Thursday 24 January 2019

It's Never Too Late for Cubby!

In one frame, here’s why I like the Van Beuren cartoons.



In Love’s Labor Won (1933), Cubby treats a wiener dog as a jumping rope and an accordion, dances with some sunflowers and then skips into his girl-friend’s house where a stuffed chair and a tiger rug happily sing the cartoon’s main theme as a parrot jumps around.

It’s like a Fleischer cartoon that’s not gagged or animated as well, but it’s still enjoyable. Gene Rodemich always fills the soundtrack with great music. Three fine contemporary songs are heard in this cartoon including “Get Yourself a Girl (and Fall in Love),” a 1932 tune by Mack Gordon and Harry Revel popularised by Eddie Cantor.

Margie Hines plays Cubby’s girl-friend and taps on some bullrushes like the NBC chimes. Cubby is played an unidentified singer.

Poor Cubby petered out as a star in 1934 as a changing of the guard put Burt Gillett in charge with marching orders to make the cartoons better.

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