Camera Three - The Boys From Termite Terrace Part 2

Camera Three - The Boys From Termite Terrace Part 1

Camera Three was a Sunday morning program devoted to the arts. It ran on CBS from January 22, 1956 to  January 21, 1979, and moved to PBS in its final year to make way for the then-new CBS News Sunday Morning. The PBS version ran from October 4, 1979 to July 10, 1980.

This entry is the first in a four part series which will examine the entire hour long episode. As far as finding this video on the internet goes, it's a pretty tall task. It took me about four months to download the entire thing. That's part of the reason I'm posting it.

The episode was actually a two part show which originally aired on April 21, 1975 and April 28, 1975.
The show, hosted by animator and filmmaker, John Canemaker examines the golden years (1930 to 1964) of the Warner Brothers cartoon film department.

Mel Blanc and Chuck Jones are among those featured along with many excerpts from classic cartoons showing the changing styles of these world-famous figures. 

Next month we will look at part two in the series. If you feel the need to download the video, you can do so by installing Orbit video grabber. It's a fairly simple tool to use and can grab just about anything video from a page.






 

The Night Before Christmas - Tom and Jerry

Well it's that time of year again so I figured I would tis the season with the classic 1941 Tom and Jerry Cartoon "The Night Before Christmas". 

The Night Before Christmas was released in theaters on 6 December 1941 and was nominated for the 1941 Academy Award for Best Short Subject : Cartoons. It was the third of the 114 Tom and Jerry Cartoons MGM released so Tom and Jerry are still in their early days of developement here.

The cartoon begins with the usual cat and mouse antics but the spirit of Christmas soon takes over and proves the even a cat and mouse can be touched by the season and for at least a day be nice to one another.

Enjoy and oh yeah...Merry Christmas!!!   

Christmas Comes Once A Year

The short begins in an orphanage, where the orphans are all asleep, awaiting Christmas morning. Just then, the clock chimes, a puppy in the place of the cukoo jumps out, the slides down a ramp and licks on one of the orphans. The first orphan to wake shouts to the others, "Merry Christmas, everybody!" And all the orphans jump out of bed and head to the hall, singing the title song. They grab the toys from their stockings, and get ready to play with them. However, they discover that the toys are already broken and fall apart completely when played with. The children are traumatized and begin cry.


Meanwhile, Professor Grampy is out riding through the snow in his motor-driven sleigh, singing the title song to himself. He soon hears crying from inside the orphanage, so he parks the sleigh, runs to the door and peeps through the window to see the orphans still sobbing and heading back to their bedroom. Grampy is discouraged and starts to think of a way to give the orphans a better Christmas. He puts on his thinking cap, and shortly, the lightbulb on the cap blinks, meaning he has an idea. He sneaks in through the kitchen window and starts making new toys out of household appliances.

Finally, he dresses up as Santa Claus (with black stove pipes as the boots, a red table cloth as the jacket, a pillow for the weight, a strop as the belt, a picture frame as the buckle and a red purse as the hat), grabs a dinner bell, and surprises the orphans by ringing the bell and shouting, "Merry Christmas, everybody!" The orphans brighten up instantly , they all rush out excitedly to play with their new toys. Grampy completes the scene by making a Christmas tree out of green umbrellas. He decorates it, places it on top of a phonograph turntable, gathers all the orphans together and they all sing the title song one last time. As they sing, a giant Christmas Seal stamp appears on the screen, showing Santa Claus and a "Holiday Greetings" message.

The orphans were all animated based on a template of one of them, whose toy soldier falls through the sock. The short was directed by Dave Fleischer, it starred Jack Mercer as the voice of Grampy from Betty Boop fame. Along with many of the other Color Classics, Christmas Comes But Once a Year is today in the public domain. The film was animated by Fleischer Studios and released on December 4, 1936. It was distributed by Paramount Pictures. On various video copies of the film, it is released with Hector's Hectic Life, and a few other productions by Famous Studios, including Snow Foolin'. Certain prints also contain Jack Frost, a 1934 cartoon produced by Ub Iwerks and released through Celebrity Productions.

The Night Before Christmas

I am going to do something one time and one time only. That something is: post a Walt Disney cartoon.              Make no mistake about it I am not a fan of Disney cartoons. With that being said it is Christmas and I'm in the Christmas mood so i'll let it my "No Disney Cartoons" rule slide this one time.                                            

The Night Before Christmas was released on December 9, 1933 and continues the story of 1932's Santa's Workshop. A narrator sings the opening stanzas of the classic poem while we see the house at rest. Santa lands on the roof, comes down the chimney, and opens his bag. The toys march out and decorate the tree, with the toy soldiers shooting balls from their cannon, a toy airplane stringing a garland like skywriting, and the toy firemen applying snow. A blimp delivers the star to the top. Meanwhile, Santa fills the stockings. His laughter awakens the children, who sneak out. The toys rush to their places, and Santa escapes up the chimney just in time. The closing verse is sung.

Alias St. Nick

Alias St. Nick was released by MGM on November 16, 1935. As with all MGM cartoons from this time period it was directed by Rudolf Ising and produced by both Ising and Hugh Harman.

The storyline goes something like this. It's Christmas Eve and Mrs. Mouse is reading "A Visit from St. Nicholas" to her brood, but Little Cheeser is having none of it- he doesn't believe in Santa Claus! Meanwhile, outside, a vagabond cat battles a fearsome blizzard. The cat overhears them arguing about the existence of Santa Claus, so, seeking shelter, he dresses up as St. Nick in order to get himself a Christmas dinner of mice. Little Cheeser is bored, as he doesn't believe in Santa. Against his mother's will, he strikes out on his own. He is influenced by the Devil himself to go wrong. The naïve Mrs. Mouse lets in the fake Santa, but fortunately, Little Cheeser doubts that the cat is really Santa. Little Cheeser and the "wolf in Santa's clothing" have an exciting time on Christmas Eve. After Little Cheeser gets into trouble, he goes running home to mother. He soon unmasks the nefarious imposter, and he assaults the stray feline with toy tanks and steam shovels.

Unforantely I wasn't able to find a print of this cartoon without the TCM logo on it. There is an edited print avalable on youtube without the TCM logo but I'm not into posting edited versions so that's a no go. While it does upset me when these networks put their logo's on these old cartoons, I'm not gonna rant and rave about it because that would be a waste of time.

Alias St. Nice marked the  first appearance of Little Cheeser in the Happy Harmonies series. Unlike Warner  Brothers cartoons early MGM cartoons were not limited to the 6 minutes or less timeframe rule. This cartoon lasts for over ten minutes. Some might say that's nine minutes too long as the short is pretty low on humor, it goes for cuteness instead and suffers for it. Some fun voice characterizations is about all this short has going for it.

The Pup's Christmas

The Pup's Christmas was released by MGM on December 12. 1936 as part of the Happy Harmonies Theatrical Cartoon Series. Rudolf Ising directed and with a little help from Hugh Harmon also produced the short.

Two frisky little pups go on a rampage with the toys under the Christmas tree. The two little puppies are excited to experience their very first Christmas. As the human kids play with their toys, the pups watch, fascinated. The pups are eventually terrified by a stuffed Dalmatian dog, a talking "Mama!" dolly, and a diabolical toy tank which will not leave them alone! Finally, the tank has a battle royale with a wind-up airplane as the pups scurry to the safety of their doghouse. By the time the parents are up, the pups and the other toys have managed to break just about all the toys.