KRAZY KAT SCREENING

ASIFA-Hollywood will be screening a dozen extremely rare KRAZY KAT cartoons on Saturday October 29th at 3pm – at the AFI in Hollywood.Columbia Pictures KRAZY KAT cartoons are hard enough to see as they are. Originally made for theatres (1929-1939) and later released to TV in the 1950s, the series has been unavailable for viewing for the last 40 years. Though based on the George Herriman comic strip, the Columbia cartoons were the end of a continous line of shorts that began in 1916. By 1929, producer Charles Mintz (the man who took Oswald Rabbit – and the entire animation staff – away from Walt Disney, forcing him & Ub Iwerks to invent Mickey Mouse) had evolved the character from Herriman’s neurotic female into a happy-go-lucky song & dance man – not so different from such early 30s characters such as Bosko, Oswald, Mickey Mouse and Flip the Frog.The twelve cartoons being screened by Asifa next week were never part of the 50s television package, never distributed in 16mm and have not been seen since their original release in the late 20s and early 30s. They contain various characters drinking liquour, vicious ethnic stereotyping and hints of pre-code sex! Several have surreal Fleischer-like imagery and extreme rubber-hose animation – and all contain hot jazz soundtracks typical of their day. Asifa will be screening brand new restored 35mm prints, each retaining their rare original titles.If you enjoy oddball black & white 1930s animation, if you are into funky early sound cartoons – or if you think you’ve seen it all – you haven’t seen these! I urge you to join me on Saturday October 29th. Take it from me: these will never be released on DVD. More information here.