The Scrappy cartoons have always been a favorite of mine, and maybe always will be-but, in the past,the collectors of 16mm cartoons I was often chatting with would often here a less-than-favorable review of them – saying “The Krazy Kats are better”. While I *had* a lot of Krazy Kats, I usually wouldn’t pursue them in the same way I would the Scrappys, so I ended up with a lot of Scrappys and only a handful of Krazys comparatively over the years. That isn’t to say I didn’t enjoy them. They were just in a category somewhere below the Scrappys, and when I found some for sale, the Scrappy I didn’t have would be bought first.
Now, all these years later, I’m way, way less likely to focus on collecting film and more about restoring things from film. There’s just too much to do, but I do think, possibly, at some point, I’ll still want to get more Krazys than I have currently.
Of course, The Columbia Krazy Kat isn’t really Krazy Kat at all, at least not in the sense of the brilliant comic strip. The Columbia Krazys are their own entity, bearing more a resemblance to every other studio’s cute 30s characters and the expected population of animals. I have to admit I really like most anything with that formula, so, in that way, the early ones are great. This one, Ritzy Hotel (1932) has all the elements of the best of the series – great animation, funny gags and a happy Joe DeNat score. What could be better?
Ben Harrison and Manny Gould were exclusively helming the direction of the series from 1926, when Mitnz’s studio was in New York, moved to the west coast into the beginning of the sound era though 1933, then continuing to direct some of the cartoons along with the Color Rhapsodies series. It was a popular enough series through those early 30s years, then really began to lose steam in the mid-30s as so many cartoon series do.
I’ve been really enjoying reading your thoughts on these cartoons, and the information each person brings as well. I can’t wait until the end of the school year and the current giant pile of restoration and Blu-ray stuff I’m sorting through to be a little less overwhelming so I can spend a little time writing a little more too!
This week’s print is from Tommy Stathes’ collection- he was kind enough to lend. It’s sadly warping a little here and there, but still a good watch. Thanks Tommy, and have a good week 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.
“Ritzy Hotel” makes a fine companion to Terry’s “The Prize Guest”, posted here last Thursday. Like the Terrytoon’s Grand Hotel, the Ritzy Hotel has a spectacled desk clerk in a bow tie, a grumpy house detective (in a much smaller role), and a bellhop (in a starring role). The main difference is that the Grand Hotel, where “nothing ever happens,” apparently has only one guest — the prize one — whereas the Ritzy Hotel is a much livelier establishment.
It’s a fun cartoon. The business with the elevators is quite funny, the sort of gag that might tend to drag out in a live-action comedy but works well here. Likewise the comic interplay between Krazy Kat and Mr. Zilch. What could be better? Well, it might be a better cartoon if it had been directed by Dick Huemer. Huemer’s funny animal designs were in a class by themselves.
Me. Zilch sort of reminds me of the old coot from Porky’s Hotel. I dunno, maybe the “old guy with a broken leg enters a hotel” could have been a cliche at the time.
There was another bearded guest with a bandaged foot who came to stay at “The Health Farm” (Terrytoons, 1936).
That elevator gag would probably have to run slower in live action. A Tashlin-directed Jerry Lewis film might rig three doors with a lighting effect behind the glass so he can zip the elevators up and down beyond real world physics.
I will admit that I’m not that fond of adaptations that just take the name and do anything but the source material (see also: The Baby Blues animated series.) However, despite that, Krazy Kat is a decent series of shorts. Not good, not bad, just decent.
What could be better? Maybe, just maybe, a cartoon series in which the characters bear at least SOME resemblance to their original creator’s idea of them. I can only guess why these got George Herriman’s approval to be made. It was probably because it was the depths of the Depression, and Mr. Herriman needed the money. Even though the “Kat” strip was widely syndicated in the Hearst newspapers, newspaper sales were way down in the 30’s, along with everything else.
The much later King Features efforts are much better, and their low-budget animation didn’t ruin them in the way that they ruined the King Features Popeyes. In fact, given Herriman’s sparse but brilliant scratchy drawing style, it may even have helped to make them look much more faithful to tha strip. Which these sorry things are most defintitely— not!
George Herriman had a lifetime contract with King Features Syndicate and was far from desperate for money. The first animated Krazy Kat cartoons came out back in 1925, produced by Bill Nolan for Margaret Winkler; when Winkler married Charles Mintz, he took over the operation of the studio. By the 1930s, the Krazy Kat comic strip was in a state of decline, carried by fewer than 40 newspapers. It would have made sense for the Mintz studio to seek inspiration not from a comic strip that was no longer popular, but from animated characters like Mickey Mouse and Bimbo, who were.
They did make one, “Lil’ Ainjil” in 1936, bringing the original comic’s style and cast to the screen. However, according to Izzy Klein, who worked on this film, he was disappointed in the result. And it seemed that the audience didn’t have a good response, otherwise they wouldn’t continue making the Krazy Kat who looked more like Mickey Mouse in my opinion. I haven’t found what George Herriman’s true attitude towards these cartoons, but I won’t be surprised if the attitude is not positive.
This cartoon is from the interesting 1931–32 season when Ben Harrison and Manny Gould, for whatever reason, split and directed cartoons separately. Gould did the majority, which also featured a rotating animation credit for Al Rose/Jack Carr/Harry Love, while Harrison helmed only four, the first two of which appear (from my studying) to be almost entirely animated by him as well. Ritzy Hotel is one of Gould’s entries. The styles and sensibilities of the two directors as expressed in this season are quite distinct and it provides insight that facilitates recognizing their contributions in the earlier and later cartoons they co-directed.
I always roll my eyes at Herriman fanbois’ venomous dismissals of these cartoons, which seem to pop up in the classic animation scene in disproportionate number compared to what other series receive. It’s fair enough to criticize the misleading “Adapted from George Herriman’s Cartoon Character” line emblazoned by the studio in the earlier original opening titles, but a thoughtful and informed perspective would appreciate that the series’ non-adherence to the strip, combined with the Schlesinger-esque extent that Mintz permitted his directors creative control, enabled Harrison and Gould to actually be artists and express themselves more freely, and would hence appreciate those artists’ work on their own terms. If I want to enjoy the creative expression of George Herriman, I’ll go appreciate his actual work, not expect others to slavishly imitate him in a different medium at the expense of their own artistic expression. Moreover, the divergence of the “Krazy Kat” animated cartoons from the strip goes back well before Harrison, Gould, or the Mintz studio were even involved, so it’s not exactly fair to criticize *these* cartoons or artists for it when it was already an established aspect of the theatrical product, and for some reason it always seems to be these Mintz sound-era films that take the brunt of criticism. Further, if there was actual demand from theater audiences for a series that closely imitated the strip—and one always needs to consider how the commodity nature of theatrical animation shaped it even then—perhaps it would have been so. The later Mintz-era experiment with adapting the strip in an animated short (L’il Ainjil) certainly didn’t result in a continuing series.
“Gould did the majority, which also featured a rotating animation credit for Al Rose/Jack Carr/Harry Love”, I think I saw Al Eugster and Preston Blair was in the rotating animation credit, too. Or was I wrong?
Honestly, I think the divergence of “Krazy Kat” began to happen in 1925, it was Bill Nolan making these cartoons. He made Krazy’s design and personality reflected on Felix the Cat, which was also developed by him. But at that time, he still kept the original comic’s cast despite making a few alternations about them, like Kwakk Wakk was at times Krazy’s paramour, with Ignatz often the bully trying to break up the romance. By 1927, Nolan’s influence faded as Harrison and Gould took over.
It seemed that most of the comic-adapted cartoon series didn’t have a nice reputation. Screen Gems not only did Krazy Kat, but also Barney Google and Li’l Abner, and neither of them lasted long with Al Capp was not pleased with the latter’s adaption. MGM didn’t have their luck on The Captain and the Kids even with Bill Hanna and Friz Freleng directing them, while Count Screwloose could have the potential with Milt Gross being the director, he was fired after only two cartoons were made. Fleischer’s Superman is great, but when Famous Studio took over, the quality dropped due to limited budget. Little Lulu was not bad but Famous Studios eventually chose to create Little Audrey. And the late-40s to 50s Popeyes became formulaic with either Popeye-Olive-Bluto triangle or occasionally Popeye trying to convince his nephews to accept spinach. And who could see it coming that Paul Terry actually did two cartoon adaptations on the comic “Nancy”? It was said that Charles M. Schulz didn’t trust the Hollywood guys of adapting Peanuts into cartoons at first (considering these examples above, I couldn’t blame him), but when he met Bill Melendez, he trusted him and we got the TV specials.