How's It Hold Up?

She's had a... well a sometimes-good run, but Betty Boop's time in the classic cartoon theatrical shorts era is coming to a close. In this episode we look at the final Boop cartoon that we'll be covering on the podcast, and talk a little about the remaining shorts in the series. And then we answer the question of if this is a decent way for Betty to go, and whether this or the shorts t...

When one thinks back on the era of anime localization that existed in the 90s and eary 2000s, several things come to mind: a desire to remove all Japanese cultural references. A need to never let the soundtrack be silent. A desire for extra jokes. Any and all edges sanded down, no matter how much the script must be rewritten to make it happen. And all of those issues appear in this particular film...

At this point in our viewing of Warner Bros shorts, two classic Looney Tunes stars have fully appeared (Porky & Daffy), one is nearly arrived (Elmer Fudd) and another inches ever forward, but still eludes us. That upcoming star is of course the biggest of them all: Bugs Bunny. In these two shorts we see bits and pieces of the rabbit who will one day charm the world, but the hare in these short...

When movies in one language are brought over to another, whether through subtitles or dubbing, something is always lost, to at least some extent, even when translated with the best of intentions. But sometimes things are translated with less than good intentions, with more of an eye toward making them palatable to another audience than faithfully representing the original work. This sort of transl...

Remakes are a tricky thing, especially nowadays. If the original was already good, what does remaking it offer? But when the original was already an adaptation of another work, there's always the possibility that a remake could be more faithful to that work, or even just interpret it differently. Such is the case with this final Silly Symphony, which adapts a classic fable that the series had...

With a recently-released new adaption of this classic novella stirring controversy, we decided to take a look at the original adaption, the one often used in classrooms. While it has its deviations, it overall sticks much closer to the source material, though it also has a notably small budget that effects the quality of the animation and the size of the vocal cast. Is this version of Orwell's...

The Popeye cartoons tend to fall into something of a pattern: Popeye and Bluto are both interested in Olive Oyl, and they fight about it. But what if they... didn't? This self-aware cartoon comedically interrogates the violence at the heart of your typical Popeye cartoon, with the iconic trio being tasked to avoid brutality for the day. Does this result in a good cartoon, or is this one best s...

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 6sec) The final film in the original Muppets trilogy is one that is frustratingly difficult to find, compared to the two before it. It's not available on the same streaming services as the other two! It's in fact had weird distribution rights for a long time, and that combined with the lack of a digital soundtrack and a more grounded tone than the others has...

When it comes to classic fairytales, they're often used as fodder for cartoon shenanigans, so much so that you can compare multiple versions of the same fairytale from the same studio over the years. But in this case we're focused on two different studios making a cartoon based on the same source material in the same year, but with wildly different budgets and directorial styles. Do either...

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 50sec) One might expect the second Muppet Movie to follow in the tracks of its predecessor, another tale about the Muppets origins, perhaps them forming the Muppet Show or something like that. But instead Henson opted to create a genre film, a heist film combined with a full-blown musical, tap-dancing and water ballet galore. Does this unexpected direction yield enjo...

We start the year off with the final Mickey Mouse cartoon to feature him in his original design - after this one he'll start looking like he does in Fantasia! Unfortunately, though, this short is also part of the trend that would only get worse of making Mickey Mouse cartoons glorified Pluto cartoons. Do either of these aspects affect the quality of the cartoon, and is it still worth watching...

(Spoiler Section Length - 4min 6sec) Way back in the first season of our podcast, we covered one Muppet movie, and the time has finally come to cover more! Now we're looking at the very first of the many Muppet films, made while the classic Muppet Show seasons were still being made. And appropriately, this one focuses on how the gang got together, using a road trip format to do it. And, of cou...

We start 1939 off with a look at Tex Avery, whose output is starting to creep closer to the type of cartoons he's most known for making, but that he won't make until he leaves for another studio. And at the same time, we have a new voice actor joining the folds in one of these cartoons, whose legacy in the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies series would end up being far-reaching. But all that sa...

(Spoiler Section Length - 10min 1sec) Many films have combined live-action and 2D animation before, some of which we've even covered here, such as Bedknobs and Broomsticks. But most of those films have a scene or two where the combination happens, or maybe it happens throughout but with only one character, such as Pete's Dragon. Those that make an effort to combine the mediums all througho...

Our final short of 1938 is a cartoon that looks to the future, in that in many ways it feels more modern than most of the cartoons surrounding it that year, or even for several years after. Clearly the directors at Warner Bros thought so too, since they remade it beat-for-beat around a decade later. But feeling modern doesn't mean it's good, so... is this one good, or just a historical cur...

(Spoiler Section Length - 14min 50sec) What starts as a simple story about a group of schoolchildren learning to live together and communicate ends up being a galaxy-spanning adventure where those same kids go to the dark side of the moon, ride a lizard catbus, and stop a megalomaniacal villain from remaking the universe to suit his desires. But while that last thing is important, it's the vis...

When it comes to star characters for media creators, fame can be a tricky thing. It can often result in the dulling down of a once vibrant character, a sanding of the edges so the character can conform to the role of company mascot. Perhaps no character is more indicative of this than Mickey Mouse, once an adventurous little rascal, now often considered synonymous with a lumbering behemoth of a co...

(Spoiler Section Length - 4min 24sec) We've watched several Russian films on this podcast before, but most of them were fantasy in nature, rather than sci-fi. This is an off-beat sort of sci-fi, but nonetheless is full of aliens, spaceships, laser guns and robots! Debuting a few years after Star Wars, this film still seems more rooted in older depictions of spaceships and more groovy sensibili...

Termite Terrace had a lot of directors come and go over the years, but perhaps its most well known has finally gotten to sit in the director's chair: Chuck Jones. While Jones' early work is often criticized for its Disney-esque sensibilities, do those criticisms apply to this first directorial effort? And regardless, is the short worth watching nowadays? Listen to find out!

Many decades after the original, Disney finally decided to make a sequel to the original Fantasia, and in so doing they found themselves repeating mistakes while also chasing new sensibilities, resulting in a film that is less lauded than its predecessor... but does that mean it's actually less good? Listen to find out!

When you see the title 'Porky in Egypt' and you hear it's a cartoon from the 1930s, your hopes for that short being good might immediately dwindle, as you imagine just how racist it probably is. And certainly this cartoon is not exempt from such issues, but they take up a surprisingly small portion of the runtime. So what is the rest of the cartoon about? Trust me when I say that it&#3...

(Spoiler Section Length - 6min 4sec) Most animated musicals are original works, rather than adaptations of classic stage shows, but this one's an exception! Taking a classic Rogers and Hammerstein musical, this movie tries to bring it to an audience grown used to Disney Renaissance fare, and it makes a few changes in an attempt to appeal to that audience. Are these changes successful, and rega...

Our time with Betty Boop is unfortunately coming to a close, as her theatrical shorts series would end in 1939. In her series later years, Boop's shorts have increasingly featured other characters as the focus instead of herself, and here we have two shorts that, frankly, aren't an exception in that regard. But they do both, at least, bring back some of that jazzy, swingy vibe that existed...

All of Disney's early film output was experimental, but besides perhaps Snow White itself, none were more so than Fantasia. Designed as an experience unto itself, with a road show and everything, Fantasia was a huge passion project for Walt, one he intended to last for years with new versions and all sorts of exciting things... but then, it bombed at the box office, not making an actual profit...

The late 1930s were the golden age of Mickey, Donald and Goofy cartoons, though 1938 was the last year we got several of them a year. Of them, these two have been picked for review, featuring the boys building what equates to an Ikea boat, and the boys living in a trailer, driven around by Goofy. How do these two hold up to the likes of Clock Cleaners and Lonesome Ghosts? Listen to find out!