Chatting with Lavelle Haines Howard and Celine Miles Marcus
Lavelle Haines and Celine Miles, two women who were among the largely unsung grunts of the animation industry: final checkers and ink and paint artists.
Tag Archives: Walter Lantz
Nellie, Lost in the Clouds, 1939
A cartoon that time forgot and a sequence that was never made, featuring a Buck Rogers rocket ride and an airborne finale way up in the clouds.
Woody Woodpecker in “Well Oiled” (1947)
Today’s breakdown features a comic chase between Woody Woodpecker and Wally Walrus!
Dick Kinney: Taking Falls in a Barrel
A favorite theme of this Lantz storyman was the unusual feat of riding a barrel over Niagara Falls, yet the unlikely path of this river leads all the way to Brazil.
The Birth of a Toothpick, 1939
Burt Gillett made a lost classic that very few are aware of, being the oddball entry within a short-lived animated series, but here’s betting you enjoy watching his delusional hero voiced by Mel Blanc.
Dick Lundy’s “Kiddie Concert” (1948)
Today’s breakdown features a Musical Miniature, with conductor Wally Walrus – one of the few cartoons where he appears without his nemesis Woody Woodpecker.
Dauntless Dan Smells a Rat? 1939
The villainous Rudolf Ratbone was outdone by the heroine Nellie in this short-lived Lantz Cartune series that spoofed 1890s melodramas.
Hank Ketcham, Before and In-Between, 1938
Prior to his fame as the creator of Dennis the Menace, this cartoonist put in his time working in obscurity in what he called the “Black Hole” of the Lantz studio.
Bugs Hardaway of Battery D
When it came over the radio that FDR had died, the story team at Lantz Productions went quiet, and then the former artillery sergeant said, “Harry’s the President.”
Walter Lantz’ “Fish Fry” (1944)
Here’s an Oscar-nominated Walter Lantz cartoon with Andy Panda! Director Shamus Culhane particularly detested the good-natured panda, claiming his cartoons to be “too goddamn sweet and cuddly.”
