Sometimes a Terrytoon is a nice thing to watch while sipping some morning coffee and not quite doing anything for the day yet. We have just the film for you.
But first, some slight Thunderbean news!
The Thunderbean crew is cranking on the Rainbow Parades set as well as the Lou Bunin Alice set. Comi-Colors keep getting scanned. The work is coming right along on a bunch of things. The Cartoons for Victory set has been getting pecked at a little at a time too. There’s a bunch of films on the Cultoons set that I can’t wait to scan. We have big goals this year.
We’re on the last three films for Rainbow right now. Becca finished the digital restoration on Molly Moo and Rip Van Winkle this week. This, and so many films on this set, look really beautiful, especially Bold King Cole (from the camera negative). We’re in the last big push to finish the set, and we’re working as fast as we can with the resources we have, preparing the materials and the bonus materials. To help with the expense of replicating the set, we’ve started a gofundme campaign as we did with Mid Century Modern 3. Thanks to everyone that’s been pitching in – we’re nearly halfway there already! If you’re able to contribute we really appreciate it- and there’s a special disc (BDR) sent to everyone that pitches in, no matter the amount. You can find the gofundme page if you CLICK HERE.
The Foxy Fox
Watching a Terry from 1935 is an interesting experience. With all the growth in quality throughout the early 30s, by 1935 there’s a much more developed look to most studio’s films. Not so with Terrytoons though! This cartoon- and a majority of the others from this period— look like the work of most studios in the *early* 30s, more around 1931 to 1933, in design, animation, shot composition and story. 1936 and 37 are the years that the studio really starts to catch up in terms of further development.
That said, The Foxy Fox (1935) is still a pretty fun film, if not the most developed. When I was first collecting 16mm cartoons, I had a print of this one (with the Barker Bill TV titles as this print has). I found that my friends and I enjoyed the cartoons that weren’t as good just a much as the great ones in many ways. And, while I can’t find anything really outstanding in this particular film, it’s a fun box of Crackerjack or Jujubees or Lemonheads or whatever other candy snack strikes your fancy.
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.
“Make way for the hunters, and bring on the ale!” Or bring on the morning coffee, whichever you fancy. Anything goes well with Terrytoons, and any time is a great time to watch them.
By 1935, John Foster was working for Paul Terry again after having been fired by Van Beuren the year before. Under his influence, the Terrytoons became funnier and better-paced; and while I can’t detect any concrete examples of Foster’s handiwork in “The Foxy Fox”, it certainly is a fun romp, proving that the rubber-hose style still had some life left in it. Some people might call it old-fashioned, but I prefer to think of it as “classic.”
“Hurrah for the fun! Hurrah!”
John Foster animates the Scarecrow gag and the following gag with the Fox following the hunter with the bugle. While the Terry and Moser lawsuit claims they were the sole writers of the cartoons from 1929-1935, its clear John Foster and fellow VB worker Mannie Davis were contributing to the stories, even remaking a few like 1931’s RED RIDING HOOD as A MODERN RED RIDING HOOD, and FAIRYLAND FOLLIES as HEY DIDDLE DIDDLE. Probably how Mannie Davis got to be the main storyman for about 18 months starting in March 1936
Thanks, Strumm! I always appreciate your Terrytoons expertise!
It’s also worth noting that John Foster had previously worked for the Audio Cinema studio throughout 1934, but unfortunately it seems that all the cartoons Foster made during this period have been lost.
As for Mannie Davis, Harvey Deneroff states in his book “Popeye the Union Man”, that Davis was fired from the Van Beuren studio for attempting to unionize the studio, forcing him to join Paul Terry’s studio. One of Davis’ colleagues, Harry Lewis Bailey, made the unfortunate choice to commit suicide.
I’m afraid you’ve conflated two different artists named Harry Bailey. The painter Harry Lewis Bailey (1879-1933), born and raised in St. Louis, moved to Southern California for his health and remained there for the rest of his life. He never lived in New York or, as far as I know, worked in animation. He committed suicide in 1933. The Van Beuren cartoonist was Harry Dunwoodie Bailey (1892-1958). He moved to Los Angeles in 1934 and held managerial positions at Disney and Screen Gems, but he seems to have left the field of animation by the early ‘40s. He died in 1958 at age 66; I don’t know the cause. Does Deneroff confuse the two men in his book?
The mistake isn’t Harvey Deneroff’s, it’s mine, I did indeed make a serious error during my handwritten note-taking based on my research in the Film Daily newspaper’s online archives. I’m sincerely sorry to have made such a gross error, which I should have caught long before, as I’ve just realized that the initials of Bailey’s middle name are clearly visible in the 1933 cartoon “Runaway Blackie”.
This print is out of sync on a lot of the scenes. Phil Scheib uses the old 1869 arrangement of the 1824 song: “D’ye Ken John Peel?” written by John Woodcock Graves and William Metcalfe, As is typical of 1930s Terrytoons, Paul T. was too cheap to buy long cels for pan purposes, so you see plenty of cel edges traveling through the shots.
I have the Castle Films 100-ft 16mm “headline” edition. Silent of course. Begins with Castle card, Title (which is merely “The Fox Hunt”), a Terrytoons card with Farmer Al playing a banjo on it.
Now, seeing (and hearing) the whole thing for the first time, I say it kind of proved my theory that most Terry product was better with the sound off. The sound effects in particular are so uninspired. The music sounds like a frustrated composer gave up on ever trying to write something special.
As mentioned in the book, “Of Mice and Magic”, the soundtrack had to be done with one take due to Terry’s cheapness even if the take turned out not perfect.
An excellent Terrytoons cartoon, I like the fact that Terry went out of his way to retain the style of the early ’30s cartoons for as long as possible.
It’s a real shame that Paul Terry finally gave in to the trend from 1936 onwards, as he could have developed his own style for these cartoons.
I agree with you that “as far as Terrytoons go, this one is enjoyable enough, but isn’t a condender for any awards for great achievments. But, seriously does it need to be? It’s just a fun little piece of entertainment” but the funny thing is…this short was actually partially UTILIZED as part of an avart-garde film. Specifically Roadfilm from 1970!