What About Thad?

Bob posted a clip that Ben Solomon animated from We’re On Our Way to Rio, so I thought I’d post the whole thing. This was one of the last cartoons done at the Miami studio, the key tipoff being Dave Barry voicing Bluto. This is a very well-directed and animated cartoon (save those creepy band members). Solomon’s dance animation of Popeye has real weight to it and is wonderful at showcasing the sailor’s dancing incompetency. Jim Tyer’s animation is hysterical and really captures the ugly insanity that is the Popeye-Olive-Bluto triangle. I bet this was pure eye candy to see in Technicolor, but alas, all we have for now is a faded TV print.

(This version was planned for Cartoon Network’s THE POPEYE SHOW when they found the opening and closing titles’ soundtrack, but was shelved.)

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Here’s a terrible story from Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories #50 (Nov. 1944), written by Chase Craig, and drawn by Carl Buettner. I guess Craig “invented” some personalities for José and Panchito without having seen either of them in actual action, or else mistook their rowdiness from the film for stupidity. Whatever. Still a lame story. I just like it for the slick art and inking. Watch for an unauthorized appearance by Daffy as the soda jerk.

Frank Tashlin’s reign as head of the Screen Gems cartoon studio didn’t even last a year, but his experimentation aura continued on even after he left and Dave Fleischer took over (which occurred, as John Hubley remembers, because “he was so out of it, he was so completely detached, that he was never any problem.”)

On the whole, they are a mixed bag, as with all eras of all things Screen Gems. The Fox and Grapes and Wolf Chases Pigs are masterworks. Dog Meets Dog is better at doing the Disney-style than Disney did themselves. Wacky Wigwams actually makes the Pete Smith “spot-gag” format a joy to watch with practically every scene animated by Emery Hawkins. Pete Pelican brought new lows to cartoon filmmaking with The Tangled Angler and Under the Shedding Chestnut Tree. Old Blackout Joe is one of the most un-racial cartoons ever made starring a black character.

In spite of the vastly underrated Bob Wickersham being the de-facto director of this cartoon, Tashlin’s style is all over this film: the weird cutting, a “montage” of past events (seen in many other Columbia shorts), and the unrelenting antagonist. I can’t think of any cases, other than Walt Disney, where the producer’s point-of-view/style was evident in films he only produced and not direct. (I suppose, arguably, Hubley at UPA would be one; and less arguably the Fleischers in the 1930s.)

For your enjoyment this is the original theatrical version. The home movie version in trading circles clipped a bit of footage at the beginning when they redid the title art.

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