Look!

Universal has posted a teaser page to promote the Woody Woodpecker DVD coming out on July 24th. Note that pre-orders can be taken from this site. The plan is to expand www.woodywoodpecker.com to a full site supporting the revival effort, with streaming clips of the restored cartoons, in the weeks to come. I’ll keep you posted.

We must sadly note the passing of Jim Thurman, an Emmy-award winning children’s television writer, who died April 14 at age 72.

I had the pleasure to meet Jim several times in New York about 12 years ago. He was a great big funny guy with a deep “radio announcer” voice. He was working for Children’s Television Workshop at the time, but I was more interested in asking him about his work as co-writer of every episode of Roger Ramjet. With Gene Moss he also wrote and provided voices for Ramjet and Shrimpenstein, a fondly remembered local children’s show in Los Angeles during the late 1960s.

Thurman and Moss originally teamed to form a boutique ad agency, Creative Advertising Stuff and they eventually wrote material for Bob Hope, Dean Martin, Carol Burnett, Bill Cosby and Bob Newhart. After Ramjet, Thurman wrote for Sesame Street, The Electric Company, and 321 Contact. He also performed voices such as Sesame Street’s “Teeny Little Super Guy.”

Universal Studios’ Woody Woodpecker & Friends Classic Cartoon Collection DVD is now available to pre-order on Amazon - where it’s a steal at $27.99.

In addition to the 75 restored, uncut cartoons, there will be several juicy bonus materials, including:

• Walter, Woody and the World of Animation a nice little 1975 documentary featuring Walter and his wife Gracie, discussing their careers in animation, filled with great clips.

• Cartoonland Mysteries - a rare 1936 Lowell Thomas “Going Places” short subject showing step by step how the Lantz studio makes an animated short - in this case an Oswald Rabbit cartoon, Soft Ball Game. Restored from the original neg.

• Behind-the-Scenes with Walter Lantz - six of the great Lantz segments from the 1957 Woody Woodpecker TV show explaining how they make cartoons - restored, in beautiful Technicolor.
1. The Origin of Woody Woodpecker (from Episode #1)
2. Drawing Woody and Andy (from Episode #5)
3. Creating the Stories (from Episode #6)
4. Animating Woody (from Episode #8)
5. The Development of Woody (from Episode #9)
6. Directing Animated Cartoons (from Episode #10)

• “The Woody Woodpecker Show” Special 1964 Halloween Episode, Spook-A-Nanny - rarely seen, now restored, featuring all the Lantz characters in a strange made-for-TV one shot.

…and you thought the early Disney character costumes were ugly?

Popeye, Olive Oyl and Wimpy arrive for a performance of the Broadway musical revue Hellzapoppin, in this 1939 news photo currently for sale on ebay. Larger full size version here.

Popeye is one of those properties that is such a pure cartoon, any attempt to personify him in live action simply does not work. Even three dimensional Popeye toys have a history of looking grotesque - in a fun way.

(Thanks, Leonard Maltin)

Any Baby Boomers out there recall those odd foreign cartoons that ran on TV in the 1950s and 60s, packaged under the Capt’n Sailorbird or Bozo Storybook names?

Toon Tracker has some information… but the burning question is: Where are these cartoons today?

The cartoons were usually rich and lush, and animated on ones. The original soundtracks were usually stripped off and replaced by an unnecessary narrator. But they were pretty cool.

An anonymous blogger has posted on Kino en Esperanto rete a group of very attractive animated shorts from 1951-3 based on folktales from Russia and various Asian countries. They look a lot like the stuff of Capt’n Sailorbird. These films are subtitled in Esperanto (as is the rest of the site), but if you can get past the language, our benefactor has the full films available for streaming and download. There is some bizzare stuff here.

(Thanks, Eric Wilson)

Charles Shopsin has been semi-regularly posting old articles on early cartoon production, from 1920s-1930s science and mechanics magazines, on his Modern Mechanics blog. Some of these we’ve plugged before, but they are worth compiling here again for easy reference:

Drawing Animated Cartoons for the Movies (1924), a basic article explaining how animation works, illustrated by Felix the Cat and a youthful Walter Lantz!

How the First Color Cartoons were Made (Jan, 1932), a look behind the scenes at the forgotten Ted Eshbaugh studio.

Machine Shows Cartoons Without Screen (1932), demonstrates a wacky new invention by Max Fleischer.

Real Scenery for Popeye (1936), about the 3-D sets in Fleischer cartoons.

Movie Cartoons Gain Third Dimension (1936), another article about Fleischer’s 3-D sets.

New Cartoon Camera Combines Drawings And Photographs (1940), which explains how Terrytoons combined live action and animation in the 1938 short, The Last Indian.

Guess Who?

I’m very happy to announce that Universal is releasing The Woody Woodpecker and Friends Classic Cartoon Collection on July 24th. This new DVD collection includes three discs containing 75 theatrical cartoons, completely uncut and restored from the original Universal Pictures master negatives (and I promise, no DVNR). It’ll retail at $39.98.

In addition to the first 45 Woody Woodpecker cartoons–presented in original release order–from Knock Knock (1940) to The Great Who-Dood-It (1952), the first five Chilly Willy cartoons (which includes two Tex Avery classics), and five choice Andy Panda cartoons, there will be several Swing Symphonies (including Culhane’s Abu Ben Boogie and The Greatest Man In Siam, among others), Oswald Rabbit (Confidence, Hell’s Heels, Oscar nominee Merry Old Soul and others) and wartime cartoons (like Pigeon Patrol and Pass The Biscuits Mirandy).

That’s not all. Miscellanous Walter Lantz Cartunes (like Hysterical High Spots in American History, Pooch the Pup in King Klunk, Peterkin in Scrambled Eggs, Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B and the Avery masterpieces, Crazy Mixed Up Pup and SHH-H-H-H-H) plus bonus material including six Behind-the-Scenes with Walter Lantz segments from the 1957 Woody Woodpecker Show and the rarely seen Halloween TV special Spook-a-Nanny.

And there’s more. I’ll impart further information in future posts, but for now let’s just say our friends at Universal did this one right. Plan on adding this to your collection–you won’t regret it.

Okay, this post is only for rabid Warner Bros. cartoon fans desparate to see any lost bits and pieces of animation created by the original animation studio.

On Memorial Day Weekend in 1962, Warner Bros. released a family film, Lad: A Dog which featured, on the same bill, the Chuck Jones pilot-turned-half hour featurette The Adventures Of The Road Runner. According to the film’s pressbook there were four different Technicolor theatrical trailers for LAD: A DOG - two of them featuring special animation of Bugs Bunny.

Trailer 1-A contained Bugs introducing the Lad: A Dog stars. Trailer 1-C is a special Adventures of the Road Runner trailer introduced by Bugs Bunny. There were two b/w TV spots which were shortened versions of the two theatrical trailers. I’ve just obtained one of the TV spots and, as you can see below, the brief animated inserts were produced by Chuck Jones’ unit (note the Maurice Noble background layout). Mel Blanc provides the voice characterization. Ed Prentiss narrates the trailer.

Jones left the studio in July 1962. This must be some of last Bugs Bunny animation produced before the studio ceased producing new Looney Tunes later that year. With any luck, we’ll dig up the longer, color theatrical trailers - and include them on a future Golden Collection DVD set.