![\"caveman-inki\"](\"http:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/caveman-inki.jpg\")
\nSmart Kids<\/strong>. A survey of American children during the Great Depression uncovered that many kids thought Mickey was a dog or a cat, even though his last name was \u201cMouse\u201d. A 1935 \u201cTime\u201d magazine article stated: \u201cAnyway, a current survey shows that children don\u2019t think of Mickey as a mouse. A good many of them were asked whether Mickey Mouse is a dog or a cat. Almost half of the tots answered brightly, \u2018A cat.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Starting at the Bottom<\/strong>. Sometimes in animation, someone has to quite literally start at the bottom. Talented actress Sherri Stoner is well known as the live action reference model for both Ariel the mermaid in Disney\u2019s The Little Mermaid<\/em> and as Belle in Disney\u2019s Beauty and the Beast<\/em>. She was also a story editor on \u201cTiny Toon Adventures\u201d. Like any actress just staring in the business, sometimes the films that are offered are not always \u201cA\u201d List. An early movie role she would probably like to forget is \u201cReform School Girls\u201d (1986) where she sacrificed for her art with a brief topless scene lying on her stomach and getting branded on her rear end on the restroom floor by some bad girls. Where is Plucky Duck when you really need him?<\/p>\n Barney RubSpeaks<\/strong>. Voice artist Mel Blanc was very adamant that he never did \u201cimpersonations\u201d like other voice artists. Blanc claimed he always tried to create an original voice for the character. \u201cI don\u2019t impersonate at all, although I can. To me, that\u2019s like stealing from somebody,\u201d emphasized Blanc. \u201cThey wanted me to imitate Art Carney (from the television series \u201cThe Honeymooners\u201d) for the Barney Rubble voice. I said, \u2018No, I won\u2019t imitate him. I\u2019ll give you similar characteristics, low and nasal, but I won\u2019t use his voice\u2019. They accepted that and I think it worked much better.\u201d<\/p>\n Hairy Problem<\/strong>. Animator Andreas Deja who was responsible for the villain Gaston in \u201cBeauty and the Beast\u201d (1991) had no problem finding inspiration for the character in Los Angeles. “Just go to the gyms, the restaurants, the parking lots. They’re everywhere, looking in the mirror, in love with themselves,” stated Deja. The most difficult part about drawing Gaston, who boasts in song that “Every last inch of me’s covered with hair,” was keeping Gaston’s chest hair consistent from one cel to the next. The solution? Computers, which later were used for a similar problem with the ornate carpet design in ALADDIN.<\/p>\n Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers<\/strong>. Over the decades, there have been a handful of attempts to adapt the underground comic book antics of Gilbert Shelton\u2019s Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers characters. In 1977, InterGalactic Productions of San Francisco announced its intention to film an animated hand drawn feature entitled \u201cGone With the Weed \u2013 An American Classic\u201d featuring the trio. It was never made. In 2006, a clay animation feature entitled \u201cGrass Roots\u201d was started by director Dave Borthwick and cinematographer Dave Alex Riddett but remains in pre-production limbo.<\/p>\n Momma Mother\u2019s Day<\/strong>. In early 1977, Bill Melendez and Mell Lazarus (cartoonist-writer of the comic strip \u201cMomma\u201d that debuted in 1970 and has been running for over four decades) announced plans to co-produce an animated special based on the daily strip for Mother\u2019s Day. Unfortunately, it was never made.<\/p>\n Merry Magoo<\/strong>. In 1977, as their Christmas card, Jim Backus and his wife Henny sent out celluloids of animated legend Mr. Magoo from the then new series, \u201cWhat\u2019s New, Mr. Magoo\u201d with a handwritten holiday message.<\/p>\n The Fourth Dimension. Chuck Jones directed five cartoons for Warner Brothers that featured a little African boy named Inki trying to capture an elusive Mynah Bird. \u201cThose cartoons really baffled…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":6392,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[114],"tags":[461,127,103],"class_list":["post-6420","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-animation-anecdotes","tag-bob-kane","tag-chuck-jones","tag-walter-lantz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6420","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6420"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6420\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6392"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6420"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6420"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6420"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"hitler200\"](\"http:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/hitler200.jpg\")
Mickey Mouse Fan<\/strong>. In Adolf Hitler\u2019s propaganda minister\u2019s diary entry for December 22, 1937, Joseph Goebbels wrote \u201cI am giving the Fuhrer… 18 Mickey Mouse films (as a Christmas gift). He is very excited about it. He is very happy about these treasures which will hopefully bring him much fun and relaxation.\u201d The reason for this gift was that it is documented that during July 1937 in Hitler\u2019s private screening room, the Fuhrer watched five Mickey Mouse cartoons and laughed loudly. Yes, this is the same Adolf Hitler that tried unsuccessfully to ban Mickey Mouse in Germany in 1937 because he noticed young Germans (and even some of his own staff) wearing Mickey Mouse pins and emblems. He tried again with greater success in 1941 to ban Mickey.<\/p>\n![\"courageouscat\"](\"http:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/courageouscat.jpg\")
Bob Kane on Animation<\/strong>. Bob Kane, the \u201cofficial\u201d creator of Batman who was known to rely heavily on the talents of others, discussed in 1970 his love of animation. \u201cI\u2019ve been more interested in animated cartoons lately. I started a thing years ago called \u2018Courageous Cat and Minute Mouse\u2019 (1960) for television. It\u2019s really a miniature Batman and Robin. They drive a Catmobile. Then I had another animated series called \u2018Cool McCool\u2019 on NBC. It was sort of an animted \u2018Get Smart\u2019. So I\u2019m more into animation and television field now. I\u2019d like to do my own show, called \u2018The Bob Kane Show\u2019, which would be a half hour children\u2019s show.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"lantz_head175\"](\"http:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/10\/lantz_head175.jpg\")
Lantz Quote<\/strong>. In May 1977, Walter Lantz signed another six year contract with Universal. He had already been under contract for forty-eight years at that point. The press announced that the Lantz cartoons were distributed by Universal in seventy-two countries. At the time, Lantz said, \u201cCartoon characters never die. They never bleed. They get blown up or run over and the next scene there they are, hale and hearty. That\u2019s part of their magic, their fantasy. These so-called critics say kids can\u2019t separate fantasy from reality. They\u2019re looking at things they, as adults, consider harmful to the child. The critics don\u2019t look at cartoons through the eyes of a child. I always considered our type of humor as being slapstick, not violent. I feel I\u2019ve produced cartoons that can be seen for the next hundred years. They\u2019re like the old fairy tales. When you go to a theater, an audience always applauds and laughs at the cartoons.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"