What Happened There, Toby?

When cutting from an action shot to a different view of the action shot, the action should look the same.

That doesn’t always happen in an animated cartoon, and it can look pretty jarring.

Here’s an example from Circus Time, a January 1931 cartoon starring Toby the Pup and made by the Dick Huemer-Sid Marcus-Art Davis team at the Charles Mintz studio. These are consecutive drawings. The first one was held for eight frames then cuts to the next one. Joe De Nat’s music plugs away like it should, so it’s not a splice in the film.



Perhaps something was edited before the cartoon was scored.

The Tobys were released by R-K-O until it decided it didn’t need any cartoons other than the ones made at the studio it partially owned, Van Beuren Productions.

I like the Toby cartoons I’ve seen, though they could use stronger gags.