Today’s article is just a little snapshot into where things are right now in the projects we’re working on. There’s even more stuff than this — but I’ll shuddap about that stuff for now.
I woke up this morning and thought for a little while about what a great week it’s been in working on the Thunderbean stuff. New materials just got scanned, the freelancers are really cranking through things for several sets, and I managed to get much, much closer to finishing out the long-in-progress Rainbow Parades 2 set. A big piece of that process has been re-cleaning up (with film restoration software) the films we had already finished that were lost in the Ex-Fat drive crash. It’s been hard getting them done again, but we’ve been able to accomplish a lot over the last few weeks- and we’re turning the corner now to finishing all of them again. They’re looking lovely- with the highlight being Bold King Cole from the original camera negative. I wish we could make them all look that good— but the others (all from the Technicolor ‘master prints’) look great.
The Mid Century Modern 3 set is finally back from replication, and we’ll be working on putting together all the pre-orders and have the shipped before putting it up on Amazon. We’ll do a little review of what’s on the set next week here.
We’ll continue to do some special sets, with a few new ones up now. [LINK TO THUNDERBEAN SHOP]. I can see a point, sooner than later, where the special sets will be a thing of the past — but so glad we’ve been able to get so many things scanned and available that otherwise would not be.
The Lou Bunin set has been in progress the longest at this point, and nearly every day I’m trying to get another piece put together for it. Our big goals for the year are to get as many of the sets done as possible, and with Rainbow Parades nearly out the door- with the Lou Bunin set following. That opens things up to finish the Comi-Color, Cultoons and Cartoons for Victory sets. I’m hoping these two projects will be wrapped within a month or so, and then all our resources can be on the other projects.
Putting together these things isn’t without its share of issues of course. In the end, all of the work that goes into them really shouldn’t show too much— rather, the films themselves should be enjoyed for their qualities. And, of course, that’s the whole point of trying to out together a good presentation of them.
This must be a caricature of somebody – and a possible other clue is the tune “Am I Blue” on the soundtrack… Any ideas?
This small piece of 16mm sound film was attached to a series of 16mm Kodachrome footage from the Lou Bunin short Bury the Axis (1943). It’s clearly a fully animated production by Bunin, but from what? It looks really similar to the footage Bunin did for Ziegfeld Follies (1945). My immediate thought is that it’s perhaps a piece that was made as part of that feature, or another thing for MGM. It’s short, and it’s clearly a completed production with sound.
I’m hoping to, before too long, be able to look through the other materials to see if somehow I can identify this particular clip. I’m honestly not sure if *anyone* has seen this particular footage. If you recognize it, please let us know!
Ok— here’s the clip. 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 thing is: “Am I Blue?” was a song owned by a Warner Bros. affiliate (specifically, M. Witmark). I don’t believe it was common practice for studios to use music owned by other studios in their productions. This suggests to me that perhaps this might have been intended for a Warner Bros. production. Another possibility is that it might have been a governmental project, where such considerations of music rights were secondary — compare with the Snafu shorts of the era, where one saw at least a few cases of non-WB owned music (inclusive of the “Superman March” and “Begin the Beguine”) used.
Wow, two mentions of Bunin in as many weeks. So looking forward to Alice.
As to the mystery clip, I feel like Rocket J. Squirrel because I know I’ve heard that voice before. The clip is just too short but the voice is really familiar.
Wow, I love mysteries like this!
If it is connected to Ziegfeld Follies (1945), then it could plausibly be a caricature of singer James Melton, who appears in that film. Among the popular “tenors” of the day, this kind of tune and emotional pose was pretty standard.
The solo piano music starts with Grieg’s “Morning Mood”, then segues rather clumsily into “Am I Blue”, which makes me wonder if this is just temp music. The opening shot could be recycled from something else entirely; it looks like a swamp or marsh, whereas the next shot is in a cultivated park. After the crossfade into the locked-down shot, the deep-voiced man says “You should not have done this to me” and “Oh fool!”, but what is the name he says inbetween? Henry? Eric? Derek? Henrik? Is that person the fool, or is the speaker the fool for falling for whatever was done to him?
Emily
“The Lou Bunin set has been in progress the longest at this point…”
No, it hasn’t. The Felix the Cat set has. You’ve been working on that since before you were born.
No, I distinctly recall the Lou Bunn set being announced first. Besides, Thunderbean did a Felix disc way back in the beginning of the company.
I’m looking forward to the Bunin set for two things
the Alice film and the short “Dingo Dog and Kangaroo”