/co/ - Comics & Cartoons

>>484582
Next up we have a Talkartoon from Fleischer Studios, Radio Riot (1930)
Radio Riot | 1930 | Talkartoons | 16mm | Fleischer Studios Cartoon
Radio entertainment is in its prime, and everyone (and everything) is listening in. Various critters, furniture, and buildings join in for morning calisthenics, musical enrichment, and spooky bedtime stories
This one comes off a pretty crisp 16mm print. Too bad it looks like their scanner's automatic exposure control had some issues with this

>>484588
>>484591
Thanks for watching along

>>484594
Day 3
Disney - Silly Symphony - Monkey Melodies (1930)
https://archive.org/details/monkey-melodies_1930
Ub Iwerks left Disney earlier in 1930 and took Carl Stalling with him, and it really shows here. The short tries to lean hard on being cute - like half the runtime is two monkeys kissing - but I don't think the monkeys are cute enough to make it work

Day 4
Universal - Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - The Singing Sap (1930)
The Singing Sap (1930)
This is notable for being the first cartoon where Tex Avery gets an onscreen credit (for animation, Fred Avery). This one also has Pinto Colvig getting an animation credit --- you might know him better as the voice of Goofy

Day 5

Columbia - Krazy Kat - The Bandmaster (1930)
The Bandmaster (Krazy Kat - 1930)
I don't know who currently owns the Krazy Kat library, but most of the shorts are next to impossible to find online. Too bad too, if they're all as gag packed as this one then we're missing out

Day 6

Ub Iwerks - Flip the Frog - Fiddlesticks (1930)
https://archive.org/details/flip-the-frog-fiddlesticks-1930-uncropped
I often see this marked as 'the first color cartoon with sound', but I am not aware of what the first color cartoon overall was. Maybe Little Nemo (1911)?

Day 7

Warner Bros. - Looney Tunes - Big Man From the North (1930)
https://archive.org/download/ltmm-publicdomain/Big%20Man%20from%20the%20North%20%281931%29.mp4
We get an official start of the Looney Tunes series in 1930 with everyone's favorite little black child, Bosko. These cartoons are usually pretty ignored among the large stable that is the decades-spanning Looney Tunes franchise, but they're not that bad.
Sometimes this cartoon gets labeled as being from 1931, but the title card clearly says 1930

Day 8

Pat Sullivan/ Otto Messmer - Felix the Cat - Woos Whoopee (1930)
Woos Whoopee | Felix the Cat (1928) | Otto Messmer
Felix gets sloshed at a club and hallucinates monsters on his way home
I see this one frequently credited to 1928, but the title card says 1930 and it's not a silent cartoon like the other Felixs from 1928. Maybe it's one of the ones that got reissued with a sound track in 1930, so either way it still fits here

Day 9

Van Beuren - Aesop's Fables - The Haunted Ship (1930)
https://ia800304.us.archive.org/13/items/the-haunted-ship_1930/the-haunted-ship_1930.ia.mp4
While Van Beuren's Tom and Jerry series wouldn't start until late 1931, this is basically a prototype episode.

Day 10

Griffiths and White - Tropical Breezes (1930)
Tropical Breezes (1930) - UK 35mm
Here's something different, a funny little British cartoon. I'm not sure if this one was actually distributed in the USA, but if it was it likely would've been by Pathe. Some of Griffiths' previous cartoons crossed the pond that way. Sadly this one didn't become a series, but I think they were on to something; they specifically made the main characters humans because it seemed like all the American cartoons were going all-in on anthropomorphic animals. We were still a year out from human Betty Boop, and several years out from Popeye

Day 11

Yokohama Cinema Studio - The Monkey Sword (1930)
猿正宗 1931
Got you covered, anime fans. Japan had been making animations for over 10 years at this point, but on a technical level lagged the US by quite a bit. Animations were typically done by filming paper cutouts in a stop-motion fashion, as celluloid was considered too expensive. 1930 was still 3 years off from the first animation with a synchronized soundtrack (this cartoon's was added in modern times), and 4 years off from the first all-cel animation.

Day 12
Let's do another round through the public domain before jumping around

Fleischer Studios - Talkartoons - Up to Mars (1930)
Up To Mars | 1930 | Talkartoons | 16mm | Bimbo The Dog | Fleischer Studios Cartoon
You probably expected a feature on Betty Boop since she's the new hotness in the public domain this year, but I'm sure it's been done to death all over youtube already. So let's enjoy her overlooked beau Bimbo. This cartoon's got some real Wackyland vibes, but this came 8 years earlier

This wouldn't even be the first time the Fleischers took us on a trip to Mars. Here's a great Koko cartoon from 1924 with a similar premise. Not sure why the official Fleischer channel decided to give it an electronic soundtrack, but I kinda dig it
Out of the Inkwell | Trip to Mars | 1924 | 16mm 2K | Koko the Clown | A Max Fleischer cartoon

Day 13

Terrytoons - Golf Nuts (1930)
Golf Nuts
This one's bursting with gags and a bit like a wild fever dream. Too bad it seems to come from an old German VHS rip or some such

Day 14
https://archive.org/details/africa-1930
Universal - Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - Africa (1930)

Besides being another short worked on by Tex Avery and Pinto Colvig, this short is noteworthy for two other reasons. First, we get the debut of Oswald's 'theme song', sang by Colvig. Apparently Disney still uses this song in Oswald material, which seems out of character for them

Second, this short reuses some animation that was originally made for the 1930 film 'The King of Jazz'. It's a live action movie about Paul Whiteman, but for the first 5 minutes or so of the movie they open with a cartoon giving a fictitious account of how Whiteman was crowned king of jazz. What makes this extra notable is that the cartoon segment, like the film itself, was produced in two-color technicolor. So while that Flip the Frog cartoon I posted earlier often gets the crown for first full cartoon produced in color, this cartoon *segment* predates it by several months.
Check out the first 5 minutes of The King of Jazz
King of Jazz [1930] Full Movie HD Remaster. Musical / Comedy / Animation

Paul Whiteman is probably best remembered as the guy who commissioned George Gershwin to write 'Rhapsody in Blue', but he was a bandleader and big time celebrity back at that time

Day 15
https://archive.org/details/img-3076
Disney - Mickey Mouse - The Gorilla Mystery (1930)

The Disney cartoon I picked earlier was also about monkeys. 9 times out of 10 if you just let me pick from a pile, I'm gonna pick one with an ape on the cover.

Day 16
https://archive.org/details/lambs-will-gamble-1930
Mintz Studio - Krazy Kat - Lambs Will Gamble (1930)

I know I credited these to Columbia earlier, but *technically* Columbia wouldn't forcibly take over Mintz Studio for a few more years.
But anyway here's another Krazy Kat. I think we've all been sleeping on this series, as far as the gags go it's great. This one's about the stock market crash of 1929. Wish it was available in better quality

Day 17
Stone Age Stunts (1930)
Van Beuren - Aesop's Fables - Stone Age Stunts (1930)

Here we've got a Mickey Mouse ripoff living in the stone age, and he spends most of the short committing domestic violence against his Minnie Mouse ripoff girlfriend, and she absolutely loves it. It also somehow predicted multiple gags that would later be commonplace in The Flintstones. Just a wild time overall

Day 18
Felix the Cat - Forty Winks

Sullivan and Messmer - Felix the Cat - Forty Winks (1930)

Another of the Felix cartoons produced with sound. This one also has some trippy elements to it (especially the voice they gave to Felix here), and those are always my favorite flavor of Felix shorts.
Only a few more would come after until the series would go on hiatus for a few years. Supposedly, Sullivan was suffering from alcoholism so much by this time that he could hardly contribute anything to the cartoons with his name on them. He'd end up dying of it in early 1933

Day 19
The Elstree Erbs (1930) | Joe Noble cartoon

Joe Noble - The Elstree Erbs (1930)

Noble put out a decent amount of cartoons, seemingly independent of a studio, in the UK during the 1920s for Pathe, a prominent distributor of films, newsreels, and cinemagazines. Seems like their animation industry worked a bit differently from ours.
This particular film is extra interesting, as it appears to be equivalent to a pilot. Noble was seemingly trying to get Mr. Thorp, whoever that was, to pick up the series by showing off this first episode. It doesn't seem to have worked out

Day 20

Yokohama Cinema Studio - The Bat (1930)
【日本のアニメ】 村田安司 Murata Yasuji 1931 カウモリ（コウモリ） Japanese Old Anime

I was torn between doing another one by Murata Yasuji or one by Noburou Oufuji, but the Oufuji one turned out to be missing half the film! I included a webm of that one if you're curious. There was a time when most Japanese animation looked like the South Park pilot

But here's another film from Murata Yasuji at Yokohama Cinema Studio. I thought it was pretty ambitious for the time, with all the war and combat scenes. Youtube's auto translate is somewhat decent at conveying the story, but it can be summarized as

>War breaks out between Beasts and Birds
>A Bat finds himself caught in the middle, and plays both sides to his advantage
>After the war finishes and both sides party together to make peace, Bat wants to join the fun
>But the Birds and Beasts recognize him as a coward with no loyalty, and he is cast out from both societies
>And that's why bats only fly at night, out of shame or some shit

I sadly could not find any examples of continental European theatrical shorts from 1930, so tomorrow let's start jumping around to other years. I'm sure we'll revisit the public domain at some point

Day 21

Walter Lantz Productions - Chilly Willy - The Legend of Rockabye Point (1955)
https://dn720409.ca.archive.org/0/items/chilly-willy-filmography/03%20-%20Legend%20of%20Rock-a-bye%20Point%20%281955%29.mp4

Most are probably familiar with Tex Avery's work on the Looney Tunes, and then his runaway success over at MGM. But did you know he's also responsible for the success of Chilly Willy? Tex didn't create the character, but his redesign and characterization made the little penguin the second brightest star to come out of Walter Lantz's studio, after the woodpecker.

Day 22

Terrytoons - Gandy Goose - Dingbat Land (1949)
https://archive.org/details/dingbat-land-1949

Gandy Goose and Sourpuss go on the hunt for the elusive Dingbat, which seems to be a cross of the Looney Tunes Dodo and screwball Daffy, but distilled into the body of Tweety Bird. There are some good gags, but you've probably seen them all done better elsewhere. And the animation is roooooooooough

Day 23

Aw shit, I realized I skipped a couple 1930s cartoons on the second round through. Let's fix that real quick

Warner Bros - Looney Tunes - Ain't Nature Grand! (1930)
https://archive.org/details/aint-nature-grand-1931

Or, if you would prefer a kinda shitty 1970s colorization (by Fred Ladd, of Astro Boy fame)
https://dn720301.ca.archive.org/0/items/looney-tunes-merrie-melodies-radio-and-television-packagers-redrawn-colorized/Looney%20Tunes%20-%20Ain%27t%20Nature%20Grand%20%281931%2C%20Redrawn%20and%20Colorized%29.mp4

Day 24

Ub Iwerks - Flip the Frog - The Village Barber (1930)
Flip the Frog | The Village Barber | 1930 Classic Cartoon

Ub made the first few Flip the Frog cartoons in color, supposedly to hopefully catch the attention of a big time distributor for his films. Unfortunately for us, once MGM picked up the series they opted to only distribute them in black and white in the US.

Day 25

Disney - Mickey Mouse - Moose Hunters (1937)
https://ia801703.us.archive.org/6/items/funny-factory-with-mickey/03%20-%20Moose%20Hunters.mp4

I always have a soft spot for Disney shorts with Mickey, Donald, and Goofy working together. Sadly I couldn't find a restored version of this one. I don't have Disney+ to check if it's changed, but older Disney shorts featuring the use of guns always seem to be trapped in VHS or early DVD compilations

Day 26

Sullivan and Messmer - Felix the Cat - Felix in the Bone Age (1922)
Felix in the Bone Age (1922)

After visiting a prehistoric exhibit at the local museum, Felix finds himself flung back to the age of dinosaurs and cavemen --- 9000 BC.
Funnily enough, the episode 'Stone Age Felix' from the 1960 TV series reuses some gags from this short. It's not enough to save the show though, this series is nearly unwatchable. Not sure how boomer kids put up with this
https://archive.org/download/felix-the-cat-1959/043%20-%20Felix%20the%20Cat%20-%20S02E12%20-%20Stone%20Age%20Felix.ia.mp4

Day 27

Fleischer Studios - Color Classics - The Fresh Vegetable Mystery (1939)
Color Classics | The Fresh Vegetable Mystery | 1939 | 16mm | 2K | Max Fleischer Studios Cartoon

One dark night in your kitchen pantry, a family of carrots is abducted by a monster. Can a bunch of drunken Irish potato cops solve the case before it's too late?

Day 28

Warner Bros - Merry Melodies - Cat-Tails for Two (1953)
https://archive.org/details/merrie-melodies-cat-tails-for-two-

A Speedy Gonzales cartoon by Robert McKimson. In fact, it's the first appearance of Sr. Gonzales, and boooooy did he look different.

Warner's cartoons sure got a lot of mileage out of parodying George and Lennie from 'Of Mice and Men'. I wonder if kids back then would've got the references

Day 29

Terrytoons - Mystery in the Moonlight (1948)
MYSTERY IN THE MOONLIGHT

A mouse and dog are terrorized by a kitten home invader. Feels like a budget inverted Tom and Jerry cartoon, with emphasis on budget. It's definitely not the worst quality-wise I've seen from this studio, but it's very meh. The setup makes you think the cartoon is gonna take on a horror angle, which sadly never really delivered

Day 30

Columbia - Color Rhapsody - Tito's Guitar (1942)
https://archive.org/download/color-rhapsody/421123%20Tito%27s%20Guitar%20%28MeTV%29.mp4

The first appearance of Tito and Burrito during a big year for the studio - Mintz and his crew were shoved out, Columbia took full control of the studio, they brought in Dave Fleischer, and Frank Tashlin left to go back to the Looney Tunes crew

Day 31

Walter Lantz Productions - Doc - Tin Can Concert (1961)
Dynamo Doc - Tin Can Concert (1961)

Usually this period of Lantz cartoons gets written off as cheap shit made on a TV budget, but it's not really a fair assessment. Like yeah I can see why people don't like The Beary Family, or feel like this era's Woody shorts are a huge step down from the heyday, but I think a lot of people forget how bad 50s and early 60s TV cartoons actually looked. Animation-wise this is a huge step up from the King Features Popeye cartoon, or Oriolo's Felix the Cat cartoon. I don't think TV cartoons got anywhere near this level of animation until the late 70s

Day 32

Van Beuren Corporation - Rainbow Parade - The Merry Kittens (1935)
Merry Kittens restored version- Thanks Bob Koester!

A bunch of asshole kittens torment a dog

Day 33

UPA - Jolly Frolics - The Unicorn in the Garden (1953)
https://archive.org/details/a-unicorn-in-the-garden-1953

Like UPA's The Tell Tale Heart (released in the same year), this short is also based on a short story

Day 34

Cartoon Films Ltd (Ub Iwerks) - Gran Pop Monkey - A Busy Day (1940)
A BUSY DAY with Gran Pop Monkey

Supposedly the three Gran Pop Monkey cartoons were made in late 1938, but were held back from release for a while. This would be the last cartoon released by Iwerks' studio before he left it and returned to work for Disney. (Another cartoon he worked on would be released after his departure, Wise Owl (1940)).
His studio would go on for a few more years without him

Day 35

Warner Bros - Looney Tunes - Porky's Poultry Plant (1936)
https://archive.org/details/porkys-poultry-plant-1936-restored

Porky Pig had a lot of really fun cartoons before they made him a straight man. Here we have Tashlin's first cartoon with WB, Carl Stalling's first with WB, and a whole bunch of chickenhawk antagonists. They're nothing like the later chickenhawks from the Foghorn cartoons, though

Day 36

Harman-Ising Productions - Happy Harmonies - The Calico Dragon (1935)
Happy Harmonies - The Calico Dragon (1935)

You might remember Harman and Ising from the Bosko shorts earlier. They had a fallout with Schlesinger at Warner Bros over budgets for the cartoons, and left to found their own studio making shorts for MGM. They would later be fired by MGM in 1937 for going over budget

Day 37

Famous Studios - Popeye the Sailor - Peep in the Deep (1946)
Popeye the Sailor | Peep in the Deep (1946)

We've got a weird one here
-Jack Mercer isn't voicing Popeye, which happened a lot from 1945-1946
-Bluto isn't simping for Olive
-Olive's in yellow instead of her normal red
-Character designs fluctuated a lot in this period. Both Bluto and Olive more resemble their Fleischer designs than their Famous redesigns
-Mermaid titty

Day 38

Disney - Goofy - Goofy Gymnastics (1949)
https://archive.org/details/goofy-gymnastics-1949-restored

We get the Goofy scream twice in one short. I wonder what the record is.
Also it reminds me --- I gotta start working out again

Day 39

Walter Lantz Productions - Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - Love Sick (1937)
Love Sick (1937) [16mm Film Scan]

We've got Valentine's Day coming up in a week, so hows about we run through some love themed shorts

Day 40

Screen Gems/Ub Iwerks - Color Rhapsody - Merry Mannequins (1937)
https://dn721802.ca.archive.org/0/items/color-rhapsody/370213%20Merry%20Mannequins%20%28MeTV%29.mp4

1937 started that weird period where Ub Iwerks started farming out his studio as contractors for Screen Gems (Columbia).
Two department store mannequins fall in love after being shot by Cupid's arrows. Cupid needs some pants

Day 41

Terrytoons - Gandy Goose - It Must Be Love (1940)
IT MUST BE LOVE

Gandy has his eyes on wooing a female goose, but she only has eyes for a studly big black cock. Instead of seething on /pol/, Gandy decides to do something about it.
Not sure if this cartoon was originally produced in color or not, but this one seems to only survive as a Castle Films print. That was like the cheap home distributor back in those days, usually black and white 8mm prints.

Day 42

Warner Bros - Looney Tunes - The Stupid Cupid (1944)
https://www.supercartoons.net/cartoon/the-stupid-cupid/

Cupid Fudd goes around causing mischief, turning every man he meets into a verifiable Pepe Le Pew. He doesn't take kindly to Daffy telling him off for causing him to become a married man the last time they met.

Day 43

MGM - Little 'Tinker (1948)
https://dn720405.ca.archive.org/0/items/blitz-wolf-2021-restoration/Little%20Tinker.ia.mp4

Man it was really hard to find an online copy of this that didn't have Russians talking over it. Maybe it's not one of Tex's more popular cartoons?
Remember kiddies: you can be attractive as hell, but if you smell like shit the ladies will send you packing.

Day 44

WE INTERRUPT YOUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED VALENTINE'S TOON WEEK FOR A FRIDAY THE 13TH WARNING

BEWARE OF BLACK CATS
DO NOT BREAK ANY MIRRORS
KEEP A HORSESHOE AND RABBIT'S FOOT HANDY AT ALL TIMES

Famous Studios - Popeye the Sailor - I Don't Scare (1956)
Popeye I Don't Scare (1956) 35mm Scan

Day 45 - Valentine's Day

Disney - Mickey Mouse - Puppy Love (1933)
Mickey Mouse - Puppy Love (1933, Computer Colorized)

Remember kids, any time something goes wrong in your relationship just blame the dog

Day 46

Walter Lantz Productions - Woody Woodpecker - International Woodpecker (1957)
https://archive.org/download/walter-lantzs-ww-cartoons/077%20-%20International%20Woodpecker%20%281957%29.ia.mp4

Well now that Valentine's Day is over, we've got President's Day next. Too many holidays crammed too close together. This cartoon has Woody's ancestors hanging around with the likes of George Washington and the Founding Fathers

Day 47 - Presidents' Day

Warner Bros. - Looney Tunes - Wise Quackers (1949)
https://archive.org/details/wise-quackers

Elmer's always wanted to own a slave. Guess it doesn't turn out exactly like he thought it would, though