Another Cat and Mouse from David O'Reilly

This really intrigues and inspires me. New ways of tackling old relationships in these modern times.

Please Say Something

Via Cartoon Brew

Visions of Frank

Via Cartoon Brew...

Tuesday Tex Avery Quickie

Ward Jenkins has a Flickr photoset for Tex Avery's Symphony in Slang. FYI, the above pic is "Beside myself with anger," yuk yuk.

Another Year Kaput

Adios 2007...


Warm welcome to Constipated Baby 2008...

Christmas Musings

Merry Christmas from your friends at GE!




I just so happen to be watching this right now, for probably the 31st time. And for a change, I'm not quite as downtrodden as Charlie Brown. Cheer up, Brown!




Even these soul-less monstrosities of the feline persuasion have plenty o' holiday cheer. "Eat your brains for Christmas we will, meow, purr, etc."

The Return of Drinky Crow

For those that missed it, including myself, The Drinky Crow Show pilot returns to Adult Swim on Jan. 1st. I'm pretty fond of that drunken little guy, and can often be heard in many a tavern and gin joint exclaiming "Dook Dook Dook!" In the meantime, be sure to visit Maakies.com for more cartooning genius by Tony Millionaire.

Try Some Sunshine

No comic this week (gearing up for big #50), so instead I recommend you watch this Van Beuren cartoon from 1935, "The Sunshine Makers". It's the usual Disney-esque fare with the usual non-Disney-esque strangeness. Love those unintentionally dark undercurrents. If you don't have the aptitude to watch the whole thing, at least jump ahead to 6:05 and watch for twenty seconds. It sent me into convulsions of hilarity.

Also note the crabby cult song about seasonal depression -

"How are ya?"

"Terrible!"

"That's fine!"

Sounds kinda similar to every stop-n-chat in my neck of the woods right around mid-February.

Where's My Hasenpfeffer?

Here of course is the one and only reason anyone knows what Hasenpfeffer actually is. Thanks to Friz Freleng for expanding our cultural vocabulary.

Pearl Harbor/Anime Day

Over at Cartoon Brew, Jerry Beck informs us that the New York Anime Festival starts on December 7th, Pearl Harbor Day. Just some harmless irony.

FYI, the above screen-shot is from Miyazaki's Spirited Away, a masterpiece and personal favorite.

Where's Goopy Geer?

Love this one. The character Goopy Geer only lasted for three shorts, not quite the engaging front-man that Harman and Ising had envisioned.

An Ub Iwerks Halloween

Hey, it's Auggie McAutumn, painting the town evil!




Meanwhile, "The Dead" eye-up an impishly agreeable Flip the Frog in a scene from Guess Who's Coming to MURDER...




And once again ol' Scarecrow drinks too much Jim Beam Rye and tries to find his way home at about 7am. Young children silently wonder if that's what it's like to be "all growed up."

Tappa Tappa Tappa

I was reading a post about Disney's The Autograph Hound on 2719 Hyperion when this clip from The Simpsons came to mind. Cracks me right up.

Ask Mr. Fox?

I found this on Sherm Cohen's blog and it comes right from the "I'll Be Damned" Department. Turns out the Tootsie Pop commercial we all know from our youth is the edited version. Who knew? Visit Sherm's site to watch it.

He's right, Mr. Fox is pretty cool.

Pete and Wolfy

Here's a still from Disney's Peter and the Wolf from the package film Make Mine Music, 1946. Bland but likable. My interest in it is based purely out of nostalgia. The design of Peter is particularly generic, kind of a mix between Pinocchio and Wendy's brother in Peter Pan. And Grandpa is pretty much Stromboli with white hair. Incidentally, John K has been posting periodically about the Disney blandness. I suppose that is why it is on my mind. The hunters have a great design, though, and Sterling Holloway is always a pleasing narrator.




And here's a non-Disney version. Creepy, no? And this is a coloring book. Once again, some well-meaning adult passes out nightmare fuel.

Not Really Armageddon Wednesday

Say, it's Chicken Little from Disney's 1943 short, Chicken Little. It obviously has less to do with the end of the world and more with Nazism (or generally, as in the fable, manipulation and hysteria).



Foxy Loxy, while shown to be reading a book labeled "Psychology" to facilitate the spread of fear and chaos, actually recites passages from Mein Kampf. I presume the original story ends happily for the chickens, but in accordance with the symbolism, the cartoon ends with rows of wishbones and a happily engorged Foxy. "Don't believe everything you read, brudder."


Incidentally, try image searching Chicken Little these days and you come up with thousands of pictures of this poor dope:

"What the hell am I? Why do I look like McKimson's Junior???"

Old argument, but I had to bring it up.

As a final note, although contrary to what happens in the 1943 short, I'd like to think that Ducky Lucky and the booze crew would remain perfectly complacent as the sky falls.


"We were sailin' aloooongg... on Moonlight Baaaaaaay (hic!)"


*Update*

I just read the wiki article on the original fable. Many different endings, all relavent. Check it out.

Zombie Monday Classics

"Dad! You killed the zombie Flanders!"

"He was a zombie?"

Happy Independence Day!

Welcome to a special 4th of July edition of Armageddon Wednesday, in which we discuss the tiny little firecracker with the power to blow up the Earth, the Illudium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator, not to be confused with the now defunct Uranium PU-36 Explosive Space Modulator, or the completely nonexistent Illudium Q-36 Explosive Space Modulator. Now, it's important that on this day of celebration we do not inadvertently destroy the planet, so please, do not light off an Illudium PU-36. If you are having trouble differentiating between the Illudium and your average firecracker, look for the following directions - "Place on flat surface, light wick, and get 35 million miles away." Simply place the Modulator in your pocket, and light yourself a sparkler. We'll all be much happier.

Los Tres Zombie Monday

On this Zombie Monday we celebrate the fact that Rob Zombie's animated feature film, The Haunted World of El Superbeasto, is somewhere in post-post-production. The most exciting aspect for me is that the character of Dr. Satan, shown above, is voiced by none other than Paul Giamatti. I can't seem to figure out when this is going to be released, but Zombie seems to suggest in the wiki article that they may get slapped with the horrible NC-17 rating, so that would definitely hinder it's distribution.

Speaking of the horrible NC-17 rating, I just watched This Film Is Not Yet Rated, a pretty decent documentary about how the MPAA delegates the entire film rating system to a handful of anonymous "average adults," anonymous so as to avoid outside influence, never mind the fact that they are influenced internally by the studios themselves. No child psychiatrists allowed, as designated by the former duce, Jack Valenti. Anyway, this is why you'll see five hundred people killed in an R movie but any overt and frequent references to sex will ramp it up to NC-17. Violence speaks to the key demographic and somehow doesn't offend conservative Christian values anymore. There's basically no checks and balances, no citing precedent. Fascism at its best.

Another Armageddon Wednesday

Why? Why not? Here's a still of Bert the Turtle from the educational film Duck and Cover, produced in 1950. I haven't seen it for a while, so I don't know if the monkey with the firecracker is supposed to represent nuclear holocaust or what, but it's a damn fine allusion.



"That way, colliding particles of hydrogen won't bonk you on the head."

Rabbits and Cigs

I haven't yet blog-dropped Amid Amidi's Cartoon Modern, a companion piece to his book, Cartoon Modern, and a great source for post-golden-era animation design analysis. The pic above is from a storyboard for a UPA-produced Old Gold commercial with a Rube Goldberg type situation going on. It really stood out to me, the stark white/black relationships, the pastel/chalk textures, and the toy bunny cheerfully transporting cigarettes.