THIS WEEK WITH JESUS & MO
Monday, March 13, 2023
Saturday, March 11, 2023
'The Gay Goucho' is one of Van Beuren's best
The Gay Goucho (1933)
Starring: Gus Wicke
Director: Hugh Harman
Rating: Six of Ten Stars
Starring: Gus Wicke
Director: Hugh Harman
Rating: Six of Ten Stars
Cubby Bear descends from the Argentinian highlands to spend the night with his dancer girlfriend... but when banditos intrude upon their fun, Cubby's defense of her honor places them in deadly danger.
Animation-wise, "The Gay Goucho" is one of the best efforts I've seen from the Van Beuren Studios; the character designs are decent, varied, and they remain stable throughout the entire run-time of the cartoon. Further there are honest-to-god detailed backgrounds and other elaborate scenery, something that's a rariety in a Van Beuren production. There is also a minimal amount of obvious looping and none of the visual gags and other sequences are stretched to the point where they stop being funny and become dull. In fact, one can even describe moments of this cartoon as thrilling.
So why am I only giving it a rating of Six Stars? Because as funny and cute and energetic as this cartoon is, it falls completely apart and the end. The final gag is amusing, but the wrap-up is such a lazy cop-out that I knocked a full star off.
But I've embedded "The Gay Goucho" below for your viewing convenience and--hopefully--pleasure. Let me and everyone else know what YOUR thoughts are about it!
Friday, March 10, 2023
Happy birthday, Sharon Stone!
Actress Sharon Stone turns 65 years old today. We're celebrating with pictures of her from various points during the past five decades.
Thursday, March 9, 2023
A short film that made me say, 'That's all?!'
The Detective (2021)
Starring: Alex Perri
Director: Alex Perri
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
Starring: Alex Perri
Director: Alex Perri
Rating: Nine of Ten Stars
Late at night, a hardboiled detective (Perri) sits down to write a report. But something is amiss...
I have only two negative things to say about this excellent homage to the hardboiled film noir detectives and their cinematic vehicles of the 1940s and 1950s--because Alex Perri pretty much gets everything right in the minute-and-a-half run-time of "The Detective".
First, the narration provided by the title character is a too much. I understand that Perri was trying to fit all the standard elements of a film noir mystery into a very brief space, but it was so intense that it was bordering on parody. It wasn't bad, just a little over the top.
Second, despite my complaint above, I was drawn into the situation that is set up here... and when the end title card appeared, my reaction was: "That's all?! What happens next?! What about--argh!"
So, my second complaint about "The Detective" is that wanted more than what's here. What Perri delivered was so good and so engaging that I was taken aback when it ended. My complaint, therefore, is that this is vignette is so good that I want MORE! I want to know the story that's unfolding around this tiny glimpse into the shadowy world in which this nameless detective lives.
Basically, my complaint is actually the highest praise I can give to any bit of creative story-telling that I come across: I enjoyed it so much that I didn't want it to end.
How about you? Check out "The Detective" by clicking below and let me know if you like it as much as I do!
Wednesday, March 8, 2023
It's Women's History Month...
... so here's a 100+ year-old cartoon about women's fashion trends, by cartoonist and children's books author/illustrator Ethel Hays.
Hays stepped away from newspaper cartooning to focus more on her children and family, but she continued to illustrate children's books.
Tuesday, March 7, 2023
Betty & Crew has a cure for what ails YOU!
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
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.
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.
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... :) )
Monday, March 6, 2023
Musical Monday with Saro
But the video... don't watch it with the lights off!
Please (2019)
Starring: Saro
Director: Alex Cook
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
Friday, March 3, 2023
It's Fanny Friday!
"Flapper Fanny Says" (later just "Flapper Fanny") was a daily single panel cartoon that rose and fell with the popularity of the pop culture popularity of the fun-loving, free-wheeling Flapper Girl. It ran in up to 500 newspapers across America from 1925 until 1940.
Gladys Parker was the second artist to draw the Flapper Fanny, taking over from Ethel Hays in 1930.
Thursday, March 2, 2023
The Cave Clown is here, there, and everywhere!
The Disconnected Clown (aka "Mysterious Displacements") (1901)
Starring: Andre Deeds
Director: Georges Méliès
This is another instance of stage-magician-turned-pioneering-filmmaker Georges Melies using special effects to bring magic tricks to the screen in a way that would be neigh impossible in a live performance. Generally, I favor his films that feature a bit more plot than this one, but the visual effects are so impressive in this one that I can't help but love it. (Plus, the rambunctious joy with which the clown performs his creepy show makes the film all the more fascinating and surreal.)
But don't just take my word for it. Click below and enjoy a couple minutes of pure weirdness and special effects that are pretty convincing even more than 120 years after this film was made.
Starring: Andre Deeds
Director: Georges Méliès
Rating: Eight of Ten Stars
A clown (Melies) joyously violates the laws of nature and reality in creepy ways.
But don't just take my word for it. Click below and enjoy a couple minutes of pure weirdness and special effects that are pretty convincing even more than 120 years after this film was made.
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