Once upon a time, virtually all of the major Hollywood studios were producing animated shorts. Walter Lantz, of course, was long associated with Universal. WB & MGM had their own animation houses. For a while, so did Columbia.
Over the course of 7 years, Columbia nurtured their own funny animal comedy team, The Fox & the Crow, before they were shipped off to UPA. Legendary director Frank Tashlin helmed their first effort, 1941's "The Fox & the Grapes", but he left for WB and forged his legacy there. Bob Wickersham took over from that point.
However, here's Tashlin and "The Fox & The Grapes":
Crawford Crow and Fauntleroy Fox also appeared in comics, debuting for DC in 1945, and staying their through the mid-60's. However, their animated shorts haven't seen the light of day in what seems like forever. They were last seen on television more than 50 years ago, when a syndicated package included them with either Hanna-Barbera's Ruff & Reddy (H-B was a Columbia subsidiary at the time) or Total Television's King Leonardo. I'm not even sure if these shorts are even available on DVD presently.
Rating: B-.
6 comments:
"virtually all of the major Hollywood studios were producing animated shorts. Walter Lantz, of course, was long associated with Universal. WB & MGM had their own animation houses. For a while, so did Columbia."
I think I remember hearing that Disney might have been too.
Seriously though, HB's Ruff & Reddy is not available on any official releases I know of, but Total Television's King Leonardo is apparently available in a series of burn-on-demand DVDs at Amazon (exclusively?)
Disney was a given, and I didn't want to make it too obvious. You would associate theatrical shorts with Disney, MGM, Paramount, & WB back in the day. Columbia? Not so much.
WB is overdue to release Ruff & Reddy, aren't they?
Yes, they teased people by announcing that a Ruff & Reddy cartoon (the first episode) would be on their Best of Warner Bros. 25 Cartoon Collection: Hanna-Barbera DVD, but when the DVD was actually released, Ruff & Reddy were MIA, along with other cartoons that had been expected. Basically, only cartoons that had appeared on other DVD collections and were therefore already remastered for DVD were included in this set, making it a huge letdown and leaving most HB fan with no reason to buy it.
What was supposed to be on the DVD?
According to multiple Amazon reviewers, a different line-up was planned for the Best of Warner Bros. 25 Cartoon Collection: Hanna-Barbera DVD set, and I remember seeing the planned list on at least one reputable DVD news site as well, I just can't remember which one. So, according to a reviewer at Amazon, here's the intended cartoons that WB chose to drop from the set to go with mostly double-dips:
"By B. D. Sampson on May 22, 2013
This will be the final time I pre-order ANYTHING from Warner Brothers. My reason for purchasing this set for some of the previously unreleased shows-such as "The Cattanooga Cats" & "Abbot & Costello". Although A&C cartoon is on here, many of the programs originally planned for the set are not. The 2 disc set is does not include the following that were planned:
The Ruff & Reddy Show (1957) "Planet Pirates" (episode 1)
Huckleberry Hound (1958) "Spud Dud"
Yogi Bear (1958) "Snow White Bear"
Hokey Wolf (1961) "Castle Hassle"
The Quick Draw McGraw Show (1959) "Masking for Trouble"
Snooper and Blabber (1959) "The Lion is Busy"
Pixie and Dixie and Mr. Jinks (1958) "A Wise Quack,"
Yakky Doodle "Hasty Tasty"
Wally Gator "Gator-Napper"
Lippy the Lion & Hardy Har Har "Hick Hikers"
Birdman (1967) "Birdman Meets Birdboy"
The Galaxy Trio (1967) "Revolt of the Robots"
The Herculoids (1967) "Attack from Space"
Cattanooga Cats (1969) "Witch Whacky"
It's The Wolf (1969) "Slumber Jacks"
Motormouse and Autocat (1969) "Wheelin' and Dealin'"
The Funky Phantom (1971) "The Liberty Bell Caper" 30 mins.
Jabberjaw (1976) "Dr. Lo has Got to Go" 30 mins."
Some of the aforementioned cartoons have since been released in their respective series sets.
Maybe they weren't ready by the deadline for this one release.
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