Happy Thanksgiving to folks in the states, and happy Thursday to everyone else!
As the year has continued to roll on, I’ve thought a lot about what old films and cartoons I’d like to catch up on again and watch. A lot of the special sets we’ve done have been picked based on the things I’d like to see again, thinking a lot of other folks would like to see them too. This week’s pick is one of those!
First, a little Thunderbeaning:
It’s easily the most challenging year we’ve had in the 20-year history of producing blu-rays and DVDs. As the year is wrapping up, we’re still working toward getting as many special discs out the door as we can, and working hard to get the Rainbow Parades, volume 2 set in the can, along with the other projects currently on the slate.
The big thing we’ve been working on isn’t a blu-ray, but will expand the abilities of what Thunderbean as a little company is able to do greatly. There are always growing pains when business changes some of its focus; in this case, it’s a pretty positive direction, and will speed up what we’ve been doing immensely. I’m especially excited about announcing it— and that will be soon. It’s taking a lot longer than any of us thought to get it to the finish line, but it looks like we’re finally there. News soon!
Now— onto this week’s cartoon: Land of the Lost Jewels (1950)
Red Lantern, a wise-beyond his fish-years fish voiced by Jackson Beck, tells two little kids out on a boat on their own that they should dive into the ocean with him and go on an adventure to find the little girl’s cheap lapel pin, shaped like a Jimmy-Cricket-esque Grasshopper. They become embroiled in a series of adventures, including fish police, a whole bevy of lost jewels (people must lose jewelry at that spot a lot) and queen, who is a tiara crown, passing judgment on true jewels vs. fake ones.
The characters originated on a Land of the Lost radio program (on Mutual and ABC) which ran from 1943 through 1948 – and were adapted into 9 issues of an EC comic book from 1945-48.
This was the second of three Paramount Land of the Lost Noveltoons (the first two fell into the NTA/U.M.&M. syndication package – the third is in the Harveytoon mix).
The whole adventure is pretty plot heavy for the usual Famous Studios cartoon, but it’s a fun yarn, and a good companion to some of the Little Audrey cartoons with similar storyline ideas.
All three Land of the Lost cartoons are pretty similar. Considering its Famous Studios, who right around this time started to follow a similar formula for each series pretty closely, maybe it’s best that Red Lantern didn’t survive more than this trio of pictures.
Famous does their usual great job in production quality and animation- it’s a pretty little cartoon with excellent animation. I find the music to be especially good in this one— I wish the print was 35mm so the sound was better though! Maybe someday a Technicolor 35mm print will show up, or maybe they’ll finally be restored from their negatives. You never know! Maybe someone will finally restore and release all the Toby the Pups! Hope springs eternal, doesn’t it?
This particular Famous Studios cartoon has made its rounds in 16mm NTA prints for many years, as well as a 16mm Kodachrome reduction (from 35mm) print. This is a new scan from the later. It’s the best I’ve seen on this film so far.
Have a great Thanksgiving 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.
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