Perhaps the best thing about being an older cartoon fan is there’s a level of comfort to seeing some of the cartoons you’ve been seeing since, well, since you were a kid — or at least a young adult. The Van Beuren cartoon Rocketeers is one of those comfort films for me, having acquired a print of it sometime in the early 80s – one of the first Van Beuren cartoons I owned on 16mm. I don’t know why I Iet that title-less print go; it was super sharp, and one of my favorites.
These particular weeks have been personally and professionally challenging, with most things revolving around the library of stuff we’ve been growing since for 20 years now- and really going back to the standard def masters from Snappy Video in some ways. Both the opportunities of this period, the difficulties and stress of planning and negotiating have made it pretty difficult to be focused here- but, funny enough, as I was looking though the films from he Tom and Jerry set that was finished earlier this year, I found myself really enjoying the break into this particular cartoon world. I reminded me of the magic of these little films, quickly produced nearly a century ago now, and how their appeal has lasted through the century.
Rocketeers (1932) along with so many other Van Beuren cartoons, were introduced to a brand new generation of children en masse in the early 50s and into the 60s on Tv. It’s not so surprising that many people from that generation sought out more information about all the films they saw as kids, and ended up being able to tell a lot of the otherwise not told history of them.
I very much enjoy the idea of these films finding a new life in the new generations as well as people my age, a little younger, a little older, that are not part of our particular cartoon club. The internet has increased that exposure, along with home video and other venues. Let’s hope that expands even more!
Rocketeers is as free-wheeling as it could be, and while it doesn’t match the artistic and surreal heights of some of the Fleischer’s films, it’s wonderful in its own scruffy way.
This is from the Tom and Jerry Blu-ray liner notes I wrote on the film:
Tom and Jerry attempt to Rocket into space, only to have their ship go straight down into the ocean, encountering a underwater speakeasy full of mermaids instead. A great pre-code New York cartoon, featuring a caricature of New York actress and speakeasy owner Texas Guinan, who’s famous line was ‘Hello Suckers!” (special thanks to the late Cole Johnson for identifying this actress)
The appearance of Texas Guinan must of been especially gratifying to a New York audience – and maybe not recognizable to most audiences otherwise, and thereafter a forgotten tip of the hat.
Here’s a great clip of her talking in the early 30s I think, from a later TV documentary;
There’s lots of things to enjoy in this little short, from dancing Mermaids to an unhappy moon worried about getting a rocket sent to it, to Tom and Jerry’s broad range of emotional uncertainty. I found myself singing ‘Oh how I’d love to own a fish store’ under my breath today, and that, along with thinking about the chorus of dancing mermaids, cheered me up a bit in-between looking at student work today. I hope it brings a smile to your face too.
Special thanks to the essential Mark Kausler for lending his lovely print for the Tom and Jerry set.
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.
I was just reading that in the early 1800s, the criminal argot of the London underworld started to become fashionable among young men of the upper classes. The major literary expression of this trend was Pierce Egan’s 1821 novel “Life in London; or, The Day and Night Scenes of Jerry Hawthorn, Esq., and his elegant friend, Corinthian Tom, accompanied by Bob Logic, the Oxonian, in their Rambles and Sprees through the Metropolis.” Egan wrote volubly about boxing and is considered the father of sports journalism. The novel follows the picaresque adventures of Regency swells Tom and Jerry among both high-born and low. A serialised edition illustrated by George Cruikshank was a best-seller; a stage adaptation, titled “Tom and Jerry”, was the first play to run for 100 performances in London. The novel didn’t age well: the slang quickly became dated, as slang usually does, and Victorian mores found the ribald antics of Tom and Jerry in frightfully bad taste. Had the pair not lent their names to a popular Christmas cocktail, they would have been utterly forgotten. But whether by design or coincidence, the rambles and sprees of Van Beuren’s Tom and Jerry, as they attempt to soar to the heights but then descend to the depths of a mermaid speakeasy, carry on very much in the spirit of their literary predecessors.
A special commendation to the sound effects person who delivered the speech by the fellow of the Royal Experimental Society, presumably using a duck call. As instrumental renditions of human speech in cartoons go, it ranks with the muted trombone solos of Charlie Brown’s teacher.
Thank you for the valuable information you’ve provided, I had no idea that the idea of the Tom and Jerry duo was so old.
I always like to start my day with a little pre-code theatrical cartooning! This one’s a nice choice.
When I was a kid the topless mermaids freaked me out.
Outdated references, topless mermaids, and a meaningless musical number?
This really is a carton from the early 1930’s!
(that isn’t me saying I outright hate a cartoon such as this for having any of those)
A very good cartoon, but unfortunately I find that the mermaids aren’t drawn very well; I really wish animator Grim Natwick had gone to work at the Van Beuren studio as he could have taught the animators there how to draw sexy, attractive women, but unfortunately he preferred to migrate to the West Coast where he animated cheesy cartoons for Disney.
It’s a real waste of talent, to say the least.
Cheesy cartoons?! I thought Grim did a nice job on some of Silly Symphonies especially “Cookie Carnival”. I found those more memorable than some of Van Beuren’s “Rainbow Parade” shorts (some of those are really cheesy!).
Maybe “cheesy” wasn’t the right word, but what I meant was that Disney cartoons lacked the racy humor that made pre-code cartoons so charming.
Although Natwick also produced some fine animation when he was at Disney.
Using a “duck call” in place of human speech was funny, but not entirely original, as Charlie Chaplin used “kazoos” for dignitaries speaking in CITY LIGHTS (1931) made shortly before this cartoon. I suspect the idea came from seeing Chaplin’s film.