I’ve wanted to do a post on a bunch of small random things for a while, so this starting-to-be spring Thursday seemed like a good day for some Spring cleaning,
It was nice catching up with so many old friends at Cinefest; it’s sad that this was the last year of the annual event. Over the last handful of years, I was lucky enough to find some great 16mm films and other things at the show. This year, I managed to find a 16mm print of Doomsday for Pests produced in 1946 by Jerry Fairbanks productions for Sherwin Williams. It’s a 15 minute or so promotional film for the product ‘Pest Roy’ with animation at the beginning and end. I wonder if this was a form of DDT. This copy looks to be a Kodachrome print in good shape, though as you can see by the can. someone was using this film as a test film likely to test out a projector! I’ll post pics when this copy is transferred. This may help finish off the next volume of ‘Cultoons’.. it’s one I had hoped to find for many years. In the meantime, It’s online for your viewing pleasure here:
It’s always funny to think about how many bugs cartoons there are in the 1930s. They all but vanish in the 40s- maybe we stopped thinking about bugs as much because of products like Pestroy. It seems like Van Beuren made more bug cartoons than anyone, honestly, with only a few being a lot of fun. Speaking of bugs, perhaps if Mr. Bug Goes to Town was around a few years earlier it would have been more popular… then again, let’s not speculate any more on THAT.
Here’s some scans of the Mr. Bug Goes to Town game, with especially bizarre artwork. Hoppity looks absolutely thrilled to be trapped in that letter in his odd position. I wonder if the people that did the art for the game actually ever saw the movie. I think the company kept producing this game in the 50s, but it was unlikely a tie-in for the reissue of the film since the reissue was titled ‘Hoppity Goes to Town‘.
Here’s another oddity that showed up on Ebay UK. It’s an Italian home movie film, titled Mickey’s Folies– pretty close to the name of a ‘real’ Mickey cartoon. It’s clearly a recolored Foxy Harman-Ising Warner Brothers cartoon, courtesy of Fred Ladd. Funny enough, this is a Black and White silent print of it.
Besides all this stuff, a cartoon for the week is needed. I’m cheating this time by showing someone’s upload of The Little Pest (1931). I sadly missed bidding on a print of this recently – it’s been on my want list for more than 30 years! This is another cartoon where Scrappy almost kills his little brother. As anyone that reads this knows, I’ve got a thing for Scrappy. What do you folks think of this one? Do you have a favorite of this series?
Less rambling next week and more about scans of rare negatives! 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.
You’re assumption is correct, Pestroy was a brand of DDT from Sherwin-Williams (The paint people).
http://i845.photobucket.com/albums/ab15/MedRen/1947/IMG_0045.jpg
Pestroy was indeed DDT (was DDT indeed? There’s no way to say that without sounding goofy…) It’s mentioned several times in the film. Though the music isn’t credited, it sure sounds like Clarence Wheeler at work.
Wow, Scrappy really is a reprehensible character but these are such great cartoons. Thanks Steve.
The original ending: Oopie drowns. Scrappy gets the chair.
What does Oopie say at the end, I can’t make it out.
Oopie is saying “I want a drink of water.”
Ha! I bought 5 discs worth of Scrappy cartoon while I was at the Cinefest and was watching some just last night. So it all ties together, I suppose. A lot of them are head-scratchers but…
I. Can’t. Look. Away.
I wonder who worked on this. It has sort of a Famous Studio feel, those artists would have had some bug experience. Famous was based in New York (after a stint in Miami), Fairbanks was based in California, maybe it was his Speaking of Animals crew.
Great post, Steve. We did a bug-themed Cartoon Carnival screening a few months back…I hadn’t actually sat down and watched the cartoons all the way through before screening them at the show, and we were amused (some even annoyed) at how many of the 30s Terrys and Van Beurens have the same “save your flea girlfriend from the evil spider” plot!
And how many ended repetitively with the hero stabbing the spider—sometimes with visible blood—sending him falling to his doom?
It felt like because the characters were bugs, and thus somehow swattable, Terry and Van Beuren felt it OK to hit them with more extreme violence than you would see with other species. But it was always the same more extreme violence.
Always liked Scrappy since I watched him on TV darn near 60 years ago. I have an unrelated question for Steve. I pre ordered the Classics From Van Beuren Studios DVD on Amazon last month and wondered when I should expect to receive it. Thanks
I do hope Van Beuren Classics shows up this week; we have a new replicator on the project and it’s now 2 weeks late. We’ll send as soon as they show up here… the set turned out really great.
Thanks for posting the “Pest Roy” promotional film to the Internet Archive rather than YouTube. I downloaded the highest quality version (344MB) and it took about 20 minutes. It was completely worth the time. The quality is much better, and a higher-quality version can (easily) be saved for later– don’t worry, I’ll still buy your DVDs and Blu-Rays. Do you plan to post your videos on the Internet Archive from now on?
Thanks, Steve, for always keeping Thursday interesting!
Archive.org is a good home for it, though it does lead to too many opportunities for those who decide to DVD copies of whatever’s on there just so they have some content to ‘share’. I’ve seen this many times over.
You have a “thing” for SCRAPPY like I have a “thing” for BUDDY but, in their way, they certainly are collectable cartoons, and I wish I had that disk or so being sold at Cinefest of SCRAPPY cartoons. Regarding bug cartoons, yes, there are a lot of ’em, even some produced during this particular era, like “BUDDY’S BUG HUNT”, an incredibly elusive cartoon. Sure wish that Jerry or you could somehow impress upon Warner Brothers why some of the missing toons need to be put up here on posts like this–but there is also “JOE GLOW THE FIREFLY” which is one of those great Chuck Jones atmospheric cartoons as we see things from an insect’s point of view…and we all know the HAPPY HARMONIES titles that include insects either as main characters or protagonists that turn an entire cartoon on its ear!
You have a “thing” for SCRAPPY like I have a “thing” for BUDDY but, in their way, they certainly are collectable cartoons.
I personally have a “thing” for FARMER ALFALFA
The music cue heard at the beginning and end of the “Pestroy” film, Steve, is probably a library track, as it can be heard in the animated bit sometimes seen at the tail end of “Mr. and Mrs. North” episodes! What library it originates from I have not got a clue.
Ants and bees seemed to have fared better than other bug specials; studios were doing shorts about those species into the fifties.
Recall seeing that “Mickey’s Follies” film box elsewhere before, for anyone curious to see what this was (remember, at your own risk)…
https://youtu.be/3kdnyS8Ai6k?t=12m16s
I think the Fleischers also tried getting into the “bug” plot with the Color Classic “The Cobweb Hotel” which, in my opinion, is a very weird film. I wish I could see it in full Technicolor.
The opening tune under the credits is “Shoo Fly, Don’t Bother Me”!
The cartoon included in the AVO box, actually is MICKEY’S FOLLIES ! I have it, in sound and colorized. They used it as a general box .I also have AIN’T NATURE GRAND? also with the original soundtrack,and colorized.
Wow P.A Carayannis! You Have It! I Want To See Them! But Why Is ”Mickey’s Follies” Colorized By Fred Ladd In The 1970s? I Just Saw Some Redrawn Colorized Cartoons Like Merrie Melodies’s Foxy, Bosko, Felix The Cat, Betty Boop, Popeye, And Looney Tunes! So, What do you think about the Mickey’s Follies Colorized Cartoon from the 1970s? I Want to see it now!
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I have another one, titled CORRIDA which must be a silent Paul Terry,colorized and musicalized!