Blue Ribbon Question

[Jack]

Does anyone have any theories why the original titles to "The Mighty Hunters" were kept when the cartoon was reissued, but the titles to "Horton Hatches the Egg" weren't? I mainly suspect that "The Mighty Hunters" titles were kept because of all the important information (about "Good Housekeeping Magazine" giving WB the animated cartoon rights to Swinnerton's Canyon Kiddies" for a whole series of films). "Horton" also has important information (the Dr. Suess credit), but this is just transferred to the generic new title card. Did they just decide "all that will clutter up the new title card, lets skip it this time?"

BTW, I've often wondered what the title card to "Horton" looked like, if they tried to mimic the cover of the actual book, or if they did something totally different...

Also, was there any ryme or reason to the cartoons chosen to be reissued? Who actually chose the films?


Jack :confused:

[Thad Komorowski]

I heard the theory that the cartoons that were favorites at the theatres were re-issued and played in the theatres again. The re-issuing started in the early 1940s.



-Thad

[Crazy Tom]

Mighty Hunters (1940) have the original titles, but not the original concentric rings! Weird, huh? This film had the THE END caption to end the film on the reissue, which of course was goofed up when remastered.

Will there be any new remastered original title cards coming out in 2002? That would sure be nice...

[Jack]

Originally posted by Crazy Tom
Mighty Hunters (1940) have the original titles, but not the original concentric rings! Weird, huh?
It has updated concentric circles and a Blue Ribbone Merrie Melodies card, like any other Blue Ribbon would have, the "The End" card and color indicate it was reissued in the 1952-1953 season. It's that they kept the original titles when it was reissued that is unusual, they wouldn't do that until 1957 or 1957, I think.


Jack :D

[J Lee]

Jimmy Swinnerton was still a pretty famous cartoonist in the early 1950s, which may have been why the original titles were kept on this cartoon. It may also have been a test, to show that with the shorter opening title music, the inclusion of the original opening titles wouldn't substantially lengthen the BR re-releases (and increase the negative costs to J.L.), though the full titles didn't make it onto the cartoon re-releases regularly for another four years.

As for the Blue Ribbon reissues themselves, they were very aribtrary after the first year or so. The Schelsinger (1944) BR cartoons seem to concentrate on the ones that received the best audience response ("A Wild Hare," "Cross Country Detours" and "I Love to Singa" to name a few) but after that, the pattern seemed to fall apart, except for the rules that:

A.) No Bugs Bunny cartoons were re-released between mid-1944 and late 1957 because of the extra charge theaters were paying to get the "Bugs Bunny Specials" from Warner Bros., and they wanted brand-new stuff for the extra $$ they were paying;

B.) No cartoons that were overtly connected to World War II were re-released. So "Brother Brat" and "Daffy the Commando" never got a second issue to theaters, while "Fifth Column Mouse" and "A Tale of Two Kitties" did, because their WWII refrences were limited.

[Thad Komorowski]

Originally posted by J Lee
B.) No cartoons that were overtly connected to World War II were re-released. So "Brother Brat" and "Daffy the Commando" never got a second issue to theaters, while "Fifth Column Mouse" and "A Tale of Two Kitties" did, because their WWII refrences were limited.

"Fifth Column Mouse" had some propaganda in it. The title card itself has a picture of a Nazi mouse, which was ommitted. The "Down with the Axis/We're all glad to pay our taxes!" lyric to the mice's song is removed in most BR prints (I have a BR copy that DOES have the lyric though). The cartoon also has the cat making a Japanese expression.



-Thad

[Crazy Tom]

Speaking of WW2 propaganda, was the song "We Did It Before (And We Can Do It Again)" originally fro WW2, and what were the origins of the song? Was it from a WB film or somewhere else?