Acme Hour 8/8/01

[Sveven Dvorking]

Gold Rush Daze (WB)
Cellbound (MGM)
Little Dutch Plate (WB)
Let's Celebrake (POPEYE) -redrawn
Officer Pooch (MGM)
Fagin's Freshman (WB)

[PorkyandDaffy]

GOLD RUSH DAZE - An okay cartoon. That guy at the beginning who kept stuttering and tripping over his words reminded me of the lead guy in I ONLY HAVE EYES FOR YOU. Is he a caricature of anybody? Was that man who was making the Gold Boullon a Chinese stereotype? That ending seemed kinda abrupt. RATING: 3 out of 5.

CELLBOUND - An excellent cartoon, and one of Avery’s best. It was funny how the dog (Butch?) dug out of prison, but ended up in the TV being delivered to the warden. Then dug out of the TV but ended up in the Warden’s house where he put the TV. RATING: 5 out of 5.

LITTLE DUTCH PLATE - A waste of my time. RATING: 0 out of 5.

LET’S CELEBRAKE - I don’t really like the redrawn Popeyes, but this was okay. RATING: 2.5 out of 5.

OFFICER POOCH - An early MGM that I actually managed to watch. Maybe because those cats were cute, and I’m a cat lover. Not bad. RATING: 2.5 out of 5.

FAGIN’S FRESHMAN: Another cartoon with cute kittens. Did anyone notice the “Wanted” sign for Fagin right in his own office? That was funny. Anyone think Fagin looked basically like an adult version of Blackie? At first, I thought they were father and son. Sappy ending, but the cute kittens made up for it. RATING: 3 out of 5.

[Thad Komorowski]

Another cat lover like me. I like the cartoons with cute kittens, which might explain why Figaro is one of my favorite Disney characters. Also, yes that chef was *******.

-Thad:D

[Emmanuel Cruz]

Originally posted by PorkyandDaffy
GOLD RUSH DAZE - Was that man who was making the Gold Boullon a Chinese stereotype?

Yes. That was a Chinese stereotype.

[bushnader666]

CN seems to have been giving Hardaway and Dalton plenty of airtime lately.

"Fagin's Freshmen"
"Gold Rush Daze"
"Katnip Kollege"
"Hobo Bobo Gadget Band"
"It's An Ill Wind"

I have seen all except "It's An Ill Wind" and "Katnip" more than once on Acme Hour. Overplayed? Maybe a fad?

Reviews:

"Gold Rush Daze" - OK. Didn't really notice the stereotype until now. I'm surprised it's uncut.

"Cellbound" - Tex Avery's last cartoon @ MGM, co-directed with Michael Lah. What a nice send-off for Tex! Great cartoon! Unlike "Yankee Doodle Bugs," (another 1955 cartoon) this cartoon isn't overly influenced by UPA.

"Little Dutch Plate" - It's way overplayed. Just another "Things come to life" cartoon, only now the action takes place in a Dutch kitchen instead of a bookstore like many, many, many early MGM's.

Let's Celebrake" - Unlike many Popeyes, Popeye and Bluto don't get into a huge fighting match over Olive Oyl. Like many Popeye cartoons, it is redrawn. Yuck. Note the zoomed out dance scene where all the colors of the dancers change randomly. Honestly, how much were the peasents...er "artists" were paid to do this???


"Officer Pooch" - So so early Hanna-Barbera attempt. I liked "Gallopin' Gals" better, for some reason.

"Fagin's Freshman" - I see some similarities to "Tin Pan Alley Cats." The lead cat has to choose between wholesome, clean living or a life of crime and/or waste. Both cats choose the latter and end up in a nighmarish dream world. They get out of the dream and join the "moral" cats in their wholesome singing. Iris out.

[Emmanuel Cruz]

Even though I hate the cartoon, I would like to ask this question. Is this the first time Gold Rush Daze was aired on Cartoon Network? If it was shown before, was the Chinese stereotype seen cut out before?

[bushnader666]

Originally posted by DarkEJ310
Even though I hate the cartoon, I would like to ask this question. Is this the first time Gold Rush Daze was aired on Cartoon Network? If it was shown before, was the Chinese stereotype seen cut out before?

This cartoon has been played a few times on Acme Hour. The stereotype was not uncut before, as far as I know.

[Jack]

CN seems to have been giving Hardaway and Dalton plenty of airtime lately.
But Katnip Kollege was a Howard and Dalton cartoon. Which explains why it's so good, I guess...

"Let's Celebrake" is a pretty good Popeye cartoon, I enjoyed this one. The redrawing was a little better than average in a couple dance scenes. Fortunately, unlike "King of the Mardi Gras," they didn't screw up the panoramic shots too too much. KOTMG would have the background move, but the people stay in one spot, or the people moved while the backgrounds stayed put. What a mess. Like every redrawn ever made, this version doesn't do the cartoon justice...




Jack:D

[SJC]

Hey, I liked Little Dutch Plate. One of its animators was Bob Clampett who started doing thingies-come-to-life with Goofy Groceries, also his first Technicolor, Merrie Melodies, and non Porky short.

Paul Smith, director on later sucky Woody Woodpeckers,was another animator.

BTW I also like Rudy Ising's The Little Goldfish (MGM)

[DR. BELCH]

When the vinegar bottle selects his new head in "Little Dutch Plate", did anyone else think at first it was a female one? That makes the ending, in which the Dutch girl runs off with him, doubly wrong. I'm also surprised the censors left in the cuckoo shooting the Indian on the clock full of holes!

"Let's Celebrake" was actually rather touching--Popeye shows his soft side in not letting Grandma sit at home alone and volunteering to take her as his date, and a nice change of pace from tussling with Bluto over Olive.

Actually, I thought Fagin looked more like Pete from the Disney shorts than Blackie's old man.

I wonder if Tex Avery drew his inspiration for "Cellbound" from an old Three Stooges short in which Curly, trapped inside a radio, is forced to play several instruments and perform a newscast to fool the boys' pursuers in the country of Vulgaria?

[J Lee]

The bottle head was supposed to be a takeoff of crooner Rudy Vallee, who (if you read Shamus Culhane's book) many animators thought was a little too femminine for his own good, but attracted all the girls before Crosby got real popular in the 1930s.

"Lets Celebrake" is one of those cartoons where Seymour Keneitel's "softer" side compared to Willard Bowsky or Dave Tendlar's Popeyes works. Keneitel actually did a pretty good job with his 1930s Popeyes, so long as he had Dave Fleischer and the other gag men keeping the cartoon full of things. On his own in the late 40s and early 50s, it was another story.

Avery did characture the Stooges in "Hollywood Steps Out" while at Warners. Reading about Quimby in Adamson's book on Tex, odds are they didn't show up in his MGM films because they weren't under contract to MGM, but I wouldn't be surprised if he did lift the idea from Curly, and update it for television (which was another thing Tex, but not MGM, was facinated with).