It's the Little King's Day Out

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! 

Musical Monday with Kylie Minogue

There are worse ways to start the work week than enjoying some poppy electronica while watching Kylie Minogue dance around in very little clothing. Enjoy.

Bones Coffee's French Toast

It's Sunday, so it's time for another post about coffee I've consumed! And click here for music to read the review by: "Caffeine Swing" by Hopalong Ginsberg!

What is Joan Crawford dipping in her coffee? French Toast?

BONES COFFE COMPANY: FRENCH TOAST
Like most of Bones' flavored blends, this one is based on medium-roasted beans. As it brewed and after it was finished and I took a whiff of what I poured into my cup, there was no discernable aromas other than that of coffee. 

When I drank it straight and hot, it tasted like a fresh cup of high-quality medium-roast coffee with perhaps a little sweetener of some sort added. After the third or fourth sip, I began to detect a flavor that I imagine what toast dipped in coffee might taste like. As I continued drinking, the flavor of syrup and maybe a little vanilla, crept in, but all these additional flavors very subtle. I may have been imagining the syrup, because it's a flavor I associate with French Toast...

And, although I enjoyed the French Toast blend, I didn't find it very French Toast like flavor-wise. Unless I have a wrong idea of what French Toast is--bread dripped in beaten eggs and milk and then fried in a pan? And maybe there can be berries or fruit or syrup or powered sugar on top? (Although personally, I eat it without any "dressing", more often than not.) This coffee really just tasted primarily like toast dipped in coffee. It wasn't a bad taste, it just didn't quite capture what was claimed on the package.

As I've previously mentioned, I'm something of a wimp when it comes to coffee, which is why I go for the flavored blends or you see me drinking mochas and lattes and so on. The French Toast blend, while tasty, is on the line of what I can tolerate tastewise--I can enjoy it straight, but it was more enjoyable once I added unsweetened almond milk or sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer to the cup. It really only needed a touch of either--just enough to take a little of the edge off but still allowing the very excellent coffee flavor to come through. The taste of syrup seemed to grow stronger with the addition of the almond milk or creamer, but not to the point of overwhelming the coffee. 

When I tried this blend iced, the flavor of toast was present but very faint. Mostly, this just tasted like it was a lightly sweetened medium roast iced coffee... and it was delicious. Again, just a dash of almond milk or creamer was all that was needed to take this from being a good drink to a great drink. 

Comparing the iced and hot versions of the drink, I think I prefer this one hot. I even tried drinking a cup of it with French Toast (at least with what I think of as French Toast) and it paired great. I think Bones Coffee's French Toast blend may be a better breakfast blend than some actual Breakfast Blends.

It's a Sala Saturday

"A Haunted Head" is an unpublished one-page story from the late writer/artist Richard Sala. It dates from the early 1980s, and it's an art style that he would move away from during the 1990s, as he developed as an artist and began to favor heavier, cleaner lines. It, however, is the Sala Style that most people probably encountered, as it's what appeared in the "Liquid Television" segments he created for the animated anthology series on MTV in 1991.

You can watch all six segments of "Invisible Hands", edited together in one video, on YouTube by clicking here. We'd embed it in this post, but it's in color, and we don't want to shock anyone's sensibilities!

A word from our new sponsor!

The Shades of Gray blog was banned from the Google Ad Sense program a year or two ago due to "shocking content". We weren't told WHAT was so shocking, so we're assuming it's the general monochrome environment, which we refuse to address, so we remain banned. Fortunately, we now have a sponsor, the Slaughter Valley Tourism Colloquium. Here's the advertisement that's been provided!

And while you're visiting beautiful Slaughter Valley, be sure to attend a Tree Ballet performance. It's a regional art and a cultural experience that you won't find anywhere else!

The Avengers: A Sense of History

A Sense of History (1966)

Starring: Patrick Macnee, Diana Rigg, Patrick Mower, Nigel Stock, John Ringham, and Jacqueline Pearce

Director: Peter Graham Scott

Rating: Six of Ten Stars

John Steed (Macnee) and Emma Peel (Rigg) go undercover at an elite university to find who murdered a leading economist by shooting him in the back with an arrow. They discover a plot to shape the economic future of a united Europe by murdering key politicians and researchers. But which scholars are involved, and who is the mastermind?

I am torn when it comes to this episode. There are things I really like and there are things I can't stand.

On the one hand, I love the set-up and the nature of villains, from how they're characterized, to what motivates them, and through to the plot twists and turns of who the mastermind behind the plot truly is. I also loved the way one cliffhanger resolved into another cliffhanger as the episode reached its climax during a masquerade ball.

On the other hand, the mix of the sinister and the goofy stereotypical Sixties Youth Culture that embodies the student group at the heart of the episode gets tiresome quickly. It becomes downright annoying once it's clear how wrong-headed they are in their destructive beliefs--I just wanted Mrs. Peel to punch each of them in the mouth as soon as it they opened them--but maybe it's a combination of the passage of time and my own worldview that's causing that reaction, or maybe those characters were just supremely annoying. (They're in the same mold as the villains in "A Touch of Brimstone", but far more irritating, partly because their evil here is flavored with wholly undeserved self-righteousness.)

I also felt like the writers wasted too much time on the hipster evil of the young set. This is an episode with a really convoluted plot and a story that is slightly over-stuffed with characters, and some of it doesn't reach its full potential because of the writers belaboring certain social points. 

 

The student group was so annoying to me that I almost rated this episode at the low-end of average (which is a Five of Ten Stars here at Shades of Gray), but as I thought about it, the witty banter between Steed and Peel, plus the Robin Hood puns and sly references scattered throughout, turned my attitude toward "A Sense of History" (even if one of them was a bit forced and nonsensical plot-wise). Emma Peel crossdressing as Robin Hood in short-shorts also went a long way to improving my outlook... 

All things considered, this isn't a terrible episode, but it's far from one of the best. (The end-of-episode gag with Steed and Peel driving off on a motorcycle--with Peel driving and Steed in the sidecar--is, however, among the best of those.)

The Unifying Theme with Jessica Alba

Jessica Alba is here on this Picture Perfect Wednesday to demonstrate the Unifying Theme at Shades of Gray.

Felix the Cat Breaks the Fourth Wall

Comicalamities (1928)
Director: Otto Messinger
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars

Felix the Cat and the Animator break the Fourth Wall for seven minutes straight, giving Felix a new girlfriend and sending him to the bottom of the sea in the process.

If you've been around this blog for a while, you know how fond we are of humor that breaks the Fourth Wall. There's some of it in almost every Felix cartoon--over the course of his adventures, he detaches his tail and turns it into a flute or a club, or any number of things--but "Comicalamities" goes further into that territory than any other Felix cartoons I've watched yet.

Like the Koko the Clown films by the Fleischer Bros., "Comicalamities" mixes live action and animation. Also, like in the Koko 'toons, Felix knowns he's a cartoon character and that he can, with the help of the Animator, manipulate and alter his world to fit his needs. Unlike Koko, where the relationship with the Animator is frequently adversarial, he is at Felix's beck-and-call and always helpful. 

There is very little about this excursion into strangeness that I don't like. In addition to the Fourth Wall antics--which I won't comment on because it would ruin the fun to not experience them cold--there are some nice visual puns in this film, with the scene of oysters resting on the seabed being my favorite among them. The only complaint I can think to mount against it is that I find the ending rather disturbing. It's probably the bit in the film that makes the most sense, but I still found it borderline horrific.

I've embedded "Comicalamities" for your viewing pleasure. Take a look, and if you disagree with my estimation (or if you agree), feel free to let everyone know in the comments section. (Also, maybe you can tell me what's going on with the Animator pouring ink into the ocean. Is he making it thicker so Felix can climb out? Is he making it darker so the creatures chasing Felix can no longer see him? I don't understand that scene.)

If you enjoyed that, maybe you need to treat yourself to some DVD collections of Felix cartoons that have been curated by film restorer and historian John Carpenter? They are tons of fun!

Musical Monday with Mariah Carey

Today's musical selection is a pretty and romantic song that was written and performed by Mariah Carey. It's got an equally pretty and romantic video. I hope you enjoy it.

While watching the video, I wondered if the girl played by Mariah Carey had been rescued from a shipwreck by the handsome, shirtless lighthouse keeper, or if she was some kind of mermaid, or something else was going on. When I went to capture an image to illustrate this post with, a story formed in my head--or, rather, the underlying threat present in THIS story came back into my mind. 

With that in mind, here are screen shots from the "My All" arranged to show a sirens doing what sirens do with the lighthouse keeper.

THE SIREN OF DEVASTATION POINT

What was the lighthouse keepers fate? What do you think? Tell us a story in the comments!

Bones Coffee's Strawberry Cheesecake

In the 35 years I've been foisting my opinions regarding movies, music, comic books, and, lately, coffee, upon the world, I have never set with the intent of writing a negative review: Even when I was a kid just getting started, I never had time to waste time on things I knew are going to suck. 

For this reason, I was hesitant to add Bones' Strawberry Cheesecake blend to the line-up of flavored coffees to review in this space. I'd had good luck with other blends I'd felt dubious about (like the Maple Bacon blend), so perhaps I'd be surprised by this one, too.

Here's April Bowlby enjoying a big mug of coffee. We should follow her example!

Well... I was surprised by this blend from the Bones Coffee Company in a few different ways... but none of them were happy surprises.

BONES COFFEE COMPANY: STRAWBERRY CHEESECAKE

This review is based on another 4-oz, pre-ground sample pack that I ordered straight from Bones. The package says that it's a medium-roast, and I'll have to take its word for it, because I could not taste any coffee at all in the resulting brew.

While I had initially thought that I could recommend this as a coffee drink for people who don't like coffee (as I did with the Peaches and Scream blend), I cannot even do that. The main reason is because the name on the package implies the resulting brew should taste like Strawberry Cheesecake, but I'm not sure WHAT it's supposed to taste like.

And that was the first unpleasant surprise, because there's a strong aroma of strawberries when the bag is opened, when the coffee is brewing, and as you pour it from the pot and into the cup. But when you drink it? There's no cheesecake flavor, there's no strawberry flavor--except as a faint aftertaste following several swallows--and whatever the flavor is, it completely overpowers the flavor of the medium-roast coffee it purports to be. It's also so sickly sweet, it's barely palatable. Once it's cut with Unsweetened Almond Milk or sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer--and that undefinable sweetness ends up cut back, or diluted, a bit--the strawberry flavor, with a little cheesecake mixed in, is recognizable and grows stronger as you finish your cup. In fact, you eventually end up with so strong a strawberry flavor in your mouth that you're going to find yourself reaching for some water or perhaps even some mouthwash.

The blend doesn't get any better at room temperature or over ice. It may even get worse, as the saltiness that emerged in the Sinn-O-Bun blend shows up in the Strawberry Cheesecake blend when it is chilled and poured over ice as well. It's not as severe as it was with the Sinn-O-Bun blend, but it's there. The overpowering sweet flavor remains, but when I added unsweetened almond milk to the mix, it became tolerable. Iced, the blend even seemed to taste a little more like cheesecake, but strawberry was still dominant. And, just like when it was hot, the strawberry taste builds and seems to coat your mouth as you drink.

I would like say that this is Bones blend for people who don't like coffee, but it's not even that. It's more a blend for people who like drinking snow cone syrup straight from the bottle. I really can't recommend it.

The only good thing I can say about this blend is that it has neat picture on the package. Although... even that I'm not exactly sure what to make of. Is it some sort of reference to 1970s drug trips? Is it a reference to the Twilight Zone? (I think I'm going with the latter... because that might be the place where the Strawberry Cheesecake blend is tasty.)

--

BONUS BONES COFFEE REVIEW (sort of): COSTA RICA

Another sign of how intense the flavoring of this coffee is can be observed in the fact that my coffee maker smells of strawberries. I've rinsed out the pot and it, but it still smells of strawberries. My first thought was to just water through it without any coffee to clean it... but then I hit on the idea of brewing some non-flavored coffee (I've some Kenyan and Costa Rican in cupboard, from  Bones even) and see whether it picks up some of the strawberry flavor residue while cleaning out the coffee maker. Maybe I'd end up with a Strawberry Cheesecake blend that isn't so troublesome? (And maybe I don 't have to buy a new coffee maker.)

I decided to give it a try. I made six cups of coffee from what remained in the sample pack of the Costa Rica blend from Bones Coffee. I had ordered it as part of the "World Tour Sample Pack" before I hit on the idea of these review posts. But, I had enjoyed the previous cups very much--as I had expected to. I have found that in the past I have liked coffee that's been labeled as Costa Rican. Also, a friend once brought packages of what the locals made and drink themselves, and it was even BETTER than what gets exported. In fact, I think it may have been the best coffee I've ever had.

But, the Bones Costa Rica blend had put me in mind of the great coffee my friend brought me. It's a medium roast that was just as smooth and that I feel should satisfy even the picky coffee snobs out there. I drank it hot with unsweetened vanilla almond milk and sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer, and  I even drank a cup with just Stevia added. Each was great. I did not try it cold or over ice.

So, how did the Costa Rica blend fare when I ran it through my my Strawberry Cheesecake-tainted coffee maker? It's a little hard to say...

Linda Darnell looks like she may doubts about this experiment...
But the coffee must be consumed!

I could not smell any strawberries as the coffee brewed--just the usual wonderful smell of coffee. without adding anything. I drank the first cup without anything added, and I think I detected just the faintest hint of something sweet aside from the great and smooth taste of the Costa Rica coffee. That could just be psychological... I will never know for sure. Whatever the case, it tasted great, and it got even better when I added unsweetened vanilla almond milk. Even when used to clean a coffeemaker, the Costa Rica blend from Bones is fantastic.

I drank the rest over ice, first straight, and then with sugar-free Italian Sweet Cream creamer added. It was as good as I expected it to be. Although I haven't subjected the Bones Costa Rica blend to the same steps I've done to other coffees I've been formally reviewing, I think I can safely recommend it to anyone who likes a good cup of coffee.

The Strawberry Cheesecake blend may have been bad, but the unflavored Costa Rica blend is very good! And, as an added bonus, my coffeemaker and pot no longer reek of strawberries!