First – some Thunderbean news:
As I write this, it’s a beautiful late spring night here in Ann Arbor, with a cool breeze blowing through the air as I step inside to put together the Thunderbean Thursday post. It was a really good day here; we got out the last of the big batch of 10 special discs we were sending together, and started planning the batch of things we’re getting out the door with the now replicated Mid Century Modern 3. This batch has been a heck of a thing to get all dubbed and sent- but it’s been such a great opportunity to scan so many things — and in turn present some of them here on Thunderbean Thursday. I’m so grateful we’ve had the chance to scan all these films all these years for so many special sets. It’s really the fans that have made these things able to even happen, so I’m eternally grateful we’ve found a way to collectively get so many things scanned and available. Thanks all.
Over these next busy weeks, we’re cracking on getting the Technicolor Rainbow Parades out the door for the Blu-ray release. Having additional computer and restoration software power is helping a lot. The Lou Bunin Alice set is in progress all the time too along with a few other things, including work on the Comi-Color shorts. So far the summer is packed daily, but I’m loving the results. I’m actually looking forward to being buried in technical things over the next week to see just how much we can get done. Dave and Becky Grauman, Becca and other freelancers are going to be jumping on the group effort, along with our very own Devon Baxter, who is doing a bang-up job on Felix in Bold King Cole, the only Rainbow Parade that exists in it’s complete original camera neg.
I’m looking forward to going out to Los Angeles soon, and I have a feeling I’ll be overwhelmed with the smell of Vinegar Syndrome when I do. A hazard of the job I guess!
Ok, ok.. on with today’s cartoon!
I have to wonder if Dave Tendlar’s personal drawing style is on display in this particular film— what’s on screen is other pretty far from the Famous Studio style present in their non-Screen Song films.
Just as it had been at the Fleischers, the director listed *isn’t* the real director of the film, but rather the person listed as lead animator. With Tendlar at the helm here, the overall direction is professional and timed decently — but, as in a lot of the other Screen Songs, it’s pretty standard stuff. There are a few moments that are kind of fun — especially the one below, where we see what have to be caricatures of Famous Studios animators. It looks like Tendlar himself is near the end of this line — maybe that’s Izzy Sparber on the right – can you identify any of the others?
This background, from the sing-a-long part, *also* must be someone’s family. They must have gotten a kick out of these when seeing them in the theatre….
This is a nifty old Kodachrome print that I honestly don’t remember where I got — maybe last year’s Columbus Moving Picture show? It’s missing the ending, sadly— but it just finishes up the last gag (for the special disc I put it on I used a video source for the last second or so that’s missing…)
I do wish they were more fun, but I know some of you really love these. Tell me your thoughts on this cartoon, and especially what you see that you think is interesting in design in the animation and backgrounds. I really like hearing your opinions.
Have a good week all — and if you got to Florida don’t drink the water, especially if you’re a parrot!
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.
The Bok Singing Tower is a carillon in the middle of a bird sanctuary founded by the editor of Ladies’ Home Journal and his wife in the 1920s. It’s also featured in the 1941 Terrytoon “The Bird Tower”, which, if you ask me, is an altogether superior cartoon to “The Funshine State”.
Frank Loesser’s “Tallahassee” was sung by Dorothy Lamour and Alan Ladd — yup, Shane himself — in the 1947 musical extravaganza “Variety Girl”, which starred every popular big-name Hollywood star then under contract to Paramount, and also Sonny Tufts. I’m a little surprised that they didn’t select “Moon Over Miami” for the singalong number in a Screen Song about Florida, as it would have been much more familiar to moviegoing audiences from its many recordings, as well as the Betty Grable musical of the same title. But then, “Variety Girl” was a Paramount picture, and “Moon Over Miami” wasn’t.
To me, the most impressive thing about this cartoon is that narrator Charles Irving pronounced Ponce de León’s name in the correct Castilian fashion, with a dental fricative C rather than a sibilant. Few announcers would have bothered to get that right; back then a lot of Americans pronounced “Ponce” as my elementary school teachers did, with one syllable, to rhyme with “wants”. Although Ponce de León didn’t find the Fountain of Youth in Florida, he was mortally wounded there; and thus he became the first, but by no means the last, overseas tourist to meet his fate in “The Funshine State”.
A Famous Studio Florida flick! One wonders whether former Fleischer men used memories or personal photo references for any of it.
On references: the airplane “Spirit of California,” military-surplus C-47? Not as simplified for cartooning as it might be.
Having visited Florida numerous times, I can tell you that its reputation as the Sunshine State, while not unearned, is a tad exaggerated. The state is notorious for its capricious weather, as indicated in the final gag. Thunderstorms are quite common, and of course, it’s one of the states most prone to hurricanes. It seems apropos to post this now, as hurricane season starts this month.
Sincere thanks for mentioning the Bunin Alice in Wonderland. Hope you still have my preorder!
Were there many veterans of the Fleischers’ Florida years working on this? Wondering if they might have included nostalgic references.
The gag where the alligator subdues the Seminole wrestler by rubbing his belly had been previously used in at least two Popeye cartoons, “Little Swee’ Pea” (1936) and “Pitchin’ Woo at the Zoo” (1944), neither dating from the Miami period.