Title: Snuffy's Party (on original title), (The Snuffy Skunks Party on reissue print; Of Mice and Magic says it's Snuffy Skunk's Party, which the Lantz Encyclopedia says was its working title)
Studio: Lantz
Date: 8/07/39
Credits: none on viewed print
Series: -
Running time (of viewed version): 6:27
Synopsis: Snuffy Skunk, thrown out of his own birthday party, has to save his ungrateful guests by stinking away the flood waters from a burst dam.
Comments: That's a jarringly animated hand at the beginning (it's technically cut out animation, I think). It also sure seems like a human hand attached to that skunk. The picture of a mouse on his wall is cool; it looks signed; there also seems to be a signed photo on the table. The skunk and mouse picture designs are miles ahead of the parade of other crappy animals early in the short. The others improve a bit into it. Snuffy looks most like the squirrel in Schlesinger's Robin Hood Makes Good. Gasmasks; I naturally approve. The vocals are still crappy in this cartoon, but the visuals feel more advanced than much of the Lantz output for the year. The trouble is it feels like only a half good excuse to cram the various gags that appear together (especially once the party gets into full swing). There are ballet dancing cows (fat ones, not like Clarabell), in yet another "it was done before Fantasia" moment. The jitterbugging couple looks so out of place that it's like they just slapped it on top with minimal thought (just animal heads on the same human referenced animation they used several times already this year). The flood, animated as a character, is really nice. Snuffy's tongue is out for envelope licking. The tongue seems like a trademark for Lantz '39s. It looks like Baby Face Mouse and Oswald the Lucky Rabbit show up in front of the dam. Perhaps Lantz was killing them off in the flood, since they don't appear elsewhere in the party, and Oswald doesn't show up again starring in a short for 4 years. (This would make Oswald Jacob, Baby Face Jack, and Snuffy Hurley; can you tell this was written around the Lost series finale?) This was not a good party for keeping your pants on. With the various dancing things in the short, it seems like this may have been a dumping ground for ideas that were solicited for but not used in I'm Just A Jitterbug.
Cute little bit with throwing "(confidentially)" in there, which we've seen in other cartoons like (if memory serves) "Unruly Hare." That was from that advertising line "Confidentially, you stink," wasn't it? Anyone know which product that was for? I know Lifebuoy used the elongated "B.O." line we've heard used many times.
ReplyDeleteThe credits are in Lantzopedia as follows: director Elmer Perkins, story Victor McLeod and Hicks Lokey, animation Frank Tipper and Al Coe, and music Frank Marsales.
ReplyDeleteI thought that it was about "Snuffy Smith" before that King Features Series. Paramount did produce a Snuffy smith cartoon in the 1940s or two and a series of features and a whole series of Snuffs as part of the King Features. I wonder what KF thought of Lantz using that name.
ReplyDeleteSteve
Pokey, that clay horse