Film Daily reported October 18, 1935 that the studio had cut deals to make cartoons starring Felix the Cat and the characters in the Toonerville Folks newspaper comic. Both had the potential to be good series, but it didn’t work.
Three of each were released in the Rainbow Parade series before Van Beuren gave up on cartoons together when its distributor and part-owner RKO signed a deal to put Walt Disney’s shorts in theatres.
The Toonervilles generally got favourable notices from exhibitors, but the gags were anything but fresh. One wonders if Joe Barbera had a hand in the story for Trolley Ahoy, released July 3, 1936. In one scene, the trolley bounces wildly on the tracks. The Skipper, hanging on a rail, mashes Mr. Bang in the face because of the impact. Finally, Mr. Bang bites Skipper in the butt and tears off part of his underwear. It sounds like something in a Hanna-Barbera cartoon in the ‘60s.
No, the bench doesn’t change really colour. Blame a public domain print. The Rainbow Parades are close to being restored by the overworked Thunderbean Animation. It means you’ll see the Skipper, Katrinka (and even Molly Moo Cow) in vibrant three-color Technicolor and without fuzzy ink lines.
By the way, Hal Erickson’s written a book on the Van Beuren films (all of them, not just cartoons). You can check it out here.
Hal Erickson's book is very interesting. I had no idea that Van Beuren's film output was so extensive. All I knew about were the cartoons and the Chaplin Mutual reissues. (I know guys who will insist that a Chaplin Mutual isn't being shown properly without its 1930s Van Beuren music track.) The book is $40 for the softcover or $24 for the ebook.
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