Animated Cartoons in the Golden Era

[GoldenEraFan]

I have yet to see a thread focused on animation, which so happens to share it's golden age (1930's-1950's) with the Golden Era. What cartoons do you fellow loungers like? Any particular notes about the studios back then you'd like to mention? Have questions about how they made pictures come to life before computers? Want to see photographs of the cartoon masters in action? Then this is the place!

I'll start off with a few photo's from different studios to get the ball rolling.

Ward Kimball, one of Disney's Nine Old Men, animating Jimmeny Cricket around 1939.

Jack Mercer, voice of Popeye (left) with then wife Margie Hines, voice of Olive Oyle making sound effects for The Fleischer Studio's first ever full length feature film "Gullivers Travels" 1939.

Paul Terry of Terrytoons (second from left) observing some animation during a studio a studio tour 1939

Tex Avery (seated) with director Fred Quimby, drawing a frame for a Screwy Squirrel cartoon at MGM. Possibly working on the short "Lonesome Lenny" 1946.

L-R Animator Robert McKimson, Mel Blanc (man of a 1000 voices), Jack Benny, Don Wilson, Eddie "Rochester" Anderson and Tedd Pierce recording voices "The House That Jack Built" 1958

Canadian Animator Norman McLaren, known for animating directly on film. 1944. My old animation professor once told me he had the privilege of meeting the legend back in 1947.

Animation pinoneer Windsor McCay. Best known for "Gertie the Dinosaur" 1914.

Don't be shy now! Cartoons are for everyone! Let's animate this thread!

 

[Stray Cat]

Post away, sir! :wave:

 

[Doctor Strange]

Big, big lifelong fan of classic cartoons here! Something of an expert, actually... I started collecting cartoons with the Fleischer Superman shorts on Super 8 over 40 years ago! I moved on to collecting 16mm cartoons soon after. (I learned about cartoons in the pre-Internet, and even pre-books on the subject, way: at revival houses and in collectors' living rooms!) I took Leonard Maltin's famous cartoon course at the New School the last time he taught it in 1982, just before he moved to CA to be a regular on Entertainment Tonight. I myself taught a cartoon appreciation course at the Learning Annex later in the 80s, and have done many other presentations over the years. Anyway, I'm part of the first generation of boomer cartoon fans that discovered via endless TV repetition what a brilliant little art form they are...

I've still got 16mm prints of lots of super-classic cartoons, from nearly all the major studios... I've suggested here more than once to the NYC FL community that we should get together for a film festival: I'll be happy to provide the films if someone else will provide a centrally located venue! Alas, nobody's ever stepped up with a good suggestion for a venue. (My own place is too small and too far north of the city to be practical.)

Anyway, I'm always up for discussing classic Hollywood cartoons! Disney, Fleischer, Warners, M-G-M, Van Beuren, whatever...

 

[GoldenEraFan]

Big, big lifelong fan of classic cartoons here! Something of an expert, actually... I started collecting cartoons with the Fleischer Superman shorts on Super 8 over 40 years ago! I moved on to collecting 16mm cartoons soon after. (I learned about cartoons in the pre-Internet, and even pre-books on the subject, way: at revival houses and in collectors' living rooms!) I took Leonard Maltin's famous cartoon course at the New School the last time he taught it in 1982, just before he moved to CA to be a regular on Entertainment Tonight. I myself taught a cartoon appreciation course at the Learning Annex later in the 80s, and have done many other presentations over the years. Anyway, I'm part of the first generation of boomer cartoon fans that discovered via endless TV repetition what a brilliant little art form they are...

I've still got 16mm prints of lots of super-classic cartoons, from nearly all the major studios... I've suggested here more than once to the NYC FL community that we should get together for a film festival: I'll be happy to provide the films if someone else will provide a centrally located venue! Alas, nobody's ever stepped up with a good suggestion for a venue. (My own place is too small and too far north of the city to be practical.)

Anyway, I'm always up for discussing classic Hollywood cartoons! Disney, Fleischer, Warners, M-G-M, Van Beuren, whatever...

Excellent! Maybe sometime soon FL will make this film festival happen!

 

[LizzieMaine]

Bosko is the man.

Don't even try to imagine what's going on here.

 

[1930artdeco]

I love the old cartoons. I was in wallyworld once and bought a DVD of them for like $5 (the 150 cartoon compilation type). Anyhow I was really surprised to see that a lot of them were B&W from the 20's, judging by the artistic style. I was also a bit shocked (I don't know why) to see that some of them were a lot less than politically correct. Actually, they were flat out racist. But that was the time frame so I am not mad or disgusted by them.

Mike

 

[Stray Cat]

Don't even try to imagine what's going on here.

Too late.
Let's just say he's not Eco-friendly.
([size=-2]That'll bring nightmares[/size])

 

[GoldenEraFan]

I love the old cartoons. I was in wallyworld once and bought a DVD of them for like $5 (the 150 cartoon compilation type). Anyhow I was really surprised to see that a lot of them were B&W from the 20's, judging by the artistic style. I was also a bit shocked (I don't know why) to see that some of them were a lot less than politically correct. Actually, they were flat out racist. But that was the time frame so I am not mad or disgusted by them.

Mike

Those large compilation DVD's are usually of cartoons that have been in the public domain for a while, thus why it has a lot of early B & W cartoons. Historically the silent cartoons of the '20s were some of the earliest programs broadcasted on television after WWII.

 

[GoldenEraFan]

I'd like to add that you should feel fee to talk about animated cartoons in general on this thread. Even in the animation rut of the 1970's-'80s many of the golden era masters were still alive and working, not to mention animation had a second golden era in the 1990's!

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

IMHO the old time animators of the Golden Era were true artists compared to the pixel pushers of today.

 

[Stray Cat]

the pixel pushers

Bien sûr!
Sometimes, they try so hard to make it "feel real", they lose the sight of it being an Animation. I prefer the old-school drawing-like animated films. If I want to see "life-like", I'll just watch a film featuring real life Humans.

 

[GoldenEraFan]

Sadly little to no cartoon studios animate on paper anymore. Traditional 2D or "tradigital" (as some people call it) is the way it's done now. The well known program "Flash" is the standard for animation here on the east coast. While I was a stickler for pencil and paper animation for the longest time, I've grown to embrace flash and the benefits it has, especially the fact that I can test my animation instantly. You can still animate a full fledged Disney-esque film in Flash, but most use it for the quicker, faster, cheaper alternative of cycles and loops.

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

I am a big fan of the Fleischer Brothers who made Betty Boop and several other surreal and jazzy cartoons of the precode era.

and I also love Felix the Cat by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer

 

[GoldenEraFan]

I am a big fan of the Fleischer Brothers who made Betty Boop and several other surreal and jazzy cartoons of the precode era.

and I also love Felix the Cat by Pat Sullivan and Otto Messmer

You may like this then if you haven't already heard of it. It's the '90s incarnation of Felix that showed how timeless the character is. Was also one of them most expensive cartoons to make at the time since they were going for the 1930's animation standard.
[video=youtube;fEERdtqhNQY]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fEERdtqhNQY[/video]

 

[Flat Foot Floey]

Thanks. I didn't know the "new" Felix clip. It's not bad but something is missing. Maybe the constant "groove"?

This Squirrel Nut Zipper music video is a better hommage to the jazzy Fleischer cartoons imo

[video=youtube_share;KJzWGkgFcTU]http://youtu.be/KJzWGkgFcTU[/video]


PS: I think it was made by the "Simpsons" team.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

Felix the Cat: Switches Witches (1927)

[video=youtube;6-Amog2sCko]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-Amog2sCko[/video]

 

[GoldenEraFan]

Thanks. I didn't know the "new" Felix clip. It's not bad but something is missing. Maybe the constant "groove"?

This Squirrel Nut Zipper music video is a better hommage to the jazzy Fleischer cartoons imo


PS: I think it was made by the "Simpsons" team.

I would have to agree with you that it's definitely the best modern reproduction of a classic pre-code musical cartoon.

 

[V.C. Brunswick]

And here's Felix in 1923. In some of the early cartoons he looks more like George Harriman's Krazy Kat. How many silent era stars can you identify in this short?

[video=youtube;3wZVUhkBA4c]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3wZVUhkBA4c[/video]

 

[rjb1]

Thanks for starting this topic.
Here is a great Felix cartoon from 1924. He get enlisted by his kid pal to answer the school homework question ,"What makes the moon shine?"
After a fruitless encounter with the real moon, he finds a bootlegger and gets an answer to the the question. Since this was at the height of Prohibition, it makes a particularly good story.
"Felix Finds Out"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ze9gPkUJMSk

( I also like Felix since he looks just like my cat.)

 

[GoldenEraFan]

Felix was the first cartoon character to be made into a Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade balloon in the late '20s.