Category: Cartooning

The White Man’s Jazz

TCM has its restored print of King of Jazz back in rotation. Paul Whiteman was as much the King of Jazz as Murray “the K” Kaufman was the Fifth Beatle. Both titles were self-proclaimed and completely untrue.

Nonetheless, Whiteman’s significance can’t be overlooked, and King of Jazz, from 1930, includes his two most significant contributions. He commissioned George Gershwin to write “Rhapsody in Blue,” and he hired Bing Crosby.

The movie is a fascinating time capsule from the early era of sound on film. It opens with a Walter Lantz cartoon with a brief appearance by Oswald the Lucky Rabbit, the character that was stolen from Walt Disney, forcing him to create Mickey Mouse.

https://youtu.be/HDReQ6T-54k

Wacky Over Khaki

Another 1943 cartoon by Bob Clampett that pokes fun at a Disney feature is the controversial “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs.” What makes it controversial is the fun is at the expense of Black people. This video commentary was posted yesterday.

https://youtu.be/E5hnDTNB4Nw

In 1980, four years before Clampett’s death, Leonard Maltin wrote in defense of the cartoon that, “Many independent film makers have labored for years to create a short film as personal and unique as COAL BLACK, which was just one of a dozen shorts Clampett had to put on the assembly line in 1943.”

Ridiculous Rondo

This 1943 send-up of Fantasia by Frank Tashlin and Bob Clampett is a favorite of animation fans. The name is a wordplay on Disney’s Silly Symphony series.

“A Corny Concerto” was actually the second nod made to the Disney classic by the boys at Termite Terrace. “Pigs in a Polka” was released earlier that same year. Directed by Friz Freleng, it makes fun of Disney’s “Three Little Pigs” from ten years before.