Category Archives: Color Classics

THE CARTOON CRYPT: More on Peeping Penguins (1937)

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THE CARTOON CRYPT

I watched Peeping Penguins on the Fleischer Color Classics compilation dvd Somewhere in Dreamland again this weekend, and I was correct that it is missing footage (in addition to the previously mentioned altered soundtrack missing the song “Curiosity Killed the Cat”). The penguin playing and almost killing himself with a loaded rifle has been eliminated from the sloppily edited version on the Dreamland dvd. You can get the full version on a shoddily manufactured but chock full of great stuff compilation called 150 Cartoon Classics. Or you can just watch it online:

You’ll want Somewhere in Dreamland for the rest of the Color Classics, though (except for the one it doesn’t include)… in spite of its flaws it is a fantastic and almost complete compilation of the Color Classics:

I’ve extracted the song Curiosity Killed the Cat (along with some of the rest of the soundtrack) as an mp3 which you can download here.

Read more about Peeping Penguins on The Big Cartoon Database here.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: The Kids in the Shoe (1935)

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THE CARTOON CRYPT

Here’s another wonderful and weird Fleischer Color Classics cartoon. This one has a fantastic soundtrack featuring Smiley Burnette’s song Mama Don’t Allow No Music Playing Round Here. I don’t know who performs it in the cartoon… if you do, please let me know in the comments and I’ll update this post. I’ve extracted the song to an mp3, which you can download here.

You can get all but one of the Color Classics on this great DVD set called Somewhere in Dreamland:

Unfortunately, the print of this one is particularly beat up, so it is only included in the “Lost Episodes” documentary on the disc rather than being easily available from the main menu.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: The Cobweb Hotel (1936)

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THE CARTOON CRYPT

Another great cartoon from the Max Fleischer Color Classics series.

You can get all but one of the Color Classics on this great DVD set called Somewhere in Dreamland:

I’ve noticed a couple additional things worth noting going through the DVD set. First of all, the color on some of the cartoons, although still seemingly faded, is hugely improved over the other versions of them that I’ve seen… this is particularly obvious comparing versions of Hawaiian Birds. Also, in the version of Peeping Penguins included, the song “Curiosity Killed the Cat” is curiously missing from the soundtrack, which is a damn shame. I haven’t checked it against my other version of it, but it seemed like this version may have been shorter as well. In spite of these relatively minor flaws, this is still an incredible set of cartoons. You can click the above image to order it.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Bunny Mooning (1937)

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I was thrilled the other day to run across the DVD set Max Fleischer’s Color Classics: Somewhere in Dreamland. I don’t know how this escaped my notice previously. I’m a big fan of the Fleischer brothers, and I’ve been hunting down the Color Classics cartoons on the internet recently to see them all. Now I don’t have to… the collection has all but one of the Fleischer Color Classics included (“Tears Of An Onion,” which is apparently still copyrighted and couldn’t be included). The cartoons I’ve watched so far, while they don’t appear to be completely restored (the colors I imagine were much more brilliant in the 30’s), are in much better condition than I’ve ever seen them (I have a number of the cartoons on other cartoon collections). The cartoons themselves are fantastic.

The center image on the cover of the DVD is from the cartoon Bunny Mooning. This one is so saccharine-sweet, it is surprising it came out of the Fleischer studios… I’m guessing it is one of the worst cartoons on the set. It is still a lot of fun, though! It’s definitely no Dancing on the Moon (my favorite so far)!

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database.

Here are the contents of the DVD Set:

DISK ONE
1. Poor Cinderella (starring Betty Boop) **
2. Little Dutch Mill **
3. An Elephant Never Forgets **
4. Song of the Birds
5. Dancing On the Moon 1935 **
6. Somewhere in Dreamland **
7. The Little Stranger
8. The Cobweb Hotel
9. Greedy Humpty Dumpty
10. Hawaiian Birds
11. Play Safe
12. Christmas Comes But Once a Year **
13. Bunny Mooning
14. Chicken A La King
15. A Car-Tune Portrait
16. Peeping Penguins
DISK TWO
1. Educated Fish” (1937)
2. Little Lamby
3. Hold It! **
4. Hunky and Spunky (1938)
5. All’s Fair At the Fair **
6. Playful Polar Bears
7. Always Kickin’ (starring Hunky and Spunky)
8. Small Fry
9. Barnyard Brat (starring Hunky and Spunky)
10. The Fresh Vegetable Mystery **
11. Little Lambkins
12. Ants In the Plants **
13. A Kick In Time (starring Hunky and Spunky)
14. Snubbed By A Snob (starring Hunky and Spunky)
15. You Can’t Shoe A Horsefly (starring Hunky and Spunky)
**optional audio commentary by Jerry Beck**

THE LOST EPISODES
A documentary about the making of this collection of the complete `Color Classics’ cartoons. It includes four uncut ultra-rare cartoons:
1*The Kids In the Shoe
2*Time For Love (the only known copy in existence is this black & white version)
3*Musical Memories
4*Vitamin Hay (starring Hunky and Spunky)

I’ll probably post more about these cartoons as I make my way through the set with my 2 and a half year old daughter, Esther (Dancing on the Moon is her favorite too).

THE CARTOON CRYPT: An Elephant Never Forgets (1934)

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What? A rerun won’t cut it for your Saturday morning? You kids today are spoiled! When I was a kid long, long ago in the decade we called the Seventies, we had four channels, and one was PBS, which didn’t even count! We were happy to get reruns! We’d watch the same Woody Woodpecker cartoon 100 times, because that was the Woody Woodpecker cartoon the local station had a copy of! Hell, forget Woody Woodpecker, we even watched Fred and Barney meet The Thing and The Shmoo! And we liked it! Loved it, even! And it was terrible! You… you’ve got the low-res version of the history of animation at your fingertips whenever you want it! What the hell is wrong with you?!? Be grateful!

Oh, fine, have another, you lucky little bastards… here’s the Fleischers’ An Elephant Never Forgets from 1934.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database.