Back in 2014, we did a show for TCM that featured Van Beuren studio’s Rough on Rats. Today, as I was looking through archive drives for a different film cleanup project, I stumbled upon the standard def transfer of the film, and it looked so lovely I thought it would be fun to write about.
First, in Thunderbean world:
Traveling for Thunderbean:
I’ll be in Chicago this week, then New York the next- it looks like traveling to do this or that is something that will be continuing, at least currently. The New York trip includes a significant scanning session. Haven’t been downtown Chicago in a bit here- but very much looking forward to the trips.
On Special Discs:
We’ve been working to get things organized for the upcoming dubbing festival. Special discs will be fast and furious as the masters are finished. So far I’ve got five built and checked. It looks like, at the moment, eight of the nine we have listed to send in August will indeed be sent this month (including the much anticipated PD Mouse Adventures) with the T-shirts and the Sam Basset set. Ok, Lost media folks, spread the word now! Here’s the link.
Through these years, the special discs sets have been so much fun to do- and made so many things available in decent quality that otherwise probably wouldn’t be. It’s looking like quite a few of more can get finished in September as well.
On Rainbow Parades:
Work has been growing great on this title; We’ll have the set all cleaned up this month and hopefully mastered. We’re down to three films left in progress now. I love how it’s looking, and the bonus features are looking really lovely as well.
And now..onto the cartoon!
In looking to see if I did write about it earlier, I came across a 2014 post from the TCM showing, and smiled seeing the picture sitting with Robert Osbourne when we did that show 10 years back. Robert was a lovely person who put everyone there at ease, even though he was the centerpiece of the day’s shoot. That article is here.
..and here’s what I wrote about Rough on Rats back then:
Rough on Rats (1933). Dir. Harry Bailey. A favorite among the Aesop’s Fables, and the last of the long running series. Rough on Rats is truly a transition film for the studio, not only in ending a series, but in style and animation quality. Well structured and timed, the film has well animated sequences next to very mediocre ones, though all work just fine to convey the story. I was fascinated at just how violent this film was when I first saw it as a teenager. The manic sequence near the end of the film features the tune “Zombie” as these formally helpless kittens torture and ultimately kill their rat tormenter. I do think he deserved it for almost chopping one of them into meat slices. In looking at the films made before this at Van Beuren, the leaps forward in timing, film construction and animation are evident. Still, I think it’s fitting that they end this film with one of the little kitten’s faces coming toward the camera, as is common in so many of the very early Fables.
In the next few weeks I’m going to dig out the ‘Uncensored Animation’ archive drive. I haven’t looked at that stuff in ages, and one of my favorite things about that disc was Mark Kausler’s commentary on Rough On Rats. Listening reminds you of why animation is such a lovely medium: a film is enjoyable for what is it as you’re watching it, but there’s always the ability to take a peek into the time the film was made, not only in the sensibilities of the film, but what it says about culture and the cultural experience the filmmakers reflected on the screen. I’ll dig that out again soon.
Rough on Rats was the last Aesop’s Fable that didn’t feature Cubby Bear, so it’s sort of the last of the series. After working on the Rainbow Parade cartoons as well as watching some of the earlier films more recently, you can really see the progression of the studio, and what animators started to be more sophisticated in their approach and techniques, and what ones were still working in the similar ways they had in the late 20s.
Still, as so many things are going on here with projects, I’m always reminded of the real reason to watch old cartoons: They are enjoyable, and were made to be enjoyed. All the other stuff is secondary and a deeper dive. Sometimes a nice swim is as satisfying as a deeper dive.
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.
I don’t see “PD Mouse Adventures” ANYWHERE in the Thunderbean Shop o_O
Excellent cartoon. I saw it when you showed it on Turner Classic Movies a decade ago, Mr. Stanchfield. Watched it again on line a few months ago. There’s a sense of real danger for that kitten in the scene with the rat. I wonder if it can be considered a minor classic?
I get the impression that “Rough on Rats” was a brand name for a type of rat poison that was available back in those days. Trivia note: The working title for the lost 1927 Laurel and Hardy comedy “Hats Off” – the Holy Grail of Laurel and Hardy comedies – was “Rough on Hats.” (From the latest edition of Randy Skretvedt’s huge tome “Laurel and Hardy: The Magic Behind the Movies.” 2016 edition or something like that.) And let’s give a nod to the Edgar Kennedy “Average Man” comedy “Rough on Rents” (1942).
Stevie baby, I’ll provide an unsolicited plug for your “Sam Bassett” Blu-Ray DVD anytime you want it. Those cartoons are so stupid they’re funny. Looking forward to the DVD. Then my life will be full.
Thank you for pointing out those connections to “Rough on Rats.” Here’s another one: that phrase shows up — indeed, as the name of a poison — in Winsor McCay’s “The Pet.” (In that film, it doesn’t work!)
Your impression is correct. “Rough on Rats” was made in Jersey City by Ephraim S. Wells and was very widely sold in the latter part of the 19th century early into the 20th century. See some samples of not only its advertising, but the advertising it influenced, here: https://history.nebraska.gov/rough-on-rats-and-biles-and-piles-and-corns/ “Rough on Rats,” like its contemporaries Fletcher’s Castoria or Sapolio, entered into the vernacular because of their omnipresent advertising, and you can see how even as late as the 1930s, using the term would evoke a memory.
Rough on Rats entrepreneur E. S. Wells of Jersey City also commissioned what may have been one of the earliest advertising jingles for a commercial product, publishing the song “Rough on Rats”, with lyrics by W. A. Bostom and music by the euphoniously named Jules Juniper, which I strongly suspect is a pseudonym, in 1882. The sheet music retailed for 35 cents, a lot of money in the 19th century for two pages of piano score with advertisements for unrelated products on the back. Its catchy chorus goes:
Rats! Rats! Rats! ROUGH ON RATS!
Hang the dogs and drown the cats!
We give a plan for every man
To clear his house with ROUGH ON RATS!
“Hang the dogs and drown the cats”??? At least it didn’t say anything about slicing the cats up into salami. Something tells me that Wells would have enjoyed the cartoon, as long as it came with an advertising pitch at the end. “Hey, moviegoers! Don’t waste your bananas and fine English walnuts on those vermin! Buy ROUGH ON RATS today!”
This cartoon needs to be inducted into the National Film Registry.
I’m starting to think that was a joke on me.
Commentaries are real fun for me because I know nobody who cares about animation, so I have someone to laugh with or study with.
Pete are you on letterboxd? You can review or talk about classic theatrical shorts. I’m there, same name. Comment on one of my reviews and tell me why I’m wrong (they are mostly just jokes, however, but I like keeping track of which shorts to revisit).
Any update to share on the Bunin Alice in Wonderland?
Nope, not an especially original cartoon. Someone must have a catalogue of all cartoons from all studios where set-upon cute mice or other cuties turn household items into weapons against threatening outsiders. There must be a reason so many of them were made, but I don’t need to see another one.
I did like the music during the onslaught, a jazzy theme with ladies singing a minor-key counterpoint of “oooooohs”.
I could listen to Mark Kausler for hours on end talking about animation and cartoons. I really enjoyed his insights into this cartoon.
Forgive my ignorance, but I thought “rough on rats“ was a war time reference. There was even references to it somewhere throughout “Rocky and his friends“ story, arcs, but I can’t think of where exactly right now. I think it was something to do with Boris Bino, actually! I am also looking forward to all these “special“ discs. They make my day! Of course I’m also looking for releases from the big boys, that is over at the WarnerArchive and so many other things. I wish animation was treated so much better, but OK, I’m glad for what I get. Good luck on your trip to New York and Chicago, I’m sure you’re “getting it done!“
Kevin, your memory is amazing. You’re right, Rough On Rats was referred to on “Rocky and Friends”, in Part 3 of the “Buried Treasure” adventure. Boris Badenov, alias Baby Face Braunschweiger, and his criminal gang, the Light-Fingered Five Minus Two, are robbing a bank when Rocky, looking for Bullwinkle, innocently asks Boris if he has seen a moose go by. “Hey, Baby Face, you know who that is?” says one of the gangsters. “That’s Rocky the flying squirrel! He’s rough on rats! We better get out of here!”