of this days love them anyway, because they looks great. The same goes for you and Disney releases in 1939.
ReplyDeleteHey Ted, I started new blog about MGM cartoon(from H-I and on), how about that?
ReplyDeletehttp://mgmclassiccartoons.blogspot.com/
Link posted to the Cartoons of Project blog.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHi, I check your blogs on a regular basis. Your humoristic style is awesome, keep it up!
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Wow!
ReplyDelete"Hiss and Make Up" (1943) crap? I don't think so at all (it was Bea Benedaret's firt cartoon role, at least for the studio). The current Likely Looney, Mostly Merrie Page by Steve Hartley has a entry about it. SC