Tralfaz Sunday Theatre: The Great Rights

Readers here are familiar with Daws Butler from his work with various major cartoon studios, perhaps with Stan Freberg, on all kinds of commercials (Cap’n Crunch or stylised ones from the ‘50s) or footage from the puppet version of Time For Beany.

His voice appears in various other places, and an obscure one may be a cartoon he made with June Foray and Bill Scott.

The Great Rights (1963) is a political short about the U.S. Bill of Rights and what it means to American citizens. The copyright is registered under Thomas Brandon, who was a former OWI employee who started a distribution business, mainly involving foreign films and independent American productions. The associate producer was Sy Wexler, the co-owner of Churchill/Wexler Productions, a small outfit on Seward Street in Hollywood that specialised in educational documentaries, some of them animated.

Wexler rounded up a pile of people to work on this short familiar to fans of UPA and Jay Ward cartoons. Pete Burness and Ted Parmelee were among the directors, Gerard Baldwin and Phil Duncan were part of the animation crew, with backgrounds by Bob McIntosh. Jay Ward’s film editor Skip Craig was involved with it, too.

Designers include Shirley Silvey and Roy Morita. I really like their work here, as well as how the story and layouts fit together extremely well.

Brandon attempted to get the film nominated for an Oscar. Daily Variety of Dec. 20, 1963 reported:

"The Great Rights," animated color cartoon short about the Bill of Rights and which takes a swipe at censorship of motion pictures, will be added to the program Sunday night at the Beverly Canon Theatre.
Film is the first to deal with the Bill of Rights since Warner Bros. made a short on the subject in 1935, according to Thomas Brandon, the producer and New York distributor.
Showing at Canon is to qualify the short for Academy Awards nomination consideration. Film carries a dedication to the late President John F. Kennedy. Subject was designed and directed by William Hurtz and scored by Gerald Fried. Animation directors were Pete Burness, Ted Parmelle [sic], Gerry Ray and Sam Weiss.

As we are close to the anniversary of the JFK assassination, it may be an appropriate time to view it.