| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Joe Blevins |
Posted - 01/26/2008 : 23:08:58
When I was growing up (late 1970s/early 1980s), I watched lots of cartoons on TV. Of course, I saw many of the contemporary Hanna-Barbera shows, but equally important to me were the classics: not only Warner Bros. and MGM, but also Popeye's work at Fleischer and AAP and even the DePatie-Freleng Enterprises characters (Pink Panther, the Inspector, and The Ant & The Aardvark), though even as a kid I noticed some of the DFE animation was shoddy.
Perhaps most fascinating of all to me were the cartoons of Walter Lantz. There was a daily half-hour show featuring all of the Lantz cartoons, not just the big three (Woody Woodpecker, Andy Panda, and Chilly Willy) but the obscure ones, too (Sugarfoot, Inspector Willoughby). I can't say what exactly sets the Lantz cartoons apart for me, but there's a distinct oddness to them, a slightly surreal dream-like quality not found in other cartoons. Just check out the Andy Panda classic entitled "Apple Andy." Crazy stuff. (Only the 1960s "Gumby" shorts are so unapologetically weird and disorienting.)
Nowhere is that patented Lantz weirdness better seen than in Alley to Bali, an utterly obscure 1950s Woody Woodpecker short which had a seismic impact on me as a kid. For years, the Lantz cartoons were difficult to track down, and my memory of "Alley to Bali" had gotten distorted. I misremembered it as a Popeye cartoon, no doubt due to the sailor costumes worn by Woody and his nemesis Buzz Buzzard (they were toondom's original Woody & Buzz). While the Woody/Buzz dynamic is obviously based on Popeye and Bluto, the rest of the cartoon has a bizarre Fantasia meets R. Crumb vibe.
Revisiting it today, I can see what grabbed me as a kid. There is a sinister, otherwordly quality at work here as well as a surprising sensuality you'd never see in children's cartoons today. Notice that Woody Woodpecker's prime motivation here is not food, greed, or safety (as in other cartoons) but lust. This comes billed as a "Woody Woodpecker" cartoon, but it's certainly no star vehicle. Woody only gets one line of dialogue. (Even Buzz gets two lines.) The real star is the mysterious, sexy Balinese dancing girl with a very shapely figure.
Other things I love about this short:
* The gorgeous "Alley to Bali" title card (00:09)
* The score throughout is great, but I particularly love the slinky motif that comes in at the 00:27 mark.
* The interaction between the Balinese girl and the volcano god, sort of an exotic version of the Giant Floating Head from The Wizard of Oz (00:31)
* The term "long pig," which I've never heard before or since this cartoon. (00:45)
* Woody Woodpecker juggling his own head -- and three copies! (02:26)
* The face on the suddenly-humanized man-eating plant. (03:34)
* The "wahhh-wahhhh" sound made as the plant shrivels up and dies after spitting out Buzz. (03:38)
* The score's brief quotation of the Woody Woodpecker theme, which manages to sound exotic and strange here. A big part of this cartoon's appeal for me is the familiar made unfamiliar. (03:50)
* Random ape. But not the usual cartoon ape. I don't know what species this is supposed to be. (04:15)
* The ape turning brown and shriveling down to nothing just like the man-eating plant, again accompanied by the "wahhh-wahhh" sound. (04:20)
* Woody and Buzz gleefully throwing themselves into a volcano. (04:39)
* Woody Woodpecker burning in the fires of hell. (04:51)
* The sky rapidly turning from red to blue as Woody and Buzz run down the mountain. It's like waking up from a nightmare and being jolted back into reality/normalcy. (05:02)
* Random, surrealist ending with another variation on Buzz Buzzard's kiss of death. (05:18)
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| 3 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| GHcool |
Posted - 01/27/2008 : 06:12:23
I was lucky enough to have been a kid when The Mask came out. I saw the movie and loved it. It made me curious about going back and seeing the Tex Avery stuff and I loved that too. So ever since I was about 11 years old, I've been a classic animation fan. |
| Joe Blevins |
Posted - 01/27/2008 : 04:53:45
Coincidentally, I thought about Tex Avery's "Red" cartoons while watching "Alley to Bali." I also thought of Bugs Bunny's drag scenes. Those are certainly some early examples of curvaceous cartoons.
What's odd is, the Tex Avery screwball cartoons with Wolf and Red are very familiar to me now throughout countless cable airings (and The Mask), but I never saw them as a kid. The MGM cartoons I saw as a kid were 90% Tom & Jerry and maybe 10% Droopy (and that's being generous). Even Screwy Squirrel was unknown to me until maybe 15 years ago. Same thing with the Fleischer cartoons. They had plenty of surrealism (Koko the Clown) and sex appeal (Betty Boop), but I never saw those growing up. The Fleischer cartoons I saw were 100% Popeye. Even the Fleischer Superman cartoons were unknown to me until I was older.
There is plenty of inventive surrealism in Warner Bros. cartoons like "Pigs Is Pigs," "Dough for the Dodo," and "Porky in Wackyland," but those apprently didn't come up much in the syndicated Looney Toons rotation. When I think back to the Looney Toons I actually saw as a young kid, I mainly remember the standard Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Road Runner, and Speedy Gonzales "chase" films. Nothing too odd there. The wilder Warner stuff didn't reach me until much later.
Cartoons like "Alley to Bali" and Apple Andy stand out in my mind because, of the cartoons I did see as a kid, they were the weirdest. (Apart from Fantasia, which I saw in one of its many theatrical rereleases. I'd never seen so much non-plot-driven oddness in one film before. I couldn't believe such a movie was possible.) You can never tell what a kid is going to respond to. The Lantz cartoons must have struck a chord in me. I won't argue that they're the equal of the MGM or Warner cartoons. They're not. But they have stuck in my mind long after most people have forgotten them. |
| GHcool |
Posted - 01/27/2008 : 01:59:13
Good find, Joe. I always liked Warner Bros. and MGM cartoons more than Walter Lantz, but I admired his stuff too.
If you like lust-driven cartoons, I'm sure you've already seen "Red Hot Riding Hood", Tex Avery's classic retelling of the "Little Red Riding Hood" fairy tale which was featured in the Jim Carrey film The Mask and is routinely listed as being among the greatest cartoons of all time. |
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