Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted June 23, 2011 12:34 PM
BY the mid 1950’s the theatrical animated cartoon had reached it’s zenith. It had it’s beginnings through the silent era, started to mature in the 1930’s and by the early 40’s had entered it’s “mature” phase, with a fine graphic style. This was largely true of all US animation studio’s.
However, the theatrical animated cartoon, by the 1950’s had also reached it’s “zenith”, as the corporate heads were beginning to realize that they could shell out less money to make these “time fillers” (as far as the head offices were concerned), and the budget constraints were starting to show on screen.
There would be one last hurrah for the theatrical animated film … scope!
Hollywood adopted this already existing technology (having existed in one form or another since the mid to late 1920’s) in order to compete with that annoying small box in most American homes (i.e. … TV), and that wide image on the screen did look quite fetching.
A number of the animation studios also adopted this technology. The first two were MGM and Disney (Warner’s never thought of scope as necessary and never embraced it).
The team of Hanna and Barbera at MGM, responsible for the Tom & Jerry’s, seized on the scope format. Now they could perhaps take their cartoons to new levels and they were fortunate at MGM, for only at MGM and Disney were the artists allowed to spend the money and time into scope to make these films look absolutely fabulous.
There were some technical problems to overcome …
This widescreen would call for a thicker ink line on the character than before and, to make things simpler, a more streamlined approach. One can easily see this being the case when comparing the scope T & J’s with the flat formatted earlier cartoons. There was also the need for extra long backgrounds, which meant even more inking and painting.
During this period, every studio (even Disney) were adopting modern graphics to their cartoons, and this was showed off mostly in the backgrounds of these films.
Hanna and Barbera compensated for this by re-using much animation from earlier produced T & J, but it became obvious that these were remakes from the git go. The characters had the look of the 1940’s, while the backgrounds were highly modern.
Hanna & Barbera did direct many brand new T & J’s however, and while the series was certainly starting to peter out by the mid 50’s , there were still some great cartoons to be in scope. One of these is “Bar B Que Brawl”.
The story is quite simple …
Spike and Son want a backyard father and Son bar B Que.
Tom wants Jerry
Jerry hides in everything that’s set aside for the Bar B Que.
Tom attempts to catch Jerry
Spike attempts to make “cat burgers” out of Tom!
What makes this cartoon stand out from many during this time (as many gags were re-sued from earlier films) is that the timing to the gags is absolutely “purr-fect”! One in particular stands out …
Jerry is hiding in Spikes fixings for a sandwich. Tom swoops down by rope and takes the sandwich part by part, hoping to find Jerry. Tom finally takes the loaf of bread! That’s it! Spike can take no more!
As Tom is swooping back down, with the Sub Sandwich loaf being held like a javelin, Spike puts a pot on his head, takes a Bar b Cue utensil as a Javelin, and runs out to meet Tom on the “field of battle”.
When they collide, not only are Spike and Tom rattled in all directions, but the whole shot, from top to bottom, garden furniture, fence, everything takes a big jump, with a great bomb explosion on the soundtrack! It’s a magnificently timed gag and pays off well.
… yet beyond that gag, the whole cartoon is a laugh fest and few other scope era Tom & Jerry films would ever equal this same level of humor. (There are a few, “Muscle Beach Tom” being one of them).
Sadly, the last of the “classic era” T & J would be released in 1958, and the duo would never be the same again. Hanna & Barbera would leave MGM and start their own company. Spike and Son would become “Augie Doggie and Son” and H & B would make such TV classics as Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, the Flinstones, as well as Scooby Doo …
But by the early 60’s, the theatrical cartoon as so many had known them, were truly history.
Now, onto the print …
Here is an interesting opportunity to compare two printings of the same title, Derann and the original Cineavision print.
Derann : The colors are gorgeous and outstanding, as is the sharpness. The print is ever so slightly dark, but a great print, none the less. The sound is a great crashing mono. It is also printed on low fade stock, so no fear of the color being tarnished.
The only drawback is that when they printed this cartoon, they filled the whole super 8 frame, which doesn’t actually preserve the full scope image. This is seen in the cut off at the bottom of the frame of the title “cinemascope”.
Cineavision : When Cineavision printed their scope titles, they gave the image the “windowboxing”, which preserved the full anamorphic scope image. This meant having black bars on the right and the left of the image, to give it that perfect square. The sound is that booming mono and it is a good soundtrack, however, the Derann print boasts a better mono soundtrack for this cartoon.
These Cineavision titles also tended to have a better than average focus. Not quite the focus of the Derann print, but more than acceptable. The drawback to the Cineavision print is that it was printed on Eastman color stock, non-low fade stock, and while the prints in my collection have maintained their full colors, you can run into already faded copies of this title.
I would prefer the Cineavision copies, but if you don’t mind a little cropping of the scope image on the Derann, then pick up the Derann copy, by all means.
Happy viewing and, as always, long Live Super 8!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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