Would You Want to See The Paramount Cartoons Reunited?

[Jack]

As everone knows, Paramount's cartoons were split several different ways in the 50s, with Popeye going to a.a.p., the pre 1950 cartoons going to UM&M/NTA, the post 1950 cartoons going to Harvey, and the rest staying with Paramount. The cartoons have been seen split up for so long, that most people don't really think of them as belonging together like the various WB, MGM, Disney, and Lantz series do.

So, if it were possible, would you want to see the Paramount cartoons reunited? Do you want to see Popeye, Lulu, Audrey, Betty Boop, Herman and Katnip, Superman, and everyone else playing together in one block?


Jack :confused:

[J Lee]

I'd love to see it, but Viacom won't be able to pry the Popeyes or the Supermans away from AOL Time Warner (which owns the latter character outright, anyway). But as I said in another post, if Viacom really was serious about creating a show on Nick or TNN using the Paramount cartoons, the cost of buying the Harveytoons library from Classic Media would not be very likely to be costly, given the disuse that library has fallen into, and if they really thought they needed Popeye as a starring character to make the show work in terms of drawing ratings, Viacom and King Features could probably work out a deal to at least use the Kneitel-Paramount KFS Popeyes on the air. Of course, they wouldn't look as good as the theatricals, but shown back-to-back with a late 50s Noveltoon or an early 1960s Modern Madcap, you wouldn't be able to tell which cartoon was the theatrical and which was the made-for-TV short (putting Paramount titles on the Popeyes would help even further blur the difference, though the Bluto/Brutis thng would give the game away to any Baby Boomers tuning in who grew up on the TV ones).

The other major expense Viacom would have to bite the bullet on to make the series work would be to computer colorize the Betty Boops -- which would offend animation purists, but would make the cartoons more likely to get regular TV air time, something that hasn't been the case for 30 years or so. (Since KFS also owns Betty now, the Hearst people might even chip in a few $$$ on the whole plan, since airing the cartoons would help their licensing sales of Betty Boop merchandise).

Do all that, and Viacom would have a package of about 800 or so cartoons from 1929 to 1967 they could use as part of either their planned TNN adult block of cartoons or as part of one of the Nickelodeon channels (and if they Harveytoons ran on TNN with their original titles, it would be guarenteed to puzzle about 90 percent of the Boomers who tuned in, since all of them grew up thinking Casper, Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip were always Harveytoons).

[Pilmedium]

I would like that, for the most part. I hate when groups of cartoons get divided. The problems presented were made-for-tv Popeyes mixed with theatrical cartoons, and large amounts of colorized Betty Boops. I would not like to see either of those. Despite those small problems, I voted "yes."

[Emmanuel Cruz]

I definitely would like to see all the cartoons together. It feels odd to see them all separate.

-Emmanuel:bosko:

[Daniel P]

Yes, although I'll admit it'd feel weird to see them all mixed together in a show.

But before anything like that happens, I want all theatrical Popeye's released on DVD. :D

[Davesnothere]

I think it'd be a shame to mess with the good Betty Boop shorts from 1930-34. They were drawn and inked in a style that makes B&W a very cool medium. Don't even get me started on the redrawns that already exist! I don't mind the CC'd Looney Tunes from 1937-43 because they seemed to be drawn as if the director was hoping for a color budget. Honestly, I don't think many of the true two-tone characters from 1935 and before translate to color very well because they were designed with features that depend on contrast and not hue to be appealing. Koko the Clown is a perfect example because he is supposed to live in a bottle of black ink. Have you seen the colorized Koko? YUK! Even Mickey Mouse looks pretty strange in his early color cartoons when he still had a pale white face. He had to be redesigned with softer features and flesh-tones to make him look natural in "Living Color". By the way, sorry, but I'm not sure I like monopolies on a particular studio's work, considering the way most owners simply bury and neglect most of their property. If they're spread out, we may see some of them available on DVD and broadcast. WB may prove to be an exception yet, if the DVD's we're licking our chops over are indeed a treat.

[Patrick McCart]

Yes and no...

The NTA package is going to be reunited with Paramount as soon as Artisan's license for them is used up. Yes, you may finally see a DVD for the Betty Boop cartoons with the Paramount logo on the front, sides, and back.

The Noveltoons belong with Paramount, too....Classic Media is too small of a company and they may not be suited to preserve the cartoons.

The Popeyes are in great hands...Warner has a pretty good preservation/restoration program going (UCLA is often involved with projects). Pl

[Sogturtle]

I tend to be WAY in the minority on this issue... But nooooo... The Fleischer 1930 to mid-'34 Boops and the the whole run of Fleischer (and early Famous) Popeyes are (in my green-eyes ;)) so superior that when put side-by-side with the Noveltoons, Lulu's, Audrey's etc. would really, really make them look poor (much, much worse than normal). Not to mention that Viacom's track record with them has been pretty abysmal so far. Just my opinion...

[absolutpaul]

I only hope that the NTA package will be restored and rereleased. They are in BAD need of restoration.

[Vdubdavid]

I would want them to be reunited under one roof, but I would air them on two separate programs because there were two separate animation studios.

[J Lee]

Just to revise and extend my earlier remarks, as they say in Washington...

Back in the mid-1990s when AMC aired the Betty Boop and Screen Song cartoons on Saturday mornings, I watched them all the time, but apparently, not enough other people did, because it was removed from their lineup. Given the choice, I'd rather see all the Fletcher cartoons air in their original form, but given the choice between colorization and having them sit on the shelf until the year 2100 or beyond, I'll take the former. And, as the 1995 series of colorized Looney Tunes showed, just because something was in black or white in the original doesn't mean you have to colorize it, certain things, like Koko's face and outfit or Betty's hair ("Poor Cinderella" not withstanding) could be left in their original colors, which the '95 LTs did to a great extent.

As for the more than one channel thing, that would be fine with me also -- most of the Fleischer stuff could air on Viacom's TNN, since it's more adult oriented, while the more juvenile stuff like Casper and Little Audrey could play on one of the Nickelodeon channels (your call on where the NTA Noveltoons would best fit -- a late Flesicher Color Classic like "Vitamin Hay" has more in common in terms of design and pacing with the mid-40s Noveltoons than it does even to some of the Fleischer color films made as late as 1938).