Cold Squid and South Park: (an Update)

Last Thursday I was in town early to beat the traffic on the 5 so I stopped by the ASIFA Archives. There was a lull in human activist when all the computers where clugging along digitizing and everybody (1 researcher, 3 volunteers, Steve Worth and yours truly) sat down and passed around animation stories.

The Archives is becoming the center of the animation community. There were people from Nick and people working with John K. and people from I don`t know where. But they were all animation people. Somebody came by with a Ub Iworks film he had just got off of ebay.

If it wasn`t such a long drive in from Orange County I would be at the Archive every time the doors open.

HOMEFRONT:
I have been working on my next version of my book, Animation on a $hoe$tring (tm). I don`t want to get caught flat footed next year doing the rewrite from hell just before Comic Con.


click image to see PDF of phase 1 of the project

The prices of animation wheels being what they are now days (about $300 for the wheel alone) I am working on plans for a do-it-yourself animation wheel project that will cost less than $40.

EVENTS:
I should be meeting with the event planner at Woodbury this week to set a date for the long threatened Stop Mo Expo.

I have a couple of syllabi to write yet this weekend and I have to pull my films for my Monday night class so this is going to have to be it for now. Oh, and the title of this update, that came up in conversation last Thursday at the Archives but there is no way to explain it to you.  ¶ 9:02 AM

  Jerks in Print:




Last night my son, Tobias, picked up my copy of Max Fleischer`s the Einstein Theory of Relativity DVD and started looking through the reprint 1923 Garrett P. Serviss companion booklet.

I have looked at the booklet but was more interested in the Willis O`Brien Stop Motion animation on the DVD then I was in reading the 2006 forward to this reprint.

(QUOTE)

It first screened in February 11th 1923 and there are those that would contest Disney`s crown by making this a challenger for the title of first animation ever made. The only thing keeping Disney`s Steamboat Willie on the throne is the fact that this movie includes live action as well as animation.

Robert Godwin (Editor - Apogee Space Books) [2006]

(/QUOTE)

(RANT)
What?

Okay, this is it. Animation scholarship gets no respect. Here is a guy that calls himself a scholar that makes a big old stink, on the very same page as this bonehead statement above, about the false statements in the press about how only a handful of brilliant physicists could understand Einstein`s theory Thanks mostly to a journalist who couldn`t be bothered to investigate his story. And he can`t be bothered to check his own story, his own facts about animation because everybody knows that the field of animation scholarship is beneath them.

If you ask people on the street; who invented animation? Chances are they will say Walt Disney. If you ask them what was the first animation the smarter ones will say Gertie the Dinosaur. There is a VHS tape of dinosaur movie outtakes that says just that, that Gertie the Dinosaur is the first animation. Here this fool says it is Steamboat Willie.

I have to accept the fact that I am teaching a subject that deserves no respect at all because everybody knows that cartoons are just for kids and that no one over the age of 10 could give any # * !ing consideration to this stupid kids stuff.

I get so tired of this moronic misconception brought on by Baby Boomer TV babysitter mentality. Every journalist should be chained down, have their eyes taped open, and be forces to watch Grave of the Fireflies 10 times before they are allow to write word one about animation. Kid stuff my a* *

(/RANT)  ¶ 7:57 AM

 


Major Miscommunications Short version

You know when you screw up how you try to make it sound like you didn`t screw up. Well I did and here is the short version of what and how.

ASIFA-Hollywood Volunteer Meeting
Thursday, September 28th 7 P.M.
Woodbury University
7500 Glenoaks Blvd.
Burbank, CA 91510

I screwed up big time

Before my computer died changed Volunteer meetings to last Thursday of month so Dori Littell-Herrick, head of the animation department at Woodbury, can attend meetings.

Need Dori because of upcoming Woodbury events

Dead computer, dead email account, lost phone number, phone tag, just confirmed meeting last minute / last night

Conflict with screening, do not expect anyone to show up

If you do want to come, we are working on dialog script for the Comic Con Animation Jam and early plans for the Stop Mo Expo.

Still have not gotten room number or I would have posted message out last night

Will send/post Room Number as soon as

Hope to see one or two people there but understand if I don`t.

Hopefully less of a mess next month  ¶ 10:55 AM

  Voices From the Past:

So I was talking to Porky Pig yesterday. I really get a kick out of saying that. But I was really talking to Porky`s voice, Bob Bergen. The main subject was finding people to voice the ASIFA Comic Con animation jam so we can enter it in festivals. (if you want to look at the visual sound log for this project see: http://www.asifa-hollywood.org/blog/anijam/snotes.html) But the conversation wandered as conversations are want to do and we started talking about Daws Butler, the king of voice actors.

When I was taking photos for my Treasures of the ASIFA-Hollywood Archives program for last year`s comic con I took a number of shots inside the Quartet Films sound cabinet that was donated to the archives. I thought I would share some of the images with you. I wish I could share the sounds.







Sometime in the future ASIFA needs to digitize these tapes and make them part of the action archives collection. These are treasures indeed but no one has opened the chest yet. I hope that digitizing these tape is sooner than later because I want to hear what is on them.  ¶ 7:13 AM

  Archive: Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part Three More Milt Gross today at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive...



Media: Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part Three

Thanks!
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive  ¶ 9:21 PM

  Sito Book Must Have:

I have just finished Tom Sito`s book on the animation labor movement, Drawing the Line the Untold Story of the Animation Unions from Bosko to Bart Simpson. At 351 pages plus appendices it is far too short for me. (but then I have been waiting for this book for 4 years and know what had to be left out to get it to a readable size for normal people)

Tom`s book is a major piece of research for anybody that wants to put animation history into prospective.

It is great to see the missing puzzle pieces at long last finally collected together and placed in book form. The animation labor movement is a neglected area of study. The dirty little secret no one talks about.

Trying to understand animation history without dealing with the animation strikes is like trying to understand the present day American South without first looking at the War Between the States (the Civil War for you Yankees).

A must have book for any serious student on animation. Filled with rare photographs that put you in the front lines with a picket sign singing I Dreamed I saw Joe Hill Last Night. Come on people, you can`t animate on your knees.



If you buy Tom`s book you can find out who the people in this photo are.
Drawing the Line  ¶ 7:00 AM

  Archive: John K on Flintstones Animators Today, we have a fun game... Match the animator to the Flintstone!



The animators are...

Ken Muse
Don Patterson
Carlo Vinci
George Nicholas
Ed Love

Find out the answers, and see clips of each artist's work at...

Biography: John K on Flintstones Animators

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive  ¶ 1:22 AM

  Archive: Ren and Stimpy Big House Blues Storyboard Today, we digitized the pilot storyboard for Ren & Stimpy, Big House Blues...



Big House Blues Sequence 01 Storyboard

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive  ¶ 9:16 PM

  South Southern California Dreamer:



Dan Lund, director of Dream on Silly Dreamer, during a screening of his documentary at Cal State Fullerton.

Those of you that have been following these pages know just how important I feel Dan`s documentary, Dream on Silly Dreamer, is to the field of animation. Dreamer puts a human face on an inhuman time in animation.

More than that, in its own small way, Dreamer helped to turn around a bad trend and redirect a major studio into a much better/healther direction.

Last night my Cal State Fullerton History of Animation class got to screen the film and ask questions of the filmmaker/animator.

Copies of Dream on Silly Dreamer are still available at www.dreamonsillydreamer.com and you can pick up Dreamer T-shirts too. I got mine.

  ¶ 12:13 PM

 

I teach at 3 different Colleges/Universities and only Brooks College opens their events to the public.

This Wednesday September 20th you are invited to an event with:

Butch Hartman (The Fairly OddParents)
@ Brooks College Cafe - 6pm to 8pm
4825 E. Pacific Coast Hwy
Long Beach, CA

[I will always be grateful to Butch for the Ub Iwerks inspired episode where the grandfrather takes Timmy back into 30s black and white cartoons]  ¶ 8:42 AM

  Archive: Boody Rogers' Babe Comics Part Two Today, I posted the second part to the epic Li'l Abner parody by Boody Rogers...



Media: Boody Rogers' Babe Comics Part Two

If you missed the first part, you can find it at... Media: Boody Rogers' Babe Comics Part One I will be posting the concluding chapter soon.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive  ¶ 12:54 AM

  Archive: Berny Wolf (1911-2006)
Berny Wolf holds up a model sheet he created
along with Grim Natwick for an Iwerks Willie Whopper
cartoon. (See Al Eugster's Photo Album)
We received the sad news today that veteran animator, Berny Wolf passed away a few days ago at the age of 95. Berny was a real gentleman, and his career spanned the entire history of animation... from Fleischer, where he rotoscoped Cab Calloway as a ghostly walrus for "Minnie the Moocher"; to Iwerks, where he designed characters and animated on Willie Whopper and Comicolor cartoons; to Disney, where he animated on Pinocchio, Fantasia and Dumbo. In the TV era, Berny was a mainstay at Hanna Barbera and FilmRoman, continuing to work into his 80s.

Here are some model sheets Berny created along with Grim Natwick at Iwerks...






Perhaps Berny's most famous scene is one he animated when he was just 21 years old... the ghostly walrus from "Minnie the Moocher". Berny was assigned to rotoscope footage of Cab Calloway. He told me that he did the work at Max Fleischer's original rotoscope rig- the one on which they had rotoscoped Ko-Ko the Clown many years earlier. The rotoscope machine was made from an old camera stand, and it stood in a dark corner of the camera room. For a week, Berny sat on a high stool rotoscoping Cab Calloway. Here is the film...



Minnie the Moocher (Fleischer/1932)
(Quicktime 7 / 17 megs)

PLEASE NOTE The text and media files on the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive Blog are not to be duplicated, redistributed or hosted on other websites without the prior written permission of the Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood.

Berny was a quiet, unassuming man. Perhaps that is why many people today are unaware of his importance to the history of animation. He was the quintessential East coast animator until the end, often attending important meetings in an impeccable pinstripe three piece suit, complete with a watch chain and white carnation in the lapel. ASIFA-Hollywood offers its condolences to the family of Berny Wolf. He will be missed by all who had the honor to know him.

Read Mark Kausler's overview of Berny's career at Cartoon Brew

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood
Animation Archive  ¶ 7:18 PM

  Great Animation 2:



Second wave of DVD content is turning up some great stuff. It is great to find hard to find independent short animations showing up on the shelfs. Jules Feiffer/Gene Deitch, the Hubleys, per commercial Will Venton. See content list on image below. Now availlable at 99 Cents Only stories.


  ¶ 6:16 AM

 

One of the films I raved about after comic con was Garrett Gilchrist`s recobbled Theif and the Cobbler. Monday night at Fullerton an animation student came up after class and asked me if I had heard of this film called the Theif and the Cobbler.

As fate would have it I had the Disney version (sic) and the recobbed version all set out for my Tuesday class. Yesterday I got to try both versions out for the first time on students.



I ran them through about one Disney princess song (all I could stand - not that I have anything against Disney princess songs in a Disney movie, Belle rocks, but this is not a Disney movie and songs of this type and the out of place animation that goes with them have no place in Richard Willams` masterpiece) Then I switched over to the recobbled version and played the whole thing.

That is the all time most amazing animation I have ever seen in my life. I have a new all time favorite character, (the thief) enthused one of my students where can I get a copy?

I told him Garrett`s website http://www.orangecow.org/ and wished him good luck. Garrett can`t sell them and there is really a question about if he can give them away. So my question is now that Disney has turned itself around when are they going to do right by the Theif and the Cobbler? Garrett has done the road map it is time to connect the dots.  ¶ 3:43 PM

  Archive: Artforms in Nature Today, we digitized a fascinating German book from 1913 on "Nature as Artist"...



Media: Incorporating Natural Forms- Haeckel's Artforms in Nature

I'm sure you've never seen anything quite like this, but it will still look strangely familiar. Check it out!

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive  ¶ 3:36 AM

  Brooks College ASIFA-Hollywood Event:

The following article was written for the Brooks College Newsletter. That is why the facts able ASIFA-Hollywood and my career as a Board Member and a teacher are stated as if the reader has never heard of ASIFA or me. I reprint it here because it details the event nicely and it saves me from writing two article today.

This is a very strange article for me to write because I stand in the middle of it like a triangle. And as hard as I try it is a little hard to write inside such a angle.

I helped start the Animation Department at Brooks College Long Beach way back in 2001 and then went on to other things. I was asked to return to Brooks to teach in 2003. I have done so ever since.

The second side of the picture is that I am a member of the executive board of ASIFA-Hollywood, the International Animated Film Society. I am very active in event planning (often getting students involved with the animation community they hope to join) animation preservation and I founded and am the coordinator of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Rescue Team, a rapid response volunteer team deducted to saving animation artifacts.

And if that isn`t enough hats to wear, I am also an Animation Journalist. I have been writing a daily Web Log (weB LOG) BLOG at www.asifa-hollywood.org/blogger.html since October 31, 2004.

The first rule of Journalism is to be impartial but I guess the fact that I can`t here is okay because I do mostly editorial were it is the norm to break the first rule and give opinion. It is still strange to be this far inside a story. Normally I let other people write about me.

I was given this assignment so here we go. ASIFA-Hollywood is 40 years old. They/we are the largest branch (over 4,000 members) of an international organization that is chartered under UNESCO, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization.

We/they put on the Annie Awards every year, the highest honor that the animation community bestows on outstanding accomplishments in the field of animation. This year marks the 34th year of the Annie Awards. Through my urging a number of Brooks Students have volunteered at the Annie Awards for the last couple of years.

I guess it is fitting that I am smack dab in the middle of this story. Because animation is such a small field, such a close knit family, a community. I always tell my students that if they want to join the animation work force they need to get involved with the community. Everybody knows everybody and we take care of our own.

ASIFA is all about that. Through the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archives we are trying to do more than just take care of the current generation of animators, we our trying to take care of the future generations by preserving the past so students and animators will have a resource to learn and grow from.

It has been said that if you do not know your history you are condemned to relive it. That is not so in animation. If you do not know your animation history you are unable to repeat it. And there is so much that bears repeating, reworking, retooling, rediscovering.

Animation is just 100 years old this year and for that short time skills were passed from master to apprentice. The skills, the tools, the storytelling can`t be taught with books or just by watching animation. We almost lost those skills between 1950 and 1970 when almost no one entered the ranks of animation.

The big studios write their histories to meet their own needs and agendas. Training doesn`t seem to be part of that agenda in today`s market place. Their histories are the history of studios and the people who founded the studios, not the history of the animation process and by who and how it was developed.

But not all studios survive and continue and write histories. Very few do. At any one time there are hundreds of little boutique studios. But they come and go, living as long as the market allows or at best the life of the animators that started them. Some of them grow up into big players but most of them fade with time. And so does their all important knowledge.

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archives is dedicated to the histories of the individual animators that moved/move from studio to studio and project to project. We want to save not just their stories but their skills, their film and paper trail so that the knowledge is never in danger again.

Who are the people whose careers we are following. The people in the trenches that work/worked on small projects and big projects at small studios and big studios and then went on to other projects and maybe started small studios of their own that worked on small project or worked/work as subcontractors on parts of larger projects. The flesh and blood community that makes up this industry.

On Wednesday night, August 23rd Brooks College invited ASIFA-Hollywood to come to Long Beach and share some of our treasures with them and their guests, treasures that go back to 9 years after the invention of film animation.

The evening started with a screening of pristine prints of rare animated films, some of which had not been broadcast for over 20 years.




After the screening there was a panel made up of Antran Manoogian, President of ASIFA-Hollywood; Steve Worth, ASIFA Animation Archivist; Angelo di Nello, Brooks graduate and co-creator of Bradwurst (currently in production at Nickelodeon) : and Larry Loc, executive board member of ASIFA-Hollywood and animation teacher at Brooks College, California State University at Fullerton and Laguna College of Art & Design.

The event was open to the public. There was a good turn out with people from the animation community and former Brooks` students joining the current student population to enjoy this unique event. I really enjoyed seeing former students that I taught in my first time at Brooks as well as resent Brooks graduates.

One of those students was Angelo di Nello but it is not like I have gone a long time without seeing Angelo who has moved into the animation community and been part of it for the last 5 years.

Even thou I see Angelo all the time at animation events and screening I really appreciated having him on this panel. Angelo did 16 pitches to get his new series greenlighted. This speaks straight to my current students, most of who where in attendance. Angelo made my job easier when he told of his many mistakes on the road to getting his career launched.

Antran, Steve, and I spoke to the importance of history in making a career. There is a reason that most of the animation historians are animators. The best way to get this point across happened a few days later when Steve Worth posted scans of the complete bar sheets for a 1933 Merrie Melodies cartoon, Shuffle Off to Buffalo. These bar sheets speak to the almost lost art of timing animation to music.

Within hours of posting on the Animation Archive Blog this rarest of animation artifacts that Rudy Ising gave Master Animator and Animation Historian, Mark Kausler, the site went wild with the daily hit count tripling. Most of the traffic was traced back to the web servers of DreamWork, Pixar, Disney, Warner Bros., Film Roman and other major animation studios. (thanks to Mark for the loan of this bar chart from your private collection)

Brooks College is the first institution of higher learning to make the connection, to see the value of this resource to teachers, students, animation programs and studios. And Brooks put their money right where their mouth is with a generous contribution to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive.



The evening ended with networking and a viewing of animation production art and storyboards going all the way back to the Walt Disney/Ub Iwerks 1925 cartoon Alice`s Eggplant. There was artwork from Fantasia, Bambi, Ren and Stimpy, What`s Opera Doc and many, may more. The list is too long to even mention here.

If you live in Southern California you can visit the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archivse at 2114 W. Burbank Blvd., Burbank, CA 91562. A lot of that priceless artwork is part of our current display of Disney artwork. You can also visit them on the web at www.animationarchive.org but only a few of the pieces from the current show are on the web. You can join ASIFA-Hollywood and get invited to all kinds of Studio Screenings and get to vote on the Annies and even sometimes get the screeners for the Annie categories mailed to you months before they are available in video stories. You can read the daily animation raving of Larry Loc at www.asifa-hollywood.org/blogger.html
  ¶ 4:49 PM

 


99 CENT REVIEW:

Asterix, the Galling French hero sticks it to the Romans again in Asterix and Cleopatra, one of my favorite Asterix comics. Now it is a 99 cent movie import.

This import has great animation and a dub that makes it almost unwatchable. Throw in a couple music numbers as cheap copies of any Disney animation of the 90s and I fell asleep. It might be good to watch with the sound off. At 99 cents you almost get your money`s worth.

UPDATE:

Still have my laptop in the shop. Making things very hard on all fronts.

Spent yesterday working the phones on a number of projects. Setting up events at schools, getting ASIFA events started.

The high point of the day was putting a student together with an internship and having a perfect fit and so making both sides happy.  ¶ 8:30 AM

  Archive: Brooks College Donation
Brooks College president, Patrick Comstock (right) presents ASIFA-Hollywood president, Antran Manoogian with a donation to support ASIFA's Animation Archive
The Board of Directors of ASIFA-Hollywood would like to thank Brooks College in Long Beach for their support of the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive. One of the primary goals of both ASIFA and its archive is to promote animation education. We look forward to a productive association with Brooks College, its faculty and students.  ¶ 12:44 AM

  Archive: Two Disney Concept Artists Today, we digitized more Disney model sheets, including some rare examples by concept artists, Albert Hurter and Charlie Thorson...



Media: Two Disney Concept Artists

Remember to visit our Exhibit of Disney Drawings on display now at the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive in Burbank.

Thanks
Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive  ¶ 12:51 AM

  Archive: Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part Two Today, we digitized more Milt Gross Sunday pages from the collection of Mark Kausler...



Milt Gross Sunday Pages Part Two

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is amassing a sizeable collection of cartoons by Gross. Check it out...

Stephen Worth
Director
ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive  ¶ 7:27 PM

 

Today we will look at 2 more animation DVDs that have just hit the market. Again these are from EastWest DVD www.eastwestdvd.com.

FLEISCER CARTOONS Vol 1: is no great deal. These are the same old public domain cast offs that were covered in the first DVD wave. It starts with 3 Hunky and Spunky cartoons (Snubbed By a Snob, A Kick in Time, and You Can`t Shoe a Horse Fly) and then goes into the saccharine Cinecolor Color Classics (Time for Love, The Little Stranger, Hawaiian Birds, Peeping Penguins, A Car-tune Portrait, Play Safe, Alls Fair at the Fair, and Ants in the Plants).

I’ve always liked Peeping Penguins and A Car-tune Portrait is one of the better cartoons on this disk. Transfers are just adequate. (I know for a fact that A Kick in Time has to be from a 16 MM print because Mark Kausler has the only 35 MM print in the world) The menus and chapter divides suck. You have to play your way through to the item you want to view.

GREAT ANIMATION Vol 3: is a completely different story. The menu and chapter divides are still half butted, (we don`t have the money to pay someone to do it right. Faster, Cheaper). But the content makes up for the shoddy work and the film masters are new enough that the transfers are all good.

What we have here is 1980s Cal Arts Animation projects with a few items from north of the boarder thrown in for spice ending with Merv Newland`s classic Bambi Meets Godzilla. Two of these shorts are from people that went on to become Pixar Directors.

Here is the list:

Snookles: Juliet Stroud 1986
Primiti Too Taa: Ed Ackerman and Collin Morton 1988
The Thing That Lurked in the Tub: David Wasson 1988
A Story: Andrew Stanton 1987
Feet of Song: Erica Russell 1988
Charade: John Minnis 1984
The Hill Farm: Mark Baker 1989
Western: Gabor Homolya 1989
Particle Dreams: Karl Sims 1988
Winter: Pete Doctor 1988
Lea Press On Limbs: Debbie Dawson 1988
Bambi Meets Godzilla: Marv Newland 1969

Of the group only Lea Press On Limbs is less than fun. Primiti Too Taa is experimental and maybe a little long for the subject. The Hill Farm is a little esoteric and self important for my taste. Particle Dreams as a early computer animation is important but dated. Charade, Winter, and Western are the standout shorts. Feet of Song is movement without story but very good. Snookles and A Story owe at bit to the last animation Bambi Meets Godzilla. And of course Bambi Meets Godzilla is still a great concept.

This one is worth a trip to the 99 Cent Only store nearest your.  ¶ 6:32 AM

  Archive: Disney Drawing Exhibit

Milt Kahl, Bill Tytla, Freddie Moore, Grim Natwick, Les Clark, Ub Iwerks, Art Babbitt, Marc Davis, Preston Blair, John Lounsbery, Ward Kimball, John Sibley, Norm Ferguson... Come on down to the ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive for an exhibit of drawings by these and other legendary Disney artists.

On display are sketches from Disney's earliest days (Alice in Cartoonland, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit) the early sound era (Mickey Mouse, Silly Symphonies), through the classic features (Snow White, Pinocchio, Sleeping Beauty). The exhibit runs through November.

The ASIFA-Hollywood Animation Archive is open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1pm to 9pm. It is located at 2114 W Burbank Bl in Burbank.  ¶ 9:06 PM

 

It Is Back: Rare Cartoon Content On 99 Cent DVDs

I have waxed sad in these pages because the 99 Cent Only stories had seemed to have stopped getting new cartoon DVDs. (or DVDs of old cartoons)

The second wave has hit. It is not as strong of a wave. Lots of the get rich quick people are out of the game. Nor is the quality of production as good as the first batch of DVDs.

I know, I know. The production quality was no great shakes the first time around but it has gone down. The new DVDs (all from EastWest DVD - www.eastwestdvd.com ) are all split into 3 chapters no matter where that falls. So you have to fight to get to the cartoons because it costs to take the time to make each cartoon a chapter.

Content is still cool. The Harryhausen shorts are okay but washed out. You can get a much better set of transfers with the Harryhausen produced collection that came out last year. (okay, it is 29 more dollars but worth it) They also repeat the Mother Goose shorts once without Humpty Dumpty and once with.

So why buy this disk. There is a better menu with better transfers already in the dollar market (PC Treasures Inc) that has most of what it here.

The reason is The Figurehead by John Halas and Joy Batchelor the people that brought feature animation to England with their Animal Farm. This is a strange mix of stop motion and drawn animation and it well worth the price of the disk times 10.

The Tom and Jerry, (not the mouse and cat) also from EastWest with messed up chapter breaks, repeats a number of the cartoons on Television Classics Tom & Jerry Vol 1 that came out last year. Not on that disk are The Tuba Tooter, Redskin Blues, Jolly Fish, Barnyard Bunk, and a Tiny Tot Cartoon - Along Came a Duck.

Only Jolly Fish and Barnyard Bunk come with the TV titles that rename the tall and small guys to Dick and Larry.

The repeated cartoons are Plane Dumb, Spanish Twist, Piano Tooners, and Pencil Mania.  ¶ 11:40 AM