But Van Beuren couldn’t pull it off. Despite all those people, the studio shut down in 1936.
Why? A good example is It's a Greek Life, directed by Gordon. Someone came up with the idea of a bumbling centaur shoemaker (he’s supposed to be Greek, but says “Mama Mia!”) who wants to fly and Mercury, who wants his flying shoes fixed so he can go on a date. Add to the mix two comic relief ducks (with laurel wreaths on their heads), who made an appearance in Molly Moo-Cow and the Indians. In fact, the Italo-Greek shoemaker is played by the same guy who voiced the obsessive hunter in Molly Moo-Cow and the Butterflies (both 1935).
This is supposed to be a comedy, but darned if I can find anything funny.
Mercury threatens to twist the shoemaker’s head if the shoes aren’t fixed on time. The action is animated on ones.
The above drawing is held for eight frames, then the head twists back on ones.
I’ll take the Van Beuren Tom and Jerry turning into Swiss cheese, or Don and Waffles being threatened by the Sphinx over this any day.
No animators are credited, just director Gordon and musical maestro Win Sharples. The cartoons have been restored by Steve Stanchfield, so the colours will look excellent, certainly better than what you see in this post.
Van Beuren was on a bit of a wing-ding. The cartoon released before this one, Cupid Gets His Man, features winged cherubs in what looks like RCMP red serge.
The cartoon after this, Toonerville Picnic, was finished by August 27, 1936, according to the Film Daily of that date. With that, Amedee Van Beuren got out of the cartoon business and continued with his "World on Parade" travelogues for another year, leaving Felix Among the Royalty unproduced.
No comments:
Post a Comment