Cartoonerrific (archived from June 2007)

I (perhaps prematurely) consider myself a bit of a connoisseur of things that are the courtesy of childhood. -Toys, pop music, childrens' books and cartoons are among my delights although I am sure pop music and cartoons are also widely enjoyed by "groan ups." -Those that will admit to it anyway.

And I am pleased today because I was able to procure copies of the old Merrie Melodies classics, The Dover Boys of Pimento University or, The Rivals of Roquefort Hall (that's the full working title) from 1942 and the 1961 Academy Award nominated Nelly's Folly.

A great component of my love for these cartoons are their uses of music. Dover Boys contains two songs (of the same melody, so that could arguably be just ONE song), the PU Alma Mater Song and the Dover Boys' rescue song. And Nelly's Folly? Why it's about a singing giraffe so, I think it runs courses around the Boys musically.

So basically the Dover Boys contains just a slight storyline about --you guessed it, the three brothers from Pimento University, Tom (the fun loving one), Dick (a lad of eighteen winters and a summer in Florida) and, Larry (the youngest of the three jerks, brothers). 

They visit their fiancée, Dora Standpipe (note how it says "their" fiancée.) for a little frolic which involves a ridiculous game of hide- and- seek and leaves the "it," Dora easily susceptible to the boys' rival Dan Backslide's kidnapping. A rescue mission ensues which is, given the tragedy of this being a cartoon, somewhat botched by the brothers. Nevertheless, we can assume that Dora lives happily ever after and the boys live out their morally upright lives affably without Dora.

The film plays out like one of those old time theatrical presentations. The characters are ridiculously stagey as one would see from the part when the boys pass by the snooker salon. And even Dan Backslide, suffering from what seems to be a green greasepaint-y complexion, is given to the staple villain's stage whisper.  I guess that's why i like the cartoon so much. It's got the camp and charm of a stage play, and it's not so bewilderingly over-the-top as most other cartoons.














The Dover Boys of Pimento U.

 

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Now Nelly's Folly is an absolute charmer but aside from that, it also contains social commentary on celebrity (thankfully not an overwhelmingly preachy commentary because I would otherwise try to escape as soon as it begins). All in all, it's a smart and enjoyable film, if I do say so myself.

It starts off in the jungle where Nelly is heard singing sweetly to an audience of animal friends. There she is discovered by an adventurer who may be channeling Tony Danza's voice a few years early and brought to the city where Nelly is a success. She starts off with a liver tonic jingle (to the tune of Auld Lang Syne) and branches out to Broadway plays and multiple records.

But despite the success of her musical career, Nelly feels empty and finds solace in someone who can understand her, a male giraffe from the zoo. But also, he's a MARRIED male giraffe from the zoo. At first Nelly is aghast that a married man would consider flirting with her. --But when you're lonely...

And there Nelly's career starts its downward spiral as the public find fault with her consorting with a married man. She is initially unconcerned by this, even as the Tony Danza-adventurer/agent pleads with her to find someone else, until on the opening night of one of her shows, she is abandoned by the public that was once so smitten by her. Without her celebrity, Nelly is also left by the lecherous man she risked her career for.

Nelly leaves Hollywood brokenhearted and goes back into the jungle singing the saddest songs you can possibly imagine with the same sweet voice. And before you think all is lost, a beautiful deep voice joins her as a handsome (and presumably single) giraffe enters the scene. And Nelly is happy again.

Nelly's Folly is a beautiful cartoon, a mix of aural and visual artistry. Nelly's singing is amazing, with vocals done by Gloria Wood. --I can't say I can remember anyone that her voice reminds me of but the style harkens a smoother, more relaxed Judy Garland or the Andrew Sisters (possibly, but you can help me out here) and concert hall music. The fact that such a unique voice was used for a liver tonic advert is pleasantly absurd.

The visuals are jazzy, they call into mind beat poetry but that's just me. Highly stylized and shape-heavy, they also rely on cool tones unusual for a movie that contains jungle creatures (this scheme, in fact, carries over from the jungle jungle to the other jungle, the city), perhaps as a complement to Nelly's yellow and brown colouring.

As for the commentary, well, it shows us how the earlier 20th century audience was with regards to their adulation for their celebrities. Apparently, if their idols succumb to vices, or to what society deems taboo, they lose faith in them. 

Does this still hold true for our generation? How do we explain the "fame" someone like Paris Hilton who’s been arrested already for irresponsible drinking and driving? Or similarly, Gretchen Baretto’s fame, despite the questionable  photograph with a man not her husband? On the one hand it is better that we do not pass judgment so quickly (let the one without sin cast the first stone yadda yadda). But what about those that cheer them on? Sometimes I wonder if the drugged up, destructive and silly behavior celebrities project is a tonic that revives careers. It seems like it sometimes.  Oh. Oh well.

Regardless of the commentary, you can still enjoy Nelly's Folly as a moving animal musical movie.





Nelly's Folly

 

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By the way,  both movies were directed by the legendary Chuck Jones who, as I belatedly realized, was the cartoonist behind most of my favorite Looney Tunes shorts like Rabbit of Seville, One Froggy Evening, Broom-Stick Bunny (I have a weakness for any cartoon that involves Witch Hazel, Gossamer, and breaking the fourth-wall), Transylvania 6-500, and Hair-Raising Hare.


Mr. Chuck Jones, wherever you are, you are a genius and you certainly made my childhood bearable.




And oh, I'm looking for Disney's Casey At Bat and Peter and the Wolf too, if anyone wishes to help.

Travels 2.

Previously I mentioned some movies, books and whatnots that have somehow influenced my future (far, FAR future) travel plans to Morocco and Italy.


Today, if I still have your attention, is all about why Baguio & Manila, Mexico and New York are my next stops.


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Baguio & Manila
I'm actually cheating here, because while Baguio is always great place for people like myself who melt upon exposure to heat, I really want to go to Baguio and Manila circa 1980s. -You know before the major earthquake that struck the Philippines. 


If you've seen Mike de Leon's Kung Mangarap Ka't Magising, Elwood Perez' Diborsyada, then you might have a pretty good idea of what the old Baguio was like, with the Hyatt Terraces Hotel still standing, the mini-golf course still pretty clean, and the crowds not as suffocating as they are now. I believe I mentioned this in an earlier entry.

I've also spoken about the old Manila, with its uncluttered skylines with accompanying blue skies. And the fun park inside the Greenhills, which the characters in the 1984 movie Tender Age visit. Read more about it here : Pop! Someone's been watching Pinoy Klassiks Rewind again! 

I also give the movie Pare Ko points for capturing the quintessence of the early to mid-1990s Manila for middle class youths. While I was younger than the characters of the film when it came out, I could somehow relate because I had an older brother and cousins who were the same age as Claudine Barretto and Jao Mapa at the time. I'd love to go back to Manila of the 1990s when plaid and Doc Martens were fashionable.


Mexico

Now, If I only had the Speedy Gonzales cartoons to go on, Mexico wouldn't be on my list at all. Mexico, if the cartoons are to believed, is HOT and DUSTY and pretty much just that. Plus, Mexican mice could run faster than the Mach 5. No thanks. I'd rather have my bubonic plague served late and cold.



But, when I discovered Mexican cuisine via an episode of Two Hot Tamales on the iChannel which had the girls cooking a quail with roses, and through the 2001 film Tortilla Soup (incidentally, the Two Hot Tamales, Mary Sue Milliken and Susan Feniger did the food styling for this film), and Laura Esquivel's fantastic novel Like Water for Chocolate, my mind was changed.


One just cannot go through the show, movie and book without coming out salivating for any of the dishes featured within. It is because of these mouth-watering delicacies from south of the border (the US-Mexico border, of course) that I was obsessed with the idea of going to Mexico to learn how to cook. I would've gone even if I had to go busking. (Which, in hindsight, is totally retarded because I'm maarte.)

While I haven't given up on mastering how to prepare the cuisine and inf fact, I'm still hoping to master the molé soon, I've decided I'm not going to be a street performer where it's hot. (This is beside the fact that I have no performing talent whatsoever.) 


New York

I've been to New York once but, save for the fact that I was able to see Rent playing at the Nederlander Theatre with Mel B (aka Scary Spice) as Mimi, it was a bit of a mess. -The MoMA was closed for repairs and we couldn't, for the life of us, find Isamu Noguchi's garden. 

That said, I still haven't completely given up hope that New York City is one of my spiritual homes. The concept of having all that art, culture, and cuisine within one's reach makes my head spin with excitement.

I'm not daft though, I realize that to be able to properly enjoy that city, I'd probably have to be as rich as the characters in Everyone Says I Love You who lived in a Manhattan penthouse and had the luxury to shuffle back-and-forth from NYC to Paris or Venice. (It would probably be fun to live in THEIR New York, where people just randomly broke into song.)

Or you know, according to Dora Diamond (Mena Suvari) from the 2000 film, Loser, it's quite possible to have fun in the Big Apple without having to spend so much with tricks like sneaking into the second act of Broadway shows when the smokers who step out of the theatre go back in, or getting free coffee in Central Park.


It'd probably also be nice to be a kid in New York, if the city's depiction in Little Manhattan or Home Alone 2 is to be trusted. Okay, maybe the latter is a dream come true, being stuck in FAO Schwarz and having all those toys at my disposal would be awesome (I can easily say so now, too) as would beating up robbers with Rube Goldberg-like contraptions. Little Manhattan's portrayal of a child falling in love for the first time in a city as large as Manhattan is more realistic and precious.


Speaking of falling in love in New York, this is a theme put to good use by tour guide-writer-performance artist Timothy "Speed" Levitch in the documentary film "Live in Shiva's Dancefloor", and in Richard Linklater's animated movie "Waking Life". In both movies, Levitch speaks of his love for the city and life but while Live speaks of New York directly, I only assume that Levitch's scene in Waking Life was filmed on the Brooklyn Bridge. 

It seems apt, anyway, as Speed is a known denizen of the Big Apple. 

In any case, although I may not understand a lot of Speed's philobabble (I say this with all due respect, sir), his enthusiasm excites me and makes me want to make the trip back to his beloved city.  




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To conclude : Japan. (And I'll see if I can come up with something else.)













 

Now we take on BLOODLUST

A phenomenon identified by the overwhelming desire to shed (someone else's) blood.


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I've always wondered why the mice in Looney Tunes cartoons are always fiendishly conspiring against the hapless cats who are just doing their jobs. It's always the cat that gets beaten up by the stupid bulldog. --The one who gets his tail tied onto a rope that runs through the chimney, the ladder, the fishbowl, the baby grand and any number of uncomfortable places as the rock it's connected to is rolled off the roof.

Why? Because the mice need a home and they've taken a shine to the kitty's estate. And never, never, never does the kitty get the chance to get one over those mean rats. And we're supposed to laugh at this?

I have a sense of humor but homicidal rodents are NOT funny. It's bad enough that rats and mice used to carry the plague but once they start to actively pursue ways of offing you... well crap. All bets are off.

And come on! The cat's only doing his job to protect his domain from the filthy vermin. So why is he the "villain" or the underdog cat? I'd understand it if the cat was antagonizing the mice in a blatantly unjustified manner like, say, if he went to Mappyland (copyright Namco/Midway games) and started snacking on them*. But the cat's always in his house, resting or minding his own business until the mice decide to make his life miserable in a violent, spine-shattering, traumatizing manner.

This is the sort of thing people don't laugh about. At this level you can't merely call it laughter, it's rubbing your hands together whilst maniacally and evilly cackling as you send your flying monkeys off to do your dirty work.


*.But the thing is IF a cat decides to make hors d'oeuvres of the little vermin when he does visit Mappyland or Disneyland, it can still be argued as justifiable. It's supported by the cat's innate biology/physiology and ancestral memory. RATS = LUNCH. Deal with it.

Rats = Murderous Creatures = Funny? I am unconvinced.