Things at Thunderbean is moving right along as the last elements on Flip the Frog are getting cleaned up and several other sets are at the forefront. The team is super busy for about another week on a rush project, but I can’t wait to get back to our usual routine. Since there’s nothing too new to report, let’s watch a cartoon! I’ll have a more exciting update next week.
Sometimes, I like to see these Thunderbean Thursday articles as a way of pullin’ out a projector. Sharing old prints has always been one of my favorite things to do, so in may ways Thunderbean was always an extension of that. My favorite shows- both ones that I’ve been to as well as showing films myself— always have things that I would be surprised to see-although sometimes that means seeing cartoons that, honestly, will never been at the top of a list of classics, or even anyone’s favorite. Still, they’re fun to see.
Park Your Baby (1939) has rarely been removed from its can in the 30 years or something I’ve had the print, but it did make it out recently. This particular print was purchased from Jerry Nelson, a longtime collector and dealer who once brought a whole bunch of Scrappys with him to one of the film shows. I had asked if he could, and was amazed that he had a whole bunch of stuff with him, and was deciding on the spot prices on each.
I’d say “this one is from 1936 I think” and he’d say “Oh, that one will be $15” or “this is a pretty good one- I’d like $22 for it”. I was in high school back then, and had saved about $200 (from working dressed as a Rat and working the game room at Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizzatime Theatre). I think I must have spent all that on Scrappys that day- but I sold other 16mm films too. I loved the old film shows, but I’d dress in a Rat costume any day and be abused by children if it meant more Scrappy cartoons!
Park Your Baby is far from the best of the series, but it’s still fun. The idea of unruly kids and angry parents shows up in more than one cartoon. In this story, Scrappy, a ten year old or so boy, is working at a department store watching children at the nursery — a coat check of sorts to ‘park your baby’ while you shop. Of course, this is a recipe for disaster, with a “tough guy” forcing Scrappy to watch his very young, very terrible toddlers. After the better part of 400 or more feet of footage, Scrappy has finally it with them, throwing them into the ‘Bad Boy Pacifier”. It beats them up, literally punching them repeatedly in the face, turning them into sweet but somewhat effeminate new versions of themselves.
This little print is finally enjoying some viewing in its digital forms.
Have a good week everyone, and make sure to watch this cartoon in HD.
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.
Little by little I’ve been making my way through the Scrappy catalogue. In general I prefer the early ones directed by Dick Huemer, especially for his bizarre animal designs and horrific gags; I think the Hollywood Production Code knocked a lot of the scrappiness out of Scrappy. Still, as you say, “Park Your Baby” is good fun. I love the design of the nursery with the panel paintings of animals over a frieze of duckies, and the character animation of the tough guy with his unshaven frog face and cauliflower ears. Getting to see these rarities from your collection is my favourite part of Thunderbean Thursday.
Bet you wish you had a Bad Boy Pacifier when you worked at Chuck E. Cheese’s!
While far from being the nicest cartoon, that is one of the kinder Samba prints, actually have more focus then normal
More evidence that my vasectomy was money well spent.
“There’s no ifs or maybes, I’ll never have babies!” — Popeye the sailor man (in “Little Swee’ Pea”, 1936)
Supposedly released the same day as Gulliver’s Travels…
Scrappy’s appearance, and voice, changed a lot from cartoon to cartoon, but I don’t recall him ever looking much like the ( bad) drawing on his title card.
“Nix, fellas. Nix.”
Could the title be a tip of the hat to Harry Einstein’s Parkyakarkus who was getting a lot of radio time in the late 1930’s?