Ugh, the Blu-Ray Choice is Sniffles? (BluRays of 1939 v2)

So, a new Blu-Ray with an incredibly unwieldly title has been announced; the Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles The Chuck Jones Collection. We may never know if it's based on the novel by Sapphire. Nonetheless, it shall contain Naughty but Mice, Little Brother Rat, and Sniffles and the Bookworm, making it on topic here. There are some great things about Sniffles cartoons, but Sniffles isn't one of them. One of the early reviews on Amazon says the bonus cartoons have been "reviled"; I think it's more technically true of the disc of Sniffles...

Looney Tunes the Chuck Jones Collection Mouse [Blu-ray]

BluRays of 1939 volume 1

And so cometh 1939 on BluRay in the form of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection volume 1. "Old Glory" is on it, so it has '39 content.

It comes in the regular ugly cover version and the just as ugly "ultimate collector's edition" filled with the kind of hateful crap that gives us the bad cover art; your extra $20 gets you or the cheesy bastard you're buying it as a gift for one of those crappy litho cels, a tiny tin sign and a shot glass. Thank you, WB, for letting us opt out, instead of having a "Why is the Simpsons in this giant plastic head? what do you mean I can't buy it without it?" debacle. They both come with a Jerry Beck related book which has nice looking internal pages.

Title Cards of 1939 in Review

As with yesterday's post, I present to you a compilation of all the title cards, as seen on this blog (I think). These each last for a second, tho, so you can see them much more clearly than any given image in yesterday's video, wherein each image lasted for about 1/10th of a second.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzIXz4mGBZw

A quick visual review of 1939

Here for your perusal I present screen caps of all the US theatrical shorts as they have appeared on this blog. I tried to remove all the other things, but I notice that I at the very least missed clearing out the Mickey Mouse Nabisco short. Think of it as A Clockwork Orange meets animation history. It'll be real horrorshow.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzIXz4mGBZw

158 The Curious Puppy

Title: The Curious Puppy
Studio: Warner Bros.
Date: 12/30/39
Credits: -
Series: Merrie Melodies (on a Blue Ribbon retitle)
Running time (of viewed version): 7:34

Synopsis: Puppy breaks in to amusement park, attracts attention of guard dog.































Comments: Silhouette shot. For some reason, this takes place in an amusement park instead of at the NYWF (it does seem to be Coney Island, at least). Wherever it is reopens May 31, 1940. There's a poster of a musician or graffiti on the poster that says "ZIZZ"; I'm not sure what it's a reference to. The dogs are kinda similar to the pair in Jones's earlier cartoons this year. Alternate universe where they aren't pals (or their origin story). Mirror gag; this was surely cliche by now. They had Mexican food at Coney Island, apparently. The search lights in the amusement park landscape look tasty. There seems to be an actual ad for Squirt in the cartoon (more than one, actually); someone liked it in house, I guess. (Not that I don't like; Squirt is mm mm good.) The silhouette chase in front of the lit park is great looking, as the backgrounds are overall.Big dog is really trying to kill little dog at the end, and is left with only impotent rage.

The last US theatrical cartoon of 1939 (of the mainline theatrical US shorts, tied with Mad Maestro in terms of release date, and the last one I watched of those for the year, until I find The Old Firehorse, or decide there is enough evidence to include other cartoons). Onwards.

Breakdowns Of 1939

Here we have screens from WB's gag reel for the year, including Porky saying son of a bitch. THe cow painting is pretty nice. It can be found at
http://www.archive.org/details/Breakdowns_Blowups_1936-1947
Also on LTGV v4, d4.

Porky Pig 1939 tin toy

Assuming the date on it wasn't a straw argument, presumably some (lucky?) kids got this Porky Pig item under the tree on Christmas morning 1939. Presumably winding the thing in back makes the umbrella spin.
Hoggy holidays!

153 The Film Fan

Title: The Film Fan
Studio: Warner Bros.
Date: 12/16/39
Credits:
Supervision
Robert Clampett
Animation
Norman McCabe & Vive Risto
Musical Direction
Carl W. Stalling
Series: Looney Tunes
Running time (of viewed version): 6:51

Synopsis: Porky goes to the free movies instead of coming right home from the store. Gosh, what a bad kid.





















Comments: Establishing building, followed by text gag. All with a crappy little ditty under it. About the movies, making it self referential. Many posters advertising Looney Tunes. "Ahs of a Wizard" is a title; obvious Wizard of Oz reference (as opposed to the even ore explicit Gone with the Breeze). Lots of text jokes. A better name would have been "Text Joke Fan". So many stills and text based shots. Lone Stranger cheater footage (here, the Masked Marvel). They're all such film fans they went for free. There aren't any actual films; just newsreels/non fiction shorts and a couple of trailers. I feel cheated by this cheater. Sardine dog men. Nice shiny floor. I assume Cold Promise is a specific reference but I don't know to what. It's like a bad collection of spot gags; they needed an excuse for them, and then totally blew the potential of the premise.