Mendelssohn’s Spring Song (1931, 5:40) begins the exploration with a barnstorming entry by effects legend Cy Young made to promote the two-strip Brewstercolor system. In fact, it’s said that this was the short that brought him to Walt Disney’s attention and kick started his long career at that studio. After the success of the Silly Symphonies, many other companies followed suit, often merging the word “cartoon” musically with “tune” or playing with other musical terms to come up with Merrie Melodies and the like. This one is the first and only from a planned Jingles series, and one can see why it garnered Young praise: it’s elaborately animated, with many inventive ideas that give it a surrealistic edge that was missing from many other of the Symphony imitators.
Monkeydoodle (1931, 8:18), created by sports cartoonist turned animator Les Elton, is a bizarre short that obviously has some sort of mixed up history since the version presented here was comprised of no less than four different print sources, even including some short silent passages where the sound prints had been cut. Seemingly trying to introduce Simon The Monk as a star – he even gets an animated title card treatment – this is a tremendously detailed picture, often feeling like the early solo work of Ub Iwerks. There’s some good perspective animation touches, angled shots and character animation that really brings Simon and his hound opposite to life realistically for cartoon interpretations of their species, even if the bonkers plot throws almost everything into the mix!
The Hobo Hero (1935, 7:58) is another Elton effort, less crazed in its visual ideas but just as screwy with its narrative. A seemingly un-connected stream of gags, this features the deadpan, Keaton-esque Piccolo Pete, whom we find riding the rails and coming to the rescue of a trapped pooch. Though the animation is fluid – the result of some obvious rotoscoping – and the design is as detailed as Monkeydoodle, this particular Elton piece lacks its solid timing and staging, and the surrealistic elements just come over as being too bizarre, and after the admittedly exciting railway track rescue the cartoon breaks down in interest and simply becomes too strange to describe.
Kool Penguins (1935, 7:40) is the first commercial in this collection, announcing the arrival of a fun bunch of cartoon penguins who were intended, and would become, major mascots of the Kool Cigarette Company. As with the later PM Picnic in this collection, it’s films like this that really show how animation was essentially part of the adult culture back then. This would have been shown during a program for mature audiences in theaters, who would have lapped up cartoons just as much as a sophisticated comedy short or a newsreel, a far cry from today when companies are doing their best to cut smoking from family films and going as far as digitally altering children’s animation to remove traces of cigarettes. Despite being promotional, perhaps it was that fact that meant it had money spent on it: Kool Penguins certainly looks as good as any other cartoon of the time and it’s clear to see why smoking became the in-thing to be caught doing.
Winder Bakers At The World’s Fair (1939, 3:36) is the only known remaining fragments of a longer production, and one that might have featured live-action sequences, according to the liner notes, or perhaps a live stage narration. While there’s not much else to talk about with this one, it presents a fun look at the ingredients that go into making a yummy loaf of Slo-Baked Wonder Bread.
Ford Service Commercials by Dr Seuss (1950, 4:08) are quite a find, written and designed for the motor company by Ted Geisel and animated at the UPA studio, then a rising force in limited animation that would find a home both in theaters and on television. These are quite a pointer to the work we know from both of these entities, from the Geisel/Seuss’ Whoville designs and wordplay to the limited animation style that UPA would make their own. Each running just over a minute, we’re offered four samples here.
Animated Theatrical Commercials (1940-41, 7:10) are by no means “more of the same” as the Ford ones, as these were always intended to be shown in movie houses before the main feature. A compilation of spots for Coca-Cola (Pebble Punch, 1:40), Shell Oil (Cops And Robbers, A Squirt In Time and The Oilympic Games Endurance Relay, all 1:20) and Brookfield Butter (A Date With Kate, 1:20), these short shorts display all the hallmarks of the work of Cartoon Films, the company set up by Ub Iwerks, and until the hard sell comes out of nowhere around the halfway mark in each set up, audiences would likely not realise they were watching little more than a commercial! Especially fun is Coke’s Pebble Punch but all of these Technicolor advertisements make plugging their wares particularly entertaining.
Korn Plastered In Africa (1931, 7:13) has a title that pretty much tells you all you need to know! Created by “Scarfoot” McCrory, and featuring children’s radio host “Uncle Don” Carney, this is one straight nuts cartoon, a spoof of Trader Horn that takes place in darkest Africa. Full of cycles and a lack of narrative structure, this just doesn’t really work on any level, like a stream of consciousness where even the lead character is mostly relegated to just the soundtrack. Even surrealism needs a theme, but this one is just too wacky and not in a good way, though has to be seen to be believed. Just what was that about!?
PM Picnic (1948, 6:51), like the Kool Penguins, pushes the boat out to use an animated cartoon aimed squarely at adult eyes. This promotion for PM’s Whiskey was apparently produced for storeowners, which seems a terrifically long-winded way to go about making your product seem “cute”. The film resembles one of David Hand’s Animaland shorts, with a little bee all a-buzz at the prospect of the clear clean taste of the deluxe whiskey, but even as a commercial endeavor this feels disjointed and seems to only serve to introduce the little fluffy bunnies and forest creatures that would be used in the print ads for the drink.
Toddy Commercials (1952, 2:20) are exactly the type of programming one would expect in coming to a Cultoons! disc on commercials, and very much the kind of advertisements commonly shown at drive-ins and on television in the 1950s. “Yes, see how better that pop corn tastes with Toddy Chocolate Drink, delicious cold or hot!” assures the narrator in these part-animated, part-cheesy live-action pieces that run around 50 seconds a pop. Probably the most in need of help in the sound department, the image on these also suffers from a heavily interlaced or digitised look, so thank goodness they’re nothing more than short curios.
Monsters Do Have Their Place (1971, 0:48) is the most recent inclusion here, and an interesting one at that, looking like a plea from the movie theater chains to try and encourage the audience to help prevent the burgeoning pay TV industry draw away their business. Short, with mainly still framed rostrum camera animation, this is particularly of its time given the way paying for one-off events and downloads have today become the norm.
Goofy Goat Antics (1931, 7:50) is a black and white print of an originally two-strip Technicolor short – sometimes credited as the first sound/color cartoon – and a clear attempt by producer Ted Eshbaugh to launch a series character. Easily the most fully rounded “cartoon” in this collection, it was also known as Goofy Goat Antics in later rental release (from which this print derives) when it must have become obvious that no further Goat cartoons would be forthcoming. That’s a shame, since Goofy Goat seems to have a playful sense of humor (“Get out of the way, you road hog”, he yells to a pig passenger in the car in front) and Eshbaugh comes up with some very amusing business. The format of the short allows for several different settings and what would have been effects moments to show off the color, in which this would be fantastic to see, though the lack of this doesn’t take anything away from the enjoyment and this is probably my favorite of the titles included here.
No Fare (1935, 7:03) is most certainly another attempt to launch a series, this time for conductor Goofy Gus And His Omnibus, and comes from a distinguished pedigree of artists that were or would later be found working for the biggest animation studios in Hollywood. Unfortunately there is not much else known about this short, and even the director cannot be confirmed, but even if the animation is skilled, there’s just not enough else going on with the plot or characters to engage an audience. Despite the hyperactive soundtrack it’s a surprisingly slow and drawn out cartoon, without a clear resolve, and obvious as to why there were no more trips for Gus and his bus.
Easy Does It (1948, 31:15) is by far the most accomplished – and the longest – film on this disc, coming in at a healthy featurette length. Although commercial in design (for Stokey/Van Camp Foods), this Hugh Harman production, made after his split with MGM and Rudy Ising, looks every bit as good as his earlier work, though has a little difficulty completing the task of telling the story with it never particularly feeling like we are being sold something. But it’s finds like these that really make these collections more than worthwhile, and this one is pure gold, a wonderfully animated, marvellously entertaining cartoon that plays like a paean to the Mom ‘n’ Pop stores of small-town America. Genuinely heartfelt, and by turns excitingly fantasist and struck with a cold realistic streak, there’s a nice emotional message buried in the story as well as its required push for the food brand. Lengthy live-action central segment and hard sell aside, this is almost as good as a 1940s Disney special or segment from one of the Package Features, and a very good choice for this collection of Cultoons! to go out on a fine note.
Finding His Voice (1929, 10:38) kicks off this collection, dubbed Animated Education, with an exploration of the sound recording and reproduction process. What’s doubly amazing, apart from the quality of this Fleischer Studios commission for Western Electric, is that this exact same process is still being used today as a way of reading film soundtracks in the many theaters that have yet to covert to digital exhibition. This is a simply brilliant cartoon, for a variety of reasons: it’s complicatedly drawn to the Fleischers’ high standards and features a clear description that may well have gone over audiences’ heads in the late twenties but makes fascinating viewing today. There’s a clever touch, a filmstrip that becomes our cute lead, Talkie, and the lecturer’s dry narration is the first time I think I’ve come across actual flubs in dialogue in animation that were not removed from the soundtrack. I’m assuming this is because the somewhat freefall reading was conducted in one take, making Finding His Voice the even more unique.
A Desert Dilemma (1930, 1:55), comes next, animated by Cy Young, here credited as “Sy”. Odd and fairly nonsensical – it doesn’t really get its insurance company message across – this short commercial displays many of the standardized caricatured and anthropomorphised people and vehicles of the time, and though it looks to have possibly been made with sound, this transfer comes from a silent print, with a crisp, authentic music track and spots added for effect.
Family Album (1930, 10:06) is a sequel of sorts, or at least a follow up, to Finding His Voice, seeing the return of Talkie the soundtrack filmstrip after we’ve been exploring his family tree by way of his ancestor, the talking telephone, or Tel E Phone as he’s playfully credited. Again created for Western Electric to promote their audio achievements, the film wasn’t animated at the Fleischers’ this time around, and counts Paul Terry among the crew. The cartoon is simpler to look at, more static and drags more, even though it’s not a lecture like the earlier picture and there is actually greater character interaction and more going on. Though there are several animation shortcuts taken here as opposed to the Fleischers’ non-skimped on approach, it remains enjoyable enough and does contain one great title pun.
Out Of The Milk Bottle (1928/30-34, 5:51) has a title surely inspired by the wildly popular Out Of The Inkwell series, and was also released under the auspices of The American Dairy Association as Skinny And Husky In A Day At Coney Island. The apparent long production time actually refers to a sound reissue that changed some footage and added extra shots, which is the version we get here, with its original soundtrack even though voices are barely synchronised. Produced (cheaply!) by Jam Handy for Sheffield Milk, this is a commercial masquerading as a short, though none the less entertaining for it. The message is, naturally, to drink your milk, presumably of the sponsoring manufacturer’s kind, and it’s conveyed by having the one lone kid who is always tired and never joins in the fun on a trip to Coney Island, eventually pepped up and sprightly after gulping down the white stuff (yep, I’m sure that’s not just a euphemism either)!
See How They Won (1935, 6:01) is a terrific Ub Iwerks cartoon that displays his trademark bats, elaborately drawn backgrounds and penchant for rhyming voiceovers. This one has one John Careless (a cousin of the early Elmer Fudd?) not looking after his health and therefore falling prone to the illnesses of Captains Influenza and Sorethroat. The animation is full and fluid, possibly the best looking of the titles here, which should come as no surprise given Iwerks’ reputation. Rumor persists that it was originally created in color, and the strong artwork certainly supports that notion, with some fantastic effects animation and an epic battle between the Germs and the Health Service to close the picture out. Created for Boots Chemists, the only thing that mars this print is a lack of main titles or original end credits, though that doesn’t take anything away from Iwerks’ amazing work.
Once Upon A Time (1936, 9:02) surprisingly gets a touch of ridicule in the included commentary track on this disc, but taken in context for who it was made for (a commercial for another insurance company), it actually turned out no worse than any other moral message short of the time, and the Technicolor values give it a sheen it otherwise wouldn’t have had. The short’s title takes its cue from its fairytale land setting, wherein the disruptive Discourtesy and Carelessness, looking a little like the Germs from the Iwerks cartoon above, come to wreck havoc by causing the collision of many a storybook character’s cars. It’s true that Once Upon A Time is simply drawn, but it is fully animated and contains enough touches that should garner it a little more respect than it apparently has. Certainly it’s the most outright entertaining selection here and, besides, the superlative score and catchy song has remained in my head for days, so in my book the cartoon works!
Three Blind Mice (1945, 4:41), featuring George Dunning amongst its artists, isn’t a clear retelling of the famous verse but more a springboard to showing what happens when safety regulations are not observed when carrying out machine and manual labor. Shot using stop-motion animated cut-outs, the short retains the rhyming convention of the original, but it drags on for too long, becoming quickly repetitive and not helped by a visual look that doesn’t alternate from its monochrome staging at any time throughout.
Winky The Watchman (1946, 10:08), made by Hugh Harman Productions after his MGM association with Rudy Ising had come to an end, is an highly entertaining effort that exposes what happens when kids don’t look after their teeth. It struck something of a nerve with me because a decayed wisdom tooth is exactly what happened to me this week, so I got some additional amusement from the antics here. Of course, it’s much more colorful and light-hearted than a real extraction, with Winky’s enamel-white wall of knashers coming under fire from sneaky incisor-mining baduns! Winky himself reminds of the night watchman Gabby from the Fleischers’ feature Gulliver’s Travels and who went on to star in a short-lived series of his own, of which this feels like a distant cousin. Naturally, Harman’s elaborately lofty production values – including proficient live-action bookends – make this a very handsome looking inclusion here, with the Technicolor processing again helping it stand out as something quite special.
Nursery Rhyme Films (1948, 5:21) was a company that specialised in brief interpretations of children’s poems, and here we’re offered a sampling of four: This Little Pig, Hey Diddle Diddle, Three Blind Mice and Jack And Jill, all running exactly 1:20 each. There’s not much to say about these, since they all follow the same format: a narrated version of the text on screen, followed by a second character-led read-through, and finally a literal animation sequence that concludes things. Perhaps intended for television, these are at least fully animated and quite imaginative in how they deal with visualising the sometimes frankly absurd children’s verses.
Oral Hygiene: Swab Your Choppers (1948, 6:54) features more dental care tips, this time aimed at those in the Navy and produced by UPA in their typical super-limited animation style that the studio was famous for. Despite the addition of color and a shorter length, what turns out to be a pretty straight forward instructional film on how to look after your teeth, doesn’t measure up to the likes of Finding His Voice for interest value or even Winky The Watchman for entertainment. It’s a drawn out cartoon that is typical of the yawn inducing information pictures the boys were subjected to in the day, and can’t have even inspired them back then!
Accident Prevention Aboard Ship (1951, 7:12) is much better, funnier and roundly informative and entertaining, though it’s another that gets lambasted by the commentary participants. Although it is a limitedly animated – if that’s the word – short when seen through their eyes, there’s no denying that this is a product of the time, done on a budget, and as successful as anyone could have hoped for given those circumstances. True that there is some unintentionally hilarious, dated safety film narration and situations, including some shocking ones that somehow feel astonishingly out of place in such an otherwise cheerfully toned cartoon, leading to a nervous laughter. The creative studio is unknown, even though it resembles the UPA style, but think of this as a Tex Avery comedy (“How To Have An Accident In The Navy”?) and you’ll have a blast!
Discipline Pays Off (1951, 10:42) is another UPA training film for the US Navy. Though it offers more enjoyment and production value than Swab Your Choppers, this look at regulations throughout the ages still doesn’t have the charm of the earlier entries in this collection. That it was originally intended and budgeted just for those in the marine services and not for viewing by the general public is a reason for its concentration on factuality, of course, but it still takes its time to make a point.
Rumor (1956, 5:47), a “Challenge Film” going by the credits, is truly the oddest film here, about race relations and the Detroit Riots of 1943. The intention of this storyboard-designed film is obviously to explore prejudice and confusion, but the effect is disjointed and nightmarish. Clearly inviting further discussion – there’s even a note to stop the projector to consider the issues before proceeding – this one is sure to leave a lasting impression as the final inclusion on this disc, but probably for the wrong reasons, and at times the extraordinarily named Gunnar Back’s somewhat sinister narration comes over as being quite psychologically paranoid!
Len Lye scraped together enough funding and borrowed equipment to produce a three-minute short featuring his self-made monkey, singing and dancing to 'Peanut Vendor', a 1931 jazz hit for Red Nichols. The two foot high monkey had bolted, moveable joints and some 50 interchangeable mouths to convey the singing. To get the movements right, Lye filmed his new wife, Jane, a prize-winning rumba dancer.
'The Peanut Vendor' shown as part of the 'Cultoons' screening at The 2006 Ottawa Animation Festival.
A 1936 sheet music booklet for "Think About Your Safety" a song from the Once Upon a Time cartoon by the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company.
An anxious and harried businessman becomes frustrated during a telephone call, and slams down the telephone on his desk. He then begins to doze off, and he dreams about his telephone being taken away in an ambulance, and rushed to a doctor. In the dream, the telephone begins to tell the doctor about all the ways in which it has been misused.
