Film Preservation on Cartoon Network?

[Nelson]

This weekend "American Movie Classics" will be presenting thei 9th annual Film Preservation featuring a weekend of John Wayne films.
Now my question is....Should Cartoon Network do the same thing and bring the awareness that cartoons are dying, and have their own Film Preservation Festival, in helping to restore Hollywood's "Golden Age" of animation, and Feature everything from the silent cartoons, to the birth of the "Talkies".

It's your call.....:)

[Nelson]

My vote had to go to yes....Preserving film animation is VERY IMPORTANT, Cartoon Network used to run a commerical for saving animated cartoons, several years back on their channel.A vast majority of silent cartoons made before 1928, no longer exists anymore, due to nitrate deterioration.We won't be able to see such famous silent cartoon stars such as:
Krazy Kat
Dinky Doodle
Mutt & Jeff
Col.Heeza Liar
Happy Hooilgan
Pete The Pup aka Hot Dogs cartoons
The Gumps
Bobby Bumps
Historical Cartoons
Sammie Johnsin

Not to say that all of these cartoon characters films are completely lost, but some of their cartoons do survive in some kind of form.THE PROBLEM many of these cartoons don't have a copyright holder, in turn makes it tougher for these films to get the resteration that they so truly need.Many of the cartoons turned up in the strangest places, from salt mines, vaults, home attics and even in old run downed movie theaters.
But by the mid-twenties, many of the Hollywood studios found the perfect place to put their films(movies, cartoons, two reel comedies, newsreels) where no one could get their hands on them, and that place was...THE PACIFIC OCEAN.

Hollywood insiders (at the time) didn't know how much value these films would have...per say, Seventy, Eighty years into the future, and the studios really didn't how to preserve a film (with an exception of MGM)back in those days.And when the "Talkies" arrived in 1926 with the release of the first part silent/part sound film "THE JAZZ SINGER", and then two years later in 1928 with the release of Disney's "STEAMBOAT WILLIE" followed a month later Paul Terry's first sound cartoon "DINNER TIME" for the VAN BUEREN STUDIOS, that sound was the great savior the animated cartoon, by 1929.

But times changed...Many of the studios have finally realized that they have to preserve their historical film hertiage, no matter what type of film needed to be saved, Aol/Time Warner is re-restoring their entire Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies cartoon library, and with the help of JERRY BECK, Sony was recently able to fully restore their entire Columbia/Screen Gems cartoons, from Krazy Kat to Scrappy and The Fox And The Crow and many others.

The Disney Studios has taken the same route by preserving the entire Disney cartoon legacy, and the same goes for Universal/MCA, and Viacom has fully restored many of the classic Terrtoons shorts, along ( the now defunct) with Harveytoons, Republic Home Video(owned by Viacom) has taken the task to restore all of the Max Fleischer library with the help of the UCLA FILM AND TELEVISON archive and Max's son RICHARD FLEISCHER
we can see Betty Boop in all her prime, Popeye beating up Bluto and seeing Koko and Binbo on the silver screen again.

Thanks to Preserving cartoons, we can see such famous animated stars such as:Mickey Mouse, Felix The Cat, Bugs Bunny, Tom & Jerry, Oswald The Lucky Rabbit, Flip The Frog, Heckle & Jeckle, Daffy Duck, Woody Woodpecker, Bosko, Porky Pig and Betty Boop and many others.
To other lesserknown cartoon characters their chances of survial are slim to none if we don't do something about it. That's where CARTOON NETWORK should take a step in this direction, if this channel wants to really be known as the "true" leaders in animation then they should spread the awareness and have their very own weekend marathon of featuring restored cartoons,and not just from their cartoon library, but all cartoons, from the silent film era up into the recently animated movies.

Who likes the idea of CARTOON NETWORK doing an all day marathon of Cartoon Perservation by showing cartoon from the silent days to the "Talkies" and to the present day in a nice forty eight hour marathon, this could be something really new for CN and their loyal viewers.

BTW:CN has shown two silent cartoons before on their network, and thet were: "Gertie The Dinosaur" (1914) and "Felix The Cat In Hollywood"(1923)now see, that's a start in the right direction.

You can check out the following web-sites if you would like to help save a cartoon....

www.asifa-hollywood.org/
www.cinema.ucla.edu/

As you read this, cartoons are defintely dying, they need you help.



PLEASE, HELP SAVE A CARTOON !!!