Tuesday, 31 May 2022

Wide Vs Academy

Not all cartoon studios succumbed to the 3-D gimmick in 1953 but most of them resigned themselves the following year to jump into a wide screen format.

MGM announced:
New York, Oct. 21.—Four Fred Quimby "Tom and Jerry" cartoons will constitute the first Metro CinemaScope briefies. Titles include "Pet Peeve," "Touche Pussycat," "Southbound Duckling" and "Pup On a Picnic." "Pet" will be released Nov. 20.
How much of the cartoon did theatres lose showing it in Academy ratio instead of wide screen? Take a look at these drawings from Pet Peeve. The first two are by Ken Muse. (Sorry, the drawings look a little scrunched in the only way I could save the Academy ones).







Four more Tom and Jerrys were made for regular screens, then starting with That's My Mommy (released in 1955) all of the pair’s shorts were in Cinemascope until MGM ran out of cartoons.





Irv Spence and Ed Barge also animated on this short, with Bob Gentle painting the backgrounds. Daws Butler and June Foray provide suburban husband-wife voices.

7 comments:

  1. Since the second volume of the Blu-ray Tom & Jerry collection is still (permanently?) stalled at Warners, I see no reason why they couldn't skip ahead and release a collection of the CinemaScope cartoons, especially since the Deitch and Jones era have previously been covered. Would be really nice to own these in their proper aspect ratio. For some reason, when these air on TV, the opening and closing credits are generally shown in the correct format, but not the actual cartoon itself!

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  2. I don't think Famous, Lantz, or Warner Bros. made any wide screen cartoons, although Famous and Warner did, of course, try 3D.

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  3. RobGems68 wrote:
    Terrytoons' studios also released 3-D films with the help of their distributor, 20th Century Fox.

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    1. Which Terrytoons were in 3-D? There were a couple of Disneys, two from Famous, a Woody Woodpecker, a Bugs Bunny and ....?

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  4. I was wrong, Yowp. They were in Cinemascope, not 3-D. Sorry about the misinformation. I remember seeing Sidney The Elephant & Clint Clobber in 20th Century Fox's brand of Cinemascope.

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    1. Yeah, there are a few Cinemascope Terrytoons on line, all from the Deitch era, I think. There are frames from some of them on this blog, including "The Juggler of Our Lady," a very nice effort by Mr. Deitch.

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  5. Going by production order "Pup on a Picnic" should be the first to be in Cinemascope, the only 1953 T&J with it. But I wonder if, "Mouse For Sale", "Pecos Pest", and "Designs on Jerry" were considered to be filmed in Cinemascope considering those came after "Pup on a Picnic" production number wise.

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