Bosko-Rama

I had recently reported on The (In)Complete Bosko Blu-Ray release, but apparently Thunderbean has got a Harman-Ising collection planned, called Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising Rarities. 

The list for Staunchfield's set "includes films from their years producing for Warner Brothers and MGM as well as early efforts, sponsored and Government films and more, all in new digital scans. The collection includes Easy Does It, Winky the Watchman, Good Wrinkles as well as pilots like Sir G Whiz, Down the Drain and others." I have no idea what any of those last things are.

A restoration for some Harman-Ising film from 1951 about prunes called Good Wrinkles.

Will there be competition, now? Which Bosko will triumph? There is no release date for the Thunderbean Blu-Ray. there seems to be a lot of that stupid Bosko around, I guess all these are holdovers for when Warners finally releases a Happy Harmonies series. Hopefully those will be handed out tomorrow instead of candy!

Gimme Felix!

Recently Steve Staunchfield said that a Felix the Cat collection had been in the works from Thunderbean, but got cancelled after the license for the character was sold to Dreamworks. Considering that people have been making public domain home video media with titles involving copyrighyed characters since the dawn of time, I don't know how this was much a problem.

I've always hated that there was no high-quality DVD or Blu-Ray of the original Felixes. I always ranked Otto Messmer as second only to Disney, even above Tex Avery. I enjoy Avery's work more--they're more polished--but Messmer was an undisputed genius, and I regret he got stuck with Little Lulu instead of adding his fingerprints to the Golden Age.

I think there is a Felix on a Cartoon Roots volume from Tommy Stathes, but I never bought any of those. honestly, I was never a fan of silent animation that's not Felix or Oswald. Stathes is my total inverse: he only likes silent animation except Felix or Oswald! (Staunchfield is my inverse too; he prefers the B Studios while I favor Disney, Warner Bros., MGM, etc...) The only real collection I found was some cryptic DVD called Sullivan/Messmer from the mysterious manufacturer "Tom's Vintage Films", with a beautifully-detailed cover:

Presumably this is from Stathes's closet.

I don't know how to end this post, so I'll just showcase one of my favorite Felixes, Flim Flam Films. It has some Averyesque fourth walls and the irrelevancy usually associated with the early Mickeys:

Bambi's Mom: An Education for Death

There has been some backlash for the apparent plans to not kill Bambi's mom in an upcoming live-action remake of that film, according to Forbes. The movie's screenwriter Lindsay Anderson Beer said “Not to spoil the plot [a joke, presumably], but there’s a treatment of the mom dying that I think some kids, some parents these days are more sensitive about than they were in the past.”

The main defender of this decision is the author of The Case for Cancel Culture Ernest Owens. He says, “We are in a different type of world now, there’s a lot of violence on TV, there’s a lot of grotesqueness, and I think this classic film should be seen with a different perspective for kids." (A guy who wrote a book about cancel culture says that we live in a different world from the past? That's new!) 

This guy is right here, but I've gotta say the shows on TV for kids are not for kids. Gravity Falls (Disney) and Regular Show are shows all kids should not watch. So when was freaking out kids a problem?

The anger is all predictably conservative. Tomi Lahren said “I'm waiting for this Bambi remake to have a trans deer, or maybe the mother dies from climate change.” The YouTube channel The Quartering stated, in my opinion accurately, that “If kids could relate to a deer 80 years ago, they can probably do it now.”

I must say I hate both sides, because both want to silence the other. Left wants to cancel/censor Right; Right wants to cancel/censor Left--all the same. This is not a political blog, so I will say no more (Please no politicking below, because nobody cares if you hate Trump or Biden or whoever). There is also legitimate complaints and desires from both sides, but I want to point out that Bambi has no political or dated agenda whatsoever, which exposes the real reasoning behind the remake: $.

A lot less vivid in reality.

I know that irony is not coincidence, but I feel like saying it's ironic that the death of Bambi's mom is being removed from the story because that's the glue that holds the mess together. Of the first five Disney films, it is by far weakest. Not as weak as Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan or Cinderella, but it pales before Pinocchio or Dumbo, animation's two great masterpieces. Good animation can't save a bad story, or--in Bambi's case--no story at all. This will be a strange analogy, but Bambi is kind of like a long Tex Avery cartoon: it's "a deck of cards" that you order from least to greatest and then it ends. With Tex it is perfect because the laughs build up and up and you can't stop, such the case when I first saw Magical Maestro and Northwest Hounded Police. Bambi instead has cuteness or drama instead of gags, so it is instead choppy and tedious. Bambi himself was not a character, especially compared to Dumbo, and he never speaks. I have other problems, but I'll end by simply was not good adaptation material unless a story was added, and one wasn't. Where was Baloo when you needed him?

I don't know about you, but this whole Bambi change sounds like the teacher's story, where it's the rabbit's fault for getting eaten...

The (In)Complete Bosko Vol. 1 is Coming Soon

Apparently, Not an Animation Historian! has restored 10 Bosko cartoons from both Warner Brothers and MGM and has a Blu-Ray set for release soon. A lot of the Warner Boskos (at least) are public domain, so if we have those Van Beuren abominations on Blu-Ray, why not the Talk-Ink Kid? For the book, during the summer, I had took notes on what Boskos can be watched on YouTube, all of them in grayish-blue hues, so this is a welcome effort!

If you are unfamiliar with him, NAAH is an amateur restorer whose done a bunch of YouTube videos showing off his pretty reconstructions. I particularly liked his fixing of Mr. Bug Goes to Town, which I watched for the first time last week. Here's a preview:

I must say I'm happy to see us young nobodys making money off of cartoon stuff, especially considering my book. I'm hoping it'll accompany this growing awakening of Golden Age Animation.

Unfortunately, I will not be able to review this collection upon release. I have to save up for buying Christmas presents, but I might request it for a holiday surprise, but I confess Collector's Choice Vol. 2 or another Walt Disney Treasure is high on my mind.

It ships around the end of this month to the beginning of November. It can be ordered here.

100 Years of Disney Animation

Today is the 100th anniversary of Walt Disney's first commercially-released cartoon, Alice's Wonderland, which is mind-boggling, I must say. It was actually made in the summer of '23, but it was released a century ago today to the masses.

The story behind the cartoon is simply that Disney made it out of desperation to salvage his dreams to be a filmmaker (animated or not),  because soonafter Laugh-O-Grams, Inc., went kaput. It was made with KC Film Ad equipment and staff, and Walt took it with him to LA to live with his Uncle Robert and brother Roy. It was noticed by Margaret J. Winkler, the States Rights distributor of the Fleischer and Sullivan films.

Just like Harpo's tattoo!

According to the Internet Animation DataBase, the cameramen were Ub Iwerks and Rudy Ising, with "technical direction" (animation?) by Hugh Harman and Max Maxwell.

Now don't get me wrong; I love Disney and his cartoons. He truly made animation an art form, and anybody who uses the term "Disney style" with contempt apparently has no idea what that means, and it's not cuteness. But honestly I find it baffling that he thought this film was good and that Winkler showed any interest. The latter can be explained by the fact that Sullivan and Fleischer were bowing out, and she was as desperate as Disney was. Maybe I think Sammy Shrew is good and you all don't.

The problem with the short is that nothing really happens (literally too, since it was all a dream). It is just a pilot, I know, but it doesn't grab your attention except the novelty of "a person within a cartoon". To add insult to injury, it shamelessly steals from Out of the Inkwell and Aesop's Fables. The only redeeming quality is historical: Harman, Ising, and Iwerks are all visible in the studio segments. The fact that they were all my age (I turn 21 in two weeks or so) is stunning too.

Ising is at left, Iwerks above him, and Harman sitting.

My dislike of the whole Alice series is probably why I feel this way, because I find it fist-on-your-cheek-lazy-eyed boring. Messmer and Felix would rule the barnyard (literally!) until this series was done.

But even with it's faults, it was the start of something magical. After Alice died a worthy death, the Oswald series would show how much was being put into making animation a transcendent art above all film,. It's a shame he's not here to fix the mess we're in now with gunk even worse than Filmation ever was.

I hope that the rest of the celebration of Walt Disney's animation legacy will reverse that.

Looney Tunes: Collector's Choice: Volume 2 Cartoon Listing

Some good news, folks! The list of cartoons on Collector's Choice is all good! No Buddy!

According to Looney Tunes DVD and Blu-Ray News, they are:

• Behind the Meat-Ball
• Brother Brat
• Catty Cornered
• Cross Country Detours
• Daffy's Southern Exposure
• Ding Dog Daddy
• The Eager Beaver
• Fair and Worm-er
• Fin'n Catty
• From Hand to Mouse
• Ghost Wanted
• Greetings Bait
• Hamateur Night
• Hare-Breadth Hurry
• A Hick, a Slick, and a Chick
• Hiss and Make Up
• A Hound for Trouble
• I Wanna Be a Sailor
• The Leghorn Blows at Midnight
• Lickety-Splat
• One Meat Brawl
• The Penguin Parade
• Rabbit Rampage
• The Rebel Without Claws
• The Wacky Worm

I am very pleased with this selection! 1940s Tashlin is finally finished up with Behind the Meat-Ball and Brother Brat. And yay, more Art Davis! I was surprised to see The Rebel Without Claws, for obvious reasons. I guess we have gotten Hare-Breadth Hurry; begrudging so, presumably (in my article on the Blu-Ray's announcement I predicted it wouldn't be on there because of Jerry Beck's dislike of it). Still no Leghorn Swoggled, but maybe in April.