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, October 21, 2006

Toby the Milkman (1931)

Until recently, Toby the Pup was one of the most mysterious and least known cartoon characters of the clasic era. All of the twelve Toby cartoons produced in 1930 and 1931 were once considered as lost. Fortunately, five cartoons have been discovered so far (though one of them survives only in an incomplete form), and there's always a hope that the others might appear in some archives all over the world. One of these rare cartoons, "Toby the Milkman" is featured in today's post. All Toby the Pup cartoons were produced by Charles Mintz and distributed by RKO Radio Pictures.



Toby the Pup cartoons were co-directed, co-written and animated by the powerhouse trio of Sid Marcus (who also created the character), Dick Huemer and Art Davis. Each of them took roughly one third of the cartoon, and worked on it almost independently. Such approach is really evident in "Toby the Milkman", because this cartoon consists of three nearly separate parts. In the last segment, "Toby the Milkman" for no particular reason suddenly transforms into a barn dance cartoon, with hilarious results.



This cartoon shows quite a lot of Fleischer influences in the design and gags. Also, Toby himself was rather similar in appearance to the earliest incarnations of Fleischer's Bimbo. That is not a coincidence, since both Sid Marcus and Dick Huemer worked at Fleischer studio before joining Charles Mintz.

"Toby the Milkman" is a very funny and enjoyable cartoon, and also a great example of early 30s rubber hose animation.







































Take a look at the funny animal crowd in the background of the following five screenshots. You'll surely notice among them the two familiar characters from another series produced by Charles Mintz.


















5 Comments:

Blogger Craig D said...

Now, that's early-thirties cartooning!

I've seen that fragment of "Toby's Museum" and an out-of-synch, subtitled halloween-themed one on YouTube. I'd love to see more of these Toby cartoons someday.

Thanks, as always, for sharing!

Craig D.

2:40 pm

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I posted Toby's HALLOWEEN to YouTube. The synchronization problem was a side effect of the YouTube upload process that I couldn't figure out how to get rid of. My source material, a RealVideo file, is synced up just fine.
If you'd like me to e-mail you a copy, contact me through my Virtual Inkwell page. I've got Toby in DOWN SOUTH, too.

3:03 pm

 
Blogger Duck Dodgers said...

Thanks but, as for me, I got a great copy of the cartoon.
As well as for other Toby the Pup cartoons.
Same for Hammerson.

Thanks for your interest.

5:11 am

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

There are a few Toby the Pup Cartoons are known to exist and they are very hard to find. There is only one cartoon I have on DVD and it is called "Toby in the Museum" and there are many others missing.

2:57 pm

 
Blogger Unknown said...

I watch all the the classic cartoons when I was six years old at that time in the Philippines during his childhood years my favorites like popeye gumby Casper beany&cecil three stooges sinbad junior mightor wacky races marvel heroes and terrytoons all the classic cartoons for the past several years and remains a historic relic from the past and thanks for the information about your comments.from :Wayne

1:56 am

 

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