After talking in detail about cartoons from the Golden Age of Animation from the great studios (Disney, Warner Bros’, MGM, Fleischer), Yesterday’s Joe is back with his favourite animated clips by… the rest. These will be kind of throwaway posts, but nonetheless there are a few interesting things to be found. Today’s turn is Terrytoons.
“Walt Disney is the Tiffany’s of the business, and I am the Woolworth’s.”
Paul Terry
Terrytoons
The studio with the lowest budget in animation. Paul Terry took pride in producing a cartoon every week, regardless of the quality. Terrytoons’ cartoons barely evolved and looked horribly outdated. What’s worse is that they’re frequent perpetrators of plagiarism. At least I think, it could be the other way around, and there was a lot of coming and going of animators in between studios so… Still, it’s a mystery to me how they managed to survive for decades.
A few glaring examples:
Heckle and Jeckle: Crows from Dumbo
Cat Trouble: Tweetie
Fishing by the sea: Droopy
A date for dinner: Tom and Jerry
Hounding the Hares: Elmer, Pluto and Bugs Bunny
Seeing Ghosts: Porky Pig and every Disney ghost/skeleton dance short
Even their biggest star, Mighty Mouse is a parody of a popular animated series (Superman) and only a three letters away from Mickey Mouse.
Now I realize this has been a very negative post, but I’d like to end on a positive note. Terrytoons did manage to get few nominations for an Academy Award. During the 40’s for All Out for ‘V’ (1942), My Boy, Johnny (1944) and Mighty Mouse in Gypsy Life (1945).
That’s it for today. I’ll need some time to work on the 50’s, but I hope to get back to you soon!
Things to look forward to:
- non-US 1940’s animation: Russia, Western-Europe,…
- Japan 1900-1961: anime before anime
- Disney movies from the 1950’s: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty,…
- American TV animation 1950’s
- …many more
Previous posts:
Early stages of animation: 1920-1937 – The rise of cartoons
Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarves (1937) – Golden Age of Animation
Disney’s Pinocchio (1940) – Golden Age of Animation
Disney’s Fantasia (1940) – Golden Age of Animation
Disney’s Dumbo (1941) vs. Bambi (1942) – Golden Age of Animation
Disney Cartoons 1937-1949 – Golden Age of Animation
Warner Bros’ Cartoons 1937-1949 – Golden Age of Animation
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoons 1937-1949 – Golden Age of Animation
Fleischer/Famous Studios Cartoons 1937-1949 – Golden Age of Animation
Mintz/Screen Gems cartoons 1937-1949 – Golden Age of Animation
UPA limited animation 1943-1949 – Golden Age of Animation
Walter Lantz cartoons 1937-1949 – Golden Age of Animation
Hey man! I hope you’re doing alright in these tough times.
I just wanted to point out a few things about this post, in regards to Paul Terry: I think, as a producer and a businessman, Terry using quick solutions paid off rather well…only because of Mighty Mouse. I remember this character fairly well, in fact. If we’re taking about Superman rip-offs, it’s at least more memorable than Krypto the Superdog XD
Plagiarism is also another huge factor in the business world. I mean, the previous posts you had animations that took elements from one another…no? Imo, I don’t really mind or care much for it, qualities aside, some individuals just care about making money for survival, especially in those times.
Also, for the Tom and Jerry short, I think it was interesting to see “Tom” pull out a gun and shoot it, lol…I was in shock XD
I’m actually a fan of a Soviet animated series called “Well, Just You Wait”, and that’s basically a more mature version of Tom and Jerry.
And I know you’re doing Russia soon…so I’m excited to see that :p
Hi Li, thanks for visiting again!
I wasn’t quite sure how to do this post, so I went for whatever seemed funniest, but I could’ve definitely been more nuanced :p
But I think you kind of hit the hammer on the nail when you say “business”. The entertainment business is of course a business like any other one, but animation in itself is, to me, an artistic endeavor and a means of expression for the animators. And any artist, when they make anything, lives in the context of what came before and happens during the same time period. They get inspired, borrow elements, add to them, combine, and that’s how an artform evolves. But in this case, it’s just borrowing without adding anything new, so I feel at least a bit justified in my criticisms :p
+ I think for a medium that tells a story, even if it is an 8-minutes cartoon, characters are really the most important thing. Animation studios really only had success by having hit characters like Mickey Mouse or Daffy Duck or Woody Woodpecker. So then trying to emulate that, by just using the same type of animal in the same cat-and-mouse situation, or sometimes even the same breed of dog ( :p ), seems like kind of cheap attempts at riding on another artist’s wave. So looking at it that way it shows little artistic integrity… w
But then again, I can’t be sure of who copied whom, Terrytoons are harder to find so it’s quite possible a bigger studio took an idea from them. Although I rather doubt it, since any talent from Terrytoons would’ve been quickly bought away by the big ones :p
And there’s definitely some Soyutmutfilm stuff coming up 😉
Lol, dude, I’ve been watching your stuff since you first told me about your blog (it’s WhitexDemon, btw) XD
Nah, I totally understand your criticisms, I just thought they were funny, lol. Yea, but for this studio, they hit the jackpot with Mighty Mouse (even if they had to sacrifice their integrity) :p
Oh, and I forgot to mention, but that Frankenstein’s Cat short was really cool, especially the fight scene on the stairs :p
And I can’t wait to see it! My boi Cheburashka needs some love :p
Haha jeez i had no idea :p Sorry for the unpersonal replies
but I’m very glad at least someone is is reading all of it :p