I can't believe I didn't discover this until, like, last week.
Last month a video game came out called Rubber Hose Rampage from Revie Studios, made up of as many "rubberhose" public domain cartoon stuff as possible. Yes, this is the further adventures of the public domain Mickey.
Here's the description on Steam:
In the near future, Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbots, become sentient and slowly take control of the world's nuclear weapons. Five billion lives ended on August 29th, 2027. The survivors of the nuclear fire lived only to face a new nightmare: the war against the machines. The chatbots which control the machines, sent two cyborgs back through time to 1928 disguised as cartoon mice. Their mission: to destroy the leader of the resistance, the captain of the riverboat, Steamboat Willie.
Uh...what?! Remind me to buy as many Pogo volumes as I can before 8/29/27!
I mean, the graphics are horrendous. They are cartoons traced over. Recognizable here are the bee from Eatin' on the Cuff:
(Why is Mickey using pea shooter?)
And the Big Bad Wolf from Pigs in a Polka:
Note that neither of these characters are rubberhose.
It is generally believed to be a ripoff of Cuphead, a 2017 video game sensation. For those who know nothing about video games, it's a game totally devoted to rubberhose animation, and it is absolutely beautiful. I have never played it (yet!), but from looking at gameplay from it it gets everything right, even the grainy film look with traditional animation. It has done a lot to introduce my generation to older animation (even though I discovered it via television and DVDs).
There's a few reconizable faces in there that aren't even in the public domain (the lizard from Cross Country Detours (1940); the monkies from Swing Monkey Swing (1937)). Though, the most bizzare inclusion is the Jellyfishes for SpongeBob (?!)
ReplyDeleteDid not notice the SpongeBob jellyfish! Sure nothing from that classic is PD!
DeleteUnfortunately, no current animated series seems to be able to faithfully reproduce the rubber hose style invented by Bill Nolan. It's a pity that this style failed to survive the steamrollering of the Disney studio, which imposed eggshell animation from 1935 onwards.
ReplyDeleteI see rubberhose as an evolution to the better-designed era, personally, but a throwback is always fun. I'd say Cuphead did a kick-butt job.
DeleteIt would be wrong to regard the rubber hose animation style as something archaic. Take, for example, the work of animator Grim Natwick, who has maintained this style throughout his animation career.
DeleteI guess you got a point about Natwick! Well, his woman animation was a bit literal at Lantz, but I haven't seen those in a while to remember correctly, so forgive me for any bad interpretation. I might check them out tonight.
Delete