Saturday, January 18, 2014

The First Looney Tune: Sinkin' in the Bathtub





  
Credits
Looney Tunes: No. 1
Released: April 19, 1930
Directed by: Harman and Ising
Produced by: Hugh Harman, Rudolph Ising, and Leon Schlesinger
Animated by: Isadore "Friz"Freleng
Music Score: Frank Marsales
                                                                                                                       

The cartoon begins with Bosko, whistling to the song "Singing in the Bathtub" He is sure enjoying his time in there, he's plucking the water coming out of the shower like a harp. He also plucks his feet and his nose which is a typical 30s gag.



Then, the most strange thing happens in this cartoon is the bathtub COMES TO LIFE!! It's starts dancing and then it takes a towel and dances with it (notice Felix Mendelsohn's Spring Song is being played in the background)! Then, the bathtub dances to some toilet paper and rips off a piece like there's a wedding going on. Then we here Singing in the Bathtub again in the background and the bathtub smacks his bottom. I think that bathtub animation very creepy and
only 30s cartoons would do that.


 Bosko pulls a string his head and his pants magically pull up by themselves! I wish I could do that! This gag is featured in a lot of Harmen-Ising Looney Tunes.


Then, he actually pulls the water to a 90 degrees angle! I mean that is supposed
to be clever or something? That doesn't even make scientifically sense! Well,
anyway, he jumps onto the water and carries his out the window. The thing
that bothers me is that he just leaves the water running! Is he doing to waste
all that water or something? He'll have a high water bill! Bosko then takes
his huge harmonica and starts playing it. Is it me or did Bosko just have
sleeves on his clothes now?


Bosko now does this cool gag where he whistles and bumps his harmonica
on his bottom again. Boy, they sure do that in this cartoon a lot. We'll see
Honey do it later on the short. Then, a car steps out and he rides it to
Honey's house. The car sure has some character. On the way he plays his
harmonica. He does some pretty annoying sounds with his mouth. The
crank that Bosko cranked up the car with is suddenly gone! WHAT?!
 Bosko then picks some flowers for Honey. Meanwhile, Honey is
taking a bath when she realizes that Bosko is there. She quickly gets dressed.
AGAIN... the crank on Bosko's car comes back again as Bosko arrives.
 Yes! Bosko and Honey finally says something in the short!

Honey: "Hello, Bosko!"

Bosko: (shaking)"Guess what I got for you Honey!"

Behind his back there's a goat who saw Bosko's flowers for Honey
and wants to eat it. I don't understand why Bosko can just go and
give it to her! The goat then eats the flowers. Bosko gets upset
and starts to cry. Then Honey says (in a annoying voice),

Honey: "It's OK, Bosko! I still love you!"

Bosko suddenly gets happy again! He goes to his car and
takes some parts on his car and makes a saxophone out
of it. He starts to play it. He plays A Hot Time In The
Old Town Tonight which was the first theme to Looney
Tunes from 1930 to 1932. Honey takes a tub of bubbles
and pours it in and Bosko starts playing another song
called
I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles


Then Honey starts dancing to the music. Now, this
is kind of weird, but Honey rolls down her pants!
I wonder why the censors didn't cut that part out!
We also see Honey naked earlier when she was
taking bath. Then Honey walks on the bubbles
to get down to Bosko. To me, that's very good
timing!

Bosko and Honey get in the car and go for a ride.
They kiss and are having a great time. Then there's
that gag where they can't get passed the cow. They
end up going over the cow. Then the cow gets mad
and stomps away. I've noticed that gag has been in
a lot of Harman-Ising cartoons (like Smile, Darn Ya,
Smile). They go up a hill and then they go down. Of
course, Bosko gets knocked off and Honey needs help.
Bosko is going through rough times as he is being
wacked in the crutch and banging his head in the rocks.

The car goes through the house and the car turns in to
a bathtub. Then there's some ok animation of the bath
tub (on wheels) going down a mountain. Honey falls
into a river and Bosko lands on a branch of a tree.
A creepy looking hand jumps out of the water and grabs
Bosko in the bathtub. Bosko and Honey start to play
Sinkin' in the Bathtub with the lily pads and just like
Bosko said at the end of a Looney Tune--
"So long, Folks!"


Monday, November 25, 2013

The Lost Toons: Foxy

 
Like my new sign? I made it on a photo editing program on the computer!
Today we will be looking at the most Mickey-Mousesque character that ever was created!

Update: 12/24/13: Actually, there is characters that tops Foxy
in Mickey-Mouseque. They were two characters from the long-
forgotten Van Beuren studio. Their names are Milton and Rita 
Mouse. Milton and Rita started out looking like little teeny mice,
but when Mickey Mouse came to popularity, they redesigned the
characters. Now when Disney saw these cartoons, he was furious.
He sued Van Beuren for "copying Mickey Mouse". Disney later
admits that he did get inspired from the mice in Aesop Fables 
cartoons, produced by the same studio. Milton and Rita only 
appeared in three shorts, Circus Capers, Uncle Tom and Little
Eva, and The Office Boy.


Foxy
The Lost Toons  Present     Foxy
Foxy looked almost exactly like Mickey Mouse.
Probably the only differences were his pointy
ears, his bushy tail, and his voice (he didn't
speak with a falsetto voice, but he had a
baritone voice).

Creator(s): Hugh Harmen and Rudolph Ising

Created in: 1931

First appeared in: Lady Play Your Mandolin

Last appeared in: One More Time

Characters in Foxy cartoons: Foxy (the star), Roxy (Foxy's girlfriend, named Roxy in the Tiny Toon Adventure episode, Two-Toned-Town

Voiced by: unknown

Fun Facts: Foxy only starred in three Merrie Melodies shorts. Lady Play Your Mandolin, the first short, was also the first Merrie Melodies short ever created. Smile, Darn Ya, Smile, the second short, had a similar plot to the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit short Trolley Troubles. One More Time, the third and final short to have Foxy in it had a cops-and-robbers sort of theme to it.

Modern projects: Foxy was seen with his girlfriend Roxy and another old Merrie Melodies character, Goopy Geer in the Tiny Toons Adventure episode Two-Tone-Town.

Catch phrase: "So long, folks!"

Filmography: WB: W Lady Play Your Mandolin,  Smile, Darn Ya, Smile,  One More Time

Hope you enjoy my post about Foxy! Next I will be reviewing the first Looney Tunes cartoon ever, Sinkin' in the Bathtub!

Sincerely,
       
               Tai Jackson

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Porky Pig Through the Years

This is the last post in the series "Through the Years". Hope you enjoy it! (It's about Porky Pig!)

The first Porky was round and fat. In
his first appearance, I Haven't Got A Hat,
surprisingly, was not the star.
 First appearance of Porky in I Haven't Got a Hat 
Producer Leon Schlesinger, was trying
to find a star to replace the most bland
star in Looney Tunes, Buddy. So,
director Friz Freleng created lots of
characters to see which would be
the most popular. Porky was among
them (the other characters were Beans
the Cat the star, Oliver Owl the enemy,
Little Kitty, Ham and Ex, and Tommy
Turtle). In this short Porky wears a green
sweatshirt and was voiced by a man named
Joe Dougherty. Since he actually stuttered,
he took up a lot recording time. Later, he
was fired and Mel Blanc took the job.


The child Porky Pig in Milk and Money


This Porky is actually a kid, director
Tex Avery did most of the cartoons
when Porky's a kid while Frank Tashlin
experimented with a adult Porky. The
child Porky first appeared in Porky 
the Rainmaker, in 1936. (The other
Porky first appeared in 1935.)





The last Porky (with the blue coat and
no pants), first appeared in the late 30's
and early 40's. He mostly co-starred
with Daffy Duck, Charlie Dog, and
sometimes Sylvester. When the ever
popular Bugs Bunny came along,
Porky got less and less main character
and became more of a co-star with
Daffy Duck. He still appears as a
minor character on The Looney
Tunes Show.


And as Porky said...
                   
                                                     Th-th-th That's all folks!

Sincerely,

                  Tai Jackson

Thursday, November 14, 2013

A Year And A Week

Can you believe that this blog has been running for a YEAR!? Well a year and a week anyway. I remember how I even started on this blog. This how it happened.

How This Blog Came To Be
It was getting really close to my birthday, on November, 2. I remember my dad and mom was talking about how "smart" I am and my mom said my brain was filled with ideas that I should start my own blog. Well, I was so excited when I heard that, and, well, I guess I got a little carried away. I asked my dad to set me up on one and he said we could do it after supper. (I think the only reason that he said yes was, like I said before, it was close to my birthday.) We got it launched and the day after (my birthday) I got right away with posting on my blog. Let's see some of the stuff that I did on my blog in the past.

Stuff on This Blog
Here's some of the I've done in the past:

Category: Biographies: I've done Mozart's, Beethoven's, Bach's and Da Vinci's biographies.
Category: Planets: Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune, Pluto
Category: Prehistoric Mammals: Wooly Mammoths, Saber-Tooth Tigers, Giant Ground Sloth, Cave Lion, Giant Beaver, Glyptodons, Baluchitherium, Amphicyon, Sthenrus
Category: Different Kinds of Art
Category: Different Kinds of Music
Category: Medieval Composers: Romios the Melodist, and St. Kassia
Category: Fables

And that'snot all! Look at the other stuff I did and do at this blog!!
                            

Sincerely,
                    Tai Jackson :)

Friday, October 25, 2013

Happy Birthday, Bronwyn!: And Other Events That Happened On Oct. 12

Welcome to the events that happened on Oct. 12!

Events (Wikipedia)
539 BC- The army of Cyrus the Great takes Babylon.
633- King Edwin of Northumbria is defeated and killed by the British.
1113- The city of Oradea is first mentioned under the Latin name Varadinum.
1216  King John of England loses his crown jewels in The Wash, perhaps near Sutton Bridge.
1279  Nichiren, a Japanese Buddhist monk founder of Nichiren Buddhism, inscribes the Dai-Gohonzon. 
1398 – The Treaty of Salynas is signed between Grand Duke of Lithuania Vytautas the Great and the Teutonic Knights.
1492 – Christopher Columbus's expedition makes landfall in the Caribbean, specifically in The Bahamas. The explorer believes he has reached the Indies.
1582 – Because of the implementation of the Gregorian calendar this day does not exist in this year in Italy, PolandPortugal and Spain.
1654 – The Delft Explosion devastates the city in the Netherlands, killing more than 100 people.
1692 – The Salem witch trials are ended by a letter from Massachusetts Governor William Phips.
1748 – British and Spanish naval forces engage at the Battle of Havana during the War of Jenkins' Ear.
1773 – America's first insane asylum opens for 'Persons of Insane and Disordered Minds' in Virginia.
1792 – First celebration of Columbus Day in the USA held in New York City.
1793
 – The cornerstone of Old East, the oldest state university building in the United States, is laid on the campus of the University of North Carolina.
1799  Jeanne Labrosse was the first woman to jump from a balloon with a parachute, from an altitude of 900 meters.
1810  The Bavarian royalty invites the citizens of Munich to join the celebration of the marriage of  Prince Ludwig of Bavaria  to Princess Therese von Sachsen-Hildburghausen.
1822  Peter I of Brazil is proclaimed the emperor.
1823  Charles Macintosh sells the first raincoat.

Thanks for reading--ohh and happy birthday, Bronwyn!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Next Up!

You probably have noticed I been doing a lot of stuff with cartoons lately. At this blog, I post stuff about what I like. I used to post biographies then did music and then art. Lately, I been liking animated cartoons. But every post on this blog has one thing in common: all the posts on this blog is NONFICTION! My dad named it Tai's Biograblog. ;) Today I am doing a little post about the posts I will be doing this month.

Next Up on Tai's Biograblog: 

Happy Birthday, Bronwyn!: And Other Events That Happened on Oct. 12
In honor of my sister's birthday, I will be doing a post about the births, deaths and events that happened in history, on Oct. 12.

Porky Pig Through the Years
Just as I did with all the other "Through the Years" posts, I will tell about Porky Pig, and how he looked and talked through the years.

The Lost Toons: Foxy
Like I did with Bosko, I will tell when he was created, who created him, when he first appeared, when he last appeared, characters in Foxy cartoons, modern projects, a fun fact, his catchphrase, and his filmography.

The First Looney Cartoon: Sinkin in the Bathtub
I am going to honor the FIRST Looney Tunes cartoon, (which you probably haven't seen). I will be reviewing all the events in the cartoon. There will also Fun Facts just like in The Lost Toons series!

Just giving you a little "sneak peek"! Enjoy my blog!

                                                    Sincerely,
                                                                             Tai Jackson :)

Saturday, October 5, 2013

The Lost Toons: Bosko

This is Bosko playing the piano.
The Lost Toons Present:                  Bosko!
Bosko was the 1st Looney Tunes star. Nowadays, he is pretty much forgotten, but, historians have payed attention to him in recent years. When television started, they aired Bosko's cartoons too. Bosko cartoons can be viewed on YouTube. Bosko isn't really forgotten, but, he is definitely NOT a star. Enjoy my post about Bosko!

Creator(s): Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising

Created in: 1929

First appeared in: Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid (WB, 1929)

Last appeared in: Little Ol' Bosko in Bagdad (MGM, 1938)

Characters in Bosko cartoons: Bosko (star), Honey (girlfriend), Bruno (dog), Wilbur (Honey's piano teacher/pet)

Fun Fact: The first official Looney Tunes cartoon was made in 1930, and it was called Sinkin in the Bathtub, it starred Bosko in it.

Modern projects: Bosko was seen in the Tiny Toons episode Fields of Honey with Babs and Buster Bunny!

Catch phrase: (unfortunately)"Ain't that cute!" :)

Filmography: WB: Bosko, The Talk-Ink Kid, Sinkin in the Bathtub, Congo Jazz, Hold Anything, The Booze Hangs High, Box Car Blues, Big Man From the North, Ain't Nature Grand, Ups 'N Downs, Yodeling Yokels, Bosko's Holiday, The Tree's Knees, Bosko Shipwrecked, Bosko the Doughboy, Bosko's Soda Fountain, Bosko's Fox Hunt, Bosko at the Zoo, Battling Bosko, Big-Hearted Bosko, Bosko's Party, Bosko and Bruno, Bosko's Dog Race, Bosko at the Beach, Bosko's Store, Bosko the Lumberjack, Ride Him, Bosko!, Bosko the Drawback, Bosko's Dizzy Date, Bosko's Woodland, Bosko in Dutch, Bosko in Person, Bosko the Speed King, Bosko's Knight-Mare, Bosko the Sheep Herder, Beau Bosko, Bosko's Mechanical Man, Bosko the Musketeer, Bosko's Picture Show

MGM: Bosko's Parlor Pranks, Hey-Hey Fever, Run, Sheep, Run, The Old House, Circus Daze, Bosko's Easter Eggs, Little Ol' Bosko and the Pirates, Little Ol' Bosko and the Cannibals, Little Ol' Bosko in Bagdad

Well just as Bosko said back then- "So Long, Folks! " **They didn't use "That's All, Folks" until Bosko left**

Next Up: Porky Pig Through the Years, Happy Birthday Bronwyn!: And Other Events On Oct. 12, The Lost Toons, My Favorite Halloween Cartoons: The Skeleton Dance. Stay tooned!
    
Sincerely,
                         Tai Jackson