054 Charlie Cuckoo

Title: Charlie Cuckoo
Studio: Walter Lantz
Date: 4/24/39
Credits:
Director ... Elmer Perkins
Story ... Elviry Perkins
Music ... Zeke Perkins
Animators ... Hank Perkins - Si Perkins
Series: Cartune
Running time (of viewed version): 6:56

Synopsis: A wooden cuckoo quit his job in a clock, only to find the world is a hard and unforgiving place, and so returns to his former employment.
















Comments: The second wooden cuckoo bird cartoon of the month. The backgrounds are a strength; human detritus and furnishings provide more interest than pastoral muck. The cuckoo's multiple personalities are a little disturbing. A woodpecker shows up; it's interesting to see what differs between this design and Woody Woodpecker's design, and it's interesting to see what is retained between the two designs. In some ways, Woody moved more towards this design as he became a bit less daffy than he was in his beginnings. I have not found an explanation for the credits, not that I've looked terribly hard. The only Google hit for Elviry Perkins other than the Lantz Encyclopedia is from a book called "It Came to Pass" by Mary Farley Sanborn, 1892, but there are is no hit for Zeke or "cuckoo" in that book, for example. From what I can tell, the 44 hour week was not federally mandated, and it seems to have not been the case for the most part at the state level either. Various people worked a 44 hour week, but with a quick look I didn't find an obvious direct reference. (It would be dangerous for a cartoon to use such a reference if factual, I would think, as the news might be pretty stale by the time the cartoon hit theaters.) Charlie gets treated more like an insect in the outside world, being seen as food by fish and frog. His design is not un-insecty, as well. It's unclear until more than a third of the way through the cartoon (when his spring filled leg is dislocated) that Charlie is a wooden cuckoo bird. Still, he wants to eat a worm and have sex with a lark. The Lantz folks don't seem able to tell the long hand from the short hand tho...

053 Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur

Title: Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur
Studio: Warner Bros.
Date: 4/22/39
Credits:
Produced by
Leon Schlesinger
Supervision
Charles Jones
Story by
Dave Monahan
Animation
A.C. Gamer
Musical Direction
Carl W. Stalling
Series: Merrie Melodies
Running time (of viewed version): 7:46

Synopsis: A caveman hunts Daffy Duck, who ends up killing everyone with his ill advised daffiness.
























Comments: This is the first of three WB cartoons in a row that are on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume 3. They're not all together on the set (they're each on a separate disc), they were just released in order (Chicken Jitters came out on the same day as this one, but it is not part of that three; CJ and the three LTGCv3 cartoons were all released in one 14 day period tho). Unusual for such a concentration, when official DVD releases (as of this writing) only give us 7 out of the 44 WB cartoons for 1939. Casper Caveman talks more or less like Jack Benny (and looks like an even uglier Gabby). But they really didn't capture his dulcet tones. There's a long drawing saving sign sequence (20 seconds), which ends musically with what I think of as an end of cartoon crescendo, tho it's not the end. And that sequence isn't the only place written jokes show up in this cartoon. This is yet another cartoon where the title character isn't the lead; not even the second title character is the lead. The caveman is the lead. 1939 hated whoever it was supposed to put in its cartoons. I hate early Daffy myself, but by this point he was a little more clever and sly than he had been, especially with his final line. There's no cel animation until more than a minute into the cartoon, 35 seconds after the standard opening title sequence is finished. Casper is sure an ugly sod. Fido the dinosaur's face looks like they just used a seal model. There is an appearance of the traditional WB ballet music when Fido is concussed, with extra harp. (This marks my completing entries for 1/3 of the US theatrical short cartoons of 1939.)

052 Chicken Jitters

Title: Chicken Jitters
Studio: Warner Bros.
Date: 4/22/39
Credits:
Supervision
Robert Clampett
Animation
Robert Cannon - Vive Risto (according to BCDB; it fits, but I can't read the screen)
Musical Direction
Carl W. Stalling
Series: Looney Tunes
Running time (of viewed version): 6:43

Synopsis: In spite of the name, the cartoon is arguably about a lost duckling, and the fox trying to eat him.




















Comments: Second fox cartoon in two days. There's nothing like a Terrytoon to make you appreciate a Looney Tune. 40¢ per dozen eggs; I don't know if that was jokingly expensive, but in adjusted dollars that is several times what eggs are now. There are a series of name jokes that I'm not sure of all the references (Blondie and Dabwood (it could actually be Dagwood, but it looks more like Dabwood), I think the first one reads Blondie and whatever it is (comic strip), then the Jones Family, then the Hardy Family (movie series), and finally Mother Carey's Chicks (a reference to snowflakes or a bird called the storm petrel, darkly said to each contain the soul of a dead sailor). The cartoon is self aware of being a movie, with the duckling photographing the audience. I think the fox is a recurrence from an earlier cartoon in the year (in black and white, I could have sworn he was a wolf); the voice doesn't quite match Robin Hood Makes Good, but it sounds more familiar than he looks. Porky is barely in the cartoon. The cartoon really doesn't have much of a plot. Things happen, and there's a vague story, but this is a cartoon that has a cohesive setting without a cohesive narrative. This kind of thing works better in Tex Avery blackout fashion; in some ways, the vague narrative here may limit the cartoon, tho it allows it to have a natural ending. There's an interesting and well done shot where Porky starts out being seen only in his shadow, and then he runs into frame, syncing with his shadow.