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.

Here it comes!

The first official release of the classic Max Fleischer cartoons on DVD, from Warner Home Video (who own the master film elements) by arrangement with King Features Syndicate. The first sixty Fleischer cartoons (in release order), including POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS SINDBAD THE SAILOR and POPEYE THE SAILOR MEETS ALI BABA’S FORTY THEIVES, all restored from the original negatives. All Paramount titles restored.

This is the real thing. If you love these cartoons your eyes will POP at the restorations. If you’ve never seen them you are in for a revelation. Four discs, over five hours worth of bonus materials, including audio commentaries by the likes of Mark Kausler, John K., Eric Goldberg, Leslie Cabarga, Mark Evanier, etc. (yes, and me too!). This is Vol. 1 and it goes on sale July 31st. Mark your calender now.

Popeye The Sailor: 1933-1938 Volume One. I’ll have more info in the weeks that follow.

Walter Tetley is a name you may not know, but you’ve definitely heard his voice.

He’s best known for his role as Sherman in Jay Ward’s Mr. Peabody (the Peabody’s Improbable History segments of Rocky & Bullwinkle), and he also did voice over for Walter Lantz (as Andy Panda and Reddy Kilowatt) and Warner Bros.

New York’s radio station WFMU posted a nice tribute to Tetley (1915-1975) on their blog yesterday. Check it out to learn more about the man behind the quintessential “kid voice”.

As a follow up to my posting a 1943 Look Magazine article on George Pal, Brew reader Kevin Kidney sends us this April 1944 Coronet Magazine article. Lots of neat things to look at here, including famed sculpter Wah Chang (in picture #3), and the fact that they are making Jasper Goes Hunting, the one with a cameo by Bugs Bunny. Click on thumbnails below to view at full size.

It’s easy to knock Gumby…

He’s been mocked by Saturday Night Live, trivialized in junk merchandise, and mostly ignored by the younger generation. The thing is, the early Gumby cartoons are pretty cool and quite trippy. And, though recently displaced by Wallace and Gromit, Gumby and Pokey were the most famous clay animated characters ever created.

Gumby recently celebrated his 50th anniversary and Clokey Productions and Premavision Animation Studios (still producing Gumby and Davey & Goliath segments) have updated their websites. It’s worth a visit to Gumby World to check out its funky video section with several Gumby episodes and Art Clokey’s pioneering abstract GUMBASIA shorts from the 1950s.

The Hays office, and Hollywood cartoon producers, were just as mindful of young audiences back in the Golden Age of animation as broadcast standards and practices are today. This article, from Look magazine (January 17, 1939), produced with the full cooperation of Leon Schlesinger Productions, illustrates how the Hays Code operates in regards to animated cartoons.

Note the use of actual stills from classic Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies like Clean Pastures, Robin Hood Makes Good, Case of The Stuttering Pig, Speaking of the Weather, along with several cel set-ups created especially for this piece, to illustrate specific points like nudity, “the razzberry”, cow udders, etc. I can think of a half-dozen cartoons released around this time with all of the above. And note the line, “Neither may cartoons show men who appear too effeminate”. Clearly Egghead’s days were numbered.

Click on thumbnails below to read full size page.

From Collier’s magazine (January 16, 1943), an interesting article on George Pal and hisPuppetoon shorts for Paramount Pictures. Click on pages below to read at full size.

After Robert “Bobe” Cannon (the genius director of Gerald McBoing Boing) left UPA around 1958, he began to do a lot of commercial freelance. Among the places he worked was Playhouse Pictures, where he directed and animated this :20 second spot for the US Navy featuring a somewhat Thurber-esque cat and dog talking about their owner’s decision to join the Navy.

Despite the bare-bones simplicity of the piece (or perhaps because of it), it’s highly effective and does a great job of communicating the message. The commercial didn’t have much ad agency involvement as far as I can tell. The circular script where the characters repeat one another’s words was written in-house by Chris Jenkyns, who was the primary writer/storyboard artist at Playhouse.