I was gobsmacked last night when I went to put this post together and discovered that I never featured Scrappy Ghost Story here on TB Thursday’s cartoon corner. So, here it is, borrowed from a pretty decent print that Tommy Stathes was nice enough to lend me.
First, in some mini-Thunderbean news:
We didn’t get the Halloween set out this year, so earlier this week we sent a tide-me-over disc to all the people in the states that ordered it, featuring 18 Halloween and ghost-themed cartoons, including ‘Bold King Cole’ newly restored from the negative.
At the Thunderbean Shop we’ve put up a pre-order for a new 3-disc special set called ‘Save the Scanner’. We’re working to help avert a crisis at the scanning place we get a lot of our stuff done at in New York. We’ve opened the vault of old special sets as well for about another week to help them as well, with 10% off everything.
Now — onto today’s cartoon: Scappy’s Ghost Story!
If you look at the credits on this Scrappy, you’ll notice the credits list Ben Harrison and Manny Gould, the usual team behind the Krazy Kat series rather than the Scrappys. There’s only one other Scrappy by this team, Graduation Exercises, and both are pretty fun little films.
As in a lot of the Harrison/Gould Krazy Kat films,a music and dancing sequence takes up a nice chunk of footage. The animation throughout is delightful. I especially love the timing of a scene where Scrappy threatens to hit Oopy, who then averts the hit and steps hard on Scrappys foot, leaving him screaming and flailing his arms in a crazy rubbery way. Background layout and lighting design works very well throughout, with shadows in the opening and closing that are especially nice. We run into a few stereotypes along the way on this one as well.
I especially like the score on this cartoon, and frequently think of the themes here, even though some are repeat offerings. All in all you can’t go wrong with this one.
So, enjoy Scrappy’s Ghost Story — and hope that someday, maybe, we’ll get to see these from the preserved master materials!
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.
“Scrappy’s Ghost Story” doesn’t have much of one — a story, that is. It never builds up a crescendo toward an horrific climax like “The Skeleton Dance”, “Swing You Sinners!” or “The Cat’s Nightmare”. The “snooky, ooky, spooky, wooky, eerie, dreary, scary ghost” is at his scariest before he’s revealed to be Oopy in disguise; once the boys take the elevator to the netherworld, the spooks and their antics are comparatively benign. So I personally wouldn’t rank it among the top macabre cartoons of the early sound era, and I don’t find Joe De Nat’s score to be particularly inspired. But visually, wow, what a treat. First-rate animation and brilliant design, as you say, staged throughout with a marvelous sense of depth. I don’t recall ever having seen it before, so thanks for posting it here today. I have a feeling that, like so many cartoons of this period, it will only improve with repeated viewings.
This is your first Scrappy post in nearly four months, and only your third this year! Don’t tell me you’re getting tired of the little guy?
It was actually a pretty good cartoon.
Wanna let you folks know… It took the Thunderbean Web site a fair amount of time to accept my order, so be patient. Yes, I did oreder the “Save the Scanner” set!
(Along with a bunch of other stuff. There is no such thing as too many cartoons.)
Stevey, congratulations on your association with MeTV and MeTV Toons.
Hey, folks, guys and gals: This is as good a time as any to ask you about a Scrappy cartoon question I have. According to a Web site, Ub Iwerks directed “Scrappy’s Trip to Mars.”
I have my doubts about that. Can anybody shed some light on this? Thanks,,,
Scrappy’s Trip to Mars was directed by Allen Rose. After Ben Harrison began exclusively directing Color Rhapsodies following Scrappy’s Camera Troubles in 1936 (There are 2 exceptions, the 1938 Krazy Kat – The Sad Little Guinea Pigs, And the 1941 Phantasy – The Wallflower), Allen Rose was promoted to take his place, directing Scrappy’s alongside Art Davis. Ub Iwerks seems to have had a contract for 4 Color Rhapsodies each season, leading to the 15 cartoons he did, and The Carpenters (1941) which Paul Fennell directed to fulfil the contract. So it is unlikely that Iwerks did direct a Scrappy.
Well, if the website you said was called “Columbia Cartoons Wiki”, I could say that source was totally wrong. Besides, it is just a fandom, and unlike the Looney Tunes Wiki, it seems far less reliable for me and I really don’t get where they got that source.
You can say that Scrappy’s only appearance in Ub’s cartoons is “The Horse on the Merry-Go-Round” in 1938, which is a cameo as a toy. Though I did wonder how it was if Ub actually direct one Scrappy cartoon, I think it could have some veins of his Willie Whopper series.
The order for the Iwerks shorts is just an assumption based on the release dates and the 4 short deal he had with Schlesinger, probably should have made that more clear sorry about that. As for Allen Rose his shorts begin after the last of Harrisons black and white output which can be confirmed with the copyright catalog (rather annoying that it stops listing credits after 1937 don’t ya think). I completely agree that the wiki should be avoided when in search for accurate information and so I avoid it myself. As for your second comment, yeah Allen Rose’s output is far weaker than his contemporaries (both visually and in terms of overall humour), especially the further into the 30’s and early 40’s you go.
Thanks for the comment I just find the studios output deserves far more discussion then it gets (as it seems you do to) and spreading misinformation is the last thing I’d want to do.
Yeah, I think compare to the other wikis, at least Looney Tunes Wiki’s information about its franchise can be a bit more accurate and reliable (like the cartoon history, animation breakdown, etc.), but even that, there can STILL be some misleading information, too. I mean, can you believe that it says that Ben Harrison wrote several Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies in the mid-30s? WTF? And it says that the source is from BMDB, OK WTF again?!
Seriously, it’s best NOT to completely rely on the fandom wiki if you don’t want misleading information. Better not taking the risks.
And yeah, I do think this studio (along with Terrytoons and Van Beuren IMO)’s outputs needs more discussions. Especially with Screen Gems, the credit stuff can be really confusing, which annoys me a lot.
And while you’re at it, Stanch, change yer shirt.
(A “running” joke?)
The Bold King Cole looks amazing
Well, I have known Steve for well over 30 years, and he HAS changed his shirt – from time to time!
I’m surprised nobody here has commented on the satire of the Max Fleischer – Cab Calloway scene with the “black ghosts.” (No racial slurs intended, I’m sure!) Nice parody shot of the “rotoscoped” ghost Calloway played in SNOW WHITE (1932)! Or am I thinking of MINNIE THE MOOCHER?
There are six Scrappy’s handled by Ben Harrison and Manny Gould. The previously mentioned Graduation Exercises (1935) their first Scrappy short, Scrappy’s Ghost Story (1935) as shown here, Scrappy’s Big Moment (1935), Scrappy’s Trailer (1935), Scrappy’s Pony (1936) and Scrappy’s Camera Troubles (1936).
Thank you for the scan, all the Harrison directed Scrappy’s are fun cartoons, but this one might just be their best.
Actually, “Scrappy’s Big Moment” and “Scrappy’s Camera Troubles” were shown on the website, too. And while Sid Marcus and Art Davis being in charge of the series, it was quite refreshing to see Harrison and Gould handle some cartoons of the series before Allen Rose took over (not saying Rose’s works were bad, but the cartoons he handled did look kinda weak compared to said people above)
It will not be too many more years before a plethora of our favorite early 30’s B/W Halloween titles fall into public domain. Would be great to see a combo Blu Ray of Disney, Fleischer, Lantz, etc titles centered on the theme.