Larry Harmon's Laurel & Hardy cartoon
paul.ca...@verizon.net
people to debate about so the '40s films can get a rest... ;)
teem
>No comment... just thought I'd throw an alternate topic out there for
>people to debate about so the '40s films can get a rest... ;)
If onlt I had a vcr back in the 60s.
Eric Perlin
} If onlt I had a vcr back in the 60s.
The L&H cartoons have been made available on VHS and DVD, in authorized releases
as well as some bootlegs.
I recently bought a VHS tape on eBay which contained about 10 L&H cartoons, and
that is the first time I've ever been able to see any of them. The best one in
the small collection is called "Camera Bugged." Although it uses L&H in a
Huckleberry Hound-style story, it still has some good gags in it. L&H are
wildlife photographers who try to take pictures of a vicious gorilla.
If anyone is considering buying any old L&H comic books, I highly recommend the
Charleton series, which was in 3D and unfortunately ended after just 2 issues.
These 2 issues are written by people who really know L&H characters well,
incorporating such trademarks as the "tell me that again" gag, and appearances
by James Finlayson, Walter Long, etc.
Mister Levity
in the past thirty years in all departments of production, the Laurel
and Hardy cartoons are technically very well made.
I have only one VHS tape of the cartoons for many years that I enjoy.
Recenlty I went ahead and purchased the DVD "LAUREL AND HARDY -A FINE
MESS" from Hit Entertainment, Region 2 PAL format. It's a collection of
ten animated cartoons:
CAN'T KEEP A SECRET AGENT
MUTT RUTT
HOW GREEN WAS MY LAWNMOWER
PRAIRIE PANICKED
MISSLE HASSLE
NO MOOSE IS A GOOD MOOSE
HIGH FLY GUYS
FALSE ALARMS
HILL BILLY BULLY
The cartoons are a lot of fun to watch and yes I laughed many times
while watching. The animation was done by some of the best animators in
the business at the time. Carlo Vinci's disintinctive animation style
can be seen in many of these.
Art direction, lay-out, background and character design are all
extremely expertly done in the usual Hanna-Barbera 1960's style. Hoyt
Curtian's familiar background music and Hanna-Barbera's funny sound
effects are always a delight.
I highly recommend this DVD to buffs who are interested in the cartoons
to supplement your Laurel and Hardy DVD collection. It's my
understanding this disc is now out of print so better grab it while you
can.
Jim MacGeorge does Ollie voice and is quite charming. Larry Harmon does
Stan's voice and isn't bad at all.
As a side note: I'll be meeting Jim MacGeorge and Chuck McCann this
week as I hired them both out of retirement to supply the voices for
characters for a cartoon pilot I sold to Nickelodeon. I never met them
before so am very excited about this. But more on that later. :-)
gca...@aol.com
Abbott & Costello to life)
What if Filmation did a "L&H show" then, maybe did soem of those,.OF
coruse superheros were their order then.........
The Space Boss
paul.ca...@verizon.net wrote:
> No comment... just thought I'd throw an alternate topic out there for
> people to debate about so the '40s films can get a rest... ;)
These cartoons were so well done, and so representative of the "real"
Laurel and Hardy that one might say they are Laurel and Hardy's "lost
shorts"...
Larc
I've for some reason got a terrible distaste for anything that involves Larry
Harmon. It's too hard for me to digest the idea of some little semi-talented
twit trying to capitalize on the fame of two gigantic greats.
Larc
งงง - Change planet to earth to reply by email - งงง
Hal Erickson
like them when they first came out in the fall of 1966, and when they were
rerun in Milwaukee in the late 1970s, I liked them even less. They still
didn't appeal to me in the early 1990s when I borrowed a handful of them as
research for my book on TV cartoon shows (recently revised and republished
by McFarland--plug plug!)
True, efforts were made to authentically replicate the Laurel and Hardy
characters and style (curiously, I like Harmon's impersonation Laurel more
than MacGeorge's Hardy, but I'd been spoiled by Harmon's L&H records in
which Henry Calvin played Ollie). But for me, the cartoons were bogged down
by the standard "Hanna-Barbera palsy"--talking heads in lieu of action--and
by the studio's mid-1960s tendency to go for the easy laugh and the cliched
situation. Though it may have been hard to distill the essence of Laurel and
Hardy in 5-minute doses, I feel that H-B barely tried: the cartoons were
interchangeable with the studio's like-vintage efforts "Atom Ant", "Secret
Squirrel", "Squiddly Diddly" and "Winsome Witch." Every joke was hammered to
death or over-explained, the dialogue tended to be the usual "M.D. stands
for Mad Scientist--what else? Hee hee hee." or "I'll be back in a flash with
cash" stuff, already done to death by the studio in their previous efforts.
There were times when it seemed that Ollie's only line of dialogue was
"Stanley. Don't press that button!" , and that the only plot involved what
happened when Stanley pressed that button (there he goes on that lawn mower,
passing the same tree twelve times!) And the occasional "Roosterman and
Featherbrain" superhero spoofs couldn't even match the energy and verve of
Hal Seeger's rival cartoon "Batfink." or Pantomime Pictures' brilliant
"Roger Ramjet."
Had I been in charge, I would have waited until Cosgrove-Hall, the folks who
produced the classic British cartoon series "Danger Mouse" and "Count
Duckula", would have been available to make the L-H cartoons. These guys
really knew how to milk a situation, and to convey impatience and frustation
within a five-minute framework. Many of the cartoons from Cosgrove-Hall
reminded me of L&H's "Perfect Day" or "Towed in a Hole"--hilariously
hurrying around to stay in the same place (the British tradition of dead-pan
nonsense that was ingrained in Stan Laurel).
I don't begrudge and can't belittle anyone who likes these cartoons, or who
are willing to give them the benefit of the doubt (Even William K. Everson
felt that they had some merit). But after giving them several chances, I
simply don't care for them. Their only saving grace (to me) is that they
aren't as awful as H-B's "Abbott and Costello" cartoons.
And at the risk of really ticking some people off, I don't think much of
Filmation's "Star Trek" cartoons either (beyond their scripts, that is).
--Hal E
Mister Levity
have for the past thirty years) you have not a single opinion about
cartoons that's worth a crack in a hard boiled egg. There's a world of
difference between someone with talent and know-how who knows what
hard work goes into the production of an animated cartoon to those who
merely sit and watch them. I have have great respect for the artists
who worked hard on the cartoons.
When a studio has a budget and artists are on a tight schedual they do
the best they can. This is why I have trememdous respect of what was
acoomplished.
A good fun and funny show.
>I would have waited until Cosgrove-Hall, the folks who
>produced the classic British cartoon series "Danger Mouse" and "Count
>Duckula"
You've got to be joking! Cosgrove-Hall is one of the worst studios
ever, producing the most cheapest awful looking shows in the history of
animation. Talk about talking heads---their shows are nothing more than
talking mouths. Bad layouts/composition, bad animation, bad art
direction, awful timing, repeat use of the same stock scenes. Dreadful.
The Laurel and Hardy cartoons are classic gems next to those heaps of
TV trash. Hanna-Barbera had the best artists off all time working with
them during this period, indivduals who's professional knowledge and
talent bring the expert showmanship of the cartoons shining out in
each short.
>Their only saving grace (to me) is that they
>aren't as awful as H-B's "Abbott and Costello" cartoons.
Another great series of funny top-notch classic animation produced by
Hanna-Barbera, the world best TV animation studio of all time.
Hal Erickson
"Mister Levity" <misterle...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1148220863....@j33g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> If you're not an artist, director, creator who works in animation (as I
> have for the past thirty years) you have not a single opinion about
> cartoons that's worth a crack in a hard boiled egg. There's a world of
> difference between someone with talent and know-how who knows what
> hard work goes into the production of an animated cartoon to those who
> merely sit and watch them. I have have great respect for the artists
> who worked hard on the cartoons.
I'm sorry you feel that I am dissing the entire TV animation industry by
criticizing a single group of cartoons .
In my defense, a number of people in that industry have contacted me to tell
me that they appreciate what I've written about TV cartoons (with the
occasional correction, of course), among them the folks at J.J. Seidelmaier
Productions (SMIGELVISION, BEAVIS AND BUTT-HEAD), veteran animator John
Sparey (CALVIN AND THE COLONEL, MIGHTY MOUSE: THE NEW ADVENTURES), and
several others.
My respect for cartoon makers is second to none. And undoubtedly a lot of
hard work went into the TV toons.
But some cartoons are good, some aren't. Some are ambitious, some are mere
potboilers. And that, in my opinion, sums up the Laurel and Hardys and the
Abbott and Costellos.
H-B has done some excellent work: YOGI BEAR, QUICK DRAW McGRAW, THE
FLINTSTONES, JONNY QUEST and many others (ironically, one person who
actually worked on JONNY QUEST found fault with my positive review of the
series in my book, stating that he thought the "action" animation was
mediocre!) But among the gold there is a certain amount of dross--especially
in the period between 1965 and 1969 . Were I to criticize Chuck Jones'
phlegmatic Sniffles cartoons, you would probably think that I was condemning
everything Jones has done. This is nonsense. Jones is a genius. But not
everything a genius does is a work of genius (vide Orson Welles).
Also, if you are going to take me to task for criticizing Hanna-Barbera, I
must respectfully do the same concerning your
unkind and uncharitable words about Cosgrove-Hall.
As for my not being permitted to voice an opinion because I'm not an
animator: If a person hasn't made a movie, he has no business criticizing
THE DAVINCI CODE. If a person hasn't been in politics, he has no business
criticizing President Bush. Am I applying your logic correctly?
Opinions, a sage philosopher once noted, are like farts. Everyone is more
politely inclined towards his own.
--Hal E
Paul Fitzpatrick
Eric Perlin wrote:
> If anyone is considering buying any old L&H comic books, I highly recommend the
> Charleton series, which was in 3D and unfortunately ended after just 2 issues.
> These 2 issues are written by people who really know L&H characters well,
> incorporating such trademarks as the "tell me that again" gag, and appearances
> by James Finlayson, Walter Long, etc.
I think you're referring to the Blackthorne comic book series of the
1980s, if I'm not mistaken.
As for the Larry Harmon/Hanna-Barbera L&H cartoons, when I was a child
these served as preparation for the live-action Laurel & Hardy
comedies. I had been enjoying a Laurel & Hardy cartoon drawing kit
(manufactured by Lakeside) with which you could trace drawings of
Harmon's Laurel & Hardy in various misadventures. This led me to the
L&H cartoons on TV, which eventually led to my love of the Laurel &
Hardy films.
God Bless --
PAUL FITZPATRICK