Thunderbean Classic Animation Blu-rays

[Retro00064]

Originally Posted by GG Pan

Anyone want to recommend a Thunderbean collection (DVD or Blu-ray) for for the most weird, narratively nonexistent, and/or racist-by-today's-standards cartoons? Or does "Monkey Doodle" remain the gold standard for this sort of thing?

I have a few of the old Golden Age of Cartoons DVDs. Cultoons V1, Attack of the 30's Characters, Cartoons For Victory.

Should I just stick to Cultoons 2-3 if I want more baffling stuff like "Monkey Doodle?"

Thanks in advance. The weirder the better.

To try to get back on topic and not let a fellow weird-cartoon enthusiast's inquiry slip through the cracks: I'd love it if Steve would put together a special set (or "official" set) compiling the most bizarre cartoons he can come up with. Beyond that happening and the old sets you've mentioned, anything especially strange is pretty much scattered across various "official" and limited-time special sets Steve & co. have offered. More broadly, you'd probably enjoy the early material, and especially cartoons made by New York or ex-New York animators or studios—the work that surrounded and included the particularly weird material. Silent and early-'30s Fleischer, Van Beuren, Terrytoons, Ub Iwerks, Ted Eshbaugh, etc.; 1930s–40s Mintz/Screen Gems; obscurities Milton Knight has featured in posts on Cartoon Research; and similar. Good sets to collect include anything featuring those studios' work, "Technicolor Dreams and Black & White Nightmares", anything Tommy Stathes/Cartoons On Film puts out, and the special sets Steve has offered (and sometimes re-offered) from time to time. There are indications the "Fleischer Follies" special set, currently still available for pre-order, is potentially going to be a good one for weird material, for instance.

For especially racist cartoons, Steve's old "Uncensored Animation" DVDs and more recent no-longer-currently-available "All Censored" special Blu-ray volumes come to mind.

Oddly enough, in rewatching Monkeydoodle recently, I found its strangeness a bit underwhelming compared to its reputation. Some pretty weird and unusual ideas and humor in it for sure, not surprisingly for an independent New York animator's creation, but to some degree the impression I get is of simply the meandering storytelling and awkwardness of a cartoonist who wasn't all that sophisticated in animating or filmmaking making one independently (with quirky music and voices/effects being unsurprising for such a film), rather than willful bizarreness. Nothin' wrong with that, but it doesn't quite take the cake for me.

For me, the gold standard is this (https://youtu.be/wzT2V62bIMI) 1938 Screen Gems production helmed by a weird-cartoon auteur of a former New Yorker who certainly knew what he was doing, Sid Marcus, and which seems to have passed notorious Catholic censor scrutiny with flying Technicolor. A good copy of this was on a miscellaneous "grab bag" of cartoons that Steve formerly had available. Mental contamination awaits the poor nerd who assimilates what's going on (depicted and otherwise) in this picture. Take it from your brother Retro.

[ParamountCartoons]

What about "Out of the Milk Bottle" aka "Skinny and Husky in a Day at Coney Island"? If you're not a fan of "Got Milk?" commercials from the 90s or ADA ads from the 50s, you probably won't stomach this film well. It's a mishmash of different dairy/dairy boards' Coney island cartoons edited sloppily by Jam Handy. The B&W adds to the creepiness, the mystery of the production doesn't help, and the soundtrack can be sloppy.

[Regulas314]

Originally Posted by ParamountCartoons

What about "Out of the Milk Bottle" aka "Skinny and Husky in a Day at Coney Island"? If you're not a fan of "Got Milk?" commercials from the 90s or ADA ads from the 50s, you probably won't stomach this film well. It's a mishmash of different dairy/dairy boards' Coney island cartoons edited sloppily by Jam Handy. The B&W adds to the creepiness, the mystery of the production doesn't help, and the soundtrack can be sloppy.

Off topic but You just reminded me of the old Super Mario 64 Got Milk! Now that is how you get your kids to drink up!

[ParamountCartoons]

Originally Posted by Regulas314

Off topic but You just reminded me of the old Super Mario 64 Got Milk! Now that is how you get your kids to drink up!

Actually "Aaron Burr" is much more superior as it was the very first ad produced in the slogan's birthplace of CA.

[Strumm]

I like Monkeydoodle myself, Zachary. It's nothing and everything, almost a look inside of someone schizophrenic. That's the appeal of it, it being nothing and everything. Characters have impressive shading, design, and some nice perspective shots but the animation is dated

As for Little Moth's Big Flame, when asking Kausler about Marcus (whom he never got to meet), he mentioned to me that it was his favorite cartoon written by him. I also think it's brilliant, an extremely adult subject for a 1938 cartoon, without much subtly to the matter. I wish Sid Marcus could be recognized as a funny creative in animation, but being at Screen Gems for much of his career gave weird effects to a lot of his genius work that never quite made it land as well as it could've

[bigshot]

I can think of a few films by Starevich and Charlie Bowers that are as fun and weird as Monkey Doodle.

[Steve Stanchfield]

I've been thinking about a high def treatment for some of the 'Cultoons' films. With technology better and with some of the films now available in 35mm prints, they would be pretty good sets. I'm still hoping to find Winky the Watchman in 35mm; it likely exists somewhere out there. So many films get forgotton for one reason or another, but knowing there's 35 on some of these just makes me want to get them scanned sooner than later. Too many things suffering the ravages of VS or nitrate damage....

[bigshot]

A set of vintage industrial films would be neat. Winky, Boy Meets Dog, etc.

[WaverBoy]

Originally Posted by Steve Stanchfield

I've been thinking about a high def treatment for some of the 'Cultoons' films. With technology better and with some of the films now available in 35mm prints, they would be pretty good sets. I'm still hoping to find Winky the Watchman in 35mm; it likely exists somewhere out there. So many films get forgotton for one reason or another, but knowing there's 35 on some of these just makes me want to get them scanned sooner than later. Too many things suffering the ravages of VS or nitrate damage....

An official set of cleaned up HD Cultoons would be most welcome! Lay it on me!

[ParamountCartoons]

Yeah, but what about the bigger projects?

Mr Bug Who?

[Areyakiddin]

Originally Posted by ParamountCartoons

Yeah, but what about the bigger projects?

Mr Bug Who?

Didn't Steve release that special disc already?

[Regulas314]

Originally Posted by Areyakiddin

Didn't Steve release that special disc already?

He wants to hopefully make an official release of the film by getting paramount to give him a co-license to restore the original 35mm film elements. I mean that will probably never happen because historically Viacom has always been exceptionally paranoid on the same level of Walt Disney over who gets to touch their toys, but it’s fun to dream.

[Steve Stanchfield]

Let's hope Mr. Bug shows up soon. It likely won't be from Thunderbean but let's hope it will be sometime soon! It's my favorite film and deserves a great treatment.

There are still lots of irons in the fire here-- it's more like there's lots of fire and an iron is in each! I wish it was easier to get out of each project, but sometimes they stick, like your caught on a little thorn in an otherwise pretty easy to pass tree....

[WaverBoy]

Originally Posted by Steve Stanchfield

Let's hope Mr. Bug shows up soon. It likely won't be from Thunderbean but let's hope it will be sometime soon! It's my favorite film and deserves a great treatment.

There are still lots of irons in the fire here-- it's more like there's lots of fire and an iron is in each! I wish it was easier to get out of each project, but sometimes they stick, like your caught on a little thorn in an otherwise pretty easy to pass tree....

You mean you can’t release everything everywhere all at once?

[Leviathan]

Originally Posted by Steve Stanchfield

Let's hope Mr. Bug shows up soon. It likely won't be from Thunderbean but let's hope it will be sometime soon! It's my favorite film and deserves a great treatment.

Hopefully the organization best up to the task is able to take up the challenge. That would sure be something to see.

Speaking of rare Fleischer, here's a newly scanned print of the Raven. Still faded, but decently sharp and mostly original titles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BX7...onsRestored%21

[Strumm]

With all this talk about Cultoons I decided to pull out the ODDS AND ENDS Blu-ray which is a nice small collection of oddities, a good holdover for waiting for a more proper Cultoons BD. With all the industrials on this I wanted to ask Steve has a color print of KOOL PENGUINS turned up? That’s one I’d love to see in a better print

[cartoonsonfilm]

I'm all for seeing vintage TV prints, though it would have been really cool to see that channel upload UCLA's existing 35mm photochemical preservation/restoration of The Raven. I remember when that and a few other Paramount shorts re-debuted to quite a bit of fanfare, back in 2017:
https://www.asifa-hollywood.org/ucla...imated-shorts/

Fleischer Restoration Comparison Frames - YouTube

[Strumm]

I agree. It would be much cooler to see a copy transferred from 35mm materials instead of a 70s TV Print, especially if one has access. It's more logical that way. I can't wait to see what ASIFA's having preserved soon

[Leviathan]

According to the Patreon, there's plans on getting the negative scanned and restored.

No harm in checking out a TV print in the meantime. At least it's a little sharper than the old TV prints.

[Steve Stanchfield]

These next few months are exciting for me- and trying to move things forward in various ways is both easy in some aspects and crazy difficult in others! There's just a *few* humps that I'm trying to urge right now that are causing a lot of pain, but when those are done things are moving forward nicely.

Off to the office after a difficult week here of not being able to touch anything really there personally. I have a master list fo stuff to do that I purposely keep there to update-- then print rather than have it digital. I've found that I'm all to get done whatever is in front of me printed rather than have it hanging out digitally... plus it's really fun to cross out the old stuff. Today's goal is to send a bunch of things I owe various people and return any borrowed stuff from recently...