Happy 2022 folks!
On the Thunderbean Front:
As this last week without classes wraps up, I’m happy to report it’s been a pretty productive time. Even though it’s just the beginning of the year, it’s been busy in Thundebean world working on shoring up various projects-but especially on the Flip the Frogs. After a lot of sitting, sore arms and eyeballs (and some swearing) 35 of the 38 Flips are in a state that I like to call ‘finaled’. The other three are the problem children at the moment, but only semi-problem children. School Days has two splices in it, and may have another print already scanned for us. The same goes for Village Specialist. This short is one of the few that doesn’t have a 35mm master element- and we were lucky to have a really lovely early 40s print of it that was lent by Mark Kausler that has a few unobtrusive splices, but if we can fix them with the other print we’re happy as the cat is in the film! The last one is Little Orphan Willie. I’ll be borrowing Chris Buchman’s sharp old original to scan for just a few little areas that could be a little better.
Since Flip is in a holding pattern for at least a few days, I’ve been catching up on work for some of the other projects here. Aesop’s Fables has been prominent. While cobbling all these things together there’s a ton of hard drives with all sorts of scans done over some time, semi-organized, other times not so much. They’re strewn all over my work area right now as I hunt for this or that, cursing myself for not having them better labeled all the time. The kitties have figured out they can get some pets by taking over the keyboard so they’ll have to be in the credits for their contributions. I sometimes feel like Grampy in Christmas Comes But Once a Year trying to make things out of a pile of pots and pans. Speaking of that, I wonder if the cook came in after after Grampy took all the cookware and couldn’t make any food! I guess that will remain one of cartoonland’s great mysteries.
Once of the big goals was to get some of the special sets all mastered and out the door over break. I’m happy to report that we were able to get five either done or almost, and plan on dubbing and sending them within a week or so. One of those sets is the ‘special’ discs of “Little Lulu” cartoons. Four of the films on the set are from 35mm nitrate prints bought from a collector in Europe- I bought two and two other collectors bought the others and were generous in letting me scan them for the set. I pulled out the scans today that were done a little earlier in the year and was pleasantly surprised to find that I had scanned some little shorts on the front of a few of those reels…..
Earlier today I was called away from all the stuff here to look through some films for sale in a cold basement in the Detroit area. I was happily surprised to find a few boxes full of cartoon prints, so we’re doing a special Blu-ray set of them called “Cartoon Prizes”. It’s available at the Thunderbean Shop in pre-order here.
So, onto the cartoon part of today’s post!
Here are three little commercials in a row- I think they’re suitable entertainment for the first post this year.
First, a late 50s Brylcreem Ad
I really didn’t know that Bill Sturm Studios did any Stop Motion work – but here’s a spot that shows they did. I’m sure everyone here associates the Brylcream ads with Lou Bunin’s stop motion puppets, but it’s clear from this spot that he either didn’t always make them or perhaps stopped at some point. At any rate, Sturm’s studio does a serviceable job animating the puppets, albeit without the same energy and fun of the best of Bunin’s work. I’ve left the leader on to show the Sturm credit- pretty usual to see this on the leader of spots (if they’re not cut off).
Second, “Cops and Robbers” (1940)
While this little commercial (by Animated Cartoons Inc – the former Ub Iwerks Studio) isn’t new to any of our eyes, seeing and hearing it in 35mm IS. This beautiful nitrate IB Technicolor print really shows off the very good production qualities of this studio on this and many other theatrical ads they produced from the late 30s into the 40s. Tommy Stathes snuck this print into a package he sent to me as a gift, so we owe him thanks for its appearance here today.
And, Finally, Intermission!
Here is a really beautifully produced intermission short by Kling productions. Kling (a media and industrial film company in Chicago) produced many things for National Screen Service. When they produced animation, they often hired the actual animation production out to other small studios in Los Angeles. They eventually set up an office in Los Angeles themselves, but it’s unclear whether any actual production happened there. It’s likely John Sutherland did some of the work on these shorts since they often feature work from animators that were working there through the 50s. This print is a reprint from a really nice 35mm IB print. I had forgotten it was on the reel as it was scanned and loved finding it earlier today, so here it is!
I hope these little shorts bring you some cheer at the beginning of this year! Have a good week all!
Steve Stanchfield is an animator, educator and film archivist. He runs Thunderbean Animation, an animation studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has compiled over a dozen archival animation DVD collections devoted to such subjects at Private Snafu, The Little King and the infamous Cubby Bear. Steve is also a professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
Cartoon Films also made an ad for Ford auto parts in which engines were threatened by, not three, but four demons: Wear, Impact, Corrosion, and Heat. Combining them into just three might explain why Friction in “Cops and Robbers” is wielding a blowtorch instead of, say, a file.
That Little Lulu still is from “Loose in a Caboose”, which I remember chiefly for the outrageous Stepin Fetchit caricature as a porter in the train station. “Baggage! Smash yo’ baggage!” So does your 35 mm print have original titles, or is that too much to hope for?
I think the screenshot of the print above is the same as the print shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CoZcYb0Sejg&t=180s If so then it does have original titles.
Lulu looks like she is working on her Laptop!!!!!!!
Carl Buettner – mostly known for his work in Western Publishing’s funny animal comics during the 1940s – worked at Cartoon Films. Some of those character designs in that “Cops and Robbers” spot definitely look like his handiwork; it matches his drawing (and inking) style of the comic books very closely.
Are the “Aesop’s Fables” sound, silent or a mixture of both?
Best wishes to you & all the Thunderbeaners in 2022.
It’s a mix– but mostly sound ones! Just a few silents….
Good enough! I’ll watch for the actual release announcement.
Thanks!
Hi Steve,
Above you say the new special disk is called “Cartoon Prizes”, but I went to your site and couldn’t find a disk by that name. So I came back here, clicked on the link, and it took me to “Technicolor Prizes”. Is this the correct new special disk?
Yes, “Technicolor Prizes!” – Special Blu Ray (BD-R):
12 cartoons from the golden era of animation, all from Technicolor prints.
One of the tiny details in the “Cops and Robbers” Shell commercial is of historical interest. You see the lead “cop” briefly whack his nightstick against the surface, in a manner not unlike Patrick Potato does in Fleischer’s “Fresh Vegetable Mystery.” It may have also been done in other cities, but New York City cops were famous for alerting their colleagues by rapping their nightsticks against the pavement, producing a notable sound effect, which is described as early as just before World War I in P.G. Wodehouse’s “Psmith Journalist,” set in New York City, and likely is much older than that.
The practice began with Robert Peel’s original police department in London, where it had the unfortunate consequence of alerting criminals that the law was on the way and giving them time to escape.
PSMITH, JOURNALIST is a very funny novel, even if the dialect writing is excessive by today’s standards. “Are youse guys goin’ to quit down off out of dat roof?” “Your grammar is perfectly beastly!”
These days stop-motion hair guy’s pre-Brylcreem quiff would be a plus, not a minus.
I’m still waiting for somebody to produce a good, curated DVD of Intermission material. There are a few Coca Cola spots on the Thunderbean Walter Lantz collection, and Something Weird Video once offered shovelware collections of unsorted treasure and trash, and over the years there have been bottom-of-barrel double feature discs that included a plausible intermission pastiche between movies nobody wants to see. But what this country really needs is a good dedicated collection of intermissions to add correct period flavor to movie nights.
If the name Bill Sturm looks familiar, he was credited with animation on a few of the early Popeye cartoons and also worked with Max Fleischer on the Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer short made at Jam Handy Prod in the 1940’s.
Great stuff! And I’ve seen that particular drive-in snack bar trailer many times, but never in such fantastic quality — was it included on one of Rhino’s old Sleazemania VHS volumes? I had all three of those fantastically trashy compilations!
Will these Little Lulu’s have original Paramount titles? Please say yes.
Did Anyone besides me notice the Voice Actor on “ COPS AND ROBBERS “I Believe it is Milton Berle “ UNCLE MILTIE”. From the ‘50 and Early’60’s TV & Radio…