Hello my friends and happy Saturday Morning once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
As many of my fellow film buffs know, the Betty Boop cartoons of the early 1930's are truly something special. They were pure cartoons from beginning to end and there is hardly a missed opportunity for any wild and crazy gags. I Heard (1933) is a perfect example of this. There is hardly a second of this movie that is not filled with some wild and crazy gag. The pacing and pure energy of the gag structure in this film is something to behold. So many of these gags are delightfully creative with some of the good old fashioned surreal-ness associated with the Fleischer studios at this time. The music is also excellent. Quite a few of the Fleischer cartoons at this time used great jazz musicians on their soundtracks. This movie features music by Don Redman and His Orchestra. I was not familiar with them before watching this cartoon, but oh my gosh, they are fantastic. Their music is just as energetic and carefree as the rest of the film. The following is an exhibitor's review from The Motion Picture Herald, "I Heard: Betty Boop - A wonderful cartoon. Absolutely one of the best ever made. Plenty of music furnished by Don Redman and His Orchestra and the acting of Betty Boop, Bimbo and Koko all go to make excellent entertainment. Let's have more. Running Time, Eight Minutes. - J.J. Medford, Orpheum Theatre, Oxford, N.C. General Patronage."
We go from a jazzy Betty Boop cartoon to a jazzy Silly Symphonies cartoon. Up next is the high energy Woodland Cafe (1937). This is a fun cartoon, but what makes it especially memorable is the Truckin' musical number at the end. Here is high energy music and animation working together perfectly. The song Truckin' was written by Rube Bloom (music) and Ted Koehler (lyrics), who wrote such songs together as Out in the Cold Again, Don't Worry About Me and I Can't Face the Music. With the great use of jazz music it is appropriate that this movie is one of the first in which Ward Kimball was a full fledged animator. He was one of the Disney studio's biggest jazz fans. In fact he would become the leader of The Firehouse Five Plus Two, a jazz band consisting of Disney animators. Ward animated the ending montage, a scene that also showcased the type of animation Ward would become known for, high energy fun cartoony animation. Todd James Pierce in his biography, The Life and Times of Ward Kimball called this "the highlight of the cartoon." He also gave us this insight, "The bug orchestra also revealed one other element of Kimball's inner life: the animation radiated New York attitudes about jazz suggesting how deeply the dream of moving to the Big Apple still simmered within him." Ward at this time still viewed animating at Disney as a non-permeant job, and his goal was to become a illustrator and painter. Yet his work in this film alone shows us how much greater things waited for him as a Disney animator. Not everybody was as impressed with this film as I am as is shown in an exhibitor's review in The Motion Picture Herald, "WOODLAND CAFE: Silly Symphonies—Not up to the standard of Silly Symphony.—C. L. Niles, Niles Theatre, Anamosa, Iowa. General patronage."
Next is another musical cartoon, The Crackpot King (1946). This movie is one of the many operetta themed Mighty Mouse cartoons of this time. Mighty Mouse once again proves he is the strongest superhero in film history and he has a darn good voice too. A review in The Showman's Trade Review stated, "The short contains plenty of delightful imagination, uses Technicolor nicely and is thoroughly entertaining. Mighty Mouse is assuredly wonderful in this one." And he is too.
As promised here is the next episode of Ruff and Reddy. Come back next week to see what happens to our heroes.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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