Animated Feature Films Before Snow White

Though I cannot deny that the Disney animated classic Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a milestone in film history and a great movie, it is not the first animated feature film ever made. Why it is sad that this is often believed is because some of the animated features that came before are really good and definitely deserve more attention. That is why today we are going to look at these films.






El Apostol
1917. Director: Quirino Cristani. Writer: Quirino Cristani. Animator: Quirino Cristiani. Character Designs: Diógenes Taborda. Models: Andrés Ducaud.

El Apostol is believed to be the first animated feature film made. This was a silent film from Argentina. Unfortunately this film is lost today due to a fire in 1926. The film was a political satire about Argentinian president Hipolito Yrigoyen, and the film ran around 70 minutes.

Sin dejar rastros1918. Director: Quirino Cristani. Writer: Quirino Cristiani. Animator: Quirino Cristiani. Producer: Federico Valle.

Sin dejar rastros (or in English Without a Trace) was a silent movie from the same country and director of El Apostol. It is based on a true story of Baron von Luxburg and how he affected Argentinian history. It is unknown if any copies of this film exist today and the film is considered lost.

The Adventures of Prince Achmed1926. Director: Lotte Reiniger. Technical Director: Carl Koch. Animators: Walter Ruttman, Berthold Bartosch, Walter Turck, Alexander Kardan. Titles: Edmund Delco.

This German silent film is the earliest animated feature available for viewing and it is a delight. Through expert film making and subtle but extremely expressive character animation, this film tells a simple story in the best way possible. Director Lotte Reiniger started directing animated films in 1919 and specialized in a style of animation called silhouette animation. This was achieved by cut out figures made from cardboard. Each limb of these cardboard figures had wires attached, creating the onscreen illusion of these characters moving of their own will. The rest of the crew working on the film had amazing film careers themselves. Carl Koch would for instance be a co-writer for Jean Renoir's 1939 classic The Rules of the Game. Walter Ruttman and Berthold Bartosch would direct some films themselves. Ruttman would direct the 1927 classic Berlin: Symphony of a Great City and Bartosch directed one of the most brilliant animated art-house films ever made with the 1932 short The Idea. In The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Ruttman and Bartosch animated mainly on the special effects. Because of this Animation Historian Jerry Beck has referred to them as "the world's first effects animators". When originally made it was hard for the film to find a distributor in Germany. However a composer named Wolfgang Zeller got permission to book a showing at a concert hall with his own  music. Reviews from this showing were extremely positive and the film was picked up for a year at a theater in Paris. This was followed by the film playing all over the world.

  Peludópolis1931. Director: Quirino Cristiani. Music: José Vázquez Vigo.

Peludópolis is believed to be the earliest sound animated feature. This is another film from Argentina and directed by Quirino Cristiani. Unfortunately like his earlier features this one is assumed lost. It is another political movie, this time about Argentine president Hipólito Yrigoyen and how a group called The Radicals were trying to overthrow him.

The New Gulliver1935. Director: Aleksandr Ptushko. Writers: Aleksandr Ptushko, Sigizmund Krzhizhanovsky, Grigori Roshal. Cast: Vladimir Konstantinovich Konstantinov, Ivan Yudin, Shaolin Santiago. Cinematographer: Nikolai Renkoi Renkov.

This stop motion/live action hybrid was the first Russian feature to make extensive use of animation and the first mostly stop motion feature film released. This movie takes Jonathan Swift's famous book Gulliver's Travels and turns it into soviet propaganda. While this film's combination of stop motion and live action is well ahead of its time, it is really only of interest to film buffs with a special interest in the history of animation, or those who want to see soviet propaganda. All others will surely find this movie just boring.

The Adventures of Pinocchio Directors: Raoul Verdini, Umberto Spano.


This is a debatable film to put on this list because it was never actually finished. The film had production trouble from the start and simply seemed to be fated not to be. If released when it was planned to (1936) it would have been the first cell animated feature and the first animated feature from Italy. It would have also beat Walt Disney's animated adaption of Collodi's book by four years.

The Tale of the Priest and of His Workman Balda1936. Director: Mikhail Tsekhanovsky.

Based on a poem of the same name by Alexander Pushkin, this was the first hand-drawn Russian feature film. Sadly due to a fire only six minutes of this movie still exist today as the rest was destroyed in a fire.

The Tale of the Fox 1937. Directors: Irene Starevich, Ladislas Starevich. Writers: Irene Starevich, Ladislas Starevich, Roger Richebé, Jean Nohain, Antoinette Nordmann, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Voices: Romain Bouquet, Claude Dauphin, Sylvain Itkine, Léon Larive, Robert Seller, Eddy Debray, Nicolas Amato, Pons, Sylivia Bataille, Suzy Dornac, Jamie Palma, Marcel Raine. Music: Vincent Scotto. Cinematography: Ladislas Starevich. Animators: Irene Starevich, Ladislas Starevich. Editor: Laura Sejourné.

This was the first French animated feature, and the first feature to be completely stop motion. It is only appropriate that one of the directors was Ladislas Starevich, one of the pioneers of stop motion animation and one of the first filmmakers to prove animation was art and not just a novelty. Not surprisingly this film is a pure work of art and one of the all time great animated features. Sadly this is the only animated feature film he worked on. The film was originally finished in 1930, but it there were problems with its original French soundtrack. This film ended up being released in Germany and in the German language in 1937, and wouldn't play in France or French until 1941.

Academy Award Review of Walt Disney Cartoons1937. Cartoons directed by Wilfred Jackson, Burt Gillett, Dave Hand..

With no new animation and simply being some short films put together and released as a feature, it is very debatable to include this here. This film is made up of five of the Disney studio's Silly Symphonies cartoons (Flowers and Trees (1932), Three Little Pigs (1933), The Tortoise and the Hare (1934), Three Orphan Kittens (1935), The Country Cousin (1936)). It would be released in 1966 with four cartoons added (The Old Mill (1937), Ferdinand the Bull (1938), The Ugly Duckling (1939), Lend a Paw (1941)). Naturally as these short films are all great the feature film is a lot of fun to watch, but there is nothing new offered here, which leaves it out of most lists of Disney feature films.

The Seven Ravens
1937. Directors: Ferdinand Diehl, Hermann Diehl. Writer: Paul Diehl. Cinematographer: Alfonse Lufteck. Music: Walter Pepper. Animators: Ferdinand Diehl, Hermann Diehl.

This stop motion animated feature from Germany just barely makes this list as it was released earlier the same month as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. This movie is based off of a story by the Brothers Grimm.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources UsedThe Animated Movie Guide edited by Jerry Beck
Animation Art edited by Jerry Beck 

Teen Titians Go! Movie and What it Might Mean

Ok so some of you might have heard about the Teen Titians Go! theatrical released feature film. For those of you not in the know, this will be a movie based off the Cartoon Network animated TV series Teen Titians Go!. This show is a hit show, but has also alienated many fans of the 2003-2007 Teen Titians TV series who hate this show with an undying passion. Naturally because of this show getting a feature film based off it many cartoon fans are extremely upset about this news. I on the other hand am not angry as much as curious. My curiosity isn't all dedicated to this simple film, but rather to what this means for other Cartoon Network shows. Many of you may be aware of a 2002 movie called The Powerpuff Girls Movie and based off the Cartoon Network show, The Powerpuff Girls. Well this movie when released did not do as well as expected either at the box office or with critics. Because of this Cartoon Network decided to stop production on any other theatrical released feature films based off their TV shows. And from that day forward, there has not been another theatrically released movie based off a single Cartoon Network show. This is why the announcement of a Teen Titians Go! movie for theaters got me thinking. This movie will be released July 22, 2018 and I have to wonder if it does well at the box office, will there be more movies based on Cartoon Network TV show based movies made for theaters? I don't have an answer to this but it is an interesting thought. Personally I want a Courage the Cowardly Dog movie, hey I can dream can't I?

-Michael J. Ruhland 

Happy 107th Birthday Disney Legend Ruthie Tompson

Today marked the 107th birthday of Disney legend Ruthie Tompson. She is best remembered today for her work in the animation camera department and her work on every Disney animated feature up to The Rescuers (before retiring in 1975). Despite this though her work with Walt began much earlier. As a little girl she lived in Hollywood next to the original Disney Brother's studio during the mid-1920's when Walt was making his series of Alice Comedy shorts. These shorts involved a live action little girl entering a cartoon world. Before the animated sequences these films would feature live action wraparounds. Ruthie got to appear in some of these and the Disney brothers (Walt and Roy) would get neighborhood kids to appear in the films for a quarter (Ruthie bought licorice with these quarters as she recalls).

Ruthie would become a full time Disney employee because she got a job (at 18 years old) at Dubrock’s Riding Academy. Walt and his brother Roy often played polo there and Walt would end up offering her a job as an painter. One of her earliest assignments was to put some finishing touches on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. It wasn't long until she moved up to being an animation checker. By 1948, she would also enter the area of scene planning. Bob Broughton, who worked in the studios animation camera department would later marvel at how good she was at working with a camera. One of her most accomplished works was to find a way to make Mickey Mouse fully turn on screen.

She is still alive today living in Motion Picture and Television Fund retirement home in Woodland Hills. She still enjoys herself by reading and making movies on her phone. Appropriately she spent today at Disneyland.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Resources Used
https://d23.com/walt-disney-legend/ruthie-tompson/
http://abc7.com/health/disney-legend-and-centenarian-shares-her-longevity-secrets/2437354/

Walt Disney's Alice Comedies

Hello again fellow animation fans. I feel it is fairly safe to assume that many of you who would read an animation blog are also Disney fans. If you are a Disney fan, I feel it is more than worth your time to know about Walt Disney's work before Mickey Mouse or even Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. That is why today we are going to look at Walt's first series with reoccurring characters, The Alice Comedies. So enjoy as we look at three of these great films.

This series was a purposeful and not too subtle reversal of what Max and Dave Fleisher were doing with their Out of the Inkwell series. That series involved the animated Ko-Ko the Clown escaping into the real live action world. In the Alice Comedies a live action little girl named Alice would enter an animated cartoon world. Our first film today is the first film of the series 1923's Alice's Wonderland. Before this Walt Disney was making a series without reoccurring characters called Laugh-O-Grams. These were fairy tale parodies set in the modern day. They were made at the short lived Laugh-O-Gram studios. When Alice's Wonderland was being made this studio was having finical. Before the film was ever released to theaters the studio went bankrupt. Walt did find a distributor in Margret Winkler though. Winkler at this time was also distributing the silent era's two most popular animated series, the aforementioned Out of the Inkwell series as well as the Felix the Cat cartoons. Because of this Walt moved from Kanas City to LA to make his cartoons. This was the last of Walt's cartoons to be made in Kanas City. The live action little girl is played by a very charismatic four year named Virginia Davis. The animation is provided by Hugh Harmon, Rudolph Ising, Ub Iwerks and Carmen Maxwell. The short was directed by Walt Disney himself.

Our second film might be my favorite of the series, 1924's Alice's Wild West Show. Despite this being of the series' best outings it does not feature as much animation as the first film did. This is instead a live action short subject with some animated inserts. There is however a reason for this however. After moving to LA, Walt left behind the animators he had worked with earlier. This left Walt to do much of the animation himself. Walt while a talented animator had little confidence in his animation. Walt was also hardly as fast at this as were the animators he worked with earlier making the animation part to take longer to produce. Because of this at this time Alice comedies relied more and more on live action. This would soon change when Walt would get Ub Iwerks to move west with him. Ub was one of the greatest and fastest animators of all time and because of this when he came west animation would play a much more prominent part in the series. This film in many ways feels like one of the silent Our Gang shorts. This was very common for an Alice comedy of this period, as Alice was given a group of friends who resembled the classic comedy team and went on similar adventures. This is an excellent film full of fun and energy. So enjoy.

 
Our last film for Today is 1925's Alice Solves the Puzzle. One thing you may notice about this short is that Alice is no longer played by Virginia Davis. Virginia Davis had to leave the series and for the rest of the shorts Alice would be played by different little girls. This is the first one not to feature her. Here Alice is played by Margie Gay. Don't worry about Virginia though her film career did not end here, as she would appear in such films as Three on a Match and Weekend in Havana. She would audition for the voice of Snow White in Walt Disney's landmark first feature, though she would not land the part. However she would end up voicing some of the boys in the Pleasure Island scene of Pinocchio. She would also work as a live action reference for the Donald Duck cartoon Mr. Duck Steps Out by doing a Jitterbug dance. This short would also introduce a new cartoon character. This would be Pete who would later become Mickey Mouse's rival. Here he is called Bootleg Pete. So enjoy.




-Michael J. Ruhland


Resources Used Hollywood Cartoons: American Animation in its Golden Age by Michael Barrier

http://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/in-her-own-words-virginia-davis/

Top 10 Hanna-Barbera Theme Songs

Hello again my fellow cartoon lovers. I am sure many of you like me have a special fondness for the theme songs for Hanna-Barbera TV shows. These songs are really catchy and simply set you up to watch a fun cartoon. Often times even if you haven't watched these shows in a while you still know the theme songs off the top of your head. Because of this I will count down my top 10 favorite theme songs to come from this studio. These are just my personal picks and may not be what you would pick. Also this is my ranking of the theme songs and not of the TV shows themselves. So get yourself a bowl of Kellogg's cereal and enjoy.

10. Johnny Bravo This is the only show from after the 1970's on this list. However I can't help but include it. This uses 1950's and 60's style rock music which complements the show perfectly because of Johnny's Elvis Presley like persona. This fun music gets you completely pumped to watch the show and therefore works perfectly as a theme song.

  

9. Josie and the Pussycats As a show about a rock band it is natural that this should have a great theme song and boy does it. The song (written by the great Hoyt Curtain) is one of the more corny theme songs here, but it is more than fun enough to make up for it.

8. Frankenstein Jr. and The Impossibles This very underrated show expertly blending the action hero cartoon with the classic comedy cartoon. This creates a pure sense of complete fun. Ok maybe if we were to fully critical analyze this show it would not be one of the best Hanna-Barbera shows, but there is so much fun energy here that it is a must see for all Hanna-Barbera fans. To fit this the show needs a very fun theme song and as always Hoyt Curtain provided perfectly. This song is catchy and will stick in your head.

7. The Jetsons While this show could have so easily been just The Flintstones in space, it made itself a delightful show in its own right. Even if it wouldn't always have the same amount of laughs as the stone age classic, it more than make up for this with great characters and a engaging setting. The theme song is definitely a huge plus for this show. This is one of the few animated TV shows to have a trumpet solo in its theme song (provided by Pete Condoli).

6. Jonny Quest While Hoyt Curtain is mostly known for theme song that are fun to sing along with he was just as adapt at making a very catchy and fun instrumental theme song. This is an epic sounding theme and is a perfect introduction to Hanna-Barbera's first action adventure show.




 














5. The Huckleberry Hound Show With the second show out of the studio, one of there best theme songs out of the game. Huckleberry Hound was one of the studio's best and most fun shows introducing Yogi Bear, Pixie, Dixie, Mr. Jinx and of course the Hound himself. The theme song set up this fun perfectly and is extremely entertaining.

4. Top Cat Top Cat is one of my favorite TV shows, Hanna-Barbera or not. It is a very smart cartoon, with very well written characters and a great atmosphere. That atmosphere is very well set up by just the theme song, which is one of the very few Hoyt Curtain theme songs to use strings.

3.The Magilla Gorilla Show If you never got this song stuck in your head you never watched the show. This song is catchy, upbeat and all together fun. Simply Hoyt Curtain's work at his best. By the way the line "He's really ideal" was a reference to the show's sponsor Ideal Toys.
   

2. The Flintstones One of the studio's best and most groundbreaking shows also had one of its best theme songs. For the first two seasons a little instrumental tune called Rise and Shine was used as the show's theme. In the third season's third episode Barney the Invisible the theme we all know was first used. Written by Hoyt Curtain and preformed by a group known as the Skip Jacks, this is a fantastic song. Joseph Barbera liked to tell the story of how he paid a man to sing all the lyrics of the song in the elevator and the man got every word correct. He would describe this as the best money he ever spent.

  

1. The Quick Draw McGraw Show For pure laughs this is possible the studio's best show. This was mostly due to clever and laugh out loud funny scripts written by Looney Tunes writer Michael Maltase (who wrote every episode of this great show). As well as this though this show has my favorite Hanna-Barbera theme song. It is extremely catchy, upbeat and tons of fun. It fits the show it precedes perfectly. Just a pure delight.

If there are any you would have included that I left out don't be afraid to leave a comment, or make your own list. Thanks for reading and peace, love and cartoons.

-Michael J. Ruhland

Winnie the Pooh Goes Visting

Hello again fellow animation lovers, today we are going to look at a film from a Russian studio that hopefully some of you are familiar with. The studio is Soyuzultfilm and the film is Winnie the Pooh Goes Visiting (also known as Winnie-the-Pooh Pays a Visit). While I am sure many of you like me first associate Winnie the Pooh with Disney, but since the character came from a series of books by A.A. Milne, more than one studio would end up using the character.

This film was directed by Fyodor Khitruck. Some animation buffs would even go so far as to say he is one of the greatest directors in the history of animation. He started his career with Soyuzultfilm in 1924 as an animator. However he did not direct a film there until 1961's Story of One Crime which is declared by many fans of art-house animation as one of the best animated shorts and with its razor sharp commentary even caused some controversy when it was released. Though many of Khitruck's films were definitely more artsy and experimental, he did make some more mainstream films as well. Such examples are his short Winnie the Pooh films, which started with 1968's Winnie the Pooh.

Our short today is Pooh Pays a Visit from 1971. This film is based off an A.A. Milne story of the same name. The cartoon is extremely charming. The characters are just as likable and well thought out as in the Disney version. This film also has very charming look to it. The backgrounds seem to be colored in crayon to emphasize that this is a world in a child's imagination, and it is extremely effective giving the cartoon a unique feel. Also adding to this are the simple but very expressive designs of the characters. There is also some great humor here. I particularly love the ditty that Pooh makes up. For fans of these classic characters this film is a must watch. 


-Michael J. Ruhland


Resources UsedAnimation Art edited by Jerry Beck

Akira Kurosawa and Anime: Part 1: Kaze no Yojimbo

As a huge buff of both animation and Akira Kurosawa movies, it is only natural that animated series inspired by his films would hold an interest to me. That is why we are going to look at these series individually. First up comes a Japanese animated TV series inspired by Kurosawa's 1961 film Yojimbo. This is Kaze no Yojimbo or as it has also been called Bodyguard of the Wind. This series first aired in 2001 and every episode of it was directed by Hayato Date (Naruto, Tokyo Underground, Saiyuki: Requiem). Only 25 episodes of this show were made.

Akira Kurosawa's original film had already inspired a lot before this anime. Kurosawa himself would make a sequel called Sanjuro, Sergio Leone's film A Fistful of Dollars was a remake and its main character even served as an influence for John Belushi's samurai character on Saturday Night Live. So it is not much of surprise that it would inspire an animated TV series.


This anime is far from a straight adaption of Kurosawa's movie. For one thing the series takes place in modern day Japan instead of 1860. Another thing is that the characters are often drastically different. Also the story often heads in directions that differ heavily from that film. What it retains from the original is a skeleton of a basic plot. A lone stranger heads to a small town to discover it is divided by a gang war and ends up becoming involved in this.

The animation itself is very limited, but there is more than enough to make up for that. The story is quite well written, the characters are interesting, and it creates a very believable and acceptable environment. The show also uses a lot of nice filmmaking touches including fast cutting, dissolves, and especially color tinting. The color is tinted so perfectly to set the mood for each of the scenes and it is very effective. This may even remind one of the great color tinting device used in the classic German films of the silent era. I am not saying this is as good as watching a Kurosawa movie but it definitely has quite a bit going for it.

-Michael J. Ruhland.   



     

Figaro's Short Subject Career.

Though today it is common for characters created for Disney's animated features to appear in other Disney animated works, such was not true until rather recently and in fact such a thing was very rare for quite a long time in the studio's history. The only exception being the characters in Pinocchio. Jiminy Cricket appeared in yet another feature film called Fun and Fancy Free as well as appearing on The Mickey Mouse Club TV show and various educational films. Figaro on the other hand became a short subject star. He often appeared as Minnie Mouse's pet and made a comedy team with Pluto. Today we are going to look at 3 of these short subjects.

First up is his first appearance in a short film with 1943's Figaro and Cleo where he costarred with Cleo the goldfish (also from Pinocchio). This cartoon came about because of a scene cut from Pinocchio. This scene would have involved Figaro and Geppetto trying to eat Cleo while starving in the belly of a whale. Much of this scene though was animated and after this scene was cut much of this animation was used in this cartoon. An example being Figaro using his tail as a fishing hook to catch Cleo (animated by Fred Moore). The cartoon was directed by Jack Kinney who would have been the sequence director for that scene in the feature and this ended up being the last short film with the cat, Kinney would ever direct. This is probably the best of Figaro's shorts and features some great slapstick (thanks hugely to Kinney, who was one of the studio's greatest masters at cartoon slapstick). So enjoy.


Next up comes a typical example of the type of film Figaro would appear in under the direction of Charles Nicholas. While Disney's other two major short cartoon directors (Jack Kinney and Jack Hannah) of this time made films using fast paced slapstick and zany gags, Nicholas' cartoons were often times much softer and slower paced. However Nicholas' films still have their charms, especially the great animation from Disney masters. Much of the animation here is handled by Marvin Woodward and George Nicholas (who I do not believe had any relation to the director). Woodward animates such scenes as Figaro trying to volunteer and Pluto stealing his thunder, Figaro in the first aid kit, Figaro being hit by a cork and more. George Nicholas animates such scenes as Pluto chasing Figaro under the rug, Pluto falling on the slippery floor, Pluto getting hit by the cork and more. Charles Nicholas himself animates a few short bit in this film (Pluto pushing Figaro out of the way, Pluto getting mixed up with a roll of bandages and Pluto crashing under the bed. Other animators include Norman Tates, Harvey Tombs and Bob Youngquist. So from 1944 here is First Aiders.

 

Last is another cartoon directed by Charles Nicholas. This film is from 1946 and is called Figaro and Frankie. This film uses a rather usual storyline for a cartoon from this era. Figaro tries to eat a bird named Frankie. However while Jack Kinney and Jack Hannah would have used this story as a way to fit in as many cartoon gags as possible, Charles Nicholas here uses it instead to tell a simple story. Despite this though the "kiss and make up" part near the end (animated by Marvin Woodward) may make a cartoon fan think of Tweety and Sylvester's first cartoon team up (Tweetie Pie) released a year later, the scene here is not played for slapstick as it would be in that cartoon. Enjoy the film.
   


-Michael J. Ruhland


Resources Used
Pinocchio: the Making of the Disney Epic by J.B. Kaufman

        

Pica-Pau: Woody Woodpecker's Brazilian Movie

On October 5th a movie that features a classic American cartoon character is getting its first release, however my fellow Americans probably are not aware of this. That is because it is a Brazilian movie and a release in the US is not planned so far. This movie will be known as Pica-Pau: O Filme. This movie was directed by Alex Zamm (Chairman of the Board, Inspector Gadget 2, Beverly Hills Chihuahua 2). Despite being made for a Brazilian audience it was made in Canada with some help from Universal Pictures and has also been shot in English. Though it is unknown when or if it will actually get a theatrical release in the US, it will get one in multiple countries. The movie is a combination of CGI and live action.

Here is the preview:

  -Michael J. Ruhland