It’s been a difficult week here. My friend, film collector and artist Jeff Missinne, passed away. I’ll be writing a tribute to him next week. He was a lovely person, and had a lot to do with getting my tiny company, Snappy video, off the ground many years back. In more recent years he helped with some rare films for the Tom and Jerry and Little King sets as well as others. He was also a contributor to Mindrot and the Animania zine, writing “The Catbird Seat” in the late 70s and early 80s- key to my learning about all this stuff.
Back on the Thunderbean front though, things are going in good directions. We’ve been sending a big batch of five special disc sets, along with Rainbow Parades, Volume 2. We’ve also launched two new special sets at the Thunderbean Shop. The stock for Noveltoons got lost by UPS a few weeks back, but thankfully Pressing Media re-replicated them fast, and they arrived yesterday.
These next few weeks most likely involve a trip to Los Angeles and New York if it’s somewhere in the cards (and gas and plane and Diesel prices agree enough). I’m incredibly happy to have things moving forward on many fronts right now, and especially looking forward to helping wrap several projects for Thunderbean and work with Tommy Stathes’ Cartoons on Film.
This week, on Sunday night (1:30am to 2:30am — so really very early Monday!) MeTV is starting a program called Animation Antiques, featuring a selection of shorts from the Thunderbean cartoon library along with other cartoons. For the films from Thunderbean, we went back to the masters we’ve done over the years and redid or revised many of them since we have better restoration software these days. We’re happy to be a part of the program.
The Thunderbean logo at the end of some of the films features our little character unraveling film. In a way, it’s an animated response to the comments about me unraveling film all over the place on the YouTube show ‘Tested’. Here’s that show.
While it’s definitely not the most organized week in this TB Thursday post, I’m happy that the Noveltoons Blu-ray is finally back in stock, and happy with the revisions in the new reissue. I thought a Noveltoon would be a good choice for a cartoon this week.
Yankee Doodle Donkey (1943) is Famous studio’s return to using Spunky from the Fleischer Color Classics. It wasn’t the last time he’d show up, but I guess his return didn’t spark much interest since it was 11 years before they brought him back again (!) in a Casper cartoon (Boo Kind to Animals, 1955). He returns one more time, in Okey Dokey Donkey, from 1958. You can watch a copy here.
Yankee Doodle Donkey is a fun cartoon. The studio’s animation is great, and the gas always make me smile on this film. I’m happy we managed to get a better of a print to clean up for the new pressing of the Noveltoons set. I especially love the music score on this particular cartoon. I find it a little strange that Spunky sort of talks at the beginning of the film, then never again. Maybe it’s supposed to be him musing in his head over the recruitment sign. I’ve always like the ant voices as well. I first had a very red and scratchy NTA print of this short in the mid-80s. I don’t remember what happened to that print, and I’m glad we were able to get better!
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.
Sorry to hear about Jeff Missinne. I recall that you mentioned him in your post about Dave Kirwan, who also passed away this year. It’s a terrible blow to lose two good friends just months apart. I look forward to reading more about Jeff in your column next week.
As for “Yankee Doodle Donkey”, I notice that no one mentioned it in the survey of favourite wartime cartoons that you conducted here a few weeks ago, but it’s quite a good one, certainly superior to any of Spunky’s previous appearances. One thing I like about it is that, while there are many cartoons about fleas, this is the only one to get an important biological fact about them right: namely, that most fleas are host-specific and will only afflict one particular kind of animal. (A notable exception is the primary vector of the bubonic plague, the Oriental rat flea, which can feed on any terrestrial mammal.) In fact, it is Spunky’s imperviousness to flea bites that enables him to defeat the enemy and save the regiment. In a cartoon made when the U.S. Armed Forces had not yet been desegregated, it’s a nice little lesson about the value of diversity in the ranks.
One thing I just noticed about “Yankee Doodle Donkey” is that it lacks the usual Famous Studios credit for “Scenics.” The background art is less detailed, less elaborate, and more stylised than that of Shane Miller, Anton Loeb, or Robert Connavale, the studio’s principal background artists at this time. Whoever painted it did a serviceable job, I think. If anyone has any information about this uncredited artist, then, like Spunky himself, I’m all ears.
I think they actually haven’t credited the scenic man yet? At least that wouldn’t happen until “A Famous Studios Production” got a single title.
Good point! “Yankee Doodle Donkey” was only the fifth Noveltoon released. The first three in the series have no credit for Scenics, but the fourth one, “The Enchanted Square”, does (for Shane Miller). The Scenics credit appeared only irregularly until the 17th Noveltoon, “Sudden Fried Chicken”, in late 1946. I think the background artist for “Yankee Doodle Donkey” might have been the same one who worked on the first Blackie cartoon, “No Mutton fer Nuttin'”. The style is very similar, and it doesn’t look like Miller’s or Loeb’s work.
This is a delightful cartoon. I had never seen it before and have never been much of a fan of Hunky & Spunky. But this one does what Famous studios usually did well–tell the story of an underdog who makes good and finds his niche. Pretty sure I heard the voices of Jack Mercer and Jackson Beck, and it’s interesting to note that Mercer got writer’s credit on this one.
Did that jester character in the opening credits ever have a name?
It’s always a pleasure to hear the Noveltoons opening theme. It’s much more lively than the usual Hunky & Spunky theme, “Keep a Goin'”.
The Famous Studios Jack-in-the-Box – as far as I know – was never named. In 1959 when the 1950s Famous cartoons were re-named “Harveytoons”, the “Jester” was redesigned by Warren Kremer for use on the TV titles – and as a mascot for the Harvey Comics.
I believe it was in the 1990s the later Harvey Entertainment Company (the Jeff Montgomery era) gave their Jester a name: “Ha-Ha”. I’m not sure anyone outside of the company knows that. He’s just the “jester” (or “Jack”) to me.
I was pen pals with Jeff in the 1980s, back when I was making my own homemade animated cartoons with an 8mm silent camera. Jeff contributed to two of those films, writing and storyboarding one. Hearing of his passing is saddening.
Directed by Izzy Sparber.
Wonderfully written, beautifully animated, and very funny! So . . . when did the creative spark that characterized these early Famous cartoons fade away, and why?
One could argue that the turning point for Famous Studios was the death of business manager Sam Buchwald in 1951. After that, Seymour Kneitel and Izzy Sparber were forced to assume his administrative duties as well as their own, which sucked a lot of the joy and creativity out of the cartoons they made.
Thanks for the cartoon, as I quite enjoyed it!
But does anyone, other than me, think the designs of the characters look streamlined, as would happen with almost all cartoons in the latter 50’s after the UPA influence? I would have guessed this was a late 50’s cartoon by the way the characters looked. I guess I got me some learning to do about the styles in different period Fleischer/Famous/Paramount Cartoons!
Here’s a 1958 Spunky — I suspect the last one — that really shows the UPA influence:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsWmCS_78Io
Not very impressive, and the sparse backgrounds seem to be the result of a low budget rather than any UPA influence. Also, the story makes no sense— there’s no explanation for why a carousel horse would suddenly come to life (maybe the writers just couldn’t think of one). Also, why does Spunky know that her name is Marilyn, when she hasn’t told him? Is he a mind-reader?
Then they end up having some sort of “relationship” after she’s back in harness on the carousel, and so the ending doesn’t make any sense either. What happens later on? There’s no answer to this, just a fadeout. With a butt gag, yet! Which is the only thing here that’s even slightly reminiscent of a Disney cartoon.
It’s hard to imagine either adults or children being amused by this effort— a sad and sorry relic of a studio that was clearly struggling to reinvent itself, with no idea of how they were going to accomplish that goal.
A decent cartoon. Kind of reminds of a Disney short for some reason.
A rather decent cartoon. Kind of felt like a Disney short.
Sending condolences to the families and friends.of Jeff and Dave Kirwan.