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Topic: Help needed identifying cartoon
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David M. Ballew
Expert Film Handler
Posts: 113
From: Burbank, CA USA
Registered: Nov 2009
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posted May 28, 2012 07:39 AM
Hi, everyone (and Phil in particular),
This query was driving me absolutely crazy, so I had to pitch in and do some research.
I am reasonably sure we are looking at "String Bean Jack" (1938) from Terrytoons.
The first clue for me, Phil, was that your screenshots depict a two-headed giant. Terrytoons made a 1939 short called, well, "The Two Headed Giant." The model for that character looks very, very similar to the giant in your short, as evidenced in the pictures on this page (scroll down):
http://cartoonsof1939.blogspot.com/2010/08/107-two-headed-giant.html
Terrytoons was notorious for its stingy approach to cartoon production, and I can only surmise that if they ever once created a good two-headed giant model sheet, they sure as heck would have reused it. And reused it. And reused it.
The confirmation that I was on the right track came when I learned on several animation discussion boards that "String Bean Jack" offers caricatures of both W.C. Fields and Harpo Marx. (Apparently Paul Terry was such a penny-pincher, he refused to hire a harp for the sound effect of the harp. Instead, audiences heard a piano!)
The long and short of it is, I am about 95% sure you've got a copy of "String Bean Jack."
Whew! Only took me about 45 minutes of fervent Googling, and I am now bald on my left side from tearing my hair out. It's a good look for me.
[Edited to correct spelling of Terrytoons. Goes to show how tired I was! :-) ]
[ May 29, 2012, 06:49 PM: Message edited by: David M. Ballew ]
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Osi Osgood
Film God
Posts: 10204
From: Mountian Home, ID.
Registered: Jul 2005
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posted May 28, 2012 12:39 PM
I'm fairly sure that David's right. Phllip Schieb, (I probably had tht spelled wrong) was the studio composer for an incrediblely long amount of time, and the early Terrytoons were released rather early on, on super 8 and standard 8mm.
The style does look a little like Fleischer, however, but in the early thirties, nearly everybody's output look similar. It was only in the late 30's that each studio really started to develop they're own specific look. Now, differences in humor and over-all style, THAT started up rather early on. You could easily tell a Feischer from a Disney! Fleischer, very inner city and brash, Disney, much more "pastoral" in style.
... though, the early Mickey certainly wasn't against abusing assorted innocent farm animals on a regular basis ... and often did!
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"All these moments will be lost in time, just like ... tears, in the rain. "
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