Acme Hour 7/11/01 (2 PM)

[hiphats]

Here is what took place on today's ACME...

Theme: "Jive Toon-in'"

1. "Zoot Cat" (Tom & Jerry, MGM)
2. "Jitterbug Jive" (Popeye, Paramount, re-created original front and end credits)
3. "Three Little Bops" (one-shot, WB)
4. "Cool Cat" (Cool Cat, WB/7A)
5. "Dixieland Droopy" (Droopy, MGM, flat version)
6. "Raw! Raw! Rooster" (Foghorn Leghorn, WB, BR w/credits)


Everyone was jivin' in the ACME house today!

[Garrett]

Originally posted by hiphats
Here is what took place on today's ACME...

5. "Dixieland Droopy" (Droopy, MGM, flat version)


ARGH! I *always* miss recording this, my favorite Droopy cartoon! GRRRRRR......

Garrett

[hiphats]

...don't worry! You can catch the repeat later tonight!

Word in passing...I mentioned "Dixieland Droopy" as being the "flat version". There's a good reason for this...there were two versions of the cartoon, one was in CinemaScope (rarely seen), and the "flat version" (widely seen). This was the way Disney made "Lady And The Tramp", in two versions, as at the time some theatres weren't ready for CinemaScope.

[Garrett]

Originally posted by hiphats
There's a good reason for this...there were two versions of the cartoon, one was in CinemaScope (rarely seen), and the "flat version" (widely seen).

Then Tex Avery hid it a lot better than Hanna & Barbera, as the Cinemascope Tom & Jerry cartoons have always looked cut off, but this isn't true for "Dixieland Droopy". The question then exists: Is the widescreen available on video somewhere?

Garrett

[Jack]

Oh I don't know, "Pet Peeve" was made in Cinemascope, and it doesn't look cut off, it's just when they play the later cartoons that it looks bad.

You can get some widescreen titles on Laserdisc, I don't know of any videos, though.

As to why they don't show letterboxed cartoons on CN, I don't know. Are there still people out there who think widescreen was made up so that the top and bottom of the picture are cut off?


Jack:D

[lislebartman]

I for one would love to see the Cinemascope T & J cartoons in their Cinemascope format! You miss so much!! I know that many of them were released on laserdisc and I would love to get prints of those for my collection! Turner Classic Movies (TCM) should present those as their "One-Reel Wonders" in-between films.

Anoyone out there have these? I would trade for copies!

[Garrett]

Originally posted by Jack
Oh I don't know, "Pet Peeve" was made in Cinemascope, and it doesn't look cut off, it's just when they play the later cartoons that it looks bad.

That's what I'm talking about-the later ones-ugh!



Originally posted by Jack
As to why they don't show letterboxed cartoons on CN, I don't know. Are there still people out there who think widescreen was made up so that the top and bottom of the picture are cut off?


Jack:D

I work in the Camera & Sound Department at Target, and I regularly get complaints from guests about the widescreen DVDs. Idiots......

Garrett

[J Lee]

A Cinemascope Toonheads would be a good subject for CN to think about -- three cartoons shown unsquashed, in letterbox format. Of course, it would have to be an all MGM show, since CN doesn't own the rights to any other widescreen toons, but they could show one T&J and one Droopy (preferably at least one made while Quimby was producer, since the budgets were higher and the cartoons look better), and they could toss in either one of the two "Spike and Tyke" cartoons, or they could run "The Cat's Meow" or "Good Will To Men" to show how Hanna-Barbera redid those 16 mm cartoons in the widescreen format (they redid others, but those were the only two without T&J or Droopy)

[Sveven Dvorking]

Dixieland Droopy... again? Don't they ever get tired of airing that cartoon?

Remember NOT to watch The Three Little Bops . That song could stay in your head as long as the Jimmy Cracks Corn song.:D

[Garrett]

Remember NOT to watch [I]The Three Little Bops . That song could stay in your head as long as the Jimmy Cracks Corn song.:D [/B]

Or, by reading this post, it could get stuck in your head....

Garrett

[DR. BELCH]

The moral of today's AH: "If you can't be hip, be thigh." :p

"Zoot Cat" (Tom & Jerry, MGM)
Tom and Jerry both speak in this one! Fav line: "I love you. You set my soul on fire...A flame. A big, roaring flame." Then he realizes Jerry gave him a hotfoot and loses his cool by howling in pain. Also, watch as Jerry smokes a cigarette and stubs it out on Tom's nose. Sadistic little bugger, isn't he?

"Jitterbug Jive" (Popeye, Paramount)
He's old-school; she's hip--but they make it work. Strange to see Bluto (semi-) clean shaven with a little mustache. How the devil Popeye's spinach caused him to sprout muscles and a zoot suit is beyond me. Pin-the-tail-on-the-donkey, Popeye? It's a date, not a kiddie birthday party. :rolleyes:

"Three Little Bops" (WB)
One of Freleng's greatest classics, with vocals by Stan "Pete Puma" Freberg. In one ep of Disney's House of Mouse, three pig characters and a jive wolf were used that were very similar to the Bops and Big Bad. Of course the wolf had to die and go to hell to learn to play the horn. Talk about suffering for one's art.

"Cool Cat" (WB)
Mediocre aniamtion and a Lava score, and the plot isn't much to speak of. One good moment, though: Col. Rimfire mistakenly throws his false teeth attached to a gernade. Of course one has to have the brain of a dung beetle to mistake a real elephant for a mechanical one, or vice versa.

"Dixieland Droopy" (Droopy, MGM)
Slightly overplayed on CN, but a favorite Avery short of mine right up there with "King-Size Canary" and "Jerky Turkey". One of the best-scored shorts, too--as I've said before, the way the music changes in volume and tempo as Droopy runs through a pipe, tar, or a revolving door is the best part.

"Raw! Raw! Rooster" (WB)
Also slightly overplayed, but good fun. This is (A) I think about the shortest Foghorn Leghorn cartoon I've ever seen and (B) one of the few in which Foggy comes out on top. Odd how Red always seems to have the appropriate sporting attire on under that monster fur coat.

Other possibilities for a hipster/music theme: if CN had the rights to Lanz shorts, as mentioned before, "The Legend of Rockabye Point" and the short where two thugs rob a bank and hide out in the music store where Woody Woodpecker works, and they force him at gunpoint to play piano throughout the whole picture (even during a high-speed car chase).

[BillC]

It always amazed me, at the beginning of almost any pre record
it says "This film has been FORMATTED to FIT your SCREEN" How the heck do they know what size screen I got? :)

BILLC