It’s been a pretty good week here so far here at Thunderbean – and almost non-stop. We have the last group of films in cleanup for the ‘Rainbow Parade, Volume 2 set right now, with all hands on deck in digital restoration. We’re trying hard to everything done for the set this month and send it out to replication. The Mid Century Modern 3 blu-ray is coming back from replication and will finally be out this month, and we’re working hard to get the Lou Bunin set done this summer as well. The other sets in various stages of production take up the extra time, so it’s never a blank slate for anyone here.
The Comi-Colors series is one of those other projects. It’s so nice being able to work from original negatives on these things and having restorations of the films that look better than anything we’ve seen, since we’re going back to the material that hasn’t been used since the early 40s. Every time we make progress it makes me want to work as fast as we can to get as many things here done so we can attempt to get some of the other holy grails going. There’s never enough time!
Working with a great team really helps a lot; I’m hoping we can all be in the same physical place a little more often in the future, expanding the size of the office and what we’re able to do. It would be nice to have lunch with the whole team sometimes!
As I was reviewing the work from this week and late last week, I really have to smile. These last 21 years working on these DVDs, and especially the last 11 working on Blu-rays, have been wonderful, and I hope to have many more years working on many more. Right now, the additional opportunities related to Thunderbean are exciting, and while I always wish everything would more *just a little faster*, I’m grateful all these things have worked the way they have. This community here plays a giant role in not only the appreciation of classic animation, but in having a big hand in supporting these small but mighty efforts.
I’ll be keeping everyone updated as these things are moving forward – and can’t wait to get some of these things in the can soon…
Ok, Ok, now on to the cartoon:
You know, I think the Columbia “Phantasy” cartoon series may very well be the most outright bizarre cartoons of the early 40s. The writing on some of them seems more like a radio show than a cartoon, and it even seems like the animation team is struggling to come up with interesting visuals to go with the nearly nonstop dialouge. The Fly in the Ointment (1943) is a prime example of these, and is as much of a potboiler as any cartoon ever, I think.
The film starts out with a typical dutched shot of a castle tower As we pull in and bats fly by, two bats (who have to be a caricature of someone) lament the opening, saying “Do all spook pictures have to start out this way?!?!”. Honestly, that may be the best gag in the whole film.
The rest of the footage features a spider arguing with a fly about being his dinner. That is literally all that happens. At the end of the film, those two same bats lament how every spook show ends the same way, too.
This cartoon is from the little period where Dave Fleischer was supervising production. Paul Sommer directs, with Dun Roman writing (the same writer who is responsible for almost all the super dialogue heavy Phantasy cartoons). As a fan of classic animation, it’s always fun to see some animation you haven’t seen.
Have a good week everyone!
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 Columbia Phantasy cartoons are really underrated, even potential classics like The Vitamin G-Man by John Hubley or The Case of the Screaming Bishop by Howard Swift. The little Dave Fleischer period is probably the last good one for Screen Gems.
Fly in the Ointment is a strange cartoon, one of the most ‘talking’ ones of the ‘40s, but I love it for the bizarre character animation and especially for the backgrounds! Just turn off the audio and the “big” qualities of the picture will appear.
I find some of the fly’s obnoxious dialogue pretty funny as well. Even if there is too much of it.
My P.O. Box and I are still waiting for what you promised last week.🤷🏼♂️
Great character designs though!
Boy, I know a lot of people complain about the ComiColor cartoons, but this thing…. I’m with the bats: “Oh, no, no, no, no, no, no, NO!”
These character designs don’t feel like they are from the 1940s, there’s something really strange about them! I dig it.
That spider has a weird-looking mouth!
They did wonders with that spider jaw!
Other than the gag where he pulls a hat out of the rabbit, this is a forgettable cartoon.
I dunno, I kinda liked it! It had a little Tex Avery-like gruesome gags in it. I believe the spider’s voice was done by radio actor Hanley Stafford. He played the father of “Baby Snooks” (Fanny Brice) for years and was a great crocodile character in the memorable children’s fantasy, THE CINNAMON BEAR (1937).
Every time Steve updates on the Bunin Alice an angel gets its wings.
I think the radio analogy is strengthened by the opening with the organ music, which is very Mutual Broadcasting System — it always seemed like those shows relied heavily on organ music.
That spider is one of the most bizarre characters I’ve ever seen in a cartoon. Do you have any idea who voiced him? Whoever did it, it was really effective.
It belongs to a stream of humor from the early 1940s: “too smart”. Up there with “Duck Pimples”, Hubley’s first shorts at Columbia and many others.
Thank you, Mr. Stanchfield, for introducing us to this curiosity. It shows that even in the ’40s, Dave Fleischer was able to stand out from his competitors by coming up with unique designs for these characters.
Could you show us another of Van Beuren’s extremely zany cartoons next time?
Haven’t seen this but it brings W-B’s “Meatless Flyday” to mind.