Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Birth of a legend: The Talking Magpies (1946)

Heckle & Jeckle are otherwise known as the "Talking Magpies". That happens to be the title of our next subject.

"The Talking Magpies" was released in January 1946, and technically is also a Farmer Al Falfa cartoon, as he appears with a prototype for Heckle & Jeckle's occasional foil, Dimwit Dog. The big difference, as you'll see, is that the birds in this story are a married couple looking for a place to call home. By the time Terrytoons came back with another short, the marriage was, well, dissolved, and the team we came to know as Heckle & Jeckle took over.

This has, to my knowledge, not been a regular part of the Heckle & Jeckle syndicated package.




Sid Raymond, the voice of Baby Huey, also did the voices for this cartoon.

Rating: B.

2 comments:

Silverstar said...

Paul Terry apparently wanted to do something with twin characters for some time, which is probably why Heckle & Jeckle were changed to twin birds rather than the married couple they were depicted as in this short.

hobbyfan said...

If it wasn't for that genius decision, history wouldn't have been made. It's easier to assume that this was a backdoor pilot spun from Al Falfa's series, then.