http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=PCkDAAAAMBAJ&pg=80&query=cartoon+1939
Here we have a piece on stop motion animation. The piece is more or less entirely silent on what it is actually about. However, Thunderbean Animation's new DVD "Stop Motion Marvels" contains a later cartoon with the hedgehog character in it, which lets me know the character is named Mecki, and the maker was named Gebruder Diehl.
Most of the material I can find on Diehl is not in English, and I am uncertain exactly when the pictured film would have come out; my assumption was it was The Hare and The Hedgehog, but I can see dates from 1937, 1938 and 1939 for the release of that film. Perhaps it was released in 1939 in the US (in what form, I don't know; I can't find a release notice in an online search of BoxOffice); not much of a publicity machine if they can't even associate the name of the cartoon with the piece.
You can see a non-English documentary on Diehl at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ElFaAdmKqyY and find many links on the side to his work.
You know, "Gebrüder" in German means "brothers", so the makerS of the film were probably the Diehl brothers. Here is something interesting:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KrOe_UvL-rU
Where can I find Mecki the hedgehog TV series DVD?
ReplyDeleteThe Mecki DVD (I don't know if it's tv or theatrical) can be found at http://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0002V2E3S/ref=s9_simh_gw_p74_i1?pf_rd_m=A3JWKAKR8XB7XF&pf_rd_s=center-1&pf_rd_r=1ASF71GAS5DEAZSRPDCN&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=463375193&pf_rd_i=301128
ReplyDeleteIf you want additional help, I suggest you find someone who speaks German and didn't find out about Mecki in an unattributed Popular Science article that came out 71 years ago...