Blue Ribbon Question

[Jack]

Has anyone else ever wondered why they chopped off the credits and redid the title card?

I can understand them updating the theme music and ring colors. I can understand them putting the special Blue Ribbon card on there, but I don't understand why they redid the title card and cut off the credits. Wouldn't it be cheaper to just update the concentric circle colors and theme music? Why did they switch to re-releasing them with titles and credits after 1956? It just doesn't make sense.

The only reason I can think of is WB's silly policy of cutting the credits of ex-employees, or because some cartoons in the late 30s didn't have a title card, but rather a title placed over the rings (like "The Woods are full of Coo Coos").


Jack:confused:

[happyheathen]

this would have been a cheap way to make them look 'NEW'!
remember - most folks saw a 'toon about once - if you had seen a 'toon once, 10 years ago, would you have recognized it? Especially if the intro was new & different?

[lislebartman]

I believe this was done mainly because there was still a profit to be made by re-releasing older cartoons. The studio couldn't charge the higher fee of a newly-released cartoon for re-issued cartoons, so I guess this was their odd way of differentiating the older films from the new ones.

I believe they also stopped chopping off the credits of the cartoons later on because of that wonderful invention known as television. Sure they kept the "Blue Ribbon" title card, and some of the "Looney Tunes" were re-issued as "Merrie Melodies" (the theme music is a dead giveaway), but TV made these films even more profitable.

Can anyone else out there add to this?

[Jack]

I know why they were re-issued, I just don't get why they would cut off the titles and credits to do so.


Jack:D

[Paul Penna]

Originally posted by Jack
Has anyone else ever wondered why they chopped off the credits and redid the title card?

One thing you'll notice is that the Blue Ribbon title segment is shorter than the original with the credit cards. Not a whole lot shorter, but possibly enough that the difference in print cost might put a glint in the eyes of the bean-counters.

[Crazy Tom]

Originally posted by Jack
Why did they switch to re-releasing them with titles and credits after 1956...some cartoons in the late 30s didn't have a title card, but rather a title placed over the rings (like "The Woods are full of Coo Coos").

Just two questions...

1) Didn't WB start putting regular title cards out late in 1937, or did they start earlier than that? I remember seeing an old title card online recently (forget which webpage it was) for September In The Rain.

2) Aren't Raw! Raw! Rooster! (1956) and the award-winning Birds Anonymous (1957) also re-released Blue Ribbon films? I think they are, but I am not sure.

[Jack]

Yep, WB started making unique title cards for the Merrie Melodies series in 1937. Before that, all Merrie Melodies had a standard card or some kind. There were a few ecceptions, "Freddie the Freshman" had a unique title card.

They still released some cartoons with the title over the rings, though. The last that I can think of was "Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur" from 1939.

Looney Tunes seemed to be released with unique cards in 1936, but there are a few ecceptions from before then, like several later Bosko cartoons.

Both Raw Raw Rooster and Birds Anonymous were re-released.


Jack:D