{"id":81845,"date":"2023-10-19T00:09:57","date_gmt":"2023-10-19T07:09:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=81845"},"modified":"2023-10-19T00:09:57","modified_gmt":"2023-10-19T07:09:57","slug":"the-return-of-felix-the-cat-not-yet-but-heres-skulls-and-sculls-1930","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/the-return-of-felix-the-cat-not-yet-but-heres-skulls-and-sculls-1930\/","title":{"rendered":"The Return of Felix the Cat? Not Yet, But Here\u2019s “Skulls and Sculls” (1930)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi everyone. After several weeks of working digitally around the clock, this last week has been more packing Flip the Frogs than anything else. As the weekend approaches, I\u2019m happy to be working with our small team in getting back to working on some new films and spending a little time looking through hard drive archives.<\/p>\n\"\"\n

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In Thunderbean news:<\/p>\n

First thanks to everyone for sending lots of leads on Noveltoons<\/em> after last week\u2019s post. So far it has led to finding three things in better quality than I ever thought I\u2019d see. More on this series soon!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>With Flip being out the door and the Tom and Jerry set going to replication next week, it\u2019s been a bit of an empty nest here this week while Rainbow Parades, Mid Century Modern Volume 3, Bunin<\/em> and the Comi-Color<\/em> project is getting organized. There\u2019s another project that I\u2019m even more excited about than any of these, but I\u2019m not talking about it at all until it\u2019s done – it\u2019s near and dear to my heart. <\/p>\n

I\u2019ve also been working on some of the films for the Fleischer project and organizing hard drives with all the pieces of the above projects, and really enjoying seeing everything we\u2019ve got so far. The Halloween party set is finally going out early next week\u2014 hopefully just in time for Halloween. The Tom and Jerry Blu-ray, now finished, will be sent in early November. <\/p>\n

One of the Thunderbean projects that managed to get put on a somewhat indefinite hold was a collection of the original Felix the Cat<\/em> shorts. I\u2019ll go into greater detail about what happened with that project at some point, but the short version of the story is that we scanned well over 100 shorts for the set from archives and collectors around the world before the project came to a harsh and unexpected stop as the rights for Felix were transferred to Classic Media\/Dreamworks in 2014. We still have all those scans of course, and more, and as project partner Dave Gerstein and I have discussed for some time, we need to let all these cool films \u2018out of the bag\u2019 finally and put them in everyone\u2019s hands. We hope the project get back on its feet sometime soon.<\/p>\n

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Laugh Felix, laugh! I have you in my sights!<\/p><\/div>This week, we\u2019ve also been looking at materials and working with Tommy Stathes on several titles for his \u2018Cartoons on Film\u2019<\/em> label. So many cool things coming up soon that have been in the works for many years while he\u2019s been gathering all sorts of amazing material. My friend Dave Grauman has been doing a great job on many of the films, and I\u2019m happy to see things looking really good as I wrap some things here.<\/p>\n

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Next weekend, I\u2019ll be in Los Angeles with students from the College for Creative Studies<\/em> for the Lightbox animation conference<\/a>. It\u2019s a wonderful time to catch up with friends, alumni and colleagues on these projects. If you see me, say hi! I\u2019m really looking forward to the trip.<\/p>\n

Thad Komorowski\u2019s \u2018Cartoon Logic\u2019 was able to get his Kickstarter funded for the Aesop\u2019s Fables<\/em> collection. Now he\u2019s trying to reach his stretch goal\u2014 and almost there with eight more days to go. You can check out the Kickstarter here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>And.. onto today\u2019s cartoon! Happy pre-Halloween! <\/p>\n

As I\u2019m going through the Felix<\/em> project archives (my most backed up hard drive) I\u2019ve found that most of the films are at least decent in quality\u2014 but there are some exceptions. Skulls and Sculls<\/em> (1930) is one of the last of the Felixes from the first era, but oddly is one that I\u2019ve never seen a really good print of. I do have a few short nitrate clips of the film in terrific quality, but they are short and splicy, making it even more frustrating in some ways. Since it\u2019s nearly Halloween, I thought I\u2019d share the not-so-great print we do have. While not a top entry in the series, it\u2019s still kind of spooky and odd, and I enjoy the changing model and the rubbery animation throughout- it leaves one wondering where the series would have gone if it managed to live further into the 30s.<\/p>\n

This particular print seems to have suffered from water damage at some point. It\u2019s a somewhat modern (70s) dupe. Hope springs eternal for better materials!<\/p>\n