Some Cartoons For Saturday Morning #108

Note: This post was planned to go up on Saturday morning, but I had an internet outage and was not able to post it on time. Hello my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons. Don Donald (1937) was the first official cartoon of the Donald Duck series. However it was originally not meant to even feature the duck. The story was originally proposed in October 1935, but as a Silly Symphony entitled The Little Burro. This Silly Symphony starred a burro, as well as a young Mexican boy and his girlfriend. By early 1936 the boy and girl were traded for Donald Duck and his girlfriend and the burro was given a smaller role. This is the first appearance of Donald's girlfriend at this time called Donna Duck but later renamed Daisy. This early version of the character is quite different from the later Daisy. She is just as temperamental as Donald himself and has a very similar voice (provided by Clarence Nash, who also provided Donald's voice) This cartoon remained under the Silly Symphony banner as late as the animation stage. Yet eventually due to Donald's popularity and the existence of Mickey Mouse cartoons without Mickey, it was decided to make a new series based off the Duck. Another change made to this film was that the director was changed from Wilfred Jackson to Ben Shapsteen. The following is a review from Motion Picture Daily, "It's up to par - maybe over. Nothing else need be said, except that Donald Duck shows up on a mule in a cactus-studded background and starts a serenade with accompanying tango and rumba music. The girl bounces him over the head with his mandolin and he trades the donkey - or Burro - for a motor car to make himself solid again. Donald is good, the music is good, the color is good."

Now we go from one cartoon Duck to another. Up next is Daffy Duck and Porky Pig (as well as a surprise guest) in Porky Pig's Feat (1943). This was the last black and white cartoon for Porky, who had for a few years now appeared in almost all of the studio's black and white cartoons. In this film you can see how Porky has gone from being the main star of Looney Tunes to a supporting player in a short amount of time. Though Porky's name appears in the title, this is truly a Daffy Duck short with Porky as his sidekick. The next black and white Looney Tune, Scrap Happy Daffy (1943) would star Daffy but not even feature Porky. The black and white Looney Tune after that would be the studio's last (Puss N' Booty (1943)) and would not feature any reoccurring characters. All three of the last black and white Looney Tunes would be directed Frank Tashlin.

Next we travel to Russia for one of the greatest stop-motion shorts of all time, Ladislaw Starewicz's The Cameraman's Revenge (1912). If the bugs in this film look realistic it is because they are real dead bugs.

Next we catch up with Popeye, Olive Oyl and Bluto in Parlez Vous Woo (1956). This cartoon parodies the TV show, The Continental.

While the Herman and Katnip cartoons are often viewed as the poor-man's Tom and Jerry, there were a few winners in the batch, one of them being Herman the Cartoonist (1953). While the idea of cartoon characters in a cartoon studio was nothing new at this time, it is an idea I personally never get tired of and this film finds a lot of clever things to do with the idea. The ending gag is a delightful reference to the Fleischer's silent Out of the Inkwell cartoons.

Paul Smith's Woody Woodpecker cartoons don't have the greatest reputation among cartoon fans and this is certainly understandable. Yet occasionally he could give us a surprisingly good cartoon and Niagara Fools (1956) is one of those. Around this time Woody Woodpecker cartoons were often simply not as good as the used to be, partly due to a toning down of Woody's nuttiness. This cartoon may not bring Woody back to his wild and unhinged early self, but it does work in enough truly funny gags to make up for this, as well as giving Woody a good foil to play against.

To end today's cartoon selection let us take a trip to Bamboo Isle (1932) with Betty Boop.

Thanks for joining me come back next week for another selection of classic cartoons. Until then may all your tunes be Looney and your melodies merry. -Michael J. Ruhland