Popeye the Sailor in “Private Eye Popeye” (1954).

The Popeye color cartoons from the Famous/Paramount studio were always well animated – but the stories were largely ill-conceived and nauseatingly repetitious. Pick a setting and drop Popeye, Olive Oyl, and Bluto into it, and go on auto-pilot. Or, so it seemed.

But, on occasion, they resisted formula and produced something fun. “Private Eye Popeye” is such a short. And one not yet available on DVD.

Sure, he’s NOT A SAILOR (one of my main complaints) but the “Popeye/Olive/Bluto” triangle is absent and Jackson Beck’s “evil butler jewel thief” makes a good one-shot villain.

As a detective, Popeye apes the shtick of another popular animated character of the time – Tex Avery’s DROOPY – but we hardly mind, as this cartoon is a welcome break from formula.

One final, personal note… I’d never seen this cartoon in color before – as we got our first color TV set in 1968, and I’ve somehow managed to miss this cartoon on TV ever since. There’s a nice gag whenever the gem is exposed, that I’d never noticed until seeing this one online.

Enjoy Jack Mercer, Mae Questel, and Jackson Beck in “Private Eye Popeye”… Toot! Toot!

Weird Commuting Stories!

Here are a few short weird commuting stories for your Blog-reading pleasure.
Once, while driving upstate to Albany, NY for a consulting assignment, I was on a completely clear highway… clear except for one potential obstacle up ahead – a RAIN CLOUD! Yes, a lone rain cloud – pouring rain, I might add – was directly up the road in my path, hanging low in the sky (just above the ground) and soaking the road ahead. I could see it from a distance, all by its lonesome. I drove through it, my car was drenched, and I came out the other side to see it in my rear view mirror. I’ve never seen the likes of that before or since. Nor, have I ever passed through a cloud (…not low-lying FOG, but an honest-to-high-pressure CLOUD, doing “cloud-ish things” like rain) and not been in an airplane.

How many of you have ever hit a DUCK IN FLIGHT while driving? On to another consulting assignment in Northern CT, I was traveling the Merritt Parkway on a fine fall afternoon when, up ahead, I saw a duck perched on the side of the road. As I drove nearer, I saw the duck rear up its wings. “AWWW, NOOO!”, I thought, knowing what was about to happen. Sure enough, the duck took off, from my right side – and out over the road… directly in my path. It was gaining altitude, but not enough to clear my windshield. BAM! It hit right in front of me, and left a slight bloody streak across the windshield. The windshield washer and wipers took care of the streak and, at highway speed on the narrow hilly Merritt, I was not about to look back to see what became of the duck. Hopefully, it suffered no more than a Hollywood Flesh Wound and continued on its way. If not, I will eternally attempt to “make it up” to ducks everywhere by trying to write Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comic books to the very best of my ability.

The “E Train”, between Queens and Manhattan, is truly an experience to be savored. If you commute between Eastern Queens and Long Island City or Manhattan, as I did during 2003-2005, it can be very crowded and uncomfortable – and often made worse by things that just shouldn’t happen to civilized human beings. Often, I would unnecessarily lengthen my commute home by taking the “V Local Train” over the faster "E Express", just to avoid the discomfort… but this day I braved the E – and actually managed to squeeze into a seat (!)… when the panic started! From the far side of the car, passengers began screaming and jumping out of their seats. I could only guess that a RAT was loose in the car – as they are such a common sight on the track bed, and sometimes even on the platforms. BUT, NO… it was worse than even a rat (…that you could always shoo out of the car the next time the doors opened). It was a “rushing yellow river of pee” emanating from a sleeping, zombie-like guy, seemingly unconscious at the end of the car. As the train curved and pitched, the feared torrent of urine poured down the car from one end to another (…tilt a not-quite-empty bottle of liquid back and forth to simulate the effect!), causing great horror among us non-zombies as it went!

Once you get past the expense and parking issues, The Long Island Rail Road might actually be the best way to commute… as long as your destination is Manhattan, and maybe downtown Brooklyn. A far-western destination like Long Island City is not at all convenient, but the trip can be reasonably negotiated with the proper amount of diligence.

I USED to enjoy the LIRR far more than I do now for commuting. Time was that, unless you were in a “Three-Seater” next to two persons who know each other, you could travel in relative quiet – could read or sleep to your heart’s content. Now, no matter where you sit, and no matter who sits around you, you are bombarded with incessant cell phone conversations and assaulted by electronic noisemakers of every size, shape and volume level. Reading becomes difficult and sleep – unless completely exhausted – impossible.

In those good old days, I would sleep every morning into Penn Station, and read through the trip home. There was a particular seating configuration that would occur ONCE in every linked pair of the older (‘70s ‘80s vintage) rail cars… the LAST SEAT NEXT TO THE RIGHT SIDE WALL AT ONE END OF THE CAR where there was NO WINDOW, just a smooth wall. (LIRR commuters probably know what I mean!) There was a similar situation for the LEFT SIDE WALL but, as I preferred to lean my head to the right to sleep, I would – whenever possible – make a beeline for that singular seat. I would blissfully sleep my way into Penn Station, with my Monthly Commutation Ticket pinned to my tie by a tie clip for the conductor to see on his rounds.

One early-nineties morn, I woke up from my usual sleep to a pleasant surprise. I had been sleeping, with my head against the back right side wall as usual, and I woke to find an attractive young lady curled up snugly next to me sleeping quite comfortably. Never one to question a good “gift snuggle” – and STILL not entirely certain I wasn’t dreaming – I remained motionless and enjoyed the ride… until she woke up rather embarrassed.

Nothing like closing on a “Happy Ending”!

DVD Review: Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection - Part One – The Set and Packaging.

This review is LONG! So long, in fact, that I’ve divided it into TWO PARTS, for the comfort of my sore-eyed readers, not to mention those with short attention spans and/or small bladders!

In Part One, I discuss the series and the specifics of the packaging.

Then, take a break and return for Part Two BELOW THIS POST – a discussion of the cartoons themselves. Enjoy!

Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection

(Released June 23, 2009 by Warner Home Video)
Another Looong DVD Review by Joe Torcivia

It must have been one heck of a surprise for the theatrical audiences of late 1963 to see the familiar MGM Roaring Lion signal the beginning of the upcoming cartoon – and have the head of TOM fade into its place and go “MEOW! MEOW! FST! FST!”. …I know it was for me when I first saw it on television!

But, with this revamped opening, famed animation director Chuck Jones began putting his stamp on Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera’s cat and mouse team of TOM AND JERRY.

Chuck’s unique vision and design sense would guide Bill and Joe’s creations for little more than three years and 34 cartoons, and it is those cartoons that make up Warner Home Video’s release Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection.

As is our custom in these reviews, we’ll break it into CONS and PROS.

The CONS:

Content Notes: Once again a WHV set has NO CONTENT LISTING anywhere inside the package! One disc is on a “hinged holder” and the other disc rests on the inside back wall of the packaging! But, beyond that, there is no list of titles for the cartoons and, while they follow the order of original theatrical release, this isn’t something that even most hardcore animation fans have committed to memory, much less mere civilians. Ditto on listings for the extra features.

This is at least the THIRD Warner Animation set I’ve purchased this year with no content notes! The others being Max Fleischer’s Superman and Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 1. Doubtless, there are others indicating an unfortunate trend in Warner’s DVD packaging for animation sets.

Talent: It’s not Bill Hanna, Joe Barbera, and Scott Bradley. Let everything that follows in this review lie within the context that these three talented individuals are who put Tom and Jerry on the pop culture map to stay!

The Set Itself: A minor “con”, but the fact that it IS “The Chuck Jones Collection”, coming on the heels of three volumes of the original Hanna-Barbera shorts, means that there will probably be no DVD release of the 13 Gene Deitch T&J shorts of 1960-1962.

I was actually hoping for a “Tom and Jerry in the Sixties” set that would encompass the runs of both Deitch AND Jones… but, clearly, Jones is the more marketable name and he gets the call – and we may never be treated to the “otherworldly wonders” of Mr. Deitch.

The PROS:

Talent: It’s Chuck Jones – and, by this time in the 1960s, there were few, if any, talents to truly rival Jones – and he’s brought a few old friends with him...

Writer Michael Maltese, co-director and designer Maurice Noble, voice actors Mel Blanc and June Foray (…with Blanc doing the “yelling in pain” as Tom. I guess they couldn’t use Bill Hanna’s classic “AAAAAAHHH!” anymore!), and composer Eugene Poddany.

Put them all together and they made 34 entertaining cartoons that looked better than the any of the competing product of the day.

Style: During this period, Tom and Jerry were “Jones-ified”. There’s probably no better way to put it. Jerry became “cuter” than ever before, and Tom took on the “villainous” physical characteristics of Jones’ Daffy Duck and especially Wyle E. Coyote. The animation was lush for the time, and Jones’ trademark character posing abounds.

The Extra Features: “Tom and Jerry and Chuck” is a 20 minute feature on the coming together of this unlikely trio, and is narrated by June Foray. Many parallels are drawn to Jones’ prior Warner Bros. work – in both characters and plots of specific cartoons. It is also shown where Jones put his own spin on T&J plots previously produced by Hanna and Barbera. The feature is punctuated by frequent clips of Chuck Jones, in his later years, speaking on the subject.

In its 25 minutes, “Chuck Jones: Memories of a Childhood” covers what is found in the first three chapters of Mr. Jones’ 1989 book, “Chuck Amuck”, in his own words and pictures. This 2008 documentary featurette was produced for Turner Classic Movies and, while very informative, does not mention Tom and Jerry at any time. Give it points if you’re a Jones fan. Take away points if you’re a Tom and Jerry fan. You decide!

Print Quality: To my eyes, and on my equipment, the prints are nearly flawless for average age 45-year-old cartoons. Far better than the print quality on the aforementioned Max Fleischer’s Superman and Saturday Morning Cartoons 1960s Volume 1.

Menus: For reasons unknown, Warner’s DVD animation set main menus often have unusually LOUD background music or “series themes” that play while the menu is displayed. So loud that I’ll either MUTE while lingering on the menu – or navigate off the menu as quickly as possible.

Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection is an exception to this, as an “appropriately sixties” piece of cartoon theme-style music (the opening credits theme for "Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary" by Dean Elliot) plays at an equally appropriate sound level. THIS SHOULDN’T EVEN NEED TO BE LISTED AS A “PRO”, but the loudness issue is so prevalent on Warner animation set main menus that such a welcome change should be noted.

The Cartoons: A definite “PRO”!

If you haven’t had enough, please scroll down for Part Two: The Cartoons!

DVD Review: Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection - Part Two: The Cartoons.

Here’s Part Two of my DVD review of Tom and Jerry: The Chuck Jones Collection, dealing strictly with the cartoons – which I’d put decidedly under the “PRO” category. Let’s find out why…

The Cartoons: (And, that’s why we’re here, after all!) Notables include:

"Pent-House Mouse" The series opens with high-rise hi-jinks atop both a penthouse rooftop and adjoining skyscraper construction site. A nice “traditional”, yet modern, table-setter for what is to come!

"The Cat Above, The Mouse Below" No one does “Opera Cartoons” better than Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese – and here’s the Tom and Jerry version of their Bugs Bunny laugh-fest “Long-Haired Hare”. Celebrity tenor Tom gives a concert, while Jerry tries to sleep below the stage. Jerry would probably be more sympathetic if he didn’t expect peace and quiet while making his home directly beneath the stage of an opera house – but we still laugh at all the “frenetic Figaro-foolishness”, as Jerry sabotages Tom’s performance again and again!

To digress, Hanna and Barbera’s “Saturday Evening Puss” (seen on the Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection Volume Two) presented a better “Jerry’s sleep is disturbed by Tom’s loud music” scenario (because it’s NOT set in an opera house!) but, for the pure “operatic over-the-top-ishness” of it all, you can’t beat Jones and Maltese!

The tenor’s voice, familiar from some of Jones’ previous WB cartoons, is credited as “Terence Monck”, and when Jerry sings opera (sped-up for effect) at the end, it’s a hoot and a half.

"Snowbody Loves Me" Jerry trudges through the European bitter cold and snow and takes refuge in a cheese shop guarded by Tom. Jerry literally moves into a wheel of cheese, making a home out of it by carving out rooms, hallways, and furniture by eating his way around. Naturally, Tom tries to expel him until they find some common cultural ground to share. At a time when they averaged “six-and-change”, this short clocks in at a whopping 7:52 running time!

It is a lavishly designed and animated cartoon! Certainly one of the best of its time! As Jerry rolls (in a snowball) down into the village below, it looks as if he’s making a sharp descent into “Who-ville”, of the Jones-produced “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”! Maybe this was a preliminary exercise in potential designs for “Grinch”.

“Bad Day at Cat Rock” Jones writing solo, without Maltese, gives us a highly stylized Road Runner cartoon performed by Tom and Jerry. Echoing the classic “catapult series gags” of Jones’ Road Runner days, Tom repeatedly attempts to launch himself skyward (and up to Jerry) by standing on one end of a girder and dropping a boulder on the other end. The physics of this endeavor fail in every bizarre way that Jones can come up with. During the series of gags, Jerry becomes bored and walks off to paint a sign. Finally, as Tom STILL struggles with steel and stone, Jerry reveals that the sign he has painted says “THE END”! …And so it is!

"Of Feline Bondage" Animator Don Towsley co-writes this weird cartoon with Jones. After the usual harassing by Tom, Jerry drinks an invisibility potion provided by his Fairy Godmother (!) Why didn’t he just “invent” it, as he would have in “the old days”? The invisible mouse chases Tom around the house with a pair of scissors, until he finally catches the cat and shears his fur off down to the “undershirt”. Then, Jerry becomes VISABLE again! In retaliation, Tom shears the fur off of Jerry, leaving just enough to make him look like he has a female hair-do, bra, and panties! Tom laughs with glee… and so does Jerry, who gets a look at himself in a mirror! The two spend the remainder of this 6:18 cartoon (from 5:44 to 6:12) LAUGHING AT THEMSELVES AND EACH OTHER, until we fade out! Yes, really!

"Duel Personality” Written by Jones and Maltese, this is one of the best of the series! Jerry pauses their typically spirited chase to challenge Tom to a duel. And, so they meet on the field of honor, dueling by pistol, sword, bow and arrow, huge cannon, and finally the slingshot – and each time inflicting equal but inconclusive damage upon one another, punctuated by lots of stylized “pain-stars” and graphically depicted sound effects – until they finally conclude their duel to be a “no win” situation and resume the chase. The key to this cartoon’s success, in my view, is that BOTH Tom and Jerry get their share of pain and suffering and the cartoon tilts in no one’s favor. Dean Elliot’s “semi-serious” music score also helps to set the atmosphere for the duel.

"Jerry, Jerry, Quite Contrary" Clearly repressed while awake, a sleepwalking Jerry inflicts continued violence upon Tom! The abuse escalates until a wonderful scene where sleepwalking Jerry is advancing on sleeping and unaware Tom with a butcher knife (!) until he sneezes himself awake! Aghast, he awkwardly gathers the knife and slinks back to his mouse hole. Now, he tries to keep himself perpetually awake, to no avail. A solo script by Jones, who at this point, is certainly not above trying new things!

"Filet Meow” Veteran animation and comic book writer Bob Ogle takes over the writing. In both this and his previous short “Puss in Boats”, Ogle opts for a more traditional take on Tom and Jerry – and a departure from the experimentation of the earlier Jones efforts. Here, a chivalrous Jerry protects a cute female goldfish from being eaten by Tom. This is what I’d imagine a classic Tom and Jerry cartoon would look like in 1966. Tom suffers the most painfully violent bit since the Hanna and Barbera days, when Jerry, armed with a long, sharp hat pin, routs Tom with (pardon) a massive prick (not Tom!) – propelling the cat through a door, across an entire room, and out a picture window! Jerry finally rids himself and “Goldie” of Tom for good by introducing a huge, hungry shark (previously seen in Ogle’s “Puss in Boats”) into Tom’s plans. All seems to end well for the mouse, who appears rather fond of the goldfish in perhaps more than a protective sense, until the shark muscles in to become “Goldie’s” NEW guardian, sending Jerry running for the hills.

"Matinee Mouse" Did I say the “traditional” Tom and Jerry were making a comeback? Well, they do LITERALLY in this short, with so much stock footage from the Hanna-Barbera days that Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera are CREDITED as the DIRECTORS – and their cast of 1940s-1950s animators is credited as well! In fact, the name of Chuck Jones is NOWHERE TO BE FOUND on this cartoon. Tom Ray is listed as “supervisor”.

We open with a series of random chase clips from the H-B days (but with new, non-Scott Bradley music and new sound effects), culminating in a snippet of new footage of T&J offering each other a truce. They stroll downtown to a movie theatre, where a bunch of Tom and Jerry cartoons are playing, opening the door for still more H-B stock footage!

While watching the old H-B film clips, each laughs hysterically when he gets the upper hand over the other – with each becoming increasingly annoyed at the other’s glee. Finally, the “real” Tom and Jerry end their truce and begin fighting in the theatre, as the “animated” Tom, Jerry, and Spike the Bulldog on the big screen pause their own antics to laugh at the angry and spirited brawling of the “real ones”.

Stock footage “clip” cartoons have long been a standard of the theatrical milieu – but there is entirely too much of it here. A more effective use would have been to have the “movie footage” STRICTLY consist of old Hanna-Barbera footage – and keep the “real” T&J animated in the current style. As it was, the transition from H-B stock to “new” was needlessly jarring, and undermined the cleverness of the cartoon as a whole. Oh, and DROOPY makes his final big screen appearance on a movie poster in the theater!

"Cat And Dupli-Cat" Written by Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese. Co-directed by Jones and Maurice Noble. Music by Eugene Poddany. After a two average and unspectacular cartoons (one written by Bob Ogle, the other by John Dunn) both directed by Abe Levitow , this short returns to the highly stylized fun seen in the earlier entries of the series. Plot: Tom vs. a scruffy orange cat for Jerry. We’ve seen it before in many WB and MGM cartoons, but how many times does it begin with T&J paddling along the (Italian?) waterfront, each singing Santa Lucia? Jones, Maltese, Noble, and Poddany deliver a gem, just as the series needed it most!

"O-Solar-Meow" Written by Dunn and directed by Levitow. Produced by Jones and designs by Noble. Another of those “average and unspectacular cartoons” the series had begun churning out. Noteworthy only because it would be the second science fiction oriented outing for Tom and Jerry. (Gene Deitch did one first in his own... um, "unique" style.) On a space station resembling a giant roulette wheel, Tom vs. Jerry with gadgets galore: Robots, lasers, jet packs and the like. But, it’s all high-tech ho-hum! Given Jones and Noble’s historic successes with sci-fi cartoons at Warners (“Duck Dodgers”, “Hare Way to the Stars”), I expected much more and didn’t get it. What can you say when the TITLE is the most clever aspect of a cartoon?

"Guided Mouse-ille" So, how do you follow something like "O-Solar-Meow"? By doing the exact same thing, of course! Yes, the same crew gives us MORE of T&J fighting each other with futuristic gadgets, including the SAME CAT AND MOUSE ROBOTS from the previous cartoon. At least here, the gags are a notch funnier overall with a much better ending. No doubt about it, Tom and Jerry have entered The Space Age… again!

"The Mouse From H.U.N.G.E.R." leads off a pair of very good cartoons by Ogle and Levitow. This is a clever, though now dated, tribute to mid-sixties TV phenomenon THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. with Jerry as a “secret agent”, trying to liberate a massive storehouse of cheese from “Tom Thrush” (THRUSH – no periods – was the evil counterpart to U.N.C.L.E.). Oddly, in his standard issue agent’s hat and trench coat, Jerry looks almost exactly like Hanna and Barbera’s BLABBER of the TV detective duo of Snooper and Blabber!

The parody is so dead on, with Jerry’s convoluted entrance trail to his headquarters echoing Napoleon Solo’s entrance to U.N.C.L.E. HQ through a certain “changing booth” in Del Floria’s Tailor Shop – and the short’s title card rendered as a perfect send-up of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. logo, that this cartoon became an “Extra Feature” of THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. Complete Series DVD Box Set of 2008.

"Surf-Bored Cat" Ogle and Levitow deliver another goodie! Tom becomes obsessed with surfing, only to have his plans complicated by Ogle’s SHARK from “Puss in Boats” and "Filet Meow” and a little red octopus – who has attached itself to Tom’s head! The physical comedy here is superior to most entries of the series – especially at this late date – such as when Tom tries to launch himself and his surfboard from the deck of a ship, and fails in FOUR RAPID FIRE SUCCESSIVE TRIES to hit the water! Tom eventually gets to surf… just not in the way he intended. His contented resignation turning to enthusiasm in the final shot sells the ending effectively! This is the best cartoon of the later grouping, by far!

…AND, FROM HERE, THERE’S NOT MUCH LEFT TO SEE, FOLKS!

"Shutter Bugged Cat" trots out the same blatant use of old Hanna-Barbera footage as "Matinee Mouse", but far less cleverly and coherently – as Tom studies old movie footage of the pair in action to help him construct a trap… that doesn’t work. Just like this cartoon! As before, no credit for Jones… just as well!

"Advance And Be Mechanized" Would you believe they resort to the old “Battle-with-Robot-Cat-and-Robot-Mouse” thing AGAIN?! Only, this time, on a planet of CHEESE! Chuck Jones will always be remembered for the “Duck Season / Rabbit Season Trilogy”…but did he have to follow it up with a “Robot Cat / Robot Mouse Trilogy”?!

"Purr-Chance To Dream" ends the series by reviving the teeny-tiny powerhouse of a bulldog seen in an earlier cartoon. Cute and entertaining but nothing special.

In the final analysis TOM AND JERRY, under the stewardship of Charles M. (“Chuck”) Jones, is a mixed bag that was great and unusually innovative at its beginning – but, unfortunately, began to peter-out as Jones stepped further and further away from it.

The best entries were where Jones, Michael Maltese, Maurice Noble and Eugene Poddany came together as a fine creative force, experimenting all the way – and the lesser entries occurred when they did not. Though Bob Ogle contributed some worthy exceptions to this rule throughout the run.

As a DVD collection, the cartoons in this set are well worth multiple viewings and will provide many hours of enjoyment. (I watched "Surf-Bored Cat" four times in one day!) Even the lesser efforts were among the best (…if not ACTUALLY the best) theatrical animated shorts of their time.

Keeping it in THAT perspective, I recommend this set to anyone with an interest in Chuck Jones, Tom and Jerry, and the animated shorts of the sixties. If you enjoy some good old (stylized) fun in your cartoons, this is for you!

…Even the Cat and Mouse Robots can grow on you, eventually!

Popeye the Sailor in “Fightin’ Pals” (1940)

As the 1930s drew to a close, a noticeable change came over Popeye’s perennial foe Bluto.

Apparently, Gus Wickie, the original voice of Bluto died at about the time producer Max Fleischer moved his studio from New York to Miami, and the role of Bluto was downplayed until a replacement voice could be found.

Enter Pinto Colvig, best known as the voice of Goofy, to step into the role. According to the Walt Disney Treasures Goofy DVD collection, Colvig had left Disney and had moved over to Fleischer. I’d never realized that he’d taken over Bluto, but knew that there was a brief period where I really enjoyed the vocal performance of the bearded heavy.

Now, this is strictly my own opinion, and for others it could vary, but I think Colvig may have made the best Bluto of them all! Colvig’s Bluto is more of a comedic foil, lacking the cruel streak that Gus Wickie had brought to the character – and that Jackson Beck would take to new heights in the later cartoons.

In short, he is fun to watch, and he is fun to listen to! You will hear the difference immediately. And, hear it you will in…

“Fightin’ Pals”: The ultimate in playing with the Popeye and Bluto formula! Bluto is off on an expedition to Africa. Popeye sees him off. They fight – almost playfully (!) on the dock, and Bluto departs. As time passes, Popeye grows to MISS Bluto and the great brawls they’ve had together. Then a radio bulletin declares that the big guy has been reported LOST in Darkest Africa! Popeye is off to save his “pal”!

Oh, and to the great credit of Max and Dave Fleischer, Popeye encounters ONLY wild animals on his rescue mission – and no stereotypical African natives! This certainly bucked the trend in animation of the time.

“Fightin’ Pals” just may be my favorite POPEYE cartoon of all time! It’s certainly in consideration for “Top Three”, along with “A Dream Walking” (1934) and “The Mighty Navy” (1941).

This is the way I’D like to picture Popeye and Bluto forevermore. Not eternally trapped in the repetitive “love triangle” with Olive Oyl that would later play itself to death in every possible venue except those that would allow Popeye to be a… um, you know… sailor.

So, let’s enjoy Jack Mercer as Popeye and Pinto Colvig as Bluto in Max Fleischer and writer Joseph E. Stultz’s “Fightin’ Pals”! Enjoy… Toot! Toot!

R.I.P. Ed McMahon.

Ed McMahon, Johnny Carson’s announcer and sidekick of 30 years on The Tonight Show passed away on June 23, 2009 at age 86.

It’s hard to imagine someone better suited for the role he performed than Ed McMahon.

By the sheer will and strength of his often-forced laughter, McMahon could get us to laugh out loud at Johnny’s jokes, regardless of how funny they were – or how funny they weren’t.

I’m certain everyone whom he entertained has a favorite Ed McMahon story… this is mine:

One night on TV, about 1970, Johnny Carson made a declaration of some sort (…long since forgotten), and Ed simply let it pass with minimal (or no) reaction.

Johnny questioned that, wondering why Ed didn’t react to whatever it was. Ed apologized and suggested that they try it again, and so Johnny made his declaration once more.

After a quick beat, Ed responded (quite loudly and enthusiastically, I might add) “WELL, I’LL BE DAMNED!”

Carson was momentarily dumbstruck, and I was rolling on the floor laughing at this truly unexpected retort! Made all the more so because, in 1970, it was rare to speak in such a manner on television – even in late night!

And, strictly to me, Ed McMahon will also be remembered for a very funny guest appearance in the comic book HOWARD THE DUCK # 33 (1986) where he laughed at everything Howard said, as well.

…Although I wish I could have remembered him for showing up at my home with one of those Big Checks, he was given to carrying around on Super Bowl Sunday!

DVD Review: Disney’s DuckTales: Volume 3

This review was prepared in Fall 2007, but it's new to this Blog! It also serves as a reminder that we've been waiting 1.5 years or more for the final volume!


Disney’s DuckTales: Volume 3
(Released November 13, 2007 by Walt Disney Home Video)

This volume of DUCKTALES, the 1987 animated series based on the characters appearing in writer/artist Carl Barks’ series of UNCLE SCROOGE comic books, covers the “tale” end of the initial season and the two prime time specials (both later carved into five-part episodes) “Time is Money” and “Super Ducktales”. These last two introduce the soon-to-be-regular characters of “cave-kid” Bubba Duck and robotically armored super hero Gizmoduck, respectively. This would leave one, relatively short volume of the series left to go.

The series origin, “Treasure of the Golden Suns”, (Volume 2) and a few other early episodes like “Sphinx for the Memories”, “Where No Duck has Gone Before” and “Home Sweet Homer” (all Volume 1) excepted, I think that the best batch of shows were at this stage. After that, there was a slight decline, as the series moved further away from its comic-book foundation. Still, a number of episodes to come are more than worthwhile.

For me, standouts include the following:

“All Ducks on Deck”. (Disc 2) How could this NOT be a favorite for me, as it featured the too-seldom seen Donald Duck and a surprise appearance by Mickey Mouse’s greatest comics foe; The Phantom Blot! (Even though they never meet cloak to beak!) I will never forget the utter jaw-dropping experience of coming home from work in late 1987, turning on the VCR and seeing an animated version of The Phantom Blot!

Even if the Blot’s design owed more to 1970s comic books (…complete with opening mouth and evil smile – This is a guy UNDER A CLOAK, remember?) than the more classic 1930s Floyd Gottfredson comic strip or 1960s Paul Murry comic book versions – it was A-OK with me! By this time in the run, I’d thought I’d seen ALL of DT’s tricks (…and what wonderful tricks they were!), but THIS? And Donald’s opening “tall sea-tale” sequence is just as unforgettable as the Blowhard Blot – especially for a show that almost (unjustly) ignored Donald completely!

If only Disney would release HOUSE OF MOUSE, so I could complete the Animated Blot Trilogy with the more Gottfredson-inspired (…but no less hammy) Blot seen on that series. And, Super Goof, Zeke (Big Bad) Wolf, and Pete. Disney, I want HOM too!

In “Ducky Horror Picture Show” (Disc 2), the Ducks take a backseat to the antics of a bunch of funny movie-style monsters, who have chosen Duckburg for their annual convention. There were so many nice little touches like the Greyhound Skeleton on the side of the Monsters’ bus. My favorite is when the Creature from the Blue Lagoon receives his invitation to the Monsters Convention – stares at it for a beat, as the standard DUCKTALES dramatic music cue plays (…and we wonder what he’s going to do) – and unexpectedly puts on a party hat and blows a horn full of bubbles! And, appealing to this Long Islander, a reference to “Great Neck, NY”, to boot – or would that be “to BITE”! Sure, the monsters were clichéd. So what? It’s not as if they were Filmation’s The Groovy Ghoulies!

“The Uncrashable Hindentanic” (Disc 1) is simply one of the flat-out FUNNIEST Duck stories ever done! More jokes per square inch, than any other! There is so much wonderful verbal humor here that it is the kind of script that one day I could only hope to remotely approach, in my capacity as a freelance scripter for the Disney Duck comic books! It was all the more amazing to me then because, less than three years prior (1984), the UNCLE SCROOGE comic books were generally devoid of humor during the final years under Whitman Publishing. A new publisher for the comics, Gladstone, had just started up in 1986 and had shown considerable (nay, phenomenal) improvement, but there was nothing like this!

Our story begins with a wager between Scrooge Mc Duck and his rival Flintheart Glomgold, and transforms into a star-studded send-up of the type of disaster films that were the specialty of producer Irwin Allen in the 1970s. Indeed, producer Allen was HIMSELF parodied as a character in this wonderful episode. A winner all the way!

“Status Seekers” (Disc 1) As a comic book devotee, it’s a thrill to see the name of Carl Barks (creator of Scrooge Mc Duck, Gyro Gearloose, Flintheart Golmgold, The Beagle Boys, etc.) in the credits, as the author of the original story upon which this episode is based. Yes, I freeze-framed to savor it. This was a case where the “variant material” did not drag Barks’ original story down (…as it did for previous DUCKTALES episodes “Back to the Klondike” and “Down and Out in Duckburg”), but actually enhanced it.

As with past volumes of DUCKTALES, there are no extras or commentaries. What a pity, considering the creative talent involved! Yes, there was a feature on Carl Barks as part of “Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald Volume 2 (1942-1946)”, but Barks, with his decades of comic book wonder, is the de-facto architect of DUCKTALES, and deserves mention in this context.

(2009 Update) Carl Barks and the characters he created for comic books were also prominently featured in “Donald Goes to Press” – an extra feature included on 2008’s “Walt Disney Treasures: The Chronological Donald Volume 4 (1951-1961)”, with commentary by Gemstone Archival Editor David Gerstein, Disney Comics Managing Editor Bob Foster, and others including yours truly! But, some such material STILL should have been associated with DUCKTALES!

Actor Alan Young certainly merits a feature for so superbly bringing Scrooge to Scottish-accented life! Other fine performers who were DT regulars, such as Russi Taylor, Terrence Mc Govern, Chuck Mc Cann, and June Foray, are worthy of features as well!

If “money was an object”, a sentiment Scrooge Mc Duck would ironically endorse, perhaps Disney could consider stringing together the vast number of existing DUCKTALES commercials and promos that were created during the life of the series (…some of which contained original animation, and most of which employed original vocals by the regular cast) to “manufacture” a feature. These would be fun to see.

That said, Disney’s DuckTales: Volume 3, is a set so chock-full of good times that it gets my highest recommendation on the strength of the material found therein.