Andrea/Duck Dodgers here. I friendly welcome every fan of animation at my blog. The goal is to support the love and rediscovery of Classic Theatrical Cartoons from the Golden Age of Animation, keeping meanwhile an eye on Golden Age "Funny Animals" Comics as well as on modern animated productions! Every SUPPRESSED ethnic caricature to be sometimes presented here is just for HISTORICAL and EDUCATIONAL purpose and NOT to offend anyone. Stay Tooned and Enjoy the place !

Saturday, January 07, 2006

The Rare and Unknown : " A Mad House "

In the early Thirties the Horror genre was very popular in Hollywood , thanks to brilliant directors like Tod Browning ( " Freaks " ; " Dracula " ) or James Whale ( the director of the great " Frankestein " and the marvellous " The Bride of Frankestein " ) and studios like Universal ( " Dracula " ; " The Mummy "... ) .

The medium of animation could not resist this trend . Ub Iwers directed and animated a considerable number of cartoons starring an unlimited number of skeletons , from the first Silly Symphony " the Skeleton Dance ( 1929 ) to " Skeleton Frolics " ( 1937 ) . Also , Tashlin directed a magnificent horror spoof starring our favorite ham actor , " The Case of the Stuttering Pig " that is undoubtely a masterpiece .

Mickey Mouse , in these same year , found a lot of skeletons on his way in such cartoons like " The Haunted House " ( again , an Iwerks at work ! ) and " The Mad Doctor " .

Even Terrytoons spoofed the now more than popular genre , with this unknown short .
" A Mad House " ( 1934 ) starts in an old dark house where several skeletons are having fun , dancing and singing ( of course , the influence from both " The Skeleton Dance " and " the Haunted House " is great ) . then , a villanious mad scientist enters ! He created a formula that can make a guy invisible ! He first tries it on a skeleton cat ( ! ) which first returns a normal cat ( !! ) and then becomes invisible ( !!! ) .
The wacky scientist kidnaps the hero's leading lady ( a female dog . Terry in this period did a lot of cartoons with these two dogs as protagonists ) , but the damsel is easily saved for an happy ending .

The supposed protagonists appeared only near the end of the pictures . The real highlights of the show are the skeletons ' gags ! Enjoy !




























Yours Truly ,

Duck Dodgers

Blog Founder and Administrator

2 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

I don't care what theater goers said about the Terrytoons during the 1930s. The images you just post shows some gags (with the exception of the Fleishers)that even Disney couldn't pull.

8:22 pm

 
Blogger Duck Dodgers said...

Yep 1 Terrytoons were not that bad after all... the fact is that they are the most underrated cartoon in history . Rarely seen and for this unappreciated by the majority of people .

8:36 pm

 

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