Storyboard:

The first star character from Ub Iwerks’ own studio faces numerous challenges in the country and the city, as he makes his way through the Depression years.

The Sweatbox Review:

My initial exposure to Flip the Frog came in late 1993, via my first purchase from the Whole Toon Catalog. (That would be mail order, kids.) I was enjoying my time living away from home after university, and was starting to enthusiastically indulge my love of animation in any way that I could. Somehow, I had discovered the wonderful, stupendous, revelatory Whole Toon Catalog, stuffed full of an amazing array of books and videos about cartoons. It was through the WTC that I found Leonard Maltin’s landmark book Of Mice And Men, which I devoured; that book had a short but illuminating chapter on the Ub Iwerks studio. The Catalog also introduced me to Bosko Video, who made VHS tapes of vintage animated cartoons. From the Catalog, I purchased Bosko’s tapes of the Fleischer Superman cartoons, as well as Van Beuren’s The Little King, Tom and Jerry (what, a couple of humans?!?), and Cubby Bear – man, what discoveries these all were! And, at the beginning of those tapes played an advertisement for more Bosko tapes, featuring a cartoon “star” that I had never heard of, a piano-playing amphibian named Flip the Frog! I was intrigued. I didn’t actually order the Flip tapes done by Bosko (sorry!), as I instead chose to go with the Cartoons That Time Forgot series of tapes (later upgraded to laserdisc and DVD); one volume of that series was entitled, Down And Out With Flip The Frog. Back then, any rare cartoons were thrilling to see, and I greatly enjoyed meeting that little froggy and seeing what he was all about. Years later, it is with great satisfaction that I now own a high-definition set of the complete Flip series, thanks to Thunderbean – that little operation based out of Michigan and run by cartoon mensch Steve Stanchfield.

But who is Flip the Frog? Forgive me if you’ve heard this before, but… in some ways, it all started with a mouse…

Mickey Mouse became an immediate sensation in 1928 with the release of Steamboat Willie. Producer Walt Disney was given much of the applause, but right from the beginning, another man was credited on the title card, in letters just as big as those in Walt’s name. That card read, “A Walt Disney Comic by Ub Iwerks.” Ub was a colleague of Walt’s from Kansas City, and he was Disney’s main animator on the early Mickey Mouse cartoons, as well as the Silly Symphonies series. Ub stayed with Disney’s California company for six years, beginning in 1924, and was therefore witness to all the highs and lows of Walt’s first few years in Hollywood. Ub was amazingly fast, doing hundreds of drawings per day. Legend has it that he animated Mickey Mouse’s first produced cartoon, Plane Crazy, all by himself in just two weeks. Other animators considered him a genius, not just for his speed, but also for his innate sense of movement and perspective. He was obviously a highly valued member of the Disney staff.

However, Walt and Ub did have disagreements, and that may have led to Ub accepting a 1930 offer from Walt’s own distributor, Pat Powers, to finance a studio to be run by Ub. Iwerks was the same age as Walt; amazingly, considering what they had each accomplished already, they were only 28 years old in 1930. At that tender age, following somewhat in Walt’s mighty footsteps, Ub put together a studio, hiring artists who answered a newspaper ad. He designed a new character, Flip the Frog. The initial design was indeed frog-like, with gangly limbs and webbed toes, and a head that melted into his chest. Iwerks made a pilot film called Fiddlesticks, using a double separation negative method called Harriscolor, a 1929 invention of one J.B. Harris, Jr. That color format never evolved past the experimental stage, so it is fascinating to see that first Flip cartoon now, and understand that this was a rare use of an early color system. (Notably, the first Disney color short was Flowers And Trees, which was made – with great publicity – two years later.)

Fiddlesticks and the next few shorts were initially distributed by Powers’ own company, Celebrity Productions. Fiddlesticks showed off exacting synchronization of sound and picture, using the system that Ub had largely developed himself while working with Disney. Fiddlesticks did not have much of a story, though, simply showing Flip among other denizens of the outdoors, dancing and frolicking about in a woodland environment. He does a jig to the tune of Sailor’s Hornpipe, which would soon also appear in numerous Popeye cartoons. Flip plays piano as well, accompanied on violin by a mouse that undoubtedly reminds one of Mickey, though in a skirt rather than shorts. (The skirt is red, too, though Mickey was still appearing in monochrome in his own cartoons at that time.)

The next few Flip shorts were also done in color, according to this set’s liner notes, but Fiddlesticks is the only one to survive in color. The next short was Flying Fists, a boxing cartoon. Then, in Little Orphan Willie, in which Flip adopts a baby mouse, Flip began his metamorphosis, gaining gloves, shorts, and shoes – familiar attire for certain cartoon characters of the day. After that came Puddle Pranks, where Carl Stalling gave Flip a theme song that accompanied each of his cartoons from then on. It was during production of this cartoon that a deal was being worked out with MGM, so Puddle Pranks exists with title cards for both Celebrity Productions, Inc. and MGM. Both versions appear on the disc. Ironically, MGM never released Puddle Pranks, and that cartoon had to wait for Powers to release the Celebrity version once the MGM deal was over.

Thus, it was after a few shorts were produced that Powers was able to sell the package to MGM, becoming that revered studio’s first supplier of animated films. The security offered by the MGM contract also meant new hires for the studio. That included another Kansas City colleague, aforementioned music director Carl Stalling; Stalling was hired away from Disney, this being a few years before his long stint at the Leon Schlesinger studio. The studio’s other composer was Scott Bradley, who later did superlative work directly for MGM’s cartoon unit. New artists at Iwerks’ included Grim Natwick, Rudy Zamora, Irv Spece, and Shamus Culhane. Even Chuck Jones had a small role at the studio. The first new Flip cartoon under the MGM deal was The Village Barber, which gained Flip by far his biggest exposure yet. Fortunately, it is a cartoon with strong gags, as Flip moves from the woods to a city setting, where he manages a barber shop.

At this point, Flip is finally really up and running. His next cartoons have him as a detective investigating a murder, taking on various positions at a restaurant, working as a blacksmith, and then as a dentist, before wooing his feline girlfriend in Ragtime Romeo. The cartoons still basically follow the “music & gags” model, like many cartoons of the day, but they do contain many technical flourishes (e.g. an animated sidewalk moving in perspective, lighting tricks, etc.) to support the bare narratives.

MGM encouraged Powers to ask Iwerks to make Flip more anthropomorphic, to add to his relatability. Thus, Flip eventually got a rounded head and more human proportions. His new look evolved over time, but is largely seen by the time of The New Car. Flip is more visually appealing by this point, though he remained in search of a distinguishable personality. The cartoons were still largely devoid of speaking, with occasional exceptions. When Flip did speak, he originally spoke with a falsetto reminiscent of Mickey Mouse. When he sang, however, such as in the cartoon openings, his voice was somewhat deeper. He sometimes lost the falsetto in the stories, but his voice remained inconsistent and nondescript. In the absence of a memorable voice like Donald Duck or Goofy, Flip’s personality was stifled. It’s perplexing, given all the other attention paid to sound in these cartoons. Still, the shorts had their good points. Stormy Seas followed, with lovely effects animation, and a wonderful Neptune animated by Grim Natwick.

However, the cartoons continued to squander good story ideas by failing to give us a character to root for. As Flip breaks into a film studio, fails as a plumber, hunts in Africa (beware some racist caricatures in this one!), encounters Spooks, and works as a firefighter and a milkman, we do get entertained by the increasingly polished visuals, well-realized gags, and zippy music; but the cartoons just don’t quite ascend to the next step of excellence relative to what audiences were seeing from Disney and Fleischer, and soon would see from Warner Bros. and Universal.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed every minute of watching these cartoons, and things got even better when moving on to the second disc. Here, the cartoons grow up, perhaps reflecting more the personalities and concerns of the crew that had moved to the studio from New York. The cartoons get a slightly harder edge, gain social consciousness, and become more reflective of Depression-era society. What A Life, for example, sees Flip and his young friend scrimping for change and struggling to get fed. However, audiences didn’t have to worry about the cartoons staying too serious, as evidenced by the cute dog vs. dogcatcher story in the following cartoon, Puppy Love. This cartoon also comes in an alternate European version, with changed music and dialog, which is also included on the disc.

Flip was picking up a bit of a recurring cast by this point. His girlfriend had evolved from a fellow frog to a dog (and soon a human), and his stories had gained a horse, a dog, a little boy, and an “old maid” character. This broadened things out, though unfortunately the issue of lacking personalities remained, aside from someone being happy or cranky or in love.

After a couple of cartoons where Flip was portrayed as being younger, he grew up enough to be hired as The Office Boy, a short that also featured a curvy secretary who had trouble keeping her clothes intact, making this (and the next one) the raciest of the Flips. There are more Natwick-animated lovely ladies in Room Runners, which sees Flip trying to get out of his hotel bill. The pre-Code nature of these cartoons is in further evidence in Circus; what could have been a pretty standard cartoon gets some spice with a sequence in which the old maid gets, um, felt by both Flip and a pickpocket, not all of which is unpleasing to her. A few seconds of this sequence were originally cut from prints, but that footage was found and is restored here – in slightly lesser quality from the rest of the cartoon. A football cartoon follows, then the rather amorous old maid returns for the fun western spoof The Pony Express.

Flip reverts to boyhood in The Music Lesson, then becomes a babysitter in Nurse Maid, before we get to one of his more well-known and unique cartoons: Funny Face. Here, Flip sees a plastic surgeon to help him look more human, and therefore attract the affections of a girl. The disc contains two versions of this cartoon, with different versions of the girl. One version is designed to have greater similarity to Betty Boop, whom Natwick worked on in the Fleischer cartoons. Next up is the Arabian adventure Coo-Coo The Magician, complete with harem girls. It is in this cartoon that the new Flip design is finally incorporated in the opening of the short, with Flip singing at the piano.

The last few cartoons see Flip once again working in a kitchen, inventing a robot to cut his grass, becoming a bullfighter in a truly looney bullring, returning to being a cop (with more racial imagery abounding in A Chinaman’s Chance), and trying his luck as a pioneer, only to face warring native Americans in Pale Face (naturally, some may also find those depictions somewhat unfortunate, to say the least). In terms of all those racial caricatures, let us keep in mind that they were common in cartoons back then; that does not excuse them, but it does put them in context with the times. Warnings about this appear at the back of the booklet and at the beginning of the discs.

Racial caricatures aside, Flip was picking up steam… just in time for his cartoon series to get cancelled! But there was one more short to go, and it is certainly my favorite: The Soda Squirt. When I first saw that Flip ad at the beginning of those Bokso Video tapes, that ad heavily featured The Soda Squirt and its music. I love The Soda Squirt, though, for more than sentimental reasons. The short also features several wonderful celebrity caricatures, including the Marx Brothers and Mae West, all attending his drug store soda shop. The short has some great synchronized movement, set to the best music score of the series. Flip would be done after this cartoon, but he went out with a bang. Given that trajectory, it is a shame that it was decided that Flip had had his chance already.

Despite all the talent at the Iwerks studio, Flip never really took off. A respectable 38 shorts were produced, and there was certainly a fine promotional push for them, but neither MGM or theatre crowds were excited about them. The conventional line is that the Flip cartoons had nothing new to offer. He was simply an “everyfrog”, doing everyday things (more or less), in a not particularly clever or amusing way. And even when the cartoons had moments of brilliant animation or effects, and even occasionally a more gripping or entertaining storyline, the characterization fell short. However, the Flip shorts do certainly have a charm to them, even if that is now enhanced by the “retro” appreciation of all that rubber-hosed, bouncy, black and white animation. As one views this two-disc set, it can be seen that, as the series progressed, the shorts became better realized and more polished. Boring farmyard or nature-based antics gave way to more urban adventures, and other genres were explored. The storytelling got stronger, and the gags funnier. Yet, they never fully competed with Disney or Fleischer. Over at the Schlesinger studio, they were just warming up, as they introduced Porky Pig in 1936, and went on to develop an amazing cast of characters, each with well-defined personalities and voices. The Iwerks studio never got there. Ub was a genius in many ways, but he didn’t have the same storytelling spark, or the same knack for shaping characters into commercial hits, as his friend Walt.

Flip only lasted a few years before giving way to Willie Whopper in 1933. Willie was a chubby kid who told tall tales, opening up the storytelling to be more fanciful. (Thunderbean has produced a restored collection of those shorts, as well, released a few years ago.) Willie lasted about a year with MGM. Ub also did a Cinecolor series called Comicolor Cartoons, which were distributed by Powers himself, as MGM had no involvement. The Comicolors were the most striking cartoons to come out of the Iwerks shop yet, but they continued to use bland characters and largely humdrum storytelling. By 1936, the studio ran out of steam and closed.

After the studio shut down, both Iwerks and Stalling went to work for Leon Schlesinger. While Stalling stayed on for a legendary career scoring Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts, Iwerks had only a brief stint doing a couple of Porky Pig cartoons for Schlesinger. Iwerks then went to Columbia Pictures’ Screen Gems to direct Color Rhapsody shorts, before returning to Disney in 1940. This time, however, he focused his genius on the technical side, creating special visual effects and doing some remarkable inventing. His work in combining live action and animation, pioneering Xerography, and as an early theme park Imagineer made him an extraordinarily valuable Disney employee once again. His career there lasted decades, and was legendary.

Thunderbean, in association with Blackhawk Films and Film Preservation Associates (owned by the late David Shepard, who passed away during the production of this set), has done fans and animation history a great service. This set was in the works for several years, facing numerous challenges – including the global pandemic, which shut down film archives for a while. Nevertheless, the best possible elements were eventually gathered to produce this set, and the cartoons were painstakingly restored. This complete set of Flip the Frog cartoons is a supreme achievement for Thunderbean, and is – more importantly – a fitting tribute to the talents and genius of Ub Iwerks.

Is This Thing Loaded?

The cartoons appear on two discs, and each disc is loaded with superb bonus content.

Disc One
When these discs were being produced, there was a long wait at the end for a mysterious final piece. Fans were assured online that this piece would be essential, and later it was hinted that it had something to do with the Iwerks family. After several months of waiting, that piece turned out to be a Leslie Iwerks Introduction (2:21), a most welcome appreciation by the granddaughter of Ub Iwerks. Ms. Iwerks, a filmmaker herself, discusses the legacy of Ub, and sets the stage for our historical and creative appreciation of these films.

The Audio Commentary Tracks number twelve on disc one, and six on Disc Two, by such experts as David Gerstein, Devon Baxter, Thad Komorowski, J.B. Kaufman. Mark Kausler, Leonard Maltin, Jerry Beck, Thunderbean head man Steve Stanchfield, and others.

The Fire Fire Reconstructed Storyboard Reel (7:02) offers a rare and fascinating glimpse at the development of that short.

The Behind the Scenes Gallery includes character studies, model sheets, story outlines, animation drawings, copyright synopses, and more. Each set of images has clear, written descriptions of what the viewer is seeing. It’s a stellar presentation.

Theatrical Leaders (2:12) is a unique look at pre-title cards from the original 35mm films.

Flip The Frog Annual is a presentation of the original UK hardback book, which had numerous stories of Flip and friends. After describing the origins of the book, the disc allows the reader to select from one of fifteen stories to read. That’s right – Thunderbean didn’t just give us an image of the book’s cover and call it a day; they actually scanned dozens of pages of stories for us to read.

The Frog Songbook brings us numerous original recordings of songs that were later used in the Flip cartoons. Titles include “The Bulldog On The Bank”, “Bull Frog Blues”, “By Heck”, and several more. These recordings date back to the 1910s and 1920s, so their inclusion here is most interesting.

Flip la Grenouille, Le Cine-Concert shows a performance by a musical group that played live music to accompany Flip the Frog films as they toured France in 2016 and beyond. The full cartoon Spooks (8:37) is presented with their accompaniment, along with excerpts from Techno-Cracked (2:53) (this time showing the musicians as well as the cartoon), and a teaser is also presented.

Disc Two
A Publicity and Merchandise Gallery features dozens (or was it hundreds?) of images, including newspaper clippings, exhibitor reviews, trade paper ads, licensed toys and videos, and more. Finally, I got to see the Bosko Video VHS covers!

Foreign Titles (3:43) shows samples of titles used in French, German, and Dutch releases; and Reissue Titles (5:41) shows those from the Pat Powers/Celebrity Productions versions.

The Flip the Frog Coloring Book introduces the book, then provides 58 images from the 32-page edition.

The World of Flip the Frog is a comic book produced by a young David Gerstein in 1986 (years before he worked on official Disney comics), done with the permission of the Iwerks family. Contained in this feature are a comic story, a 30-second animation based on flipbook art by Gerstein (nice job, little Davey!), and excerpts from a live film screening (9:16), introduced by today’s David Gerstein.

Case Study:

The Blu-ray case holds a disc on either side. This set comes with a booklet with extensive liner notes written by animation historian and author J.B. Kaufman, valuably commenting on each cartoon. There are further writings there from Gerstein and Stanchfield, as well as notes on the music in the cartoons by Chris Buchman. My package also had a note inside, offering a replacement disc, due to an issue regarding accessing a couple of the commentary tracks on Disc 2 on some players, though they should be reachable regardless through the Audio button when selecting an individual cartoon. A surprise little thank you card from Flip completes the package.

Ink And Paint:

Years in the making, and worth the wait! The shorts here look the best they have in decades, thanks to meticulous work from the Thunderbean crew. These shorts were never lost, as they appeared on home video all the way back to the Super 8 days of home film collecting. However, they didn’t look then like they look now on Blu-ray. Now, the shorts don’t exactly look like new, of course; some allowance must be given for the age of these films. Taken from original negatives and 35 mm fine grains, these shorts are, after all, over 90 years old. Plus, there are a few seconds here and there where obviously inferior materials had to be used to fill in the gaps. Still, the films are remarkably clean now, with good detail and a stable picture. There is some variation in density, some vertical lines occasionally running through the image, and almost subliminal flicker at times if you look for it. But that is all minor. Those that preordered will have the best opportunity to judge, as preorders also received discs containing the raw scans, but suffice to say that the immense amount of digital restoration has these films looking almost impossibly better.

Note that the actual Blu-ray picture contains the entire frame image from the films, complete with rounded edges. I have cropped my images here.

Scratch Tracks:

The mono sound is very good as well. There is no significant distortion or hiss, allowing no auditory distractions when viewing the films. Note that Soda Squirt has a music and effects track option, as well as an option to play only the music

Final Cut:

This just may forever loom large as Thunderbean’s largest and greatest project. Years in the making (my preorder was dated July 15, 2016!), we now have all 38 Flip the Frog films from the 1930s, encompassing the entire filmography of Ub Iwerks’ own creation, digitally restored using the best available elements, most of which were original negatives. It won’t get better than this for Flip the Frog. He has never been treated so well, and Thunderbean’s assemblage of copious extras makes the set even better. This year is proving to be a great one for vintage animation fans, and certainly for Thunderbean.

Storyboard:

The third volume of George Pal’s uniquely amazing stop motion shorts features over 20 Puppetoon delights, plus several European cel animated films.

The Sweatbox Review:

Ten years after the much-welcomed Blu-ray release of The Puppetoon Movie, and three years after the release of the similarly positively reviewed The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2 disc, producer Arnold Leibovit is back to present another collection of George Pal’s wonderful stop motion puppet films. Leibovit has worked with Paramount Studios and various archives in the USA and Europe to gather another twenty-one Puppetoons, plus seven hand-drawn animated works. Pal, of course, was the fantasy film maestro who was later responsible for bringing such classic films as The War Of The Worlds and The Time Machine to the silver screen, but he got his start producing both hand-drawn and puppet animation. His Puppetoons, released in the USA through Paramount Studios in the 1940s, are among cinema’s most unique and well-loved treasures. We live in a privileged time, when so many of these shorts have now been restored in high definition and are available on Blu-ray.

The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 is not a true movie per se, but rather a collection of shorts, complete with opening and closing titles/credits. This is important to note, since the titles for these films are wonderfully crafted themselves. The disc’s main menu invites the viewer to select from three lists of random films, labelled Puppetoon Films A, B, and C. Each set runs over an hour, and has a selection of Puppetoon films from the USA and earlier ones from Europe, as well as some Pal-produced hand-drawn shorts. There is not much rhyme or reason behind the groupings, particularly given that not all the films are even Puppetoons; but it does offer a pleasingly diverse viewing experience. Personally, I would have stuck with just the Puppetoons in chronological order, and kept the hand-drawn ones to the bonus features; but as each film is individually selectable, the viewer can watch them in whatever order he or she wishes. Each of the three shorts listings also has a Play All function.

A few of the shorts will be recognized from the first Puppetoon Movie Blu-ray’s bonus features. In fact, Together In The Weather was part of the original Puppetoon Movie proper, but now it is fully restored and has its titles/credits. All of the other films that were in High Definition in the bonus section of the first Blu-ray are also now further restored to a higher standard, including the two Dr. Seuss shorts (The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins and And To That That I Saw It On Mulberry Street), The Sky Princess, Rhapsody In Wood, Date With Duke, Jasper And The Beanstalk, and Rhythm In The Ranks.

Incidentally, of the twelve additional cartoons that appeared in only standard definition on The Puppetoon Movie Blu-ray (as well as the previous DVD), only Aladdin And The Magic Lamp gets an HD upgrade for Volume 3. (Note that The Ship Of The Ether was on Volume 2.) And in case you’re wondering if all the Puppetoons are now on disc, the answer is “no”. A few of the European shorts understandably remain no-shows, and Jasper has a few of his shorts unfortunately missing as well, partially due to potential controversy. Pal, a European, was not entirely familiar with American “negro” stereotypes, but some of the Jasper films nonetheless harken to what may be considered racist imagery and notions. For this reason, we’ll likely never see Jasper And The Watermelons and its like on Blu-ray.

Details about the Puppetoons and their creator have been mentioned in previous reviews. Suffice to say that these films are absolutely precious, utilizing hundreds of puppet figures to simulate dancing and running, and even squashing and stretching. Special effects, careful lighting, terrific music, and technical wizardry combine to make these films breathtakingly special.

Puppetoons A
The first cartoon listed is Western Daze (1940), which was – appropriately enough – the first to be released by Paramount. American audiences get introduced to Jim Dandy, a happy-go-lucky fellow who falls in love with a rancher’s daughter but gets framed by horse thieves. Another filmmaking legend, Ray Harryhausen, worked on this short, and voice legend Mel Blanc also pitches in.

The Old Woman Who Lived In A Shoe (1940) is a hand-drawn short that got released that same year in Europe, serving as an advertisement for Rinso soap powder. It may be an ad, but it’s a charming cartoon in its own right. Here, that poor old woman is threatened with eviction when she doesn’t agree to marry her froggy landlord.

The Ballet Of Red Radio Valves (1938) is another hand-drawn short, this time advertising for Philips.

The spirit of the Austrian people brings to life a statue of Johann Strauss, as he uses his musical skills to lead the invading Screwball Army into the river, in Bravo Mr. Strauss (1943).

Hotlip Jasper (1945) sees the Puppetoons regular find himself a trumpet, only to be fancifully brought to Hollywood to star in his own Paramount film, directed by his acquaintance The Scarecrow. Trumpet master Raphael Mendez provides the solo for Flight Of The Bumblebee.

Though Together In The Weather (1946) was also part of the first Puppetoon Movie, its new restoration is quite welcome here. While as folksy and charming as a Puppetoon ever was, it is also a surprisingly racy effort, portraying a perturbed Judy’s efforts to seduce clueless Punchy into becoming her beloved. Punchy’s reactions are reminiscent of the Wolf’s in Tex Avery’s “Wolf and Red” cartoons.

A Fairy Tale About A Melancholic King (1934) is a four-minute Gasparcolor short which was made in France. The story serves as a commercial for margarine.

Jasper’s Music Lesson (1943) is transformed into a lively boogie woogie show-stopper.

Seven Puppetoons were nominated for Oscars, and the first was Rhythm In The Ranks (1941), which sees toy soldier Jan disciplined for dereliction of duty after being distracted by an lovely ice skater, before redeeming himself fighting the Screwball Army.

The next Oscar nominated Puppetoon was also the stronger of the two Dr. Suess shorts, the quite delightful The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins (1943). Poor Bart can’t doff his hat to the king, because another keeps appearing in its place. The king is initially unimpressed by the apparent disrespect, but eventually a satisfactory resolution is reached.

Puppetoons B
The Truck That Flew (1943) may be the weakest cartoon on the set, but it has its moments. This short, based on a book, introduces the dreamer kid Rusty, who has a love of vehicles. Rusty would return in better cartoons over the next couple of years, as seen on the Puppetoon Movie Volume 2 disc.

The Queen Was In The Parlour (1939) is another cel animated ad for Rinso.

Charlie’s World Cruise (1936), also hand-drawn, is a Philips radio ad.

Duke Ellington performs his Perfume Suite in Date With Duke (1947).

The previous set had some wonderful shorts promoting Horlick’s malted milk drink. By now, you should know not to discount the shorts that are ads, as they can be just as innovative and entertaining as the others. On Parade (1936) is the first of the Horlick’s ads, showing how fatigued soldiers can benefit from the famed drink.

The Tool Box (1970) was commissioned by ABC television, two decades after Pal had made his last Puppetoon. It aired on Curiosity Shop, a children’s show intended to compete with PBS’s Sesame Street, though it was short-lived. Chuck Jones served as producer for its 17 episodes.

Jasper And The Beanstalk (1945) naturally derives from the famous fairy tale, and it follows the regular story beats; but here, voice artist Peggy Lee is transformed into the sexiest harp ever captured on film. This one was also nominated for an Academy Award.

Friend In Need (1940) is a three minute hand-drawn short used to help raise money for needy children, commissioned by the Dutch Cinema Association.

My Man Jasper (1945) sees Scarecrow and BlackBird being held accountable for their years of scamming Jasper.

Puppetoons C
The Sky Princess (1941), as mentioned, was another short that was in HD on the first Puppetoon Movie Blu-ray, but I was very happy to find out it was undergoing a fuller restoration, since I find it one of the most beautiful of the Puppetoons, replete with crystalline imagery, a castle in the clouds, and other fairy tale wonder, set to the music of Tchaikovsky’s The Sleeping Beauty Ballet.

The Good Bear And The Bad Bear (1940) is another fun hand-drawn Rinso ad.

Jasper’s Boobytraps (1945) returns to the battle of wits between Jasper and Scarecrow.

Rhapsody In Wood (1947) tells the origin of famed musician Woody Herman’s clarinet, as told by Woody Herman!

World’s Greatest Show (1935) is an extremely rare hand-drawn Philips advertisement.

Jasper’s Derby (1946) sees Jasper encouraging a race horse to win the Kentucky Derby, using his violin.

Aladdin And The Magic Lamp (1939) is a Puppetoon ad for Philips, utilizing the famed tale of a boy and the wishes he can make with his lamp.

And To Think That I Saw It On Mulberry Street (1944), is of course the other Dr. Seuss Puppetoon, and this one was also nominated for an Oscar. While not quite as fun as The 500 Hats Of Bartholomew Cubbins, it is nevertheless full of the whimsy of Seuss, exploring a lad’s ever-more hyperbolic and fanciful description of what he saw on his way home.

Jasper is left behind by Scarecrow, who is attending a jitterbug dance competition in Shoe Shine Jasper (1947). Not to worry, though, as Jasper is granted magic shoes that propel the story into another wonderful musical fantasia.

Is This Thing Loaded?

Sweet Pacific (1947) (1:05) is a Puppetoon ad for Mounds candy bars.

In a Previously Unreleased George Pal Interview (1970) (16:07), Pal discusses his life and inspirations, and looks back on his career. The video is quite good, though its audio has a slight echo to it. It’s great to hear from Pal in his own words, but the most interesting aspect is the film projects he speaks about planning to make, which never materialized, such as a Pal version of Logan’s Run. Logan’s Run was eventually realized by others in 1976 (the year after Pal closed out his career with the disappointing – but still pretty fun if you are in a campy mood – Doc Savage, Man Of Bronze).

The Fantasy Film Worlds Of George Pal (1985) Expanded Interviews (49:07) include those with Ray Harryhausen (over 13 minutes), Ray Bradbury, Gene Roddenberry, Roy E. Disney (eight minutes), Joe Dante, Russ Tamblyn, Wah Chang, and Duke Goldstone.

Another extended interview gets its own listing, as a former Puppetoon head animator and puppet builder discusses the techniques for making of the films in Bob Baker Talks Puppetoons (15:39). Baker was an accomplished puppeteer, who enjoyed a large career in entertainment after working for George Pal.

In the interest of full disclosure, I’ll note that my name appears in the booklet, as well as the Special Thanks section of the Full Production and Donor Credits (8:16).

Case Study:

The front cover once again features an image of Judy, for the third consecutive volume. While I can appreciate a sense of uniformity, it would have been a nice idea to showcase other Puppetoon characters to better suggest the diversity of the films. Jasper was really the biggest Puppetoon star, but I suppose one can understand being shy about promoting the release using a character who is a racialized caricature, though Jasper is arguably not terribly offensive (I realize and respect that opinions will certainly vary in that regard). The Blu-ray case follows the lead of the menus, oddly listing all films as “Puppetoons”, even the hand-drawn ones. A glance near the bottom of the back cover shows numerous logos, showing how many entities were involved in bringing the films to disc, including Paramount, the British Film institute, ASIFA, the UCLA Film & Television Archive, and others.

Notably, the case also holds an attractive 20-page booklet with extensive liner notes about the films and their restoration sources, accompanied by many images.

Ink And Paint:

The source for these films were all either 35mm Technicolor Successive Exposure Negatives, or Imbibition Nitrate Prints. The result is another stunning presentation, full of color and wonder. The Paramount films undoubtedly look the best, offering crisp, vivid imagery, making most of the shorts look brand new – and if a few of the films look less good, it’s only by a half-notch. Seriously, the Puppetoons look almost unbelievably good. The amount of care that went into transferring and restoring these films is admirable.

The European films look quite good as well, but generally cannot match the sharpness of the Hollywood shorts. Gasparcolor in particular will simply not look as great as the Technicolor elements seen on the Hollywood films (notably in the color department), but the same care has been taken in making them look as good as they possibly can.

All of the films look clean, being remarkably devoid of dust or other artefacts. Placing these films on a dual-layer disc has certainly allowed them proper room, and the mastering has them looking totally authentic to the film sources.

Scratch Tracks:

The mono tracks sound generally quite nice. The European films sound just a little more tinny or echo-ey in spots, but their rareness makes it hard to quibble. Meanwhile, the Paramount films sound immaculate, giving a proper presentation for these musical masterpieces.

There are no other language options. Subtitles are offered from the menu, but those are only available for three of the short subjects, though I am not sure which ones.

Final Cut:

I enjoyed this selection of Puppetoons and other shorts immensely. Watching these films makes one remember what one loved about animation in the first place. The skill, creativity, and sense of artistry is inspiring, and they are just plain fun to see. The list price may seem high to some, compared to big studio releases, but there are a whopping twenty-eight short subjects on this dual-layered disc. This was an independent production that relied somewhat on donors to make it happen, and one must keep in mind that proper restorations do not come cheap. The discs that have resulted from these projects are the main source of revenue for these restorations, and as such I’m happy to pay a bit of a premium. After all, one won’t find them on Netflix next week; they are only available on Blu-ray.

Placed next to the previous two volumes of Puppetoons, disc producer Leibovit has now provided fans with a trifecta of awesomeness. Animation fans should welcome this third collection, which is a gift to classic cartoon lovers, and to admirers of George Pal. He couldn’t have asked for a better tribute.

If the above rant felt either petty or random, I have a good reason for it: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem looks great! While at first glance the animation might seem overly similar to the Spider-Verse flicks, Ninja Turtles is far less polished and more rough around the edges, making it appear hand-crafted. In fact, the Turtles themselves feel like they were made out of clay. Fire seems like it was drawn onto the screen using crayons, explosions look like pencil scribbles, and New York City is large, enticing, and messy. Seriously, you could take stills from this and easily mistake them for concept art. It’s good stuff.

And the stylization doesn’t end there, as Mutant Mayhem fully embraces its sketchbook design to the point where nothing looks “realistic” for want of a better term. If someone gets an electric shock, their bones will appear as they get zapped like they’re a Looney Tunes character. If there’s an extended gag involving vomit, it’s handled in such a cartoony manner that it will make you howl with laughter instead of wanting to throw up yourself. This is a movie that skillfully manages to be gritty without ever coming across as edgy just for the sake of being so, embracing the gross-out nature of the franchise while not being off-putting about it.

But enough about the animation. I suppose there is also a story, although it’s basic enough that I didn’t even feel I needed to open this review with a plot summary. If you’re familiar with the Turtles, you’ll have a good idea of what you’re getting here, and despite the “Mayhem” of the title, everything is fairly straight-forward, with villain Superfly’s “destroy all humans” scheme being almost identical to those of Magneto in multiple X-Men outings. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, of course, but it does keep things from getting quite as bonkers as you might expect from a Ninja Turtles movie (at least until the climatic battle, when the film throws everything at the screen at once and sees what sticks).

Speaking of Superfly, however, Ice Cube is absolutely the MVP of a stacked voice cast. He’s clearly having a blast, making the bad guy (bad fly?) hilarious, charismatic, and dangerous (he even gets to swear a little, which might make a few parents in the audience flinch). Superfly doesn’t actually appear until around the mid-way point, but when he does, he gives everything a jolt of energy, initially viewing the Turtles as allies and claiming he wants exactly what they want: acceptance from society. I suppose there’s some form of social commentary to be found in how the human characters are designed–they look more “mutated” than the actual mutants–but rest assured, Ninja Turtles doesn’t come anywhere close to being heavy-handed, and while there are gentle themes of prejudice here, they never in any way feel like a lecture.

Contrasting the borderline grotesque appearance of most of the humans is April, the only “regular” person to be found who is, it must be said, more grounded that previous incarnations of the heroine. Fortunately, she is also very appealing and likable, working as a good companion for the Turtles and balancing their genuine goofiness with a more rational look at the world. Even better, the film allows her to be funny (she’s responsible for the aforementioned vomit gag, so take that however you will), making her feel right at home in this universe.

Which brings us to the title characters. As much press surrounding this has noted, the Turtles are all voiced by actual teenagers this time around, resulting in performances that feel remarkably organic and spontaneous. The only “downside” to this–if we can even call it that–is that this makes their personalities sort of meld into each other sometimes. The distinctive characteristics are there for those familiar with the bunch, but newcomers may have a hard time telling their Raph from their Mikey.

That said, it seems really unfair that the teenage stars don’t have their names included in the main end credits, with the more famous cast members getting billing before them (even if this does lead to a funny reference to Halloween 6 of all things). Mutant Mayhem has a lot of talent behind the microphone, and they do a good job with what they’re given, but many audience members are going to miss what are essentially glorified cameos from John Cena, Rose Byrne, and several others. Apart from Ice Cube, only Jackie Chan really has a major role as Splinter, providing the beloved martial arts master with more social awkwardness and anxiety than we are used to seeing from him. Chan is terrific, his voice warm and world weary, even if the casting may feel slightly too on the rat nose.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem is a fun-filled if not familiar ride, with inventive action, good humor, an awesome soundtrack, and endearing characters. In other words, all of the ingredients of a typical successful animated movie. What sets it apart is its bold animation, which is brilliant, and makes this a bodacious trip worth seeking out on the big screen…especially if it’s one that doesn’t make the film look too dark!

Ruby Gillman, Teenage Kraken is a beautiful looking film, featuring a predictable plot, some irritating characters, and a too-easily-wrapped-up ending… that your kids will probably really enjoy.

As much as I usually harp on story being the most important aspect of a film, I can forgive the formulaic narrative here because, despite there being no surprises, it is fairly well told. But some of these characters are so tedious and annoying and drag the whole thing down! Ruby’s classmates sound nothing like kids. And I mean that in both ways it can be taken. The voice actors playing them sound much much older than the age they’re supposed to be portraying. And the kids seem to be speaking the way clueless adults think nauseatingly hip high schoolers talk these days. (Example: within the first five minutes of the film two different scenes have characters discussing a “post-colonial patriarchal construct”. Ugh!)

If you can get past that, and thankfully the worst of these characters don’t figure as heavily in the latter half of the film, there’s a decent enough movie here for kids. While adults will see every story beat coming a nautical mile away, there is a somewhat surprising message about kids not always knowing best. And a fun secondary plot line involving a fisherman provides some nice comic relief.

The animation is lively, colorful, and engaging, and there is a lot to look at. The cityscapes are full of easter eggs that are fun to spot. The under the sea world is a bit bland, until we get to where the krakens live, where things are much more appealing. The character designs are a bit hit or miss. The humans and most of the sea creatures are interesting, though some seem like they were thrown together near the end of production.

While I can’t hum a single measure of Stephanie Economou’s score from memory now, while watching I really enjoyed it. Two songs released with the movie, This Moment and Rise, fit the tone and message of the story well but are otherwise your average by-the-numbers movie pop songs.

While several of the voice actors in the film were irritating enough to deserve mention near the top of my review, I should point out there were several nice performances. Lana Condor as the title character was outstanding and really anchored the entire movie. Toni Collette and Colman Domingo paired well as the controlled and steady parents of the their sometimes manic daughter. And Jane Fonda was kind of fun as Grandmamah.

There are a lot of movies out there that should be much better than they are. And I’m the first to get upset when I feel a film isn’t reaching its potential. Other films are just animated money grabs, trying to make a quick buck without expending much effort, barely worth the time to write about. This isn’t either of those. It’s just a movie that sets out to be entertaining without trying to be too ambitious. And it basically meets its goals. Feel free to release Ruby Gillman the next time you’re looking for something diverting for your little ones.

Ember is a fire element with a temper whose parents immigrated to Element City from the old country. They run a shop that Ember will one day inherit. Wade is a water element from a well to do family who kind of just flows through life aimlessly. When he puts her family’s business in danger, the star crossed acquaintances must fight both the might of governmental bureaucracy and the fact that they could literally kill each other to put things right.

I’m saying this way too often about Pixar, but once again their latest is a fine little film, but that’s it. It’s not really bad. It gets the job done. But I don’t have much desire to go see it again. Four times in a row now — with Luca, Turning Red, Lightyear, and now Elemental — I feel like I got a movie that could have been so much more but settled for less.

I have issues with both the plot and the plotting, but let’s discuss the story issues first. Elemental is a very basic “boy meets girl, they fall in love, but they’re from two different worlds so complications ensue” story. Now I know historically love stories in animated films have not been that deep. But in recent decades studios have at least tried to make these relationships a little more interesting: Belle imprisoned by the Beast but eventually there’s something there; Shrek and Fiona despising each other during their journey until they realize they’re accidentally in love; Branch finally putting aside his fears and revealing his true colors to Poppy. In Elemental, my synopsis would be “Wade and Ember are in a lot of scenes together so now they’re in love apparently”. Not a lot of effort went into letting the audience see what they saw in each other. Their love was more a plot contrivance that the plot objective.

The other main story in the film is between Ember and her father. This works much better. The filmmakers make us care about this relationship by showing us how it developed and how it continues to the present.

There were some weird issues with the way they told some of the story. As usual, I don’t want to spoil things. So let’s just say, occasionally it seemed like the writers thought of a new idea for the end of the film late in the game and chose to set it up by having a character say “by the way” and drop some random exposition or just flashback to something. Instead of weaving this new idea into the film artfully, they just found a good spot and spliced it in as an afterthought. It was jarring the couple of times it happened and felt forced when they tried to pay it off later.

One minor story problem I had has to do with the world itself. The movie has obvious analogies about immigration. The writers are not too heavy handed about it, but the comparisons themselves aren’t exactly apt. When homes for rent in the 1800s put up signs saying “Irish need not apply”, it was unfounded fear that caused their bigotry. In Elemental, when fire elements are unwelcome it’s because it’s been shown that they can be an actual danger to the unprepared other elements and their property. The fear has a foundation. Having a character basically saying “they just hate us because of who we are” is a cop out when you just burned up half their body as you were squeezing past them on the train! Like the love story, the immigration allegory feels superficial and more like an attempt to make the story deeper than it actually is.

Let’s move on to the best thing about the film: the animation. Elemental is absolutely gorgeous. When I said earlier that I didn’t have much desire to go see it again? Maybe I might just to focus more on the art! Element City is amazing and so much fun to explore. There are clever designs everywhere that reveal how each element goes about their lives. The characters are pretty great… at first. As the film goes on it does become a little obvious that maybe there’s not a lot of variety when it comes to making anthropomorphic wind, for example.

Thomas Newman’s score for the film is very nice. It’s not overwhelming, but doesn’t just provide atmosphere either. One interesting thing he did of note was give the fire element immigrants themes that sounds like they could have been influenced by their (fictional) cultural heritage. An original pop song by Lauv, Steel the Show, features but is entirely forgettable.

Oddly for a Pixar film, I wasn’t too impressed by the voice cast. Most characters were either unmemorable or mildly annoying. The two that did stand out were Leah Lewis as Ember and Ronnie del Carmen as her father. Their performances help sell the most interesting relationship in the film.

Before I wrap this up, I want to say that as a reviewer I get no joy out of criticizing the hard work of others. My favorite thing is to tell you why I love a movie! But Pixar is a great company and I really want to see them get back to their glory days. Unfortunately, I think they have a leadership problem. Remember the special features on old school Pixar DVDs that took you behind the scenes of their “brain trust”? This was a group that would help filmmakers hone their stories to their absolute best, feelings be damned! That mindset is gone, I believe. These days plots are more often than not based on the personal stories of filmmakers. And since the stories are personal, maybe there’s a fear of being offensive when trying to critique. So when real depth is replaced with superficiality, or when genuine emotion is replaced with shortcuts, there’s no one to say, “wait, we can do better” or even “I’m sorry but this isn’t working”. Until story is king again in Emeryville, good enough may be good enough for Pixar.

I want to stress that this is not a bad film. It’s just… fine. It’s filler for their theatrical release calendar, not a cinematic event. And Pixar is better than that. It’s especially frustrating because, like the three films before it, there’s the framework of a really great film here. It’s just missing a few important elements to take it to that next level.

In 2018, Sony took us Into the Spider-Verse, with a film Animated Views called a “game-changer”*. It won the Best Animated Feature Oscar, was the first non-Disney movie selected by our readers as the best of the year, and made a ton of money. So a sequel was a no brainer. But Sony has never been one to shy away from exploiting their Spidey film rights as far as possible, so it wasn’t too much of a surprise when they announced two sequels.

The first, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, picks up about a year and a half after the first film. Miles has grown into the suit, both physically and talent-wise. But being Spider-man takes a toll and he misses the friends he made who went back to their own universes. On her version of Earth, Gwen is struggling alone with her responsibilities and has issues with her father. When they discover a secret society that moves across dimensions to keep things in balance, they both want to join for their own reasons. What happens next? Ummmmm…**

Let’s discuss the first of two elephants in this multiverse. When the film title was originally announced, it was called Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Part One. A few months later, the “Part One” was removed and “Part Two” was officially retitled Beyond the Spider-Verse, with both halves being made simultaneously. So going in, savvy viewers knew we weren’t going to get the complete story this year.

Other made-as-two-part films have threaded this needle in different ways. Back to the Future II and III took two mostly separate stories and weaved them together with a cliffhanger ending sandwiched between. Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame (originally titled Infinity War Parts One and Two) took one epic story, and strategically divided its story elements over two films. These two series of movies worked well because the first part did the job of being both a satisfying and freestanding film that was also able to setup a followup.

Across the Spider-Verse chose a different path. The filmmakers took one long story and just arbitrarily cut it down the middle. Despite its massive runtime, the entire movie is just a big setup for part two. There is almost no plot point resolved in this first half.

That’s not to say the setup isn’t interesting or entertaining. The half of the plot we do get is leading to something good. I was definitely left wanting to know what happens next. But I also felt somewhat cheated due to getting only half of a film. If the credits started rolling on The Little Mermaid right after Ariel makes her deal with Ursula and you were told to come back next year for the rest, you’d wonder why you even bothered to watch this half now rather than wait for the whole thing.

The second issue that can’t be ignored is the length of the film. At two hours and twenty minutes, Across the Spider-Verse is the longest animated film in Hollywood history. Arguably, only two other major studio animated films have ever crossed the two hour threshold***, so not a common event. Even with the amount of animation released seemingly increasing exponentially over the past 30 years, runtime is not something studios have been willing to experiment with. The fact that Sony allowed its filmmakers to not only split this movie into two pieces but also make the first half so long, would hopefully imply they had confidence that the most would be made of all the extra time.

Unfortunately, that faith may have been misplaced. As I’ve already stated, the plot is not uninteresting or unentertaining. Not by a long shot. There is, however, too much filler. It’s like once the animators got the permission to not worry about runtime, they used that leeway to stop editing the story they had, rather than to fill the extended time with more story. Over and over, scenes drag on well past what is needed. The opening scene runs so long that when the title card finally shows up it’s almost a surprise that we’re still so early in. A later scene features a needlessly slow moving device that we watch way too long before a character notes the ridiculous speed in a throwaway joke. An excessively long chase scene seems to be the main plot of a third of the film. There was so much room to tighten up this story, that the runtime feels more like an ostentatious luxury than a necessary requirement.

Looking past all that, most of the other aspects of the film are pretty great.

The brilliant and unique animation style of the first movie is continued here, with mostly similar results. With each different dimension of the Spider-verse getting its own distinctive look, there are plenty of beautiful visuals. But occasionally the effect felt forced or not up to par with the original. The music of the Spider-Verse is fresh and fun. But the audio mix of some of the dialogue really could have been a lot better.

The voice actors were the best parts of the film. The returners (Shameik Moore as Miles Morales, Hailee Steinfeld as Gwen Stacy, Brian Tyree Henry as Jefferson Morales, Luna Lauren Vélez as Rio Morales, and Jake Johnson as Peter B. Parker) step back into their roles without missing a beat from their great performances in the original. And the newcomers (Oscar Isaac as Miguel O’Hara, Jason Schwartzman as The Spot, Issa Rae as Jessica Drew, Karan Soni as Pavitr Prabhakar, and Daniel Kaluuya as Hobie) easily rise to meet their level.

I need to reiterate that the half of this movie we do get is not bad! My complaints are more with the length and pacing, and the choice to not give the audience more of a standalone film. I’m sure when these two parts are watched back to back, the experience will be amazing… and I’ll be the first in line for tickets! But I’m only able to review the half that we were given and not what might be Beyond.

After being betrayed by rogue con artist Forge Fitzwilliam, widowed bard Edgin Darvis and his barbarian companion Holga Kilgore plan to get back at their former associate and reclaim Darvis’ daughter Kira. Fitzwilliam has become Lord of Neverwinter and he’s bringing back a popular, yet controversial event with high-stakes betting that will fill his vaults with riches beyond imagination. The ideal target for a heist. Darvis and Kilgore enlist the aid of half-elven sorcerer Simon Aumar and tiefling druid Doric. But in the background is Sofina, a red wizard setting a nefarious plot into motion that leaves the group having to deal with more than just breaking into a heavily guarded vault.

One of the biggest hurdles in adapting Dungeons & Dragons into a film is that there is no one plot to be based off of. It’s generally up to the players to create their stories and how they would play out. Supplemental material have been released over the years offering pre-made content, from world settings to adventure ideas, for players to use. As such, there’s numerous options to choose in developing a film. For Honor Among Thieves, Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley went with telling an original story and based it within a popular setting called The Forgotten Realms. This has helped settle on a nice mixture of options for the presentation.

Most stories within the fantasy genre tend toward an eventual “saving the world” plot. To have Honor Among Thieves be more unique, the filmmakers instead are telling a heist that happens to be set within a fantasy world. This allows for emphasis to be on developing the characters and less on spending time having to flesh out the world when it is unnecessary to do so. If there’s any lore to be told, it’s because it’s something that will benefit the characters. Thus there is a purpose to the group spending time learning about and trying to locate a magical item called the Helmet of Disjunction as it will help Aumar break the powerful enchantments placed upon the vaults.

Another big hurdle has been how to portray the game’s mechanics and spirit. The mechanics is perhaps the hardest at bringing to life as much of how things work are not visual. This led the previous feature film to make spell casting inaccurate to how they’re done in the game so that it could be apparent on screen that such is happening. Honor Among Thieves is interested in the mechanics and figures ways to showcase them with delightful results. Aumar possess a token that brings a dead creature back to life. It is alive only long enough to answer five questions, then it is dead for good. What can be a conundrum is that it answers any five questions spoken aloud.

Honor Among Thieves captures the spirit of the game in realizing its key component: fun. More often than not, films in the fantasy genre tend to play with such seriousness that they run the risk of being droll and stiff. The other direction is to spoof the genre, lampooning the troupes to a corny degree. Goldstein and Daley instead looked to find a middle ground in which things are not taken with great seriousness, but it’s not a mockery. This is exemplified with Xenk Yendar, a human paladin the group seek the aid of to find the Helmet of Disjunction. But though they are in awe of his stoic prowess as a true heroic figure, his mannerisms get on their nerves very quickly.

Adding to the fun factor is the wonderful performances by the ensemble cast. Chris Pine captures the charm and occasional vulnerability of Darvis. Michelle Rodriguez hits the right beats playing the tough and warm Kilgore. Hugh Grant perfectly personifies the deliciously despicable Fitzwilliam. Justice Smith works quite well as the neurotic Aumar. Sophia Lillis is lovely as the unpredictably endearing Doric. Regé-Jean Page seems to be made to portray the righteous Yendar. And Daisy Head stands out superbly as the devious Sofina. Often in these films an actor’s presence can overtake the character. Here the whole cast embody their characters very nicely.

What’s also fun are the Easter Eggs fans of the game can discover. They’re utilized in such a way that audiences unfamiliar with Dungeons & Dragons don’t need to feel like it’s something very important, which happens to hilariously be spoofed in the film when Sofina explains in few words how it is the vaults are enchanted to a pair of delegates who just take her for her word. There’s quite an Easter Egg late in the film that’s sure to bring a smile to fans, which I won’t reveal even though clips of it have been shown already. And I was howling over a credited cameo appearance and how it’s done both visually and its part in fleshing out the backstory of one of the characters.

It’s almost a given that Honor Among Thieves would be special effects heavy like the first Dungeons & Dragons film. Whereas the previous film relied on the effects to carry the film, this film uses just enough that they do not hinder the storytelling. A lot of the visual effects animation is done for Doric whenever she uses her wild shape ability to transform into a creature. There’s a fantastic escape sequence that evokes being a single take shot in which she’s changing between herself and into various animals while trying to avoid getting captured. It’s impressive by itself, but made more so because it serves the plot in showing how dangerous the heist is going to be.

The visual effects are used quite well in bringing to life the many races and creatures that previous adaptations hardly touched upon. While they don’t play major roles, their presence lends itself to showing that there’s more than just humans, elves, and dwarves. There’s the eagle-like aarakocra and the aptly named dragonborn conversing with the characters. One of the most recognizable creatures within Dungeons & Dragons is the owlbear, brought to life is Doric’s preferred wild shape transformation whenever in combat. There’s even a unique use of a red dragon that’s wonderfully done with great animation making it all the more fresh and fun.

Honor Among Thieves is so much fun that it’s few flaws can be overlooked very easily. It tries not to be a spectacular epic like The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It flirts with going for the scope one would expected from the fantasy genre, but doesn’t quite go all the way. This can be either a good thing or bad depending on one’s interests. Same can be said with keeping the world-building at a minimum. While it would detract the story, digging deep into the history and lore of The Forgotten Realms would be enchanting to those interested. I may have to listen to it a few more times, but I found the score by Lorne Balfe to be merely pleasant and I’m not entirely sure how memorable they are. Again, these are minor criticisms that are forgivable for a film that’s difficult to dislike.

I’m hopeful that Goldstein and Daley have developed a blueprint on how to adapt Dungeons & Dragons into a feature film and make it work. Honor Among Thieves doesn’t take itself too seriously, yet it also avoids being a parody of the genre. The narrative benefits character development over unnecessary world-building, allowing for audiences to enjoy things happening and their servicing the storytelling. The animation is very nice and the overall visual effects do a wonderful job of bringing to life creatures and races from the game that had yet to be showcased on screen before. It is just a fun movie to watch from start to finish, having managed to roll a critical success.

The Beginnings of Animation (1900s to 1930s)

While experiments with creating moving images date back centuries, most film historians point to the early 1900s as the true beginnings of animated cartoons. During these pioneering years, animators painstakingly hand-drew each frame on paper, using techniques like stop-motion and zoetropes to achieve the illusion of motion when the frames were played in sequence.

Some of the earliest cartoon stars emerged in this era, like Gertie the Dinosaur (1914), Felix the Cat (1919), and the iconic duo of Mickey and Minnie Mouse (1928). While primitive by today’s standards, these shorts represent monumental achievements in crafting believable animated movements and personalities. They laid the foundations for the cartoon boom that followed in the 1930s.

The Golden Age of American Animation (1930s to 1960s)

With synchronized sound reaching cartoons by 1928, the stage was set for animation’s golden age beginning in the 1930s. Walt Disney Productions led the way with classics like Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Pinocchio (1940), and Bambi (1942). These were the first animated features ever made, using groundbreaking animation techniques and unprecedented budgets for stunning visuals.

Beyond Disney, the Warner Bros. animation studio churned out wildly popular Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts starring Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and other iconic characters. Studios competed to create treasured cartoon stars like Popeye, Woody Woodpecker, Betty Boop, and Casper the Friendly Ghost. Even TV got animated with shows like The Flintstones.

By the 1960s, limited animation became more common to meet TV demand. While less detailed, this allowed a freer comedic style perfected in shows like The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. The golden age defined animation as a storytelling art form in the public consciousness.

New Stylistic Directions (1970s to 1990s)

While Disney films continued to push technical boundaries, the 1970s and 1980s saw animation diversify stylistically. Anime gained popularity worldwide. Ralph Bakshi experimented with edgier content in films like Fritz the Cat (1972). Don Bluth brought lush visuals in The Secret of NIMH (1982) and An American Tail (1986).

On TV, The Simpsons (1989) ignited a craze for primetime adult animation sitcoms with its satire and surprising emotional depth. Steven Spielberg collaborated with Warner Bros. on the strikingly cinematic Batman: The Animated Series (1992), setting a new bar for TV animation quality. Experimental animation found an outlet on MTV’s Liquid Television.

The Computer Animation Revolution (1990s to Present)

The 1990s ushered in seismic shifts through the use of computer animation. Pixar’s first feature Toy Story (1995) stunned audiences with its computer-animated visuals indistinguishable from reality. The industry rushed to transition to digital workflows and 3D CGI animation.

Pixar went on to pioneer new storytelling techniques in emotional blockbusters like Finding Nemo (2003). DreamWorks Animation developed smash franchises like Shrek (2001) around celebrity voice casts. Disney eventually rebounded, revitalizing traditional animation with films like The Princess and the Frog (2009) while also producing CG megahits like Frozen (2013).

Today, computer animation dominates family features and box office charts. Yet traditional hand-drawn styles are kept alive through indie films and TV revivals like Castlevania on Netflix. Animation continues to blend artistry and technology in exciting new directions.

Classic Hand-Drawn Animation’s Enduring Legacy

Though computer animation rules today’s industry, the early pioneering work of hand-drawn animators laid the artistic foundations for the entire medium. Painstakingly crafting fluid motion and believable characters through thousands of drawings gave rise to iconic stars like Mickey Mouse.

The rubber hose art style of the 1920s and 1930s allowed wildly imaginative visuals. Disney’s 12 principles of animation established guidelines for achieving realism and appeal through techniques like squash and stretch. Generations of animators have built upon these hand-drawn innovations.

Many studios still maintain their hand-drawn legacy. Disney occasionally produces new traditionally animated films like Winnie the Pooh (2011). Cartoon Network relies on Flash and Toon Boom animation programs to maintain a 2D workflow. Concept artists still begin projects sketching ideas on paper first.

Perhaps most importantly, classic hand-drawn styles continue inspiring nostalgic revivals. Mickey Mouse shorts airing 2013-2019 on Disney Channel blended retro personality with modern humor. Netflix’s adaptations of Dr. Seuss stories use updated hand-drawn animation. The legacy of original cartoon icons endures through the ages.

Animation’s Bright Future

Over a century of advancement has made animation one of the most limitless filmmaking mediums. CGI continues evolving photorealistic digital worlds, with games and VR experiences expanding possibilities. Yet animation is no longer defined solely by family films.

Creators like Genndy Tartakovsky (Dexter’s Laboratory, Samurai Jack) and Jorge Gutierrez (The Book of Life) infuse personal visions into mainstream franchises. Anime exports like Studio Ghibli’s inspire devotion worldwide. Netflix investing in hand-drawn and stop-motion projects expands experimentation. The indie scene thrives with unique emerging voices.

With endless potential for mastering tech while honoring handmade craft, animation’s future looks brighter than ever. The artists carrying on traditions into new generations will surely dream up wondrous new characters, worlds, and ways of storytelling to continue bringing cartoon magic to the masses.

There are Popeye cartoons, and then there are Popeye cartoons. The good stuff, as many fans know, are the black and white Fleischer theatrical shorts of the 1930s through the early 1940s (plus their three color two-reelers), which began just a few short years after Popeye first appeared in the Thimble Theatre newspaper comic strip. The subsequent color shorts from Famous Studios (essentially what became of the Fleischer studio once Paramount took them over) in the 1940s and 1950s are still pretty good, but cannot match the amazing quality of the Fleischer ones, and over time the Famous offerings devolved into largely formulaic and bland cartoons that many fans don’t mind forgetting. And next came the television cartoons and a further, inevitable dip in quality.

Popeye animated cartoons initially entered people’s homes via television syndication of his theatrical shorts; but King Features Syndicate, the owner of the character, hoped to grab a bigger piece of the profits by producing their own series of cartoons for mainly television exhibition. The result was a package of 220 cartoons of variable quality. “Variable” might be charitable, as many fans would describe these shorts – on the whole – as cheap, poorly-animated, mistake-filled messes that offend the eyes and heart.

Ah, but Popeye superfan Fred Grandinetti would like to remind us that the KFS cartoons were not all bad, not at all. Many were decent, and a few were even pretty good; and even the bad ones are interesting in their way. He has touched on this topic previously in his book Popeye: An Illustrated Cultural History, but he has now expanded on the topic considerably in his new book, Popeye The Sailor: The 1960s TV Cartoons. Bear Manor media is offering the book in hardcover and softcover editions, for anyone for wishes to have some help in navigating through the many KFS cartoons.

One might say, “Fred has watched them all, so that you won’t have to!” However, as you read the book, you will inevitably be curious to watch these cartoons, either to appreciate some fun Popeye action, or to pick apart the worst of the worst. Regardless, the cartoons are an important part of television history. I previously reviewed a DVD set of these cartoons, and I can confirm that the quality ranges from poor to good, and none of them can match the best of the theatrical output. The reasons for the differences is explored in Grandinetti’s book, as he describes the production history of the cartoons and the players involved. We learn of how the cartoons were farmed out to several producers, in studios across the US and Europe. It may surprise some that many of the folks involved were well-respected pros, like Jack Kinney, director of many a classic Disney short. Directorial talent, however, can only go so far, and Grandinetti details how budget, time, and the availability of animation talent adversely affected this series.

Anyone with even a passing interest in the squinty-eyed sailor should find the text interesting, as it delves into a brief history of the character in comics and animation, then proceeds to describe how the KFS cartoons came together. The main players, like Kinney, Gene Deitch, Larry Harmon and others are given concise biographies, and the various studio circumstances are described. Spin-offs of the cartoons – including merchandise and exercise campaigns – are discussed, participating television stations are identified, and there are plenty of trade ads presented. Ratings and profits are highlighted, and the success of the shorts is celebrated. This is a basically a treasure trove of TV cartoon history- and that’s all before we get to the bulk of the book, which gives a synopsis for each cartoon, consisting of a solid one or two paragraphs each, in which we learn of the story but also any trivia or animation mistakes related to the short. Most helpful in our appreciation is that the cartoons are divided by studio, and the directors are identified, with Grandinetti pointing out differences in how the series was handled depending on who worked on each cartoon. This scholarship is most welcome, as we learn to understand that this was not a uniform glob of cheap cartoons, but rather the product of many hands in several places.

This makes for a fun and informing read on a lazy Saturday afternoon, likely to be followed by seeking out the cartoons themselves either on DVD, or on YouTube, where they have all been uploaded onto the official Popeye channel. With that kind of availability, and a helpful text that contextualizes each short, it’s a great time to re-evaluate the KFS Popeye cartoons.

I usually synopsize a movie in the second paragraph of my reviews. But for this movie there has been a question lingering that probably should be answered up front: how does this film connect to the Toy Story canon? That’s answered right at the beginning with text explaining that in 1995, Andy saw a movie featuring the fictional character Buzz Lightyear. He loved it so much he got the action figure for his birthday that year. We’re then told, “This is that movie”.

The story follows Buzz Lightyear and his fellow space rangers as they divert from a mission to explore an uncharted planet. They end up stranded after an attack from the local flora and fauna destroys their hyperdrive. Buzz makes it his single-minded mission to fix what he sees as his mistake. The rest of the crew decides on a different course. So Buzz is forced to rely on a small group of ragtag rookies to try to get everyone home.

The plot is a fairly by-the-numbers and straightforward story. There are no big surprises and the tension is never dialed up very high. Unlike many other Pixar features, there is really no strong emotional through-line driving viewers to feel the highs and lows along with the characters. That means no tears this time out! But it also means we don’t care as much about what our protagonist is going through. On top of all that, it’s also not an extremely funny film. Sure, there are laughs throughout. But it’s more action-adventure oriented than comedy-based, which might be surprising to some fans.

Now you’re probably reading that and thinking, “Predictable, lacks heart, and not funny? So it’s pretty bad, huh?” Well, not really! It’s actually a solid little film. Plotwise, the writers have given the characters realistic motivations and interesting conflicts. So rest assured that this is not a boring story. Emotionally, the characters are moved to make the choices they make for personally important reasons. And those are explored. And we can understand their differing points of view. True, it never rises to the point of making you feel personally invested, but that doesn’t mean the characters themselves aren’t. And a lack of non-stop laugh-out-loud humor doesn’t mean something isn’t fun. The filmmakers have crafted a film that is very different than what you might expect from Pixar. That alone doesn’t make it bad, but adjusting expectations might be a good idea.

Another story-point I want to mention are the references to Buzz Lightyear from the previous films. The writers have done their homework! Catching all the little things that explain or at least call-back to what toy Buzz did or said was a lot of fun. As a bonus, (and without giving much away) after the film be sure to consider the journey Buzz went through in this film; recap it in your mind… (I’ll expand on that in the comments if anyone would like me too!)

I am not saying the animation in Lightyear was bad, because it absolutely was not! But looking back I can’t really recall anything blowing me away or even standing out much. We may just be at a point where their quality is so good so often that we’re used to it, maybe even spoiled.

Michael Giacchino, who is no stranger to animation, sci-fi, or action adventure films, gets to put his considerable talents on display here, and it works well. Themes stand out, but occasionally things do get lost in the background.

One of the biggest fan reactions at the announcement of this film was the replacement of Tim Allen with Chris Evans as the voice of Buzz Lightyear. I thought this was an understandable decision since technically these are two different characters, and was willing to give Pixar the benefit of the doubt. That was the right call. Chris Evans wonderfully channels some of Allen’s vocal mannerisms and inflections while lending the character a lot more gravitas. James Brolin is a nice choice for Zurg. Keke Palmer and Dale Soules are solid sidekicks. Pixar director Peter Sohn is a lot of fun as a robotic cat named Sox. I’m a big fan of Taika Waititi. In movies like Jojo Rabbit, Thor, and Free Guy his eccentricities melded into his character. Here, though, I felt like Buzz Lightyear just had Taika Waititi hanging around with him. Fun maybe, but a bit distracting.

Overall, this was an enjoyable movie. Did it really need to be made? Perhaps not, but it’s here and it’s easily better than some of the other things we’ve had to sit through in recent years. Does it measure up to the rest of the Toy Story legacy films? No, but to be fair, that’s a high bar that hardly any follow-up from any studio for any franchise has ever been able to do. Should you see it? Yes, it’s definitely worth the time. Sure, it’s not the most buzz-worthy film in the Pixar vault. So maybe go in with your expectations lowered to just infinity.