There’s been a list of cartoons I’ve wanted to see forever – and, chances are, if you are as much of a diehard fan as I am, you have a special list as well of the same sort of thing. I’ve written about this sort of thing before, but I was thinking about the *absolute* musts. So, maybe this list should be called “If you were dropped off on a desert island and couldn’t leave, what lost cartoons would you want to be there?”.
My list is shorter these days, with some of the holy grail titles actually found and available now. I couldn’t be happier about that honestly- but there’s still many more.
In some ways, the Thunderbean “Cultoons” discs are sort of the first and longest attempt to at least have some of the sort of forgotten kinds of shorts available. Still, all these years later I’m still looking for many of these sorts of things. I’d love to revive these with new HD scans at some point.
So, as of now, these are mine if I had to limit it down to 10 films. What are yours? Please leave ‘em in the comments this week.
1) The Bug House. Toby, the long-lost pup, has had a majority of his few adventures hidden away for much, much too long. The Bug House is one of the ones that hasn’t shown up completely as of yet, and if it does I hope I’m probably dressed well enough to manage to get it in possession. I find the Tobys to be completely charming, and maybe, just maybe, someday this and others will surface. You never know when some industrious YouTuber manages to find a print somewhere, somehow and manages to upload it, complete with Bulgarian Television titles or something. Maybe this time someone will see this and get it touch and we’ll scan it. If that happens, I promise I won’t try to trademark Toby the Pup for all use in home media to attempt to stop any additional producers from putting out a set.
2) Benny the Bear in A Cowboy I Would Be. I had dreams for years that, while looking through a stash of nitrate film, that suddenly Benny the Bear would poke his early 30s head out. There’s at least three prints that were made of this cartoon (at least according to the Copyright catalog) so if one manages to show up we’ll all be treated to what has to be a film classic. On Tralfaz’s blog from January 13, 2013, there’s a great find about Brucker:
March 20, 1930
BRUCKER TO PRODUCE COLOR CARTOON SERIES
A series of animated cartoons in color will be produced by Elias Brucker in association with Photocolor. Milt Gross will write the scenarios. Brucker has a five-year contract with Gross and Thomas A. Johnstone for the production of these shorts, the first of which will go into work within two weeks in the East.
From the Copyright Catalog
This announcement is after the first Benny the Bear was Copyrighted- and it’s pretty clear those never got made. So, one has to wonder what happened to this short. My guess is that it never saw release officially, and was used as a demo or was never sold. Maybe one of these days someone will be sorting through one of the hundreds of reels at the Library of Congress and, behind a clip of the Gorilla from King of the Kongo, there would be two minutes of Benny the Bear hitting his butt on fenceposts, just like Binko and Marty.
3) Goofy Goat (in color). I’m a bit of a broken record on the pursuit of this particular cartoon. Now that there’s good color, high definition versions of his Rainbow Parades, Wizard of Oz and The Snowman, it’s only fitting that the first of the Eshbaugh epic is finally found, if it exists at all. There’s at least a lead….
Goofy Goat and his Gal
4) The White Guard (1947). More Eshbaugh magic, maybe. This is one that I *know* exists. I lost an Ebay bid years back and know who got it. At one point, there was even the possibility of borrowing it, but then the owner got nervous about it being out of his hands. That dates back at least 15 years now, but if the print hasn’t shrunk like a prune or succumb to some other tragic death, maybe there’s a chance of finally getting it. It was a Kodachrome 16mm print. Who knows what this looks like, but we do know it’s an educational film about taking care of your teeth.
5) He Auto Know Better (1930). This is a commercial by Audio Cinema short for Aetna insurance. Years back, thanks to Jerry Beck, I was able to find a print of ‘A Desert Delemma’, another short also for Aetna. My guess is that this one was animated by Cy (Sy) Young as the other one is, who would soon after make one of the first color and sound cartoons, Mendelsohn’s Spring Song. I’m sure Cy changed the spelling to “Sy” to hide his Chinese heritage- and it’s spelled the same on his later effort.
6) The Adventures of Pinocchio (1936). A film never finished. This Italian Animated feature, by Raoul Verdini and Umberto Spano, was poised to beat Disney’s first feature film to the box office. Even though it’s reported that a lot of footage was completed, it’s hard to say what was really done since all footage seems to be lost. There are stills from the film that exist, but who knows if it will ever show up. Then again, a Binko the Cub did.
7) Felix Fans the Flames (1926). Here’s one I actually *had*- but it’s lost now. I managed to get the most beat up 16mm print ever of this cartoon from a fellow collector, only to hand it off to another young collector who, in turn, gave it away to a collector who put all his films in storage in Texas and moved to Malaysia. You can’t make this stuff up. One of these days maybe,just maybe, I’ll able to recover that print and check it off the list of lost Felix the Cat cartoons.
8) Mop Up (1945). Tex Avery directed a single Private Snafu cartoon in 1945- the last of the series in theory. What happened to it is anyone’s guess after it and it’s artwork was packed up, lock, stock and barrel and sent to the government. I was able to find information at the Us National Archives that it was delivered, but what that means isn’t clear. Other films that were delivered were actually finished, so it’s hard to say if the film ever had a final negative made. There’s more to research here, along with all the films made for the Navy.
9). Mr. Peanut and his Family Tree (1939). Another Ted Eshbaugh short, produced for the World’s Fair. It’s understandable why these particular films are lost since they were made for a specific event- but I do hope we get lucky at some point and find out someone has them. I can only imagine what this must look like.
10) The Popeye and Olive short made for Jack Mercer’s Bachelor party. This is one that will *never* be found. It was made at the Fleischers after hours and shot in pencil drawings. It was definitely made, but it’s a pretty good guess that whoever had it didn’t keep it. Maybe though, someday, someone will unravel a batch of home movies and there it will be.
Jack Mercer and Margie Hines
Ok— there’s my list— now it’s time for *yours*. Cheers and good luck in your own quests!
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.
How interesting that there is one remaining “private snafu“ cartoon that did not make it to your beautiful set. And this one is directed by Tex Avery? Wow! I would put that very high on my own list, if I actually had a list anymore. actually, I do have a list, but is the same list I’ve given you so many times before. My ultimate holy Grail at this point would be a disc that I would call the Bosko and Buddy show. This disk would, under my labor of love, contain all of the earliest Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies that have not already been restored for the various wonderful golden collection DVD and Blu-ray sets, and the cartoons from the happy harmonies series from MGM, since Bosko had been carried over for that series and redesigned. Of course, it is possible that this may be made available from the company that owns it, and I don’t have to name that company. if that were to happen, I would cancel out this entire list, but that’s all I have for now. Anything else would be perhaps, once again as I’ve mentioned before, the entire “Beany and Cecil“ series, with any extra stuff that may not have been made available before, and I have a feeling that there are some things like that that we don’t know about. like you, I wonder whether or not, throughout the golden age, there were more films made specifically for the military as cartoons, both for entertainment and for basic instruction in being a soldier. I hope more of these are found. I like the “HOOK“ films, and I’m surprised they were only three made that we know about already. I wonder if there are more that we don’t know about. I am not familiar with any of the cartoons you mentioned on your list, Steve, but I am certainly anxious to know more about them, especially the sound films.
How was Avery able to do Private Snafu in 1945 when he was long gone from WB by then? Was MGM allowed to use the character?
Warner Bros. did not own Private Snafu. He was property of the U.S. Government and therefore public domain. MGM and UPA also made several films that feature Snafu – not quite in the same manner as Warner Bros. did, but he was in Army films beyond the ones Schlesinger/WB made.
I think Lantz made a Hook or two.
Can MGM’s wartime toons be seen?
Among mine, top of my head, is “Secrets of the Caribbean”, the lost Chuck Jones Private Snafu short.
Then the original cuts of “Red Hot Riding Hood”, “The Stupid Cupid”, “Catch as Cats Can”, “The Heckling Hare”, “Baby Bottleneck”.
if you’re interested in almost lost italian cartoons, you should check up this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4SCFGTS5Nk&ab_channel=MusicaGervasio
It’s a short made by the italian Art Deco star designer, Antonio Rubino (an artist whose influence appears from time to time here and there, in the most unimaginable places). Sought by years after a solitary mention in an old catalog, it appeared finally in a rather battered copy in Youtube, a couple of years ago.
I’m with you 100% on wanting to see Goofy Goat in colour, but the Toby the Pup cartoon I’d really like to see is “The Fiddler”. Violin playing animated by Dick Huemer is bound to be pretty mind-blowing.
My main interest is in the early pre-Code Terrytoons that were never included in the television package. There must be at least twenty titles from the sound era that are missing or unavailable, including over a dozen from 1931 alone. Of these, I’d especially like to see the prehistoric cartoons “Stone Age Romance” (1929) and “2000 B.C.” (1931), to see how they compare with “Club Life in the Stone Age” (1940). Of the lost Aesop’s Film Fables of the silent era, I’d most like to see the futuristic science fiction cartoon “Hunting in 1950” (1926).
Beyond that, any of the currently lost Alice Comedies and Fleischer Screen Songs.
Steve, I’m going to Malaysia in June, so if you want any help tracking down that guy with the Felix cartoon, let me know!
Paul, HUNTING IN 1950 is on Steve’s Aesop’s Fables V1 Blu-ray. Not futuristic at all, sad to say. You can see STONE AGE ROMANCE here https://youtu.be/oowIFvrkMOY
As for 2000 BC, Steve told me once he had a print and that he’d scan one for me at somepoint. It was a TV print, but he recalled it not being very good. I do know it features the girl that is in FARMER AL FALFA’S APE GIRL as well, which would be fun to see in action. For other early cartoons that don’t circulate much, I wanna see the first Terrytoon with the Farmer, FRENCH FRIED, and QUACK QUACK, both pairing him with a much younger girlfriend!
Thanks, Strumm! I’d like to see more of Farmer Al’s dalliances as well. I always appreciate your Terrytoons expertise!
1. “Huckleberry Hound in Jellystone Park” This was one of the last Yogi Bear cartoons produced for the Huckleberry Hound Show. I know it exists, because I saw it once, but it is not on any list that I can find. In it, Huckleberry arrives in Jellystone as a hunter, going after a bear–Yogi, of course. They don’t seem to know each other in this cartoon.
2. A cartoon about a riverboat race featuring Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey. I know it exists, but I only saw it once. It, too, is not listed anywhere. When I saw it, it was shown as a separate cartoon and this was some time after the entire show had stopped airing on Saturday mornings. So it may have been part of a syndication package containing some cartoons that had never aired on the show. That’s my best guess.
3. Technically not a cartoon, but since it came from the Walt Disney Studios I figure it is fair game-“The Rainbow Road to Oz” projected feature film. This would have included several of the Mouseketeers including Darlene and Annette. There are some great cartoon storyboards that survive, and some of the songs were recycled into Oz-themed albums for Disneyland Records.
4. UPA’s projected version of “Finian’s Rainbow”. I can just imagine how the UPA artists would have captured this enchanting musical in animated form.
5. There appears to have been an animated bullfight sequence created for the feature film “Pepe” starring Cantinflas in the early 1960’s. This does not survive in any prints I have seen, but I am reasonably sure it was produced, because in the comic book version of the movie this sequence is incorporated into the story, plus the inside front cover features what appears to be a still frame of an animated bull and a live-action Pepe. Looks to have been done by Hanna-Barbera or maybe UPA since both had arrangements with Columbia Pictures during this era. (The film has another animated tie-in when the song “You Are My Dream” from the UPA animated feature “1001 Arabian Nights” plays as background.)
6. In the first edition of Leonard Maltin’s “The Disney Films,” he makes reference to a piece of “lost” animation from the MGM 1934 feature “Hollywood Party” showing Mickey Mouse interacting with Jimmy Durante and introducing a short animated sequence (the film’s only color insert) titled “Red Hot Chocolate Soldiers.” Fortunately, between Maltin’s book publication and the advent of VHS, the footage was located and restored into the film. It’s a little piece of Disney trivia that many fans might not know about. While “Hollywood Party” is a hodgepodge which may or may not be to anyone’s taste, the Disney sequence (plus the Laurel and Hardy “egg breaking” sequence with Lupe Velez) somewhat redeems it.
7. And on the subject of obscure Disney, a former Disney animator/layout artist gave me a copy of a model sheet for a television version of Peter Pan, which someone suggested may have been intended for a series of commercials. I don’t believe any of that footage survives, if it ever was produced.
8: Finally, one of my favorite obscure animated bits. In the compilation program “Highway to Trouble” originally aired on the “Disneyland” TV show contains a delightful framing story about Donald Duck taking his nephews on a cross-country trip (in order to improve their grades in Geography class), thus incorporating several classic Duck cartoons as they stop in various locations. The program culminates with Donald Duck taking his nephews to Disneyland–an animated/live action sequence in sepia that is a delight to behold!
Per the PEPE entry in the AFI Catalogue, “According to a 10 Feb 1960 Hollywood Reporter news item, animators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were to create a “Don Quixote” dream sequence. A studio synopsis dated 21 Mar 1960 in the film’s production file includes the sequence, in which “Pepe” dreams he is Don Quixote, protecting his lady from harm.”
The late Joe Baltake, an excellent film critic and movie enthusiast, remembered, “Among the trimmed bits was a much-publicized animated “Don Quixote” fantasy sequence, prepared by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, in which the title character dreams that he is Quixote.”
When initially released as a roadshow attraction, PEPE ran about 180 minutes; with the cartoon sequence and a number of other scenes cut to shorten the film for its general release, most prints today run about 157 minutes. Columbia may not possess a complete version of the movie in good condition at this point.
The Dell comic book adaptation, illustrated by Mike Sekowsky and Mike Peppe, devotes a page and a half to Pepe’s animated dream. The comic book — and existing stills — suggest that this was a combination of live action footage of Cantinflas interacting with animated characters and backgrounds.
I’ve never seen this sequence and there’s something tantalizing about descriptions of it. PEPE is little remembered today; it was a star-crammed extravaganza practically bloated with cameos, comedy bits and musical numbers, all designed to showcase the talents of Cantinflas, the great Mexican comedian who had an enormous personal success in the 1956 movie of AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 DAYS. It’s way overproduced, and the natural charm of Cantinflas gets a little lost in the hubbub. It’s a shame that this animated scene hasn’t resurfaced, though.
I’d also like to see that Disneyland show with Donald and the nephews at the park! I remember that with fondness.
Frederick,
Your #6 was written about (and shown) in this Cartoon Research post by J.B. Kaufman: https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/disneys-hollywood-party-sequences/
Your #7 is referring NOT to a Peter Pan TV series, but the Disney produced Peter Pan Peanut Butter TV commercials – which Jim Korkis wrote about, here: https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/tinker-bell-peanut-butter-commercials/
As to your Number Two, this sounds like the Quick Draw cartoon “Riverboat Shuffle”, from the first season. It still exists, and was shown on the Cartoon Network no too long ago.
I don’t think John Hubley did any actual animation for “Finian’s Rainbow.” There are just some character models (which can be found in books on midcentury animation) and a preliminary soundtrack.
here’s that highway to trouble episode you were talking about, originally aired as part of the show’s 5th season in 1959.
https://youtu.be/ExIaxlRts8g?si=f2og9eySrayKM4xu
Good list Steve! My own list would have the following:
-Toby the Pup in THE MINER, any Toby would be nice to see but this seems to be the best one from what I’ve read. Hopefully more Tobys surface someday!
-Krazy Kat in CANNED MUSIC. The track is very hot, and my own notes on my plot makes it sound very creative; it was remade into BARS AND STRIPES later on
-Oswald the Rabbit in STARS AND STRIPES. This one, a Winkler directed by Lantz, sounds like a highlight of the season. Other Lantz Winklers, like STAGE STUNTS and FARMYARD FOLLIES sound funny too, but I’d like to see the execution. YANKY CLIPPERS is a classic of course!
-More BINKOS. If two were “ready to be duped” (HOE TOE MOLLIE and ARABIAN NIGHTMARE), surely the other could show up at somepoint!
-Any more silent KRAZY KATS and NEWSLAFFS by Bill Nolan would be cool too!
Speaking of Oswald.
The missing seven Disney shorts are propbably my “most wanted”
“The Banker’s Daughter.
“Rickety Gin”
“Harem Scarem”
“Neck ‘n’ Neck”
“Sagebrush Sadie”
“Ride ‘Em Ployboy!”
“Hot Dogs”
Not looking good for the 1927 Oswalds that are missing. EMPTY SOCKS has miraculously shown up, but since the other two seemed to of not been in any sort of 16mm rental catalogues (in or outside America), it’s unlikely for now. I’m mostly interested in the Winklers and Lantz, they look more interesting and funnier than the Disney product
Steve:
I don’t remember Gordon Sheehan telling Mickey Gold and I that the “naughty” Popeye and Betty Boop cartoon was made for Jack Mercer’s bachelor party, but he did tell us that it was made for a “bachelor party” held at the studio. Tons of Fleischer animators and artists worked on the little film. Mickey heard of its existence from other film collecting sources – he had hopes that a “dupe”would show up in somebody’s film collection – but it never did. Mickey asked Gordon about it and Gordon had an embarrassed look on his face – he’d almost forgotten about the film – but he did admit that it was made “after hours” by a lot of the Fleischer staff!
Of course, I”m still waiting to hear news that all of Gordon Sheehan’s PEPSI AND PEET TV commericals from the late ’40s will show up – complete and from immaculate prints!
I love all the listings of “lost” (or “not-yet-found”) cartoons above. This is how we find these things – by first identifying what is not around.
In addition to many of the above, I have a few oddball “Holy Grails” I’m still dying to see:
(in chronologic order)
1. WAY BACK WHEN A TRIANGLE HAD ITS POINTS (Paramount, January 1940). I know the Fleischer Stone Age cartoons are not very good – but we have to assume they put some extra effort into the FIRST one… and that one has eluded us for decades. I want to see it.
2. HE CAN’T MAKE IT STICK (Columbia, May, 1943). I’m so happy we coaxed this cartoon from the vaults of Columbia Pictures (back when I worked on Totally Tooned In, 25 years ago). But the second half of the picture negative was “lost” to us – and that’s a real shame. The only collaboration of Milt Gross and John Hubley (and Paul Sommer) – this HAS to be found!
3. THE ASTROMUTTS – (Zagreb, 1963) a Zagreb studio pilot TV cartoon that was aimed at US distribution. Never made it. Co-directed by Phil Davis (Sam Bassett, Hound For Hire) and Dusan Vukotic (Oscar winner for Ersatz). Also known as “Operation: Moonshot”, it was submitted for an Academy Award nomination… that’s the only evidence of its screening in America. It’s musical soundtrack was recently uploaded to You Tube! [Click Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RImxBgHfkPg]
But where is the film??
4. THE SPACE SQUID (Paramount, January 1967). I’m sure this is lousy. It’s a Shamus Culhane Paramount theatrical short which I believe was meant to be a pilot for an “adventure cartoon” series. I know it was made. I know it was released. It just seems to be non-existent.
TRIANGLE must’ve been decent, seeing that Dave Tendlar was apparently the head animator. Maybe they gave him the first one to put confidence into it? A few STONE AGE cartoons have surfaced in pre-UM&M prints with their Paramount titles, so perhaps one for TRIANGLE will show up
I think Zagreb might have a print on Astromutts, I know a European book on the studio had a unique still from the pilot (I think I sent you it before)
Apparently, ASTROMUTTS was even shown during the 2012 Zagreb Animafest, according to this link: http://www.animafest.hr/en/2012/film/read/astromutts
Off the top of my head, since it’s not just these two “lost” cartoons I want see.
1. THE HOUSEKEEPER (1990), directed by Brett Thompson, Ian Gooding and Doug Walker – the latter two went on to work at Disney and elsewhere.
2. The original 85 minute cut of TARZOON: SHAME OF THE JUNGLE (1975), directed by Picha and Boris Schulzinger. Existing prints are whittled down to 67 minutes in length, after the lawsuit from the estate of Edgar Rice Burroughs.
“The Housekeeper” was shot in 35mm on my camera at my studio. It’s not online? I’ll have to bug Brett to digitize a print and post it somewhere!
Sorry for the late reply, but thanks for considering!
Please do post The Housekeeper! I have a cell and T-shirt from it and have been trying to find it for ages. The wit was phenomenal.
For me, the one “lost” animated film I’ve been curious about is the planned adaptation of *Asterix & The Golden Sickle*, based on the 2nd installment of the long-running French comic series.
The film was in development not long after *Asterix The Gaul* has been finished and was nearly complete when Uderzo and Goscinny were screened a near-complete reel. They immediately called off production and ordered all work done on it to be scrapped, with Uderzo later saying that “From a technical point of view, it was ugly and depressing!”
A few painted cels and backgrounds still survive, and from a glimpse of them you can probably see where he got that impression.
One of the most famous lost cartoons must be El Apostle by Quirino Cristiani. Probably the first animated feature ever released, twenty years before Snow White and a decade before Prince Achmed. Although only released in Argentina, it did get some write-ups in the local newspapers. That was followed by Peludópolis (1931), which was probably the first sound animated feature. Both of those films were lost in two separate studio vault fires. Since they had only local appeal very few prints were made and none have resurfaced.
Of course, those films are on top of my list, but I’m sure there’s no any hope to recovering them. Nor the other animated films made by Valle (Cristiani’s producer). The closest you can get is a short sample of the technique that Cristiani did in his old age, using some of the original animation from the film (it can be found on YT).
The Amazing Recovery of Inbad the Ailer; Lantz, 1939. Made for the 1939 World’s Fair.
http://cartoonsof1939.blogspot.com/2010/11/amazing-recovery-of-inbad-ailer.html
http://cartoonsof1939.blogspot.com/2010/12/its-time-for-saraka.html
There was supposedly a print on ebay in 2004…
Are the 1941 “Lambie” animated TV ads (covered in the January 25, 2019 “Animation Anecdotes”) column online anywhere? As the first animation created specifically for American TV, they’d be interesting to see. Some sources say that a few survived, but I’ve never seen them.
David Gerstein says some of these have survived.
I discovered the color Bray cartoons by Eshbaugh last Friday (it’s your fault, Steve!). I was surprised by its existence, as well as Romer Grey and Jam Handy stuff. i don’t know why Mike Barrier and Leonard Malrin didn’t mention these things in their books. In my in-development Golden Age Cartoon study (https://buddyscartoons.blogspot.com/p/my-animation-book.html) I hope to do them justice!
As to your Number Three want, Steve, there is some color footage from Goofy Goat in the USC film collection. I really want to go there to look at it, when it is safe to do so. I don’t know if this is the entire cartoon, or just selected scenes, or even a few nitrate frames. The Natural History Museum had some of the artwork from the cartoon, including the original main title card, but I saw that in 1969, so who knows where that art work is today?
I know these are not actually cartoons, but were produced by a top cartoon director, and animator Bob Clampett, the TIME FOR BEANY kinescopes. They are around in quantity, but the family isn’t doing much to preserve the prints, some of which are purported to be in 35mm. Do these need a Kickstarter campaign to help rescue them? I would contribute to one, if needed. I hope these can be digitized, if not copied on to mylar film stock. When you get in to the “zone”, the characters of Beany, Captain Huffenpuff, Dishonest John and especially Stan Freberg’s version of Cecil the Seasick Sea Serpent, become really endearing.
Hello Mark,
I’ve seen one of the episodes in 35mm at a public screening some years ago. Sody was there and I asked about some of the details. If I recall correctly she said that they were thinking about transferring more to 35mm but didn’t think they would recoup on the costs. Today it would be a different story.
Here’s my list:
– “Ted Eshbaugh’s Goofy Goat”, in color. I’m convinced this survives somewhere. Since the film was considered the first American color sound cartoon by many trade magazines and publications of the day, it appears to be a film that Eshbaugh was very proud of. Material on his other films like “Wizard of Oz”, “Sunshine Makers” (the Borden reissues), “The Snowman”, etc. exists and was kept by his family. With this in mind I find it hard to believe that Goofy Goat was discarded… A print has to be out there somewhere, probably mislabeled, misplaced or so…
– “Moo To You” with Elsie Cow, Rare 1941 Technicolor cartoon produced by Caravel Films for Borden’s
– “The Amazing Recovery of Inbad The Ailer” lost 1939, Walter Lantz Cartune
– “Boy Meets Dog” 1939, complete with the original Ipana opening and closing titles and missing audio
– “Reddy Mage Magic”, 1946 Walter Lantz Cartune for Westinghouse
– “Rhapsody In Steel”, 1934, with the original Prologue. The print the National Archives has on this is missing the audio for the prolog featuring the animated talking car.
Goofy Goat is here-https://youtu.be/MSlHml_vW_M.
Hardly a “lost” film, but I keep hoping “Beanstalk Bunny” will turn up on disc. In fact, most of my remaining grails are simply films that haven’t been commercially available lately.
— Jiri Trnka’s “Midsummer Night’s Dream” feature, and his folk tale shorts that ran on PBS several decades ago.
— The director’s cut of “The King and the Mockingbird”, available abroad but not here.
— A director’s cut of “The Cobbler and the Thief”. Did it ever happen?
— A GOOD copy of “The Snow Queen” with the American soundtrack.
— Halas & Batchelor’s “Ruddigore”.
— “Mister E from Tau Citi” may be lost beyond the clips seen on a Cultoons #3, but I’d like to see the European shorts they used. I remember seeing one, about a man inventing the arts to distract some dinosaurs, in a college showing way back.
— For that matter, the various European / Russian films that were similarly serialized for American kid shows.
— Likewise Zagreb films, including the “Professor” shorts that appeared on “The Curiosity Shop”.
— The original Alvin show. I was fascinated with Clyde Crashcup, forever inventing stuff that already existed.
— HB’s “Rock Odyssey”.
— The original theatrical version of “Tom and Jerry’s Festival of Fun”. Somebody on this site said they took a short of Tom reading a diary and used it to connect the different shorts.
— Collections of pre-television Terrytoons (plus Tom Terrific) and pre-UPA Columbias (Scrappy, Krazy Kat, Li’l Abner, and Fox & Crow).
— Walter Lantz’s Dippy Doodles. Clips show up in documentaries about Lantz; they look to be at least competitive with Disney’s Alice comedies.
— Some of the odder Saturday Superstar Movies: HB’s Lost in Space, Rankin-Bass’s The Red Baron, Filmation’s Daffy Duck Meets the Groovy Ghoulies, and That Girl and Nanny and the Professor by whoever did those.
— Filmation’s Flash Gordon movie. Saw it once on TV; while it overlapped with the series version it had marginally racier dialogue and a subplot about Ming providing tech to Hitler.
— The animated M.K. Brown segments from the Tracy Ullman show.
— Disneyland / Walt Disney Presents / World of Color animated episodes. They were clip shows, but the linking material was usually entertaining.
There is a puppet animation film I remember from my childhood that was one of those European films serialized on a kids show. It involved Princess Aurora getting kidnapped by a “bad guy”. She is rescued by Prince Borealis and their wedding is celebrated by the lights now known as the Aurora Borealis. I believe the title of the film is Tale of the Northern Lights, but that’s all I know.
The linking device in the theater version of “Tom and Jerry’s Festival of Fun” was Tom reading Jerry’s Diary from “Jerry’s Diary” of the same name. Also it’s “Dinky” not “Dippy” Doodle that was directed by Walter Lantz for Bray in the early 1920s.
Tommy Stathes is putting out an entire volume of Lantz’s wonderful Dinky Doodle shorts on his indispensable Cartoon Roots Blu-ray label. Can’t wait!
Trnka’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream with very good quality visually is available in thin widescreen format (one of the 2 original OARs) with excellent English subtitles & very good original Czech audio: This very nice quality version is on disc – include DVD & Lady in your search.
i can vouch for the quality as I got it from there about 3 years ago.
You may know that already & may already know this;
the Richard Burton audio version is (or was) available elsewhere (in Academy ratio or thereabouts) but the available visual quality on that is ok but not great.
I’m slightly surprised no one’s synched up the Burton audio to the better quality visual version.
Or maybe they have but streamed etc. not disc?
I was trying to sync the Burton audio to a rip from the Japanese DVD, but there appeared to be a number of shots which were entirely different (similar to the differences between the German and French versions of Starevich’s Tale of the Fox) which made it difficult to even get started. I may Take another ctack at it at some point, but it will take a serious amount of A/B timing comparison.
There is an official Zagreb Professor Balthazar channel on YouTube which has very high quality versions of a number of the shorts in the original Croatian as well as English and French versions. Enjoy!
so this list is pretty good but here’s mine just cause.
1: more Bingo shorts / Created by Norman Cobb and Horace Shepherd. The only cartoon I saw this UK series was Bingo in Bahahula which was dubbed to Bingo Chez Malikoko the version I was watching. I really wanted to see more shorts since it’s really interesting to see the first sound cartoons of the UK. I really hope one day a UK film archive could find the shorts or Thunderbean get a 35mm delivery with some bingo shorts on the films or if we’re lucky just 16mm.
2: Frenkel Brothers Jenny shorts. I’ve always been fascinated about the Egyptian cartoonist since the negatives still survive to this day and I saw a documentary about the Frankel brothers and there was 16mm prints of cartoons with Mimiche aka Mish Mish Effendi. And there was another cartoon series called Jenny which I never seen before and there was an animation cel of the title, still standing. So I really hope one day some American animation historian can find the Jenny shorts and the Mish Mish shorts so we can be finally restored and it can finally be released to the American public.
3: Flip the Frog : Flying Fists in Cinecolor
I know thunderbean has been looking for the short in color for a while now and the only thing we can find our tinted print. But I really hope we can find a red tent and a green tint print so we can merge them together to give us the final color version we needed. Or use the tinted prints and turn the hue to make a red version and the green version of the show and then we merge that together to create a final color product. Really hope we can do that for the blu ray
I beiieve all the Mimich films, and the Jenny series (there were three that I know of) were made for the 8mm home movie market, thus silent and never shown theatrically or on TV. Now and then one will show up for sale on eBay in France. They might even be affordable – nobody seems to care much for characters this obscure.
I’ve never seen any of the Jennys, but if they’re anything like Mimiche, they will feature some of the stupidest gags ever committed to film. But stupid can be good!
There was a upload of two other shorts. One was “Bingo Breaks loose” (or “Bingo In Circus Days”) ,and another which, if the British Pathe Youtube channel has the right name, is “Cobb” ,which had a supposed release date of 1933 (which i somewhat doubt)
The entire season of “The [original 1956] Gerald McBoingBoing Show.” Plus all those naughty bits the studios made for their Christmas parties.
How about the Columbia “Barney Google” cartoons?
here we go!
– All the lost Aesop’s Film Fables, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, and B&W Terry-Toons cartoons (1920-1942)
– Sole Mates (1929) (Part of the soundtrack can be heard in David Gerstein’s ramapith22 video)
– The Kat’s Meow, Spook Easy, Desert Sunk and An Old Flame (all 1930)
– The Fiddler (1930)
– The Life and Adventures of Buster Bear (1930) and The Spring Carnival (1931)
– The Brown Derby and The Bull Thrower (both 1931)
– Non-HBO Max version of The Fire Alarm (1935)
– Mafich Faïda (1936) (Sansic, using his first channel, uploaded the cartoon onto YouTube, but soon got terminated. Utilizing a search of this rarity in its original language showed no results)
– Lionel Lion (1944), Rippling Romance (1945), Fowl Brawl (1947), and Short Snorts on Sports (1948)
please note that my name is not actually josh; it was a nickname i used in a discord server
i would’ve had the need to revert the adding, but was led off with a warning
There is only ONE correct choice. The actual first 2D animated feature film, the one that is lost.
“Ace of Spades,” a Fleischer cartoon featuring Bimbo. The only time I saw it was at one of Tommy Stathes’ screenings. Obviously it’s not lost because Tommy has it, but as far as I know it’s not available anywhere to see.
Tommy shared that one on Youtube the other day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSx4IAHfPF0
It’s great to see that cartoon at last — and “Accordion Joe”, too!
Mine is the complete two seasons of “The Bugs Bunny Show”. I really hope Warner Archives will do a whole DVD/Blu-Ray set one of these days.
More priority here is Terrytoons!
My Holy Grail of missing cartoons at this point would be:
* The lost original ending to Red Hot Riding Hood, where Grandma marries the Wolf and has children with him.
* Anything to do with Buster Bear
And the next ones, I imagine may have existed in an alternative reality:
* Any further promotional artwork or even a short clip of MGM Bosko and Honey at Christmas (if more than one image was ever produced) or anything with Bosko’s father.
* Further promotional artwork or even a clip of Betty Boop and Popeye together, beyond his debut short.
I can’t explain why, but I have this overwhelming feeling that those last two items may have more materials around them that could still exist in storage somewhere.
My top wants would be more of Frank Tashlin’s Daffy Ditties, which he made just before embarking on live action screenwriting and directing. Of the handful that were made, one was on the Second Stop Motion Marvels. Apparently another survives in BFI’s archives, but the others are considered lost.
The Mayfair “Skippy” cartoon.