Nursery Scandal (1932) Starring: Anonymous Singers and Voice Actors Directors: John Foster and Harry Bailey
Rating: Five of Ten Stars
Magic gnomes cause characters from fairy tales and nursery rhymes to emerge from a discarded book, and they all proceed to have a Rave Party 1930s style. Meanwhile, Mother Goose gets romantic with a scarecrow.
"Nursery Scandal" is a innocuous bit of nonsense for all ages. Adults and children alike will find the most entertainment here from identifying all the fairy tales and nursery rhymes that emerge for the big party. The only thing scandalous here might be Mother Goose making time with a scarecrow... but as scandals go, it's a pretty minor one.
There is no plot to get in the way of the story here: Gnomes find the book of rhymes and fairy tales; gnomes cause various characters to come to life; gnomes host a dance party. If Modest Mussorgsky had based "Night on Bald Mountain" on a book of fairy tales instead of folklore about witches and demons, events similar to what we have in "Nursery Scandal" would have formed its storyline.
If you have a few minutes to spare and are in the mood for something strange, then you should click below. I suspect you won't come across anything weirder today.
Ker-Choo (1933) Starring: Bonnie Poe and Gus Wicke
Director: Dave Fleischer
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
It's the Grand Prix, cartoon-style, with all the craziness you'd expect!
"Ker-Choo" is one of those cartoons where almost anything I might say about it will ruin the fun of watching it for the first time. While it remains funny if you watch it more than once, the biggest enjoyment will come from watching the race (as well as the cartoon animals watching it in the stands) for the first time; the wacky bizarreness of it all will bring joy to even the grumpiest soul!
This is one of the Betty Boop-headlined cartoons where the entire gang is here -- with Bimbo and KoKo the Clown being among the drivers competing against Betty -- and each gets their moment to shine. In fact, I think Bimbo and KoKo between them deliver two of the funniest gags in the film, with KoKo even turning what might have just been a simple transition scene into a moment of hilarity.
While there are many reasons I think you'll enjoy this cartoon if you're into Pre-Code Era animation, the most important one is the unique place it has cinematic history: It was the first tale (and perhaps the only tale so far) of a race being won through germ warfare! Further, this cartoon may also be the true origin of "twerking"!
One word of warning: The race music may get stuck in your head for a day or so after watching this!
Office Blues (1930) Starring: Ginger Rogers, Clairborne Bryson, and E.R. Rogers Director: Mort Blumenstock Rating: Six of Ten Stars
A secretary (Rogers) fantasizes about having a romantic relationship with her stern boss (Bryson) while ignoring the coworker who carries a torch for her (Rogers).
Do you like the musicals from the early talkies period? Would you like them even more if there were the barest minimum of all that dialogue and stuff between the songs and production numbers? Well, then "Office Blues" is for you!
"Office Blues" is a short (barely nine minutes log) musical that still manages to offer two really catchy songs and a big production number. There isn't much time for comedy or drama (although the prematurely balding coworker who's pining for the boss's beautiful secretary offers a bit of both), but I think lovers of music from this era will enjoy this film a lot. Personally, my favorite part is the production number and the costumes worn by the chorus line.
Fans of Ginger Rogers should also definitely check this out. It's one of her earliest starring roles--she was 18 at the time this was filmed--and it's clear that she excelled in song, dance, and acting. To say that she is "radiant" and "lights up the screen" in this "Office Blues" is not overstating her screen presence here. (Although she is made to look even more spectacular due to the fact that her co-stars have the charisma of dish rags.)
"Office Blues" is embedded below for your viewing convenience and pleasure. I hope you enjoy it!
Betty Boop, M.D. (1932) Starring: Mae Questal (voice of Betty Boop) and William Costello (voices of Bimbo and Ko-Ko) Directors: Dave Fleischer and Willard Bosky
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
Bobo, Ko-ko, and Betty Boop are traveling snake-oil peddlers who use Betty's charms to seal their deals.
Nice music, weird plot, and even weirder cartoony results of the miracle tonic that Betty & Friends are hawking. All in all, another wildly creative and zany adventure from the Fleischer Studio. It's also one of those masterful bits of entertainment that needs to be experienced cold--I feel that any else I say about the plot and events of the film will ruin the experience.
Aside from the wild strangeness of this cartoon, I also love it because it lets me imagine Betty Boop's world a bit more clearly. There appears to be villages of humanoids like Bimbo in addition to the cities where humans like Betty live. (Heck, Betty's weird looks could be explained by her being a third kind of being... or maybe some sort of crossbreed? After all, when she was younger, she look a bit like a poodle... :) )
Bubbles and Troubles (1933) Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors (mostly speaking nonsense) Director: Mannie Davis Rating: Five of Ten Stars
When his girlfriend is abducted by pirates, only Cubby can save her!
This Cubby adventure came together better than I had anticipated when it opened. What initially feels like it's going to be a boring mess of unconnected, nonsensical gags--in short order, Cubby goes from doing stunts on his bicycle, to performing magic tricks with soap bubbles to being inflated by one of the bubbles and floating away into the sky--ends up coming together in an amusing and creative fashion when the bubbles of the title end up being central to story as it unfolds.
Almost every moment involving the pirates and their ship from the point the captain decides he wants to add Cubby's girlfriend to his treasure hoard is also a lot of fun. The launching of the longboat was especially amusing. I liked these pirates so much that it's a little hard for me judge whether they're defeated a little too easily, or whether I just feel that way because I wanted to see more of them.
As with the majority of Van Beuren's animated shorts, the use of music is the greatest aspect of "Bubbles and Troubles". The music adds tremendously to this film, and I don't know if I've ever quite experienced "The Sailor's Hornpipe" used so perfectly anywhere before.
But don't just take my word for it. Click below, sit back, and enjoy!
Screen Songs: Let Me Call You Sweetheart (1932) Starring: Ethel Merman, Billy Murray, and Mae Questal Director: Dave Fleisher and Shamus Culhane Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
After a nanny (Betty Boop, voiced by Questal) turns down his advances, a police officer (Bimbo, voiced by Murray) proceeds to rape her while putting the baby she's supposed to care for in deadly danger. Meanwhile, Ethel Merman invites viewers to join her in singing "Let Me Call You Sweetheart".
I watched "Let Me Call You Sweetheart" twice, with four days between viewings, just to make sure I hadn't been in a dark frame of mind when I viewed it the first time. I hadn't been.
The cartoon sequences are among the most disturbing I think I've ever come across... because the sense is that there's nothing wrong with the fact that Bilbo is a police officer who forces is "affection" on a clearly-not-interested Betty Boop. Also, we're clearly supposed to find it hilarious that Bilbo, while setting about to rape Betty, intentionally kicks the baby carriage she was tending, sending it careening down a hill where it and the baby ultimately plunges and sinks into a pond. Although the baby doesn't die (no one really thought that it would, did they?) and is saved via some visually amusing cartoon antics, the circumstances under which it is placed in danger are so distasteful it was hard for me to enjoy it. Just to make the Betty and Bimbo sequence as repulsive as possible, the animators later show them in a state of blissful embrace--Betty really wanted it all along, see?--where we should have seen her standing over Bimbo's broken and twisted corpse.
For all my irritation at main animated sequence of this Screen Songs installment, I can also see a possibility that it was intended as an ironic juxtaposition of the featured song, "Let Me Call You Sweetheart", because the on-screen lyrics get really crazy type-setting wise toward the end. The animated sequence after the Ethel Merman sing-along section supports this idea, as it features a predator singing "Let me Call You Sweet-heart" while chasing down its prey. (Bimbo and Betty being shown in a loving embrace after he forces himself upon her in a brutal fashion undermines that interpretation though. Unless one assumes they were "roleplaying"...)
Although I had a very hard time enjoying this cartoon, I recognize it's well-animated with some amusing visual, quickly paced, and features a pleasant song, hence the Seven-Star rating. I just can't get past some of the messaging. (Oh... and while I can't think of a way to do rape "right", the creators of this cartoon and this one did present child endangerment in a fashion that was more amusing than troubling.)
But are the flaws of "Let Me Call Me Sweetheart" are severe as I feel they are? Take a look for yourself and let me know!
Big Cheese (1930) Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors (but there are no important spoken lines) Directors: John Foster and Manny Davis Rating: Four of Ten Stars
A boxer from the rough side of town trains for the big prize fight while bullying all who crosses his path.
"Big Cheese" is one of the lesser efforts from the Van Beuren animators--there's excessive looping, gags that get dragged out past the point of being funny, and sloppy animation that leads to character's changing appearances for no reason. Oftentimes, such weak efforts are saved by excellent music and/or songs, but that's not even the case here. There are just enough gags that work to hold a viewer's, and there's also a healthy dose of bizarre, surreal, and out-of-left-field cartoon character transformations to keep the "what the hell am I watching" quotient at an acceptable and entertaining level. And the prize match is mostly hilarious--even if they don't quite pull off the ending.
Despite its overall weakness, this COULD have been a Five-Star rated cartoon, or perhaps even a Low Six if someone, at some point during the production process, had said, "Hey... this story-thread that starts when our Mickey Mouse look-alike character shows up? We just sort of drop it when it really should come back around in the big finale! In fact, we set it up perfectly to do so--so why don't we do it?!" (Basically, Mickey Mouse gets bullied by the boxer, gains super-strength, and then wanders around a bit punching things. If someone who worked on "Big Cheese" had even the slightest notion of how to tell a story, he would have been present for the chaotic brawl at the end of the cartoon, and he would have kicked everyone's butt.)
I have perhaps given a mild spoiler above, but I don't think so. At most, I've given you what you need to not waste your time with this one, if you're a Van Beuren fan. (On the other hand, if you enjoy a good boxing spoof, you'll like boxing match during the second half... and if you're on a quest to watch all the appearances of the Van Beuren Mickey Mouse knock-off [like me], then you'll want to check this out by clicking below.)
Opening Night (1933) Starring: Anonymous Singers and Voice Actors Director: Mannie Davis Rating: Six of Ten Stars
Cubby the Bear tries to sneak into the hottest new show in town and ends up conducting the orchestra.
The title of this 1933 entry into Van Beuren's anthology series Aesop's Fables, "Opening Night", can be taken in at least two different ways. The first, and most obvious, the setting is the opening of a new show at the Roxy theatre. Secondly, this cartoon was the first appearance of Cubby the Bear, an attempt on the part of the Van Beuren Corporation to come up with a recurring character for Aesop's Fables. (They were possibly taking this step because the unofficial recurring characters--Milton Mouse and Rita Mouse--were coming increasingly under threat from the Walt Disney Corporation which was annoyed by the way the pair had increasingly come to be off-color copies of their successful Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse characters.)
This first outing for Cubby is a little uneven quality-wise. After a mystifying opening scene involving Santa Claus (probably an artifact of the film's original release date), viewers are treated to a series of repetitive and barely amusing gags as Cubby tries to sneak into the theatre. Once our pint-sized hero gets inside and ends up in front of the orchestra, things start getting better and a lot funnier.
In fact, this might be problem with "Opening Night" in general. The best Van Beuren cartoons are usually so wild that they enter the realm of the surreal. Here, although there are several impossibly bizarre moments, none rise to the level of crazy that one can find in the best "Tom & Jerry" entries. As a result, we've got something here that's a bit slow at the start and eventually gets into the silly and cute territory, and which ultimately feels like it never reaches its full potential.
"Opening Night" was the first of somewhere between 17 and 20 short features starring Cubby. I'll eventually get around to watching and reviewing all of them in this space. In the process, I will also discover which source is correct on the number of Cubby cartoons that were produced.
For now, I invite you to check out the subject of this post by clicking below. I hope you enjoy it. If you do (or if you don't!), feel free to leave a comment.
Sinister Stuff (1934) Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors Director: Steve Muffati Rating: Four of Ten Stars
Cubby the Bear must save his lady love from the villainous wolf who holds the mortgage to the home she shares with her aged mother.
"Sinister Stuff" is one of at least 18 cartoons featuring Cubby the Bear that appeared during the run of the the Aesop's Fables cartoon anthology series. Like pretty much everything from the Van Beuren animation shop, the episodes vary greatly in quality. This one is at the lower end of the scale; there are worse ones out there, but there are also far better ones.
The strong points of "Sinister Stuff" include the music. As is often the case with Van Beuren efforts, the music is excellent and it's very important in this film where the characters don't sing, but they do all speak in verse and rhymes. The end result is the sense that we're watching a weird operetta, and it feels very appropriate since it's a spoof of old-time melodramas.
The animation here is also superior to what is present in many Van Beuren efforts, with details both in the backgrounds and foregrounds as characters go through their antics. This better-than-average animation also augments and elevates the hilarity and oddness of the several bicycle gags featured (even if one is dragged down slightly by some looping).
The supporting characters are also a lot of fun, from the villain's three sidekicks (who must be related to the weirdos that stiffed Tom & Jerry for cab fare back in 1931) to the fretting mother about to be homeless. In fact, the three sidekicks are the center of the film's funniest moments.
Unfortunately, the bad in this film outweighs all those good parts... and the bad all revolves around story. It starts off well enough as a straight-forward spoof of the stereotypical melodramas with a mustache-twirling villain kidnapping the hero's lady love and putting her in an extreme danger than only he can rescue her from. As it builds toward the climax, however, it begins to fall apart: Jokes are set up that don't pay off, the cartoon-comedy battle between the villain and the hero ranks among the lamest I've ever seen, and the ending just sort of falls flat (although it does reflect the late Pre-Code period in which this film was produced.
But don't just take my word for it. If you have a few moments, click below and watch "Sinister Stuff"... if nothing else, I think you'll enjoy the bits with the three sidekicks.
Mask-A-Raid (1931) Starring: Ann Little (Betty Boop and various voices) and Bill Murray (Bimbo and various voices) Directors: Dave Fleischer and Al Eugster Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
Betty Boop is the Queen of the Ball at a masquerade, and she becomes the object of love (and lust) by Bimbo the Bandleader and the dirty old man who's the King of the Ball. Although Betty is clearly more attracted to Bimbo, she declares they must duel tor her heart. Insane antics ensue.
"Mask-A-Raid" is a turning point for the most famous original characters to come out of the Max Fleischer-operated animation studios, Bimbo and Betty Boop.
First, this is the moment when Bimbo was permanently reduced from the headlining character to supporting character status. While he would continue to be a presence in the series for a few more years, he had been replaced as the star by Betty Boop, who had originally been introduced as a nameless supporting character with appearances like this. In some, he'd be a co-star (like he is here), but in others he'd barely be present.
Secondly, this is the point at which Betty Boop's transformation from an anthropomorphic poodle into the big-headed sexpot we all know and love. The change had been taking place over several cartoons, but this is the first time when her floppy poodle ears have been fully replaced by hoop earrings and the last vestiges of her dog snout are completely gone.
As for the content of "Mask-A-Raid", this is one of the most risque Betty Boop cartoons I've seen so far, with Betty leaving no confusion about her desire to get hot and sweaty with Bimbo, with the dirty old man leaving no confusion about his desire to get hot and sweaty with Betty, and there's no doubt that Bimbo is not particularly interested in defending Betty's virtue but rather his own desire to get hot and sweaty with her. I think it's clear that these cartoons were directed at an adult audience--or at least older teens.
All that said, there is a sense of fun about everything in this very charming cartoon. In some of the Betty Boop installments, Bimbo comes across a demented stalker (like this one) or the proceedings are tinged with horror (as illustrated here), but here Bimbo is just a horndog and Betty is willing to engage him. The sense of fun (and perhaps even joy) intensifies as the cartoon progresses and gets stranger and stranger as it goes, and the duel for Betty Boop's--um... companionship--escalates into a major brawl for no apparent reason. I think if you watch "Mask-A-Raid" without at cracking at least one smile, you're dead. Not just dead inside, but clinically dead.
In addition to lots of zany visuals and escalating craziness, "Mask-A-Raid", like many of the Boop cartoons from this period, is an animated mini-musical... and the music and songs are just as nutty as the animation. There are Betty Boop cartoons that feature better music but I've yet to see one that manages to be as completely chaotic and perfectly graceful at the same time as this one.
But don't just take my word for it. Why don't you take a few minutes to have some fun right now? Click below, sit back, and get ready to laugh! (And if I have steered you wrong, let me and the world know in the comments section.)
A Royal Good Time (1934) Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors (but it's basically a silent movie) Director: Geo. Stallings
Rating: Six of Ten Stars
The Little King heads out for a day at the funfair and ends up causing chaos.
"A Royal Good Time" is one of nine cartoons that the Van Beuren Corporation produced based on "The Little King" comic strip (which ran from 1931 to 1975, ending with the death of its creator and only artist/writer Otto Soglow). Van Beuren licensed The Little King as the strip moved from "The New Yorker Magazine"
Like many of those adaptations, this one opens with a segment that embodies the look and feel off Soglow's strip, but swiftly veers into territory that's comfortable and typical for the Van Beuren writers and animators: Loosely designed, rubbery characters embroiled in zany, surreal situations and chase scenes full of non-stop sight gags.
Not unexpectedly, "A Royal Good Time" follows this pattern. The opening plays like a Soglow cartoon put into motion with the Little King heading off to the funfair to use his own rifle at the target game. Once he reaches the fairground, however, the look of the characters change, as does the nature of the story. As I've mentioned before, there is a significant different in the character designs between the Little King and those who work as servants in his palace and in his government, and the common people in the rest of his nation. Those differences in character designs are even more striking here, especially because the Little King has to pass through a "checkpoint" to get into the realm of these commoners (the fairgrounds). Up until watching this installment of the series, I was leaning toward chalking these differences in character designs to the Van Beuren operation wanted to keep a certain look about their cartoons. However, I am coming around to the idea that lead animator Jim Tyre, who reportedly was dedicated to making "The Little King" faithful to Soglow's original strip and the highest quality possible, was actually using character designs to set the king and his court apart from the rest of country and showing how they, essentially exist in different worlds. It's an element that doesn't add a whole lot to the simple and chaotic storylines of the episodes, but I think that I've been giving too little credit to Tyre for his work on this series, which I already thought was pretty good.
All that said, compared to other "The Little King" episodes that Tyre helmed, this one is at the lower end of the quality spectrum. The Carnie/Van Beuren-look characters are a bit unstable in their looks from scene to scene, and the backgrounds aren't quite as well done as in other Tyre efforts (although they are still worlds beyond what is typical in some "Tom and Jerry" episodes. The main chase scene is also initiated by an event that doesn't make any sense--basically, The Little King disrupts a magic act in such a way that I think would be just as impressive to the audience as if it had been executed the right way. Nonetheless, the magician gets angry and proceeds to chase The Little King with a sword, intend on killing him. The ending is also very weak and feels very much like "we don't know how to end this, so here's a bit of surreal silliness that doesn't connect to a darn thing you've just sat through." (I think a straight-up "non-ending" like what we got in "Jolly Good Felons" would have been preferable to how "A Royal Good Time" ends.)
There are things I did like about "A Royal Good Time"--and liked a lot. Several of the sideshow acts The Little King witnesses are vehicles for some funny sight gags, as well as just being clever little story elements all by themselves. The Sword Swallower who put the tip of the sword through to the chair he is sitting might make for a nice real-world magic trick, and the giant who is actually a dozen lilliputians in a trench coat are actually a better act than what they're being passed off as. The mind-reader bit was an old gag when this film was made, but it's still funny the way it's timed and executed here.
If you've got 8 minutes to spare, you could do worse than spending them watching "A Royal Good Time", which I've embedded below for your convenience! Check it out and let me know what you think!
In 1931, as Fleischer's Betty Boop was soaring toward animated superstar status, she and her friend Bimbo co-starred in an adaptation of the "Little Red Riding Hood" story. It has some fun, surreal, and/or just plain crazy moments. The music isn't bad either.
It also makes you question Betty's taste in boyfriends. At the outset of the Betty comments to Bimbo that her mother doesn't approve of him... and as the cartoon unfolds, I think it's clear why. By the end, I think it's clear that Bimbo may be more dangerous than the wolf ever was... as well as a complete psycho. (Of course, if the assume that "Dizzy Red Riding-Hood" is a sequel to this one, we already know Bimbo isn't quite right in the head.)
"Dizzy Red Riding-Hood" is a zany take on a very familiar story that goes to very unexpected places. No matter what meaning you assign to the original story and the events and characters within it, this version subverts them all!
Dizzy Red Riding-Hood (1931)
Starring: Ann Little (Voice of Betty Boop) and Billy Murray (Voice of Bimbo, others)
One thing you could almost always rely on the Van Beuren Corporation for was cartoons that featured weirdness for no apparent reason other than be weird. The quality of their storytelling, and the technical quality of the animation in their features varied wildly--sometimes even within the same cartoon--but they almost never failed to be weird.
Case in point: Their version of "Little Red Riding Hood", which was released as part of their Aesop's Fables anthology series. In true Van Beuren fashion, the cartoons released under that heading rarely had anything to do with Aesop's fables, which is why it's not terribly surprising that they included a Little Red Riding Hood adaptation in the mix. No, what's surprising is how far afield the creators went with this adaptation. It starts straying from the original fairy tale with a little Jazz Age satire... and then spins out of control from there. It is easily one of the most memorable Van Beuren effort... and oh so weird!
(As an added bonus, this seems to be another instance of one of those Mickey and/or Minnie Mouse look-alikes that eventually caused the Walt Disney Company to file suit against Van Beuren Corporation.)
Red Riding Hood (1931) Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors Directors: John Foster and John Bailey Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
(This post was presented during Red Riding Hood Month at Shades of Gray. Click on the "Little Red Riding Hood" label below to see all the entires in this series.)
Jest of Honor (1934) Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors (delivering two lines consisting of nonsense words) Director: Vernon Stallings
Rating: Seven of Ten Stars
The Little King inadvertently triggers an insurrection in a coastal town after getting busy with a mermaid.
"Jest of Honor" is seven-and-a-half-minutes of fast-moving nonsense. In fact, it will go by so fast that you'll be surprised that it's over. This is because this film, like many of "The Little King" series features animation that is among the best you'll find in any Van Beuren offering, and because there is not a moment where something that is visually interesting isn't happening on-screen--and there isn't a set-up that doesn't resolve itself into a well-timed visual gag.
Two of the most interesting points about this installment in this series is that although it consists of bits of action that are almost entirely nonsensical (from the Little King's introduction, though his interaction with fish and a mermaid, through a bizarre tickertape parade, and into the revolt during the climax) they all fit together to form a story that is more complete and coherent than what you'll find in most Van Beuren animation--with a beginning, a middle, an end, and even a denouement. The fact that the nonsense bits feed into each other and add up to a complete story is perhaps also one of the reasons the "Jest of Honor" flies by the way it does; there's nothing to take you out of the moment as you watch it. Secondly, the character designs continue to distinguish between the Little King and his servants and staff and the subjects of the kingdom. The subjects have few sharp angles, unlike the king and those at his court.
One other interesting bit of trivia in the character design department... the mermaids that the Van Beuren heroes Tom & Jerry came across a year earlier in "Rocketeers" were both more sensible in their outfits and even a little sexier than the one in "Jest of Honor". It doesn't really impact the overall cartoon, but it is the one point where a Tom & Jerry outing not animated by Jim Tyre beat "The Little King" series quality-wise.
But why don't you check out "Jest of Honor" and maybe let everyone know if you agree or disagree with my take on it? Just click below, sit back, and watch.
... we're going to bring you some black-and-white adaptations of that famous fairy tale (along with commentary). You may also treat these posts as a public service if you don't have access to Amazon Prime (where the new "Cinderella" will premiere on September 3), or if you want to be able to say you've seen "Cinderella", but don't want to sit through 90+ minutes of sap.
First up, we have TerryToon's adaptation of "Cinderella" from 1933. Drop down to the end of post and click to watch it. Although you can also read our thoughts on it first... and then maybe you can leave some thoughts of your own in the comments section below this post!
Cinderella (1933)
Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors
Director: Frank Moser
Rating: Six of Ten Stars
A hedonistic king throws a party while his stern queen is out of town. Cinderella's ugly stepsisters are invited while she has to stay at home... but she ends up at the festivities anyway.
To say this is a loose adaptation of the familiar "Cinderella" story is an understatement. It begins in familiar territory and then transforms into something completely different. The creators seem to kinda-sorta remember what they were doing every now and then--a "Cinderella" adaptation--but only momentarily.
After opening with one of most annoying songs you're likely to encounter, but very much on track to be a standard "Cinderella" tale, it then it goes spinning off in bizarre directions. Cinderella is almost a minor character in her own story, with most of the focus being on the lecherous king, his dippy son, and the drunken bash the king throws. Some of the expected elements show up, but they are strange and surreal distortions of what we'd typically expect.
Are you in the mood for something weird? Sit back and enjoy this wild ride, along with a king on his tricycle, a prince on his wooden horse, and Cinderella in her magic carriage.
An anarchist tries to assassinate the Little King by rigging a bomb to a grand piano, but the miniscule monarch and his pet dog turn the tables on the would-be killer.
In 1933, the Van Beuren Corporation licensed Otto Soglow's "The Little King" comic strip (and associated characters) for adaptation to animated shorts. The result was two "pilot" installments under the "Aesop's Fables" banner and 10 branded "Little King", all of which can be counted among the best items to ever come out of Van Beuren's animation department. The credit for this can largely be attributed to Jim Tyer, the lead animator on projects related to "The Little King"; he was reportedly firmly committed to never cutting corners or otherwise not produce the best possible product his talent and resources would allow. (And while his dedication to his art can easily be seen on "The Little King" series because he received screen credit, it is also evident in cartoons he worked on anonymously, such as some of the best Tom & Jerry cartoons, such as "Magic Mummy" and "The Tuba Tooter".
"The Fatal Note" was the first of ten "The Little King" episodes. While it's not exactly a faithful adaptation of the comic strip--while it gets the character designs right, the nature of the story and how it unfolds is far from what one would expect--it is seven minutes of non-stop action and humorous hijinx. The animation here is also among the best you'll find in a Van Beuren produciton, with detailed backgrounds, crowd scenes where almost each character has been given a unique characteristic, and very little looping of footage. (There's some of it during a series of fights up and down a staircase, but the foreground action is so varied that it's not noticeable unless you're the sort of jerk who watches cartoons in order to pick them apart for review fodder.).
Parts I'm sure you'll enjoy include the Little King frolicking and playing the piano with this dog, and the Little King's running battle with his would-be assassin (including the aforementioned action on the staircase). One thing I'm sure you wish you'd seen was the Queen somehow getting caught in the crossfire between the Little King and the assassin; she's an even greater villain than the murderous anarchist.
Why don't you take a few minutes to see if I'm right by clicking below and sitting back to enjoy yourself with some of the best the Van Beuren Corporation had to offer?
Jolly Good Felons (1934) Starring; Anonymous Voice Actors (although there is only one real spoken line) Director: Vernon Stallings Rating: Six of Ten Stars
The Little King tours his nation's prison... and he inadvertently causes a riot and mass-escape.
"The Little King" was a popular comic strip by Otto Soglow that debuted in "New Yorker" magazine and was acquired for syndication by Kings Features in 1934. It ran in newspapers nationally and internationally until Soglow's death in 1974.
As Soglow was securing the syndication deal with Kings Features, the Van Beuren Company licensed the Little King and associated characters for use in animated short features. After a couple test runs under the "Aesop's Fables" banner, the King's solo feature was launched, under the watchful guidance of lead animator Jim Tyer who was determined to make "The Little King" films among the consistently highest quality productions to be released under the Van Beuren banner. Tyler was concerned both with staying true to the original comic strip, as well as having the animation being as good as possible.
"Jolly Good Felons" was made toward the end of the Van Beuren series, but Tyler's desire to produce cartoons of the highest quality is still very much the guiding principle here.
The animation is some of the best from the Van Beuren shop, and most of the character designs are in keeping with the original Little King strip. Similarly, a good chunk of the film also manages to capture the tone of the comics, with the Little King engaging in frivolous behavior and generally behaving more like a kid than an adult. Some sequences drag a little, but not fatally so, and they are cute enough to keep the viewer's interest. And once the Little King starts his tour of the prison, the pace picks up and keeps accelerating until the (literally) explosive finale.
One thing that did need a little more work was the story. Yes--I know this is a Van Beuren cartoon so I shouldn't expect much in that department, but a couple other "Little King" cartoons I've watched had excellent stories that had multiple plot points, as well as beginnings and middles and ends. Although this one is mostly a series of loosely connected gags, there's a sense that's going somewhere... until it seems to stop short of any real conclusion. "Jolly Good Felons" ends some 2-3 minutes before it should have, leaving every plot point it set up unresolved. It's unsatisfying, and it's below the bar set by other entries in this series. (I am also bothered by the way a Good Samaritan that helps the Little King after he is stranded on the side of the road is dismissed from the story when his role is over. I understand that it's a visually amusing and efficient way to get him off-stage--he is sent deep into the facility with a group of prisoners---but the bigger implications of those events trouble me. Yeah, I may be overthinking things here, but still...)
But why don't you take a few moments to watch "Jolly Good Felons" yourself? Despite stumbling at the end, it's pretty good, and I think it's worth your time. As is my habit when reviewing Van Beuren Corporation cartoons, I've embedded it in the post to make watching it as convenient as possible! (And if you feel so inclined, you can even tell me if I'm wrong to be irritated by the apparent fate of a guy who helped the Little King.)
Circus Capers (1930) Starring: Anonymous Singer and Voice Actor Directors: John Foster and Harry Bailey
Rating: Six of Ten Stars
A circus clown has his heart broken when he discovers that his bareback-riding girlfriend is also carrying on with the ringmaster (who tries to kill him).
"Circus Capers" was one of four or so short films presented under the "Aesop's Fables" banner that featured a pair of amorous mice who just happened to (purely by coincidence and not-at-all-intentionally [wink-wink, nudge-nudge]) look very much like Walt Disney's Mickey and Minnie characters.
While Milton and Rita (as the Van Beuren characters are named) looked like their more famous counterparts, they and their adventures were far raunchier: While I can imagine Mickey having a rival for Minnie's affections, I can't picture her being as slutty as Rita is in this cartoon. And the Walt Disney Company couldn't picture it either, and a successful lawsuit against Van Beuren eventually put an end to Milton and Rita's antics.
As for "Circus Capers" specifically, the plot is pretty much described in its entirety in the teaser summary at the top of this review. I could pad it out with punny double-entendres to describe the action and the characters, but I'll spare you that and instead just note that the strongest part of the cartoon is when the broken hearted Milton sings the at-the-time well-known song "Laugh Clown, Laugh"; it's actually one of the better renditions I've come across. The ending was also one that I appreciated very much, as I think Milton behaved exactly as he should when Rita tried to get him to her back. On the downside, the cartoon suffers from slip-shod animation that results in characters changing shapes and sizes for no reason other than poor quality control. It's a shame, because, with a little more effort this could have been quite good instead of merely average. (That said, I loved the supremely goofy lion-tamer bit; it takes an unexpected turn, and it make me laugh.)
But don't just take my word for how good or bad "Circus Capers" is. If you have ten minutes, you can watch it for yourself by clicking below..
In the Park (1933) Starring: Anonymous Voice Actor (although this is basically a silent movie) Directors: Frank Sherman and George Rufle Rating: Six of Ten Stars
Tom and Jerry's quiet afternoon in the park is disrupted by a bratty baby.
"In the Park" is another Tom & Jerry adventure that shows those in charge of this series weren't clear on who the target audience for this series was. We have a little mature humor at the beginning and end, framing a series of cute and mildly amusing antics by our heroes and the baby they find themselves suddenly taking care of. I suspect that if I were nine years old, I would find the various visual gags absolute screamers, but at well over five times that age, they just make me smile. It's not that the jokes are bad... they're just juvenile and not set up as effectively as they could be. All that said, the gags come in a steady, constant stream and none drag on past the point of being funny. Even if the baby is annoying.
(The adult in me--and possibly because I'm a 2020s adult instead of a 1930s adult--also kept thinking that our heroes were going to be arrested for kidnapping or for being perverts, since they just started playing with a random baby that showed up. There was also a brief twinge of "don't they see the baby carriage 20 feet their right", but then I decided I was REALLY overthinking things. Plus, the cute squirrels that Jerry was feeding were coming from the opposite direction, so they never really looked that way. [Yeah... still overthinking...])
As with many of the "Tom & Jerry" films, the music is excellent. It's not a mini-musical like some of them are, but rather a silent movie with a great score that's perfectly timed to what unfolds on screen. For all the inconsistencies that plagued this series vis-Ã -vis tone, possible target audiences, and animation- and story-quality, the musical scores were almost always of the highest quality.
Animation-wise, this is both one of the best AND worst in the Tom & Jerry series. In the positive column, the sequences involving the cute squirrels are well done and very cute. We are also treated to honest-to-god backgrounds throughout most of this episode, something the animators working on "Tom & Jerry" too-often didn't bother with. In the negative column, the characters are sloppily drawn, especially Tom. He literally changes shape more than once and for no reason, with his arms and legs sometimes getting longer or shorter even within the same sequence. Similarly, the obnoxious baby seems to be bigger or smaller from scene to scene. It's distracting, and it's incomprehensible as to why there wasn't a little more quality control going on... especially when the extra effort to draw backgrounds.
And speaking of that obnoxious baby... I wonder if the Van Beuren company wasn't testing out a possible headliner for another series. It's one of only two recurring characters in the series--aside from Tom & Jerry themselves--and it always had a major role. (The Bratty Baby can also be found in "Pots and Pans" and "Puzzled Pals". The other recurring, more minor character, was a horse that appeared in "Rabid Hunters", "In the Bag", and "Hook and Ladder Hokum".)
In balance, "In the Park" isn't a brilliant effort, but it's among the better "Tom & Jerry" installments. It's worth checking out if you have nothing better to do with the next few minutes. Just click below and sit back.
And with this, every installment in Van Beuren's Tom & Jerry series has been reviewed and can be watched here at Shades of Gray. Click here to see an index of all them, as well as easy links through which to check them out.
A Spanish Twist (1932) Starring: Anonymous Voice Actors
Directors: John Foster and George Stallings
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
World-travelers Tom & Jerry find themselves in Spain where they dance the flamenco and are forced to become bullfighters after committing a cultural faux pas.
"A Spanish Twist" is one of several "Tom & Jerry" cartoons where our heroes are in a foreign land and interacting with the people who live there, such as "Jungle Jam" and "A Swiss Trick". It's not only the best example of these, but it's among the very best of all the "Tom & Jerry" episodes.
As is the case with all the really strong installments in this series, we're treated to some nice music and some kooky animation to go along with it. Here, Tom & Jerry are first entertained by a flamenco dancer, then join in the dance, and ultimately start engaging in the sort of physically impossible antics are are also common features of the strongest episodes of the series.
The real strength of "A Spanish Twist" is with its unpredictability. From the opening scene--where Tom & Jerry adrift at sea on a raft and come under attack by a slingshot-wielding octopus--through the flamenco routine and onto the bizarre bullfighting sequence, there is a steady stream of strange and unpredictable gags that keeps viewers engaged because it's impossible to know what's going to come next.
The only flaws with "A Spanish Twist" are also ones that are common to the "Tom & Jerry" series--even the best installments. There are times where the characters are running around on completely blank surfaces with empty backgrounds, and the animators really needed to have put in at least the minimal effort of a few lines here and there. Also, the bullfight sequence just sort of sputters to a close after a hilarious opening and a crazy middle section. (I suppose I shouldn't be surprised by the weak close, as the bullfight is also where the animators stopped doing scenery. This appears to be another example of a fun bunch of ideas that are not property attached to a story.)
Speaking of the bullfight, when Tom & Jerry emerged into the arena dressed as matadors, I was fully expecting to be irritated by what was going to follow and that whatever amusement I'd felt up to this point would be completely overridden. If there's one thing I find it hard to see humor in, it's animal cruelty--like what is so rampant in bullfights. However, the bullfight here is so ridiculous that I couldn't help but chuckle at it.
Although the climactic fight sequence just sort of fizzles, "A Spanish Twist" still manages to close on a high note with a denouement and final joke that may be lost on modern viewers but which was probably very funny to audiences in 1932: Tom & Jerry hear that Prohibition has been lifted in the U.S., so they rush right home for a drink! (This ending is also, in a backdoor kind of way, gives character and motivation to Tom & Jerry like almost no other moment in the series has... the pair were so desperate for a stiff drink that they went globetrotting because the U.S. went dry.)
As always with my reviews of "Tom & Jerry", you can check out the subject for yourself. Why don't you take a moment to enjoy yourself by clicking below?
And if you disagree with my take, please let the world know by leaving a comment to this post. Heck, you can even to that if you agree!
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