Tuesday, 13 March 2018

Hot-Cha-Cha Cat

A starfish decides to stay stuck on Tom’s head in Surf-Board Cat (1967). And look! He turns into Jimmy Durante, complete with show-biz playoff music by Dean Elliott. The cat even says “Hot-cha-cha-cha-cha” like Durante used to do in the ‘30s.



Bob Ogle came up with this one along with some camera stares and crash gags that were done by Chuck Jones and Mike Maltese in the Roadrunner shorts at Warner Bros. Carl Bell and Hal Ambro animated this cartoon along with Phil Roman, Dick Thompson, Ben Washam and Don Towsley. Abe Levitow directed. Elliott tosses in some ersatz-groovin’, “It’s Happening Now ‘67”-type music that sounds like old people trying to be hip.

3 comments:

  1. IMHO, Dean Elliott was the scourge of Jones' late-era cartoons. Bombastic music that made you wish for even the lesser work of Carl Stalling and Milt Franklyn.

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  2. Elliott tosses in some ersatz-groovin’, “It’s Happening Now ‘67”-type music that sounds like old people trying to be hip.

    I'll take that over the faux Sergio Mendes/ Brasil '66 drivel Elliott gave us in THE BEAR THAT WASN'T and THE PHANTOM TOLLBOOTH. Instantly dates both of these productions terribly, adding to the flaws they already had to begin with.



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  3. Dean Elliot did some great work for DePatie-Freleng in their Dr. Seuss specials, but those also benefited from Seuss himself.

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