KYMM'S 365 DAY MOVIE CHALLENGE #25: Kymm on the New Beverly's Cartoon Club
Once a month at the New Beverly Cinema in Los Angeles they have Cartoon Club which is a themed collection of cartoons curated and presented by New Bev cartoon maven Jules McLean and animation historian Jerry Beck.
This has been occurring for years, to the joy of parents who want their little kids to experience classic animation of the big screen where God intended it, cartoon nerds who know all the minutia, and just people who want to go out on a Saturday or Sunday morning and be delighted. I’m in that third group, myself.
As I said, this has been going on for some time, until, like everything else, March 2020 happened and the country stopped. In fact, there was a program planned for March 14-15, but the shutdown occurred exactly then, so it didn’t happen. Until last month, when they finally showed that collection, and I was there and so glad to be back.
Now, of course, the Delta variant is rearing its ugly head and we don’t know what is going to happen, but we had Cartoon Club and Jerry and Jules last weekend, and it was a real treat. The theme was Oscar nominated animated shorts that did not win, which were some really amazing, classic cartoons and characters.
It started with A Wild Hare (1940), a Merrie Melody outing directed by Tex Avery, which was the official first appearance of Bugs Bunny, though he had been tested in a couple of earlier cartoons, this was Bugs qua Bugs, “What’s up doc?” and Elmer Fudd and everything. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x3eslqk
Gypsy Life (1945) was a Mighty Mouse Terrytoon cartoon, which was extremely weird as to the sizes that animals are. I know it’s about a flying mouse who lives in outer space and wears clothing, I know, I know. But it’s also about a bunch of gypsy mice dressed in the traditional Romany fashion, but they are mice, so they are small. But they have wagons with horses? That are small too, I guess? And they are attacked by flying cats, who seem to be bats, but of course bats are literally flying mice, so they couldn’t be mice. But cats eat mice, so it makes sense, except why are they flying? They are way bigger than the mice, which means they are also bigger than the horses? It was as though someone said that they needed Mighty Mouse to fight flying creatures and then just figured it out from there, saying, “It’s not as though 75 years from now someone is going to wonder why the cat/bats are bigger than the horses! Hahahaha!” Well, of course, that would be me who was entirely distracted by the sizing issue, but Mighty Mouse saved the day, which is the important part.
https://youtu.be/vrslJK6WzV4
The Legend of Rockabye Point (1955) is a Walter Lantz Productions Chilly Willy cartoon directed by Tex Avery, and I don’t always like Chilly Willy, because he is kind of a jerk, but this cartoon was really funny. Chilly Willy and Charlie the Polar Bear are both trying to steal fish from a fishing boat without waking the guard dog, and of course Chilly Willy wakes the guard dog at every given opportunity so that Charlie will get his butt bitten, because, as stated previously, Chilly Willy is the absolute worst. https://vimeo.com/67089534
Gopher Broke (2004) is a more modern, computer generated cartoon from Blur Studio, directed by Jeff Fowler, but it was still good! (kidding) It is about a starving gopher who wants to get some food from the trucks that pass by him on the way to the farmers market, but his plans keep going south.
https://youtu.be/EHkDdUoaS2I
Mouse Wreckers (1949) in a possible complete co-incidence, if not a deeply secret Easter egg planted by Jerry Beck, this Chuck Jones directed Looney Tunes cartoon was loosely remade in 1958, starring the Goofy Gophers, and was called, wait for it, Gopher Broke! In this version, mice Hubie and Bertie drive poor Claude Cat out of his tiny kitty mind by playing terrible tricks on him in order to take over his house.
https://vimeo.com/186056937
From A to Z-Z-Z-Z (1954), another Looney Tunes directed by Chuck Jones was hands down my favourite, not the least of which because it was voiced by Dick Beals, who is absolutely one of my favorite voice artist of all time, but also because of the fun, imaginative story of a daydreaming kid, Ralph Phillips. If you listen to old time radio, you have definitely heard Dick Beals, who was an adult who had a condition that he never went through puberty, so he had a child’s voice his entire life. He was probably most famous for playing the voice of Speedy Alka-Seltzer for over 50 years.I couldn’t find it anywhere all on its own online, but here is a show from Cartoon Network that contains both Ralph Phillips cartoons, plus another cartoon that spoofs Ralph. Amusingly, the narration describes the voice work as being done by child actor Dick Beals, who was 27 at the time. Do your homework, Cartoon Network! https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5sb9t4
The Pied Piper of Guadalupe (1961) is a Speedy Gonzalez v. Sylvester Looney Tunes directed by Friz Freling, where Sylvester learns to catch mice by hypnotizing them with a flute, but Speedy turns the tables on Sylvester and saves his fellow mice, because that’s what he does.
https://www.b98.tv/video/pied-piper-guadalupe/
And finally, we had Jerry’s Cousin (1950) a Hanna Barbera Tom and Jerry cartoon with the marvelous Muscles Mouse, the aforementioned cousin, who doesn’t put up with any stick from any cat, and puts Tom in his place, which is under his foot. https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4iudjz
So, as you can see, this was an A-1 collection of Academy Award losers! Now, if you live in the Los Angeles area, the September Cartoon Club has been canceled due to the Delta variant, but they are planning on coming back strong for the Hallowe’en programme in October. And if you don’t live in the Los Angeles area, maybe you can find a revival theater that plays cartoons near you!
Kymm Zuckert is an actor/writer/native Angelino. When Kymm was a child, her parents would take her to see anything, which means that sometimes she will see a film today and say, “I saw that when I was eight, I don’t remember any of that inappropriate sex stuff!” Check out her entire 365 day blog @ https://365filmsin365days.movie.blog