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DVD Cartoons That Time Forgot: Van Beuren
Despite its talented staff, the Van Beuren Studio, which existed from 1928 to 1936, never rose above the level of a "B" cartoon house. Their talking version of Felix the Cat, who appears in "Bold King Cole" (1936) and "The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg" (1936), has none of zest of the silent character animated by Otto Messmer. Their original characters, Molly Moo-Cow and Cubby Bear, are awkward-looking nonentities. The "Rainbow Parade" series was clearly designed to compete with Walt Disney's "Silly Symphonies," but the films lack the polished animation, innovative designs, and focused storytelling of the Disney shorts. Some of the Van Beuren cartoons are genuinely odd: "Opening Night" (1933) celebrates the opening of the lavish Roxy Theater in New York; "In a Cartoon Studio" (a.k.a. "Making 'Em Move," 1931) spoofs the animation process with scenes of robust chaos. Modern viewers are more likely to find the rubber-lipped cannibals in "Molly Moo-Cow and Robinson Crusoe" (1936) and the jazz-singing black skeletons in "Wot a Night" (1931) outrageous, if not downright offensive. This is an interesting collection for those interested in animation history, but time--and audiences--has forgotten these cartoons with good reason. --Charles Solomon
Review(s): DVD Cartoons That Time Forgot: Van Beuren
Cartoons That Time Forgot DVD
Considering the age of these cartoons, the reproduction quality of the video and audio was excellent.
Twisted Animation From the Van Beuren Studio
Van Beuren was a B-grade animation studio in the Max Fleischer vein. Regardless of the tight budgets, Van Beuren produced some bizarre and truly memorable cartoons during the early 1930s -- particularly those featuring the musical antics of Tom and Jerry. "Cartoons That Time Forgot" includes some of the duo's best shorts: "Piano Tooners," "Wot a Night" and "The Tuba Tooter." Another minor classic is "The Sunshine Makers" (1935) in which cheerful dwarfs conquer grim-faced gremlins with bottles of sunshine. Unfortunately, Van Beuren's misguided attempts to emulate Disney and resurrect Felix the Cat fall flat. Though an uneven collection, this DVD has several underrated gems worth seeking out.
Van Beuren cartoons are downright nutty
Van Beuren is a sadly forgotten studio and is one of the funniest and goofiest of the 30s!
WOT A NIGHT Is Tom and Jerry's first screen appearance (not the cat and mouse Tom and Jerry, the two humans). It's funny, spooky and crazy but it's not just there to making a great cartoon. It starts out great but right after Tom and Jerry are locked in the haunted house things start to go a little downhill, this is a pretty good cartoon none-the-less. Oh yeah, and The black skeletons are NOT offensive.
OPENING NIGHT Is just plain weird. It's pretty weak and the bland "Cubby Bear" is just not top-notch like the other big Van Beuren characters "Tom and Jerry" and "The Little King".
TUBA TOOTERS Gives a bad name to the Tom and Jerry cartoons. It's boring compared to the others.You almost might as well skip over it but I wouldn't if I were you. I never trust these guys that make the reviews, anyway!
PALS (A.K.A CHRISTMAS NIGHT) The best Van Beuren cartoon and my 17th favorite cartoon of all time!!! And that's including "What's opera Doc?", "The Band Concert", "Popeye the Sailor meets Sinbad the Sailor" and other classics! The animation is better than most of the other Van Beurens and it's worth watching over and over again! The Little king his a hilarious character (adapted to screen from the Otto Solgow's comic strip).
PIANO TOONERS Here's Tom and Jerry at their best (exept for the goofy ending). The beginning is the best part!
MOLLY MOO COW AND RIP VAN WINKLE When you see cartoons like this you wonder how the same studio could have produced "Pals" and "A dizzy day" ("A dizzy day" is not on this collection). It's boring and stale and full of errors. And Molly Moo Cow has nothing in common!
THE SUNSHINE MAKERS Fantastic! One of the best cartoons produced by Van Beuren!
MAKING 'EM MOVE Starts promising but isn't as good as you would expect!
Van Beuren was great, there's no doubt about it!
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One of the most talented animators of the silent and early sound eras, Ub Iwerks designed the physical appearance of Mickey Mouse. He animated the first Mickey shorts almost single-handedly, doing more than 700 drawings in a single day. Iwerks's animation was rubbery, weightless, and appealing, but his approach was at odds with the increasing realism Walt Disney sought. In 1930, he left Disney to start his own studio, but despite his talent--and the exceptional animators who worked for him--he produced old-fashioned, unfunny cartoons that couldn't compete with the more sophisticated storytelling and brash gags in the shorts from Disney, the Fleischers, Warner Bros., and MGM. In 1940, Iwerks returned to the Disney studio, where he won Oscars for his innovations in optical... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Ub Iwerks DVD Release Date: Released the 13 July 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Ub Iwerks was one of the greatest animators of the silent and early sound eras: he animated "Steamboat Willie" and other early Disney shorts virtually by himself. But the films he produced at his own studio after breaking with Walt Disney in 1930 lack the vitality of his earlier work. During the '30s, the animators with Disney, the Fleischers, Warner Bros., and MGM developed a new style of cartoon humor that centered on characters with strong, recognizable personalities. Iwerks's first recurring character, Flip the Frog, who appears in more than half the cartoons in this collection, never developed into a wholesome good guy or a sarcastic antihero. He remained an observer, rather than someone who initiated the action, as Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny did. The rambling plots further... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Ub Iwerks DVD Release Date: Released the 13 July 1999 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I was a little disappointed with this dvd. If you are an aficionado of any types of animation it is a nice little snipet of cartoons from the 30s and 40s, albeit the image quality is horrific as it looks like it is from the 30s and 40s. It would have been nice if these cartoons would have been digitized (cleaned up) then it would have been an amazing little gem and little catologue of animation history, but unfortunately that is not the case. Otherwise what is the point of having it on DVD?
The cartoons themselves are not as 'racy' as I would have had to believe. Obviously they were for this era; "black faced" characters, animal cruelty, sexual overtones, etc. All played down for our time. Of course today's society would have a field day and riot if any of these incidents... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Cartoon Crazys DVD Release Date: Released the 09 January 2001 Special Order
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I have the revised edition of this set and it was money well spent. The Stero-optical Process is always fun but the most overlooked quality of these gems is how they really get inside of you. Some call these cheesy and some are but cartoons like "Somewhere in Dreamland," "Play Safe," and "The Little Dutch Mill" are impossible to watch without tearing up. Now DISNEY cartoons are cheesy! They're just pointless romping and frollicing through daisies. These Fleischer shorts have morals and messages that really get to you. More Info about this DVD Director(s): Dave Fleischer DVD Release Date: Released the 30 July 2002 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Watching this as an adult is really a bit disturbing but yet entertaining at the same time. That tells you how much censorship has ruined and buried a lot of great vidoes. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Johnny Legend DVD Release Date: Released the 20 January 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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