Jeff Knapp, reference and
instruction librarian,
Penn State Altoona
Just Browsing: Classic Animation
Jeff Knapp, Eiche Library, Penn State Altoona
I admit it. I am a child of television. As un-intellectual as that sounds, I can’t deny that my view of the world was largely shaped by things I saw on TV as a child. I’ve always been a very visual learner, and my mind tends to be a steel trap for visual memories. That’s right—I can’t remember what I was doing before I answered the phone, but if you asked me what color the label was on the first record I ever bought, I can tell you unequivocally that it was yellow. And yes, I’m working on this in therapy . . .
You’re probably saying, “But Jeff, you’re a librarian—aren’t books the most important thing to you?” I do love books. But librarianship isn’t so much about books as it is about accessing information. I love the printed word; but I also love knowing that we are preserving some of our film and video heritage.
When I was a kid, I loved watching cartoons. Bugs Bunny and the other Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes characters seemed to be the easiest to find on TV, with classics by Max Fleischer not as common. Any time I watched a cartoon I had never seen before, I always drank up the details: what it was about, how the characters were drawn, how good the animation was; and I always sensed differences in how cartoons represented the world, even if I wasn’t able to place my finger on it at the time (yes, I was a strange child).
As I got older (and still watched the same cartoons from time to time), I began to notice and understand the differences better. Fleischer’s cartoons (Popeye, Betty Boop, and others) had a grittier, more urban worldview than others. One of the main things I didn’t notice as a child was the amount of World War II references made in many cartoons, particularly Bugs Bunny. I had no idea at the time that many of the cartoons I enjoyed were produced to run in movie theatres to broad audiences, not just children.
Thanks again to the wonderful folks at the Internet Archive, here are links to some of my favorites:
Betty Boop: Minnie the Moocher (1932): At a time when jazz was still considered somewhat subversive in this country and African Americans were practically invisible in films, Max Fleischer introduced Cab Calloway, bandleader extraordinaire, to many audiences by featuring him here with Bettie Boop. A fantastic look into early Depression-era American culture.
Superman: Eleventh Hour (1942): One of the last products of the Max Fleischer studio was a series of animated shorts of Superman in the early 1940s. The animation is amazingly fluid. It shows Clark Kent and Lois Lane imprisoned (inexplicably) in Japan during World War II. At 11:00 p.m. each evening, Clark changes into Superman and wreaks havoc on Japanese warship production at a navy yard. This particular episode is an amazing cultural artifact in that it depicts the Japanese as sub-human barbarians (which was common in many American propaganda films of the era). What is also unique in this episode is the sight of Superman as a combatant for America. Even though he was known for fighting for “Truth, Justice, and the American Way,” Superman, and other superheroes, were usually depicted in later years more as a hero for all humankind, rather than any single country.
Merrie Melodies: Falling Hare (1943): Also from the war years, this Bugs Bunny episode was always a favorite of mine. Not only is it chock full of war references, but this one is unique in that it depicts Bugs Bunny as the victim of the gremlin rather than his usual role of antagonist.
If you’d like to browse through the whole “Film Chest Vintage Cartoons” collection on the Internet Archive, you can do that here.
Happy Browsing!
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