(Late) sad news Tuesday, when Jerry Beck finally got to telling the world about why there will probably never be a Terrytoons revival. I've got to say I'm not too enthusiastic about such a thing in the first place. After all, recent reboots of Golden Age properties are usually so-so, mostly because the modern "cartoon" revolves around clever dialogue, which in most cases leads to tediousness in a medium that demands action (*cough cough* Looney Tunes Cartoons *cough cough*). So that's fine.
What I was actually upset to hear was this:
[In] 2009 I pitched CBS Home Video – first on the idea of doing a set of Terrytoon classics (in the style of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection). That morphed into the idea of doing a DVD set of Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures...
For now, the bottom line is this: the Paramount/Viacom/CBS conglomerate sees no financial incentive to reviving the Terrytoon library. There is no one there with an open mind to even try. It doesn’t matter how much we might love these characters or the films – to the company they are simply old children’s fodder...
So there will most likely never be a Paul Terry Treasures. Oh well. I know that a monster amount of Terrytoons is on video-sharing sites, but a restored DVD with commentaries and documentaries would be delightful (no Leonard Maltin introductions, please). The problem is that nobody gives a hoot about them, except us weirdos. At least some pop culture junkies will buy Disney, Warner Bros., and MGM stuff. But Mighty Mouse? I thought that was an Andy Kaufman sketch!
For us DVD and Blu-Ray collectors, it looks like the end of the road. We got the good stuff; all of Disney, all of UPA, roughly 45% of Warners, and the best of MGM are all on DVD and/or Blu-Ray, so we should have our bellies full. And Terrytoons is on VHS, if you're suicidally depressed about it. But overall, as long as the internet is there, there is Mighty Mouse, there is Heckle and Jeckle, and there are infantile men talking about cartoons.
What financial interest is served by sitting on the cartoons? Either do something with them or surrender them to the public domain. Meanwhile, viva bootlegs!
ReplyDeleteHave some homemade booklegs of Warner and MGM, but Terrytoons would take a year and twenty Verbatim discs.
DeleteGlad you're back, Pete!
ReplyDeleteTerrytoons were easy to take for granted when I was growing up, because they were on TV all the time. I didn't think much of them, preferring the cartoons of Disney, Fleischer, Warners and MGM. But then I spent much of 2020 watching the hundreds of Terrytoons that have been uploaded to YouTube, including many that I had never seen before, such as all of the black-and-white sound cartoons of the 1930s and a lot of earlier ones from the silent era. In so doing I developed a strong appreciation for the studio's output and its importance in animation history.
If my own attitude can make such a total turnaround as a result of renewed exposure to these cartoons, then it can happen to others as well. For this reason I remain hopeful for a Terrytoons revival (reboot is another matter). As Pearl Pureheart said in her debut cartoon, "A Fight to the Finish" (1947): "I'll never give up Hope. He's my favorite radio comedian!"
Glad to see YOU, back!
DeleteI actually prefer Terry to Fleischer, but I'm just an iconoclast.
I think the most interesting thing to me about the whole article is Jerry has been basically going around Hollywood, asking studios to do something with the vast library of classic animation and getting the same response. The Magoo, Jolly Frolics, and Pink Panther collections (and Depatie-Freleng in general) were lucky, but the other examples are what fans have been craving for years (I've been craving a Color Rhapsody blu ray for about a decade and a half now).
ReplyDeleteWelcome back Pete. I wondered where you went. Hope you're back to blogging permanent.
I want all of Columbia, personally. I'd love to watch Russian dressing on something that's not a freakin' theater screen: https://youtu.be/yosQUBdfwzU
DeleteI am not Pete. I am his parallel universe alien-clone who replaced him to start a new blog. I am highly offended!
Of course, it is the wish of any cartoon or movie buff to have every one of these classic cartoon series on Blu-Ray. However out of all the ones that aren't, I would probably rush the most to get a set of Terry Toons. Sure, you can say that they may not be as great as the best of Warner Brothers or Disney, but they are simply a heck of a lot of fun in their own right. Anytime I watch some of the classic Terry Toons they simply bring a smile to my face. Also, all of these classic theatrical cartoons are a part of movie/film history and need to be treated as such.
ReplyDeleteWith the much less than positive things Leonard had to say about the Terry Toons in Of Mice and Magic, I highly doubt he would be doing the introductions on these DVDs the way he did for Disney.
Lenny certainly was more opinionated than he is labeled as. It's usually "Mike Barrier's too negative".
DeleteI should've done news long ago! Comments GALORE!
ReplyDelete