Question about the redrawns...

[PorkyandDaffy]

I was wondering, how come redrawn versions sometimes leave out some scenes? Like the “6 flavors of jelly” gag from PORKY’S SNOOZE REEL. Is it just because they were too lazy to animate the whole cartoon or what?

Also, speaking of redrawns, I was watching the redrawn version of FISH TALES todayand I noticed that when Porky’s in the stove, flames are literally dancing around the pot he’s in. Well, the strange thing is the flames were colored
blue!

[Patrick McCart]

I think the exclusion is because of the condition of the prints used for the tracing.

They probably got a ton of 16mm safety film prints, but some could have had film breaks, missing scenes, print damage...

Also, if a lot is going on, they may have not known how to animate that much stuff going on in the same scene.

[Cartman]

Why did they redraw some of those cartoons in the first place? Wouldn't that be kind of expensive and a lot of unnecessary work? :confused:

[J Lee]

The redrawns were done in 1967 and 1968, at a time when there was no way to computer colorize the cartoons. The three major networks had pretty much gone 100 percent color by the 1966-67 season, and the mantra had already taken hold that people didn't want to watch black and white films, TV shows or cartoons anymore.

Seven Arts had acquired the non H&I Warner Bros. black & white cartoon catalogue, and decided that it was worth the financial effort to have those cartoons redrawn in color, where they could be syndicated as though they were "new" cartoons and none of our nation's youth would be the wiser.

Whether or not they realized when this began how badly the redraws would look, or simply didn't care so long as they were in color, I don't know, but NTA and several other rights-holders to 1930s B&W cartoons followed in their footsteps over the next 20 years, going up to Ted Turner's coloriztions of the B&W Popeyes in 1987-88. By then, computer colorization was a poosibility so it wasn't the technology that held Ted back, it was just that he was a cheap SOB who wanted to recoupe his investment into the MGM/UA/Warners-Paramount AAP libraries as quickly as possible.