What About Thad?

… because it’s impossible to get a good transfer out of it. Believe me, I tried. What follows is the third attempt made at transferring my fairly ancient 16mm print of Doggone Cats, and it’s the best looking. It actually looks much nicer (and less blue) projected. The only cartoons that usually turn up on blue-track Cinecolor stock in 16mm are Iwerks and Van Beuren shorts from the mid-1930s. Finding a late 1940s Warner title is considerably harder.

By the way, in case you’re not a longtime reader of this blog, Doggone Cats is, irrefutably, the greatest Warner cartoon ever made.

Kevin posted Fuddy Duddy Buddy, arguably the best of the Mister Magoo cartoons. I posted a clip from another great one, Spellbound Hound, a few years ago, but this is the first time I’m aware of the whole cartoon being available online. I really wish I had a better copy to share, but this is the only one I have ever seen.

Magoo was actually a really funny character in the UPA studio’s golden years (1948-53); not the lovable, bland old coot of later years, but a real grouch that has gone (at least in this short) senile. When I posted the clip, it was of my favorite scene – where Magoo mistakes the phonograph for his motor. He knows something is wrong from the start, but still goes with it anyway. Not to mention the ‘breeze’ he receives while remaining stationary, and then mistaking what he thought was the motor a few seconds earlier for the anchor. It’s a well-acted piece of animation, and I wish I knew who did it.

Two other great Magoos all should seek out are Ragtime Bear and Trouble Indemnity. Isn’t it about time that at least the really great UPA cartoons were put out on DVD?

I haven’t put together one of these reels in a long time, so here’s one highlighting the work of Irv Spence, easily one of the Golden Age’s most distinctive and recognizable animators. While this features highlights from the epic saga of Tom & Jerry (the series Spence spent most of his career on), this also features his work for Tex Avery (at Schlesinger’s and MGM) and for that odd curio studio of Ub Iwerks’s. I’d like to actually have copies of his work at Jam Handy (roughly ’45-’47) one day too.

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