You often have to be in Van Beuren mood to really enjoy a Van Beuren cartoon – but some of the best are as much fun to watch as any cartoon. Gypped in Egypt (1930) is one of my favorites of the early sound era, and I bet if you’re a Van Beuren fan it’s one of your favorites too.
First— some quick Thunderbean news:
I’m hoping over the weekend to get out to New York to scan some films; there’s a pretty big stack that has grown here over many months, and there’s a bunch of special sets (and some official ones too) that will have all their needed films scanned in this next big session. With any luck, the planets will align. For a short time, we’ve listed the special sets that are getting finished at the Thunderbean shop for anyone that missed them- and plan on sending this batch in April, along with Mid Century Modern, Volume 3 as it comes back from replication.
And— today’s cartoon!
Gypped in Egypt deserves its spot as a favorite of early 30s animation. The short-lived Waffles and Don, precursors to Van Beuren’s Tom and Jerry characters, spend the majority of the film in a Pyramid that is, for some reason, full of skeletons. I have a feeling the studio wanted any excuse to feel the screen with skeletons, honestly.
The film starts with Waffles and Don in a Hammock underneath their trotting camel. The stop for water, and in the process of trying to stop the camel from greedily drinking, they kill it by punching it in the face. A giant sphinx statue slides up, saying angrily “You. Killed. Him!”, thrusting them into a surreal sequence, including running camels and falling down a tunnel. The rest of the film consists of various run-ins with skeletons, with Don calmly standing with Waffles loses his mind. The film ends with the duo running from a stature with swirling eyes chasing them toward the camera.
The best of the Van Beuren’s approach the surrealness of the Fleischer cartoons, and while never as slick in presentation, they’re fully enjoyable. There is no need for explanation for any of the events that happen, and there’s something so fun about the chaos throughout this short as each new unexplainable thing happens. The animation and character poses are primitive in many ways, but the exuberance of the action is one of the most enjoyable touches. I really like the little dance to the water at the beginning of the film, and Don playing piano with an emotionless skeleton, who then loses its head, is especially strange. Don’s mouth, off to the side in a smirk through most of the picture, is one of my favorite things in the film.
Over these years, we’ve scanned and cleaned up a lot of stuff. Sometimes we spend a lot of time finding the absolute best on a particular film, and other times we’ve stayed with the best we could find at a particular time. Van Beuren’s Gypped in Egypt (1930) is one of those films that, if I had my druthers, I’d go back and try to find a better print— although I think the print was ok. It’s from the Thunderbean Aesop’s Fables, volume 1 Blu-ray.
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.
Waffles and Don are always worth another look. To me, the weirdest thing about this cartoon is that a passage from the Overture to “The Magic Flute” plays as our heroes run up the staircase to the elevator in the obelisk. Rodemich might have selected something from “Aida”, which at least is set in Egypt, but that would make too much sense.
It’s also strange that this Egyptian tomb is teeming with skeletons, but there’s not a single mummy to be found. The cry goes out to Van Beuren: What about “the mummy! The mummy! The mum-mum-mum-mum-mummy!” One almost feels — dare I say it? — gypped! In Egypt!
“The Magic Flute” is actually supposed to be set in “Egypt,” according to the libretto (one aria features prayers to Isis and Osiris), but it’s mostly as a concept of “faraway exotic place.”
Good point. The Egyptian and occult elements in “The Magic Flute” are derived from Freemasonry — Mozart and his librettist were both Masons — but it never occurred to me to take them literally, as seems to have been done in this cartoon. As it happens, Freemasonry is illegal in Egypt today.
Defiantly one of the weirdest Van Burean cartoons. I like the camel’s gravel voice when he says, “Water!”
A year later Disney’s “Egyptian Melodies” covered the same ground, but far more lavishly. Wondering what their comparative budgets were.
Steve, you’ve capsulized what I love about Van Beuren, Fleischer and Lantz cartoons from the early sound era. “There is no need for explanation for any of the events that happen, and there’s something so fun about the chaos throughout this short as each new unexplainable thing happens.”
Was that your Aesop’s Fable restoration on Stu’s show last night? Like the recent Fleischer restorations, it really puts the toons in an entirely different light. It was really good. I just ordered your Tom and Jerry Blu Ray set. Can’t wait.
That was the successive exposure original camera negative, combined records, for ‘Bold King Cole’. It appears to be the only surviving complete material on any of the Rainbow Parades. I just wish there were others since it’s so beautiful!
JUNGLE DAYS was from yours truly, and it will be part of my release Aesop’s Fables: The 1920s Vol. 1, available later this year. I’m glad you said that, because I’m all about positive revisionism for these films. Like Jerry said, “I LIKED that.” Which is really not at all the reaction you expect from something bearing Paul Terry’s name. While Messmer and Fleischer’s had higher peaks, Terry’s are, IMO, consistently the funniest cartoons of the silent era.
The skeleton fireman riding a chariot gag is reused in the Heckle and Jeckle cartoon “King Tut’s Tomb.”
Ten seconds before seven minute mark, I remember that scene being used in the obscure but newer anthology show called Hell Den. That anthology show isn’t very good according to the reviews.
Thad mentioned in his latest update for his Kickstarter program that one of his cartoons would be shown on Stu’s show. Mr. K. hopes for a summer release for his Aesop’s Fables DVD. I’m looking forward to it. Heck, I look forward to almost all cartoon DVDs!
I just want to add something to pass on to Mr. Stanchfield. I remember that you had a bit of an unfortunate accident last year, – hope you have recovered fully! – and that you still love the work you’re doing after sort of an enforced rest after that.
I think that’s great, because your work makes a LOT of us happy.
And “Gypped in Egypt” is a gloriously nutty cartoon! Van Beuren stuff is wonderfully mindless drivel.
Why ANYONE likes these miserable things is beyond me.
It’s probably not nice, and not “politically correct” either, to say that any work of – uh, “art?” – belongs in the dustbin of history, but these cartoons would be a prime candidate for that dustbin, if I believed in such things as censorship, which I don’t.
I’d rather watch paint slowly drying on a wall, which would be more entertaining. And better drawn, too!
Not every “classic animation era” cartoon is a classic. Some of them are just cheaply produced crap, which is something that has always existed, apparently.