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Topic:
The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/9/07 9:03pm
Subject:
The 50 Greatest Cartoons
- Date Edited:
9/18 11:11am (28 edits total)
Edited By:
Zaz
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"The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals was a 1994 book by animation historian Jerry Beck that compiled a list of the 50 greatest animated cartoons of all-time as voted upon by those in the animation industry.
Criteria for inclusion stated that each cartoon had to be under thirty minutes in length and cel animated. The list has been criticized for not including animation produced outside of North America."
And...number 50 is: "Felix in Hollywood"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1gYQhWJKlMQ
I think this is the first silent cartoon I've ever seen. I notice the characters do a lot of miming, but it's quite good. I recognized Ben Turpin, Charlie Chaplin, and William S. Hart in the Hollywood sequence.
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darth_frared
Registered:
Jun '05
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Date Posted:
1/10/07 7:51am
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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is it fully silent or does it have music? curse the missing loudspeakers!
i quite liked it. my dad gave me a felix mug ages ago and i never knew the cartoons.
-----signature-----
illegalise stupidity.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/10/07 7:53am
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
- Date Edited:
1/24/07 4:12pm (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Zaz
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In 1923, it would have been fully silent. They would have a pianist in the movie theatre for the music. Later on, they had synchronized music tracks for silent films.
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Rogue1-and-a-half
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
1/10/07 3:44pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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This looks like a great thread, particularly if you're actually able to link us to the cartoons so we can see them all. 
I used to have a Felix comic book when I was a kid; I quite liked it.
The shoe gag went a bit long (the thing was half over before he got to Hollywood or didn't the person writing the title notice?).
But there were a few great bits; I loved his detachable tail and the Chaplin imitation. Were those other people cariacatures as well (the cowboy, the boss, the cigar rolling guy)? If so, I didn't recognize them.
I loved the way he tricked his owner into taking him; first as cane, then as satchel. And that last mosquito literally glares daggers at Felix; he snatches one of the daggers out of the air and fights the mosquito with it. I have to say, I liked that quite a bit.
Interesting. I look forward to more.
-----signature-----
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without having ever felt sorry for itself.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/10/07 10:04pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
- Date Edited:
1/11/07 11:00am (1 edits total)
Edited By:
Zaz
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Alas, next on the list is a cartoon to which I have no link:
#49: "The Dover Boys"
The plot and creative team is explained here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Dover_Boys
Excerpt: "This cartoon is notable for being one of the earliest examples of stylized animation, a technique which used shape-heavy designs with minimal movement, as opposed to the type of animation done at that time by the Walt Disney studio. This animation was also the first from Termite Terrace to really push the physical limits of linear action. The characters move with sudden bursts of speed that defy all convention, demonstrating that animation did not have to adhere to any natural laws. Bugs and Daffy in particular would never be the same again after this short was produced, even though they don't appear in it."
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/11/07 7:10pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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48. "The Unicorn in the Garden" (1953)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ppJfMP4MVoI
A distinctly Thurber-like cartoon, with a family resemblance to "One Froggy Evening."
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Rogue1-and-a-half
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
1/12/07 6:22pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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Ah! Always been a fan of the story; didn't know there was a cartoon.
It worked quite well; the animation looked like Thurber's drawings come to life and the laugh lines in the book are just as funny in cartoon form: "You are a booby." "It had a golden horn in the middle of its forehead."
That was a good one.
-----signature-----
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without having ever felt sorry for itself.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/12/07 6:34pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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Next: "A Corny Concerto" (1943)
See it here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EMM3hwG1cxo
Very early WB cartoon set to "Tales of the Vienna Woods" and "The Blue Danube". Frank Tashlin (later a famous comedy director) wrote the story.
Elmer Fudd is the narrator.
The first is Porky Pig in Fudd's usual role as the hunter of Bugs Bunny (brilliant denouement)
The second is Daffy Duck trying to be a swan.
Never seen it before. Terrific.
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Rogue1-and-a-half
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
1/12/07 6:55pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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Aha! One I have no problem labelling great. A spoof of Fantasia (note Elmer's entrance, spoofing Stowkowski's in the movie) which I always appreciate.
Finally a cartoon that's mean, vicious and anarchic. About time; the moment the chipmunk pulled out the shotgun, I was won over completely; the big death scene was a riot.
The swan one I had seen before somewhere; it's moderately famous, particularly the image of the two trees twining around each other. Daffy's huge grin made me laugh (both times!) and the look on his face when he got the Rejected - 4F bit was a masterpiece of animation.
Now that was classic. Today's cartoons don't hold a candle. And this is what Fantasia should have been.
-----signature-----
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without having ever felt sorry for itself.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/13/07 9:07am
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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And I didn't pick up that it was a spoof of "Fantasia". Good on you.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/14/07 2:14pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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Next: "Quasi at the Quackadero" (1975)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH7LcVNusQE
Very, very 70's in content. The animation is rudimentary, but lots of ideas.
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Rogue1-and-a-half
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
1/14/07 6:10pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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I gotta say, that was irritating beyond belief. The voice acting was nails on a chalkboard; well, the whole thing really.
Geez, I really disliked that one.
-----signature-----
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without having ever felt sorry for itself.
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/14/07 9:06pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
- Date Edited:
1/15/07 7:25pm (2 edits total)
Edited By:
Zaz
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I think this will be more to your taste: "Book Revue" (1946)
http://boards.theforce.net/the_amphitheatre/b10382/25967139/p1/?6
When Daffy Duck started singing "Nothing Could Be Finer" in a Gypsy accent I just about wet myself...
EDIT: Does Daffy's warning to Little Red Riding Hood resemble a rap, or am I hallucinating?
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DAR
Registered:
Jul '04
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Date Posted:
1/14/07 10:02pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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I love Book Revue, one of the funniest cartoons ever. It's hard to say which Daffy I prefer though, the earlier goofier Daffy or the later sneakier one.
-----signature-----
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Zaz
Title: Manager, The Ampitheatre
Registered:
Oct '98
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Date Posted:
1/15/07 12:22pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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Never seen that one before.
Daffy is anarchy in his early incarnation.
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Rogue1-and-a-half
Title: Manager: Amphitheatre
Registered:
Nov '00
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Date Posted:
1/15/07 7:54pm
Subject:
RE: The 50 Greatest Cartoons
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You guess correctly.
This one is a lot more dated; the cucarachas - so round, so firm, so fully packed is a spoof on the Lucky Strike jingle. And many of the book titles, I didn't recognize, though I'll bet they were all real books.
The warning to red riding hood was more scat than rap, but I was rolling on the floor every time he put in something recognizeable ("Great big teeth"). And the Uncle Tom's Cabin gag was great too; for just a split second, after they run through the cabin, Daffy is the woman fleeing on the ice floes with her little baby. I rolled over that too.
That final dance number is hilarious and the punchline is absurdity perfected, "you big sillys."
Now that was funny.
-----signature-----
I never saw a wild thing sorry for itself.
A small bird will drop frozen dead from a bough
Without having ever felt sorry for itself.
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