THE CARTOON CRYPT: Samurai Elf Versus Mickey Mouse and his Legion of Snakes

THE CARTOON CRYPT

An utterly bizarre Japanese cartoon from 1934, found courtesy of the excellent Cartoon Brew website. A whole lot more interesting information on this can be found in the comments there.

Here is part of a comment there by “EricW”:

This appears to be Komatsuzawa Hajime’s “Toybox Series #3: Picture Book 1936″ (a.k.a. Momotaro vs Mickey Mouse). I found this description at http://www.kinema.uwaterloo.ca/white962.htm: “One very popular cartoon character was Momotaro, the “Peach boy,” who appeared in a number of cartoons designed not just for domestic consumption within Japan, but for propaganda use in occupied countries as well. For example, Picture Book 1936 (Momotaro vs. Mickey Mouse) presented fanged Mickey Mouse look-alikes riding giant bats, attacking peaceful Pacific islanders (represented by cats and dolls, for some reason); the hero Momotaro jumps out of a picture book, repels the American mice, and cherry trees blossom throughout the island as the grateful natives sing “Tokyo Chorus.”

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Betty Boop with Henry, the World’s Funniest American (1935)

THE CARTOON CRYPT

Here’s another Betty Boop cartoon with a guest star from the funny pages… here with Carl Anderson’s Henry. Unlike the comic strip, for some reason they decided Henry should talk in the movie. A strange decision, as I don’t think it adds much to have him talk in the cartoon, or even to the storytelling… and it is certainly a big part of his comic strip’s appeal. Boy oh boy does Henry look wrong with a mouth. Come to think of it, boy does Henry look wrong.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: Betty Boop and Little Jimmy (1936)

THE CARTOON CRYPT

Here’s a Betty Boop cartoon featuring Jimmy Swinnerton’s Little Jimmy (I’ll be presenting some Little Jimmy strips soon for your reading pleasure). Betty is using a vibrating belt machine to lose weight… I remember playing with one of these at some relative’s house as a kid. I don’t think anyone ever lost weight with one of these contraptions, and it would be a good bet that a lot of people met their chiropractors with their assistance. This cartoon also reveals the little known fact that laughing causes obesity, which explains why fat people are always so damned jolly.

Read more about this cartoon on The Big Cartoon Database here.

Horton Hatches an Egg (1942)

After reading a bit about the latest atrocity that Hollywood is perpetrating on the legacy of the great Dr. Seuss, I thought I would point you to one of the times they got it dead right… here’s Horton Hatches an Egg directed by Bob Clampett.

Read more about this cartoon here on the Big Cartoon Database.

Here’s a great, revealing Seuss anecdote from the biography of him, Dr. Seuss and Mr. Geisel, by Judith Morgan.

THE CARTOON CRYPT: The Wizard of Oz (1933)

THE CARTOON CRYPT

Here’s a YouTube oddity… a goofy cartoon adaptation of The Wizard of Oz from 1933 directed by Ted Eshbaugh. It has little to do with the book other than using some of the characters, and it came out six years before the movie. This may be what inspired the movie makers to have Kansas be black and white and Oz be color… or maybe it was just an obvious idea to happen at the dawn of color film.

It seems like the great Carl Stalling must have worked for just about every animation studio of the era.

You can read about this cartoon on the Big Cartoon Database here.