Cartoons for cartoon haters

[angilbas]

Cartoons which are creative and clever can make those who dismiss animated films as 'junk' reconsider their opinions. Violence is a big issue among non-fans, so favorite belly-laughers such as "Hillbilly Hare," the Roadrunners and the Hunter's Trilogy should be avoided. However, the following may well recruit some unlikely fans:

"High Note"--a favorite in my household.
"What's Opera, Doc?"--worked wonders with my sister.
"One Froggy Evening"
"Birds Anonymous"

-Tony

[Geezil]

and, outside of the WB universe:

"Let's Celebrake" (Popeye/Fleischer) -- All cheer, warmth, and compassion, with absolutely no punches thrown, making this a real rarity in the series and a potential win-'em-over short for anybody.

"The Little Match Girl" (Columbia) -- OK, this one's solidly in tearjerker territory, but again, a 180-degree turnaround from the standard off taste of Columbia's twin Phantasy/Fables series.

[Howard Fein]

There's Freleng's mid-fifties 'educational' trilogy with Sylvester underwritten by the Sloan Foundation. After a few standard chase gags, each short embarks on a long, ponderous lecture :yawn: (actually made pretty funny in YANKEE DOOD IT by the fact that Arthur Q. Bryan is doing the lecture in his 'Elmer' voice :) ).

OLD GLORY is another educational short that nowadays is treated like a camp classic (loud audience laughter) when shown during revival house fests.

CN actually has a pretty funny ad, narrated in a ponderous Alistair Cooke-like voice, that extols the fact that cartoons can actually be educational (clips from RABBIT OF SEVILLE, RHAPSODY RABBIT, PROFESSOR TOM and others) as well as entertaining (numerous quick clips showing shootings, falling anvils, etc.).

Of course, Disney made many educational shorts through the fifties combining basic cartoon mayhem and enlightenment, especially the "How To Have An Accident" series with Donald.

Pressure from various advocates led to many Saturday AM network series in the seventies that promoted 'pro-social' values. That's how we got a series with Yogi Bear having given up his pic-a-nic basket-stealing ways and becoming a traveling crusader (YOGI'S GANG, 1973). SCHOOLHOUSE ROCK was also an outgrowth of this movement.

There's a distinct educational undercurrent in ANIMANIACS, what with those musical numbers, such as Yakko singing all the state capitals. :wakko: Those work fairly well due to their brevity, but what was very off-putting were the full seven-minute shorts starring that Colonial-era 'flame' witnessing momentous Revolutionary events amid realistically designed and animated historical figures.

[Gossamer]

Anyone who thinks that animation is "junk", in addition to the shorts mentioned above, they should be pointed towards almost anything from the National Film Board of Canada, almost anything by Bruno Bozetto, a short called, "Is It Always Right To Be Right?" narrated by no less than Orson Welles, with tolerance as the theme and "Closed Mondays", among others. Ironically, I've met people who would praise most of what I've listed above, but dismiss WB and MGM animaion as "junk". When I fire off a couple dozen titles that clearly aren't "junk", like "Peace On Earth" or "The Blitz Wolf" and others, they get all huffy and start talking about Art. Ah, me. C'est le vie.

[Howard]

A good place to find cartoons that would win people over would be on the Disney Treasures "Silly Smphonies" and "Mickey Mouse in Living Color" sets. After all, some folks that don't like cartoon shorts DO like Disney's animated films.
Some good examples are:
Mickey Mouse-
"Brave Little Tailor"
"The Band Concert"
"Through The Mirror"
"Mickey's Surprise Party" (Despite being an advertisement for Nabisco, this is one of the more well-characterised Mickey Mouse shorts.)
Silly Symphonies-
"The Grasshopper and the Ants"
"The Golden Touch"
"The Old Mill" (Not one of MY favorites, but impressive)
"The Flying Mouse"
"The Wise Little Hen"
"Mother Pluto"
...just to name a few.

[GAK]

Howard,

What Sylvester educational trilogy are you talking about?

Please list the three cartoons.
I'm interested in viewing them.

Thanks!

GAK

[Matt Yorston]

GAK,

The three "educational" Sylvester cartoons are....

1. "By Word of Mouse" (1954) - Hans the mouse tells of his trip to America where his American cousin and an American professor educated him about mass consumption. Unfortunately, his education was somewhat interrupted with the arrival of a hungry Sylvester.

2. "Heir Conditioned" (1955) - Sylvester inherits 3 million dollars. Elmer Fudd feels he should invest the money and shows him a filmstrip illustrating his point. At first, Sylvester's cat pals try to use his money for all their own gain but are "converted" when they view the filmstrip as well.

3. "Yankee Dood It" (1956) - An elf version of Elmer Fudd educates a shoemaker by explaining mass production capitalism to him. The word "Jehosephat" turns elves into mice when spoken, much to Sylvester's delight.

[Gossamer]

Originally posted by Matt Yorston
GAK,

The three "educational" Sylvester cartoons are....

1. "By Word of Mouse" (1954) - Hans the mouse tells of his trip to America where his American cousin and an American professor educated him about mass consumption. Unfortunately, his education was somewhat interrupted with the arrival of a hungry Sylvester.

2. "Heir Conditioned" (1955) - Sylvester inherits 3 million dollars. Elmer Fudd feels he should invest the money and shows him a filmstrip illustrating his point. At first, Sylvester's cat pals try to use his money for all their own gain but are "converted" when they view the filmstrip as well.

3. "Yankee Dood It" (1956) - An elf version of Elmer Fudd educates a shoemaker by explaining mass production capitalism to him. The word "Jehosephat" turns elves into mice when spoken, much to Sylvester's delight.

According to the Beck and Friedwald, Warner Brothers was comissioned to produce the three shorts by The Sloane Foundation and made a profit on them as well as retaining the rights. Capitalism at its finest.

[GAK]

Thanks for the info!

[Thad Komorowski]

Hey GAK, could these Sylvester cartoons possibly be the theme of one of the new Toonheads? :)




-Thad

[GAK]

ahhhhhhhhhh, it's a possilibity!!!

[song cycle]

Great calls on the Bozzetto and Silly Symphonies. I saw Allegro Non Troppo about a year ago and it basically forced me into recognizing animation as an artform. After that it sort of became a weird fascination of mine when I (inadvertantly) started watching some of the old Disney shorts that are on late at night. So here I am at 23 fascinated by all this stuff at the moment..strangely enough I don't even remember being that into cartoons as a kid...

Anyway I'd like to add that I find world war II cartoons, especially the ones that have been 'banned' these days, very interesting, and would probably be interesting even to non cartoon fans.