Reviewing The Famous Studios Champion Collection Blu-ray with Thad Komorowski

Restoration artist and animation historian Thad Komorowski joins the podcast for a deep dive review of his Famous Studios Champion Collection Blu-ray. We discuss Blackie Sheep and Wolfie’s early screwball energy, the importance of the early Casper’s, plus provide reviews of Little Audrey, Little Lulu, Baby Huey, and more. Thad also breaks down what it takes to restore these theatrical cartoons from original elements and why smart curation and audio commentaries make this an highly recommended collection for Golden Era animation fans. 

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Transcript

Cold Open And Meet Thad

Clip 0:14

I've made him read them and wait. What am I crying about? Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty. Hi. These dice is foam. Are you kidding me? You're loaded! What dice is loaded?

Tim Millard 1:07

Hi, Tim Millard here, and today I'm talking with animation historian, comic book writer, and digital restoration artist Thad Komorowski. And we're gonna be discussing the famous Studios Champion Collection Blu-ray release. Hi, Thad.

Thad Komorowski 1:21

Hey Tim. Nice to e meet you.

Tim Millard 1:24

Exactly. Well, we uh we seemed a roundabout through Jerry Beck and other folks, so it's good to finally get you on the podcast.

Thad Komorowski 1:32

Thank you very much for having me. I appreciate it.

Why Blackie And Wolfie Matter

Tim Millard 1:34

Yeah, you bet. Well, uh I just got done watching this Blu-ray. And I don't know why I was thinking it would be a little shorter, but this is packed. 134 minutes. It's really loaded. So there's a lot of great uh shorts or cartoons on here. But before we kind of uh get into the history of famous studios, which I did want to touch on for folks, I want to discuss this clip that we just played from No Mun for Nutton from 1943. This is a fantastically entertaining cartoon, and I'm guessing it's probably a favorite of yours.

Thad Komorowski 2:13

Oh, yeah, it's the very first novel tune ever made. Um, the very first in that series in that season. It's the earliest cartoon on the disc. Introduces Blackie Sheep and Wolfie. It is one of my favorites. Um there's a great audio commentary as well by uh animator Bob Jakes, who used to host the Cartoon Logic podcast with me. Um he goes into the history of that film. It's very uh complicated history. It's one of the cartoons that started in Miami and got finished in New York City when Famous Studios uh relocated to New York. It started their new identity of Famous Studios after the Flachers were ousted and Paramount took over the studio. It was their first wholly original creation and one that wasn't off of a licensed property or something that was started by the Flachers.

Tim Millard 3:11

Well, what about it in terms of when you watch it uh and knowing it's the first, what did it set in motion there? Because really we've got what Blackie, Sheep, and Wolfie are the the main characters, and you decided to put their whole kind of series on this.

Thad Komorowski 3:25

Yeah, they they hold a special place in my heart. Like it says on the back text of the uh the disc, uh it says uh the you know they're 1940s screwball archetypes, and they're just a couple of my favorite characters and the whole famous output. They're a lot funnier, they're a lot more adult. Uh, you know, they have the wartime energy that you know the Warners and MGM cartoons of the period have. Um, one in particular, sheep shape. That was the first cartoon I restored. I being my company, uh Sinistra Restoration and Cartoon Logic, along with uh Samantha Davis, that I wanted to restore once the opportunity for getting the famous studios material arose. Um it was like, no, I got you know, I gotta get sheep shape. That's the that's that's it's the best title on the desk, I think. Obviously, because we used that for the cover drawn by Steven DeStefano. The Blackie and Wolfie shorts, they're just really funny, especially when Sid Raymond takes over as Wolfie and he does his Bert Larr imitation. It's just a really funny character. And he showed up many years later, he would show up again without Blackie. Um he's in a few of the Caspers and he's in a couple of one-shots as well.

Tim Millard 4:44

Yeah, I I I have to agree that Cheap Shape was probably my favorite on the release.

Thad Komorowski 4:49

Oh, it's really funny. You know, when we unveiled that, that's when we unveiled and announced that we were doing um the famous Studios Champion collection, that's what I wanted to use, and everybody was like, oh gee, this this took a little influence from Tex Avery. Yeah, obviously, but I think it's a really funny cartoon in its own right. Definitely goes into the same themes that Avery did in his MGM work, but uh it has a different spin on it, absolutely.

Tim Millard 5:16

Did you do the commentary for that one?

Thad Komorowski 5:19

I did not. That was uh another one of Bob Jakes's excellent commentaries because it it's a favorite of his as well. So he wanted to do that one.

Tim Millard 5:27

Yeah, yeah. It's got that whole Ugs bunny style where you got Blackie, you know, the the prey.

Thad Komorowski 5:35

Yeah, and it's it's different in that regard because he's not necessarily the prey, he's the wise guy, but he's also collecting money for the orphanage. Wolfie is not after him for sustenance, he's a very despicable character stealing money from orphans for wine, women, and song. So yeah, it's it's it's unique in that way. And Jerry had some sort of theory that in 1946 every studio by law was required to do one really funny cartoon, and that release here has, of course, many funny from Warners and MGM, but all the other studios, you know, these cartoons would have been done at the peak of World War II, so it had all that energy. And yeah, it's just a really fantastically funny, very colorful cartoon, and I'm very thrilled that we were able to uh get it looking this nice.

Tim Millard 6:31

Yeah, the all of the blackie sheep and wolfie uh cartoons look fantastic. And of course, that sheep shape, you know, it never hurts to put uh put your main character in drag.

Thad Komorowski 6:43

Right.

Tim Millard 6:43

It always adds a lot of humor, but that's a fantastic.

Thad Komorowski 6:46

Well, it's yeah, it's even it's it goes further than Bugs does because people were wondering well, did he shave himself to be in disguise? But it's it's a bodysuit. You can see finally in the quality of this uh copy, which is off of the original negative, yeah, you can see that it's a bodysuit.

Tim Millard 7:05

Yeah, yeah. Really good. Well, maybe we should go back for a second. You you mentioned that famous studios, uh, you know, there was the whole Miami thing, and then there was the move to uh up north. But maybe you could take us back even a little bit more in the history for those who aren't as familiar.

Famous Studios Origins And The Move

Thad Komorowski 7:22

Sure. So famous came about in about 1941. Um the Fleishers were in Miami at that point. They were deep in production on Mr. Bug Goes to Town and starting off the Superman series, and they signed a really bad deal with Paramount that effectively just took the studio away from them. And eventually by the end of the year, um, the Flaishers were gone. There could be a whole podcast and a whole book honestly about that subject, but that is what it happened. And basically, the second the Flaishers were gone, Paramount decided we gotta have the operation back in New York City almost as soon as they were gone. I have the paperwork and it showed that they were coming back like January 1942. They decided okay, we gotta get it back. And they came in bits and pieces, the operation. But there's a few on this disc that are transitionary. Um, I think it's no mutton for nothing and the henpecked rooster, and I think maybe suddenly it's spring were started in Miami. Henbecked Rooster, absolutely, because people have been commenting on the uh very poor quality of the soundtrack. Uh Jack Mercer does most of the voices, and it sounds like he was recorded in a bathroom. It's so echoey. And yeah, that's the source. I don't have the spreadsheet in front of me, but that is off of 35 master material for the soundtrack. So it it always sounded that bad.

Tim Millard 8:57

Well, then how did you kind of get involved in? I know there's your company, and well, you can give us a little background on that too, but specifically this one, this champion collection.

Thad Komorowski 9:07

Sure. Well, we've been at the freelancing, Samantha and I, for a long time. I started the company many years ago, Sinist, and it's mostly freelancing on other people's projects. And I finally I said, well, I gotta do my own stuff. And last year I did do the uh Aesops Fables, the 1920s volume one, which was originally just gonna be from collector's prints of those Paul Terry silent films, but eventually the opportunity arose to work with Blackhawk Films, which has a very, very substantial archive of all the printing materials for those cartoons, and less than maybe a dozen cases. They even have the camera negatives for cartoons from the 20s, and you can see the difference that makes if you look at the release on those very there were only two on that release from it. And there'll be even more on volume two, um, which is happening. But as far as the famous Studios Champion collection, that arose because um we've been working with uh Jane Fleischer Reed, who with Maurice Alvarado, they started a project called Fabulous Flaisher Cartoons Restored, very green operation, and we slowly, you know, we would not just get you know the silent cartoons from various sources with Coco the Clown, but they made the connection with Paramount Pictures archives, and it's just grown and grown over the years. Um with the the Flaisher Company, uh with Jane's company, we've restored in a matter of less than four years over a hundred and thirty cartoons, mostly from the original negatives, with all the all the material at Paramount Pictures.

Tim Millard 10:53

Well, that Fleischer, uh the work that you've done, is that gonna be coming out on this release?

Thad Komorowski 10:57

It will be coming out soon enough, also via classic flicks, but also through um Jane's company. It's a cart it's a Cartoon Logic Fabulous Flaisher co-production, uh Flaischer Cartoon's Greatest Hits Volume One. Um that's gonna have a lot of heavy hitters on it, you know, and it'll cover the whole Flacia output.

Tim Millard 11:16

We'll we'll get to to talk about that hopefully uh when it comes out that sure. Hopefully.

Thad Komorowski 11:24

Not just yet.

Tim Millard 11:25

Yeah, because we want to focus on this release because I think it's it's so good, and I do appreciate I do appreciate you uh you know having Classic Flick send me a copy so I could look it over. Yeah. Um, I really enjoyed it, and I'm not that familiar. So this was really great for me. And I know that one of the biggies, I think, is you have a lot of first on this release.

Thad Komorowski 11:47

Yes, yeah, that was intentional. Yeah, uh for obviously. But it's also unavoidable because this is the pre-1950 part of the famous output and library, and so they're all gonna be they're gonna be the first appearances anyway, so because they're the earliest cartoons.

Clip 13:11

There are some people who believe in ghosts, and there are some people who don't. If you're the believe in ghosts kind, then this story is about one. And if you're the don't believe in ghosts kind, well, just for fun, this story is about one anyway. His name was Casper, and he was surely the most unusual ghost there ever was, or wasn't, depending on how you feel about it. Every night at the stroke of twelve, his brothers and sisters scampered out joyously to frighten the folk of the neighborhood. He's gonna have to stay home and not fight the people, which goes to show how unusual he really was.

Tim Millard 14:17

Well, our good friend animation historian Jerry Beck, he's a big fan of Casper.

Thad Komorowski 14:22

He is, he is.

Tim Millard 14:24

He is, and you had the very first uh Casper cartoon, and that's called The Friendly Ghost from 1945. Tell us a little bit about you know bringing that to this release.

How The Champion Collection Happened

Thad Komorowski 14:33

Uh well, it was a must, and it was a must to put all three of the 40s Casper cartoons on it. It's because he's the most popular of the famous characters, is um Jerry aptly says in his commentary, it's the one character that uh famous studios uh came up with, well bought, and Jerry goes into that in his commentary, but it's their one quote unquote original creation that people on the street still remember today. Even if it's not from the 40s and 50s Casper cartoons, they know who Casper is. So it was definitely very important to get um those three cartoons on these on this uh yeah, and going back and actually seeing it and seeing it restored, it's a uh it's kind of a charming uh is kind of the word for it uh story.

Tim Millard 15:25

And uh obviously compared to a lot of the more snarky or you know kind of uh cartoons that come from the Looney Tunes or even from the you know Black Ian Wolfie style, it's very different.

Thad Komorowski 15:39

Yeah, and that's something that famous really did do. And the point I try to get across is that they did do their Warner type of cartoons, but they also aimed at varied audiences in a way that Warner's and MGM by that point anyway didn't really do. Um, you have the typical, you know, wise guy style things with uh Blackie and Wolfie and Herman the Mouse and uh baby Huey, but you also have ones that are very much more directed at children. You have Casper, you have Little Lulu, you have little Audrey, and you also have the Follow the Bouncing Ball screen songs, which were not happening at any other studio, of course, because Paramount had the bouncing ball that the Flaishers had come up with.

Tim Millard 16:34

And did these were these shown theatrically?

Thad Komorowski 16:38

Oh yeah, they were all thrown shown theatrically. These are all theatrical cartoons, yes.

Tim Millard 16:43

Yeah, with the Paramount releases, I'm assuming. Yeah. When we talk about some of the others, they're they're made more for adults and and then if kids are in the audience. Were these played primarily in front of movies aimed for kids?

Thad Komorowski 16:55

Um, I mean, that'd be a better question for someone like Jerry or that, but it didn't really matter. They just they showed up where they showed up. That's what a lot of people don't get about the golden age of animation, is that like these would show up wherever. The famous stuff, of course, was very popular for the kitty matinees, the cartoon festivals and things like that. I do get into that on one of the tracks of the uh Casper cartoons with Rob Waldman, who is the son of Myron Waldman, one of the main Flaisher and famous animators and de facto directors. They did reuse a lot of the same story beats and plot points and dialogue beat for beat. Um, you kind of see that in on this disc, as a matter of fact, because uh the second Casper, there's a good booze tonight, is kind of point-for-point remade as a haunting we will go. Uh just different setting, different characters, different small animal character. But as Rob said, like that was really a thought that children craved repetition. And that's what they did. Um and they a lot of people don't understand, too, is that this was not the same as today's era where you can have all these at the click of a button or on a single disc. You'd see a cartoon, whether it was Bugs or Tom and Jerry or Casper, you know, once a year maybe. Like that's what that and that's what you get. You don't you don't you never saw it again.

Speaker 18:27

Yeah.

Thad Komorowski 18:28

You know, it's like after their week run, that was it. You know, they would take advantage of that, uh, some more than others. I mean, people don't really get what lightning in a bottle, the Warner cartoon studio really was. And people will say, you know, well, you know, they made their repetitious series too, but they didn't make five or six Pepi LePews or Roadrunners a year, versus where famous or in say Terry Tunes, they would make five or six of the same cartoons year after year.

Speaker 19:02

Yeah.

Thad Komorowski 19:02

So it can be unfair to watch these in mass, but I think I did a pretty good job curating a varied selection here, uh, which was intentional.

Clip 19:16

Would you like to see the means all minute?

Speaker 1 19:27

Would you rather be a mule? A mule is an animal with funny ears. He picks up at anything. His back is froggy, but his brain is weak. He just plays to it with the stuff and streak and by the way if you hate to go to sleep.

Clip 19:47

You make want to be a mule!

Casper And Famous’s Mixed Audiences

Tim Millard 19:49

There's another first which you just mentioned, uh, but let's go into it a little bit more. And uh this first is about with the trout, and that introduces little Lulu from 1947. I thought it had a really inventive take, and of course it has a a message in there as well that kids should stay in school.

Thad Komorowski 20:11

It's actually one of the very last of the Lulus. Um, it's kind of in that period where they're figuring out uh that the character is not worth the money or the returns for the license, and they already had come up with little Audrey at that point, um, who appeared in a one-off cartoon called Santa Surprise. And the following year they gave her her own sub-series in the novel tunes releases. But yeah, the Bout with the Trout, it's probably the most beloved of the Lulus and the most remembered because of the Swingin' on a Star Song, which was a Paramount-owned song. And just like Warner's and MGM, uh, the famous cartoons, and earlier the Fleischer releases, they would incorporate the Paramount Library of music all the time. For some reason, they didn't do it with the screen songs when they revived the series at Famous. They would always do a lot of public domain hits and staples instead, but I digress.

Tim Millard 21:10

Yeah, I'm with everybody else. I love swinging on a star. That's such a fun song from that era. And then the way it's integrated into this uh uh cartoon is is fantastic.

Thad Komorowski 21:21

Yeah, it's a it's a very fun one, yes.

Tim Millard 21:23

Yeah, really fun.

Clip 21:30

And little Audrey ain't gonna eat her lunch again. Um little Audrey. Now you sit right down and eat your lunch, and no more candy.

Tim Millard 21:57

You just mentioned it, but the the little Audrey one, butterscotch and soda.

Thad Komorowski 22:02

Butterscotch and soda, yes. That is the sole little Audrey on this, um, and my favorite. A lot of this disc was trying to get most of my favorites onto this release if it was potentially a one-off. At least I got all my favorites onto it. But yes, butterscotch and soda, that is the best little Audrey. It is essentially what uh de facto director Al Yukster said was a parody, or at least uh inspired by The Lost Weekend. Um, Little Audrey essentially goes through drug withdrawal and has a nightmare. And uh yes, it's one of the most colorful releases. Um I think people will really enjoy it.

Tim Millard 22:46

You just said colorful, but it's a feast for the eyes. Yeah. You've got all of this candy, you've got the chocolate road, you've got like you've got the candy candy. Like it's so fantastic and beautiful and colorful. I'm just curious when it came to the restoration, uh was it a lot of work to get those colors back?

Thad Komorowski 23:04

Or no, that's what's funny. About working with camera negatives, especially at this point, it's just so good. These guys knew what they were doing by this point with color timing, that it does not take a lot of work. The colors just pop right away. It it can go wrong, absolutely, but these were a joy to work with. Yes.

Tim Millard 23:27

I'm always amazed, and whether it be from whatever studio, but when you can see these cartoons from the 30s or 40s or 50s, and because you can you go back to the camera negative, how good they look after all of these years. They look like they were made much more recently.

Thad Komorowski 23:45

Yeah, people don't get it. You're seeing these better than they did in theaters, obviously. But you know, that's the privilege we have with today's technology.

Tim Millard 23:54

Yeah. Well, one thing about the butterscotch and soda that I did want to mention is that at the beginning you put up a little graphic that it has racial stereotypes.

Thad Komorowski 24:05

Yeah, I I did do that for that one and um the raggedy and uh suddenly it's spring. It's something you kind of have to do to cover your bases.

Tim Millard 24:16

Now I understand that from like you know, from the studio standpoint and everything too. But did that impact this Butterscotch and soda from being released, like it kind of did with you know, the Warren Brothers ones with uh Tom and Harry?

Thad Komorowski 24:30

Less so with these because they were public domain staples for so many years, and they were just always on these garbage collections with no real curation. So they just dumped them, you know, we go into Warner's all this in rabbit stew is probably the most common bugs bunny on any on any VHS tape. So I don't think they had as withheld distribution as the Warner material, but because of that public domain.

Tim Millard 24:59

Yeah, the public domain access to what it's like.

Thad Komorowski 25:02

Yeah, anyone they would just put it on willy-nilly.

Tim Millard 25:05

Right. Thad, there's another fun one that I did want to ask you about, and that is Campus Capers from 1949.

Thad Komorowski 25:12

It's got this these mice from Harvard versus versus Knucklehead from Quinston. Quinston. Yeah, it's um it's a predecessor to the Herman and Catnip series. Uh Catnip the Cat hadn't been created yet. This is with Herman the Mouse solo, uh, finally voiced by Arnold Stang, who was probably the best part of that character because he's really a miserable, vindictive character. Nowhere near as appealing as the mice in the other studios films, but um he has his charm thanks to uh Arnold Stang's work. But this one was directed by Bill Titla of the The Disney legend. He spent most of the 40s at famous directing, and you know, that was sort of the theory. Oh, we're gonna get some of the Disney magic if we hire Bill. If there is a volume two, I'm definitely gonna make it a priority to put a lot more tight on that one. Campus Capers It Holds a Place My Art. It's the first non-Popeye famous cartoon I ever saw as a kid. I think it's a very funny one. Um, as I get into the commentary, it was kind of Titla making a Mighty Mouse cartoon, which he did do over at Paul Terry's studio, who was one of his first employers, and he went back after Disney's for a year with a big salary, and Paul Terry decided, well, I'm gonna slash the budget, and to do that, I'm gonna get rid of Bill Tytla. So Bill went immediately over. I think the anecdote he ran out holding back tears, and he just went right into famous studios and got a directing job right away. Um, but this one is really funny. It's got a very tasteless gaslighting gag involving tongue meat. It's just a really funny one. I think the dynamic is a little better than catnip because uh knucklehead is more of a threat. Um, it's basically just Pluto as a cat. Same voice, After Jackson Beck, but it's a really funny one. It's one that a lot of us like because of uh you know the school rivalry is now a cat and mouse rivalry. So I I think that I think people will have a lot of fun with this one.

Tim Millard 27:18

Yeah, it it's a lot of fun. The the whole school rivalry really takes me back to anything from that era.

Thad Komorowski 27:25

Right.

Tim Millard 27:26

Everybody just wore their their pride of their school on their sleeves. So well, you mentioned this already, but let's talk a little bit about Quackadoodle Doo from 1960 with Baby Huey.

Thad Komorowski 27:37

Yes. Tell us about that. Very first baby Huey, beautifully restored by Samantha and I. Um, yeah, it's just a really funny, almost uh tragic story about the misbegotten hero.

Tim Millard 27:53

Yeah, yeah. It's like the it's like it's a little bit of that the outcast, the ugly duckling, the you know, this element of you're too big, you're too ugly, you're too whatever. That outcast. Uh, it's a good one.

Little Lulu And Little Audrey Picks

Thad Komorowski 28:05

That has another great commentary track by Bob Jakes, who actually did direct Baby Huey um in the 90s with the revival series and did get to work with Sid Raymond, the original voice of Baby Huey, and he talks a bit about that on the track.

Tim Millard 28:20

Well, let's talk about that for a second, and that is the audio commentaries. How many are on here, and how did you go about selecting the folks?

Thad Komorowski 28:27

Unintentionally, every cartoon has an audio commentary track. I hope people don't get disappointed with future Cartoon Logic releases because both this famous and Aesops Volume 1 have a commentary track on every cartoon. With Aesops, that was by design, but with this one, it just happened that way. I filled in a couple on my own. Of course, I had Jerry Beck do a bunch because he is the sole main defender of famous studios in the historian world. I mentioned Bob Jakes, um, who is also another historian of famous, along with being a professional animator and animation director. Um we have animator and cartoonist Mike Gonzala on a few of the tracks with Jerry because he's a big fan of these cartoons and their color and layout work. And there's also Will Friedwald, another historian defender of Famous. Um he interviewed a ton of the famous alumni in the early 80s when they were still around. And that's how we have as much historical knowledge as we do of famous, is because Will and sometimes with Jerry interviewed these guys. And we also have uh Rob Waldman on the cartoons that his father de facto directed, the uh Bout with the Trout and the two uh second two Caspers.

Tim Millard 29:49

Yeah, it's uh it's terrific to have that, like you say.

Thad Komorowski 29:52

I kind of wanted to because commentaries become a lost and misunderstood art on these discs. It's not just so much to hear my own voice, um, it's just that um I've said this to a few podcaster friends, but and have lamented, but people just don't read anymore. And they like their podcasts and they like their audio commentaries. So a lot of this is unwritten and unrecorded history. That's why my cohort Charlie Judkins and I did a commentary on every one of the easeups fables on that disc because it's getting the history of Paul Terry's early days out there. And with this famous Studios Champion collection, that's what I wanted to do. Uh, I wanted to have as many people as possible get the story of famous out.

Tim Millard 30:42

Well, I I I personally think it's fantastic. And you know, you should always watch the cartoon first without the commentary because that way you can interpret it for yourself. But the nice thing about commentaries on cartoons or short films like this, I find is that when you watch the cartoon first, it feels nice and long. When you watch it, or when I watch it again with audio commentary, it it zips by. Number one, you've already seen it. And number two, that commentary just is like so quick, it's only like six minutes or whatever it is, the length. And you guys pack so much into that, whether it be your own opinion or some history or a little bit of fun facts or whatever. Uh it just goes. And I found that when I went back and I started listening to the commentaries, time just went very quickly. And I love having it there. And yeah, it's it's the world we live in. People like to hear it, but commentaries are not just the same because you're watching the actual cartoon. So you're getting the two visual and audio inputs. Right.

Thad Komorowski 31:48

And that's someone something a lot of people would tell us, uh, me and Bob Jakes about our podcast. Like, oh, I wish you had a video component. It's like, well, pay us, but um we uh with the this is kind of the best of both worlds.

Tim Millard 32:02

Yeah, yeah, yeah. People are enjoying that. So well, I'm curious about uh the restoration challenges on reading, writing, and arithmetic from 1948.

Thad Komorowski 32:13

That was uh technically quote unquote lost film for many years. It wasn't hard to get because it's been at Paramount all these years, but in that period, uh specifically that year 1948, a lot of the studios had a lot of mishandling of the materials because Technicolor had a huge labor shortage and there were a lot of uh attempts to use other color processes. Rhythmatic is in Polarcolor, which was Polaroid Corporation's uh, you know, color process their solution to uh bypassing Technicolor. It didn't last terribly long, but it allowed them to get the cartoons out cheaper and faster. Um, it was mostly screen songs and Popeye cartoons produced in it. But because they were using a lot of inexperienced people or disorganized people, uh, materials would often go missing or parts would go missing. You know, as you've probably talked with George Feltenstein about um some challenges with cartoons from that particular year. Um even one of the Warner cartoons produced in Cinecolor went completely is completely missing the negative right now, uh Riffraffy Daffy. So there's no exception. Um, it has nothing to do with lack of trying with us in the modern era. It was just like that, it went missing before most of us were born.

Tim Millard 33:42

So I think Jerry said this many times that when these were shown theatrically, I mean there was no thinking of hey, TV or the double skin.

Restoration Choices And Content Warnings

Thad Komorowski 33:51

No, they were treated like they were treated like newspapers, you know, like the funny papers, you know. It's like up, that's it, you're done. So it's amazing that as much survives as it does. I mean, telling tales out of school, but you know, for most uh it goes much earlier, but most of the early black and white Disney cartoons, um, the negatives don't exist for a very large percentage of them. So it's just a shame, but it's also we have to be grateful for what showed up. But back to arhythmic, I think part of the issue was the cyan separation for part of the cartoon was missing, and they never bothered to make further prints because of that reason, and it was not part of the sale of the television in 1955 for that reason.

Speaker 34:41

Yeah.

Thad Komorowski 34:41

Um but we did um produce it's just a short it's less than a minute of the cartoon. Eric Grayson and I did a very nice well, mostly Eric, who did that Herculean King of the Congo restoration, that early serial with Boris Karloff that's been just a mi masterpiece of restoration work. He did a recreation of the optical that you know just would not look right without the cyan at all. So he basically recolored it from scratch and did I think I think it looks very good. And um, yeah, so that's that was the challenge with arithmetic. Um unfortunately we couldn't find an actual you know 35 nitrate or any release print, so we had to use the uh separation positives for that one. And that goes into another one of the most quote unquote mostly lost cartoons that I featured as a bonus feature, Cat O9 Ales. The negative survives completely, um, but it was a Cinecolor release, and this is what I said to Eric. I just said it's 1948 Cinecolor, he's like, up, you don't have to tell me any further. The soundtrack is completely missing. We think it went missing going back to 1948 when it came out. Cinecolor probably never returned the track negative. So if it's out there, I don't know of it at any major archive, I don't know of any prints of this cartoon at any major archive. People say, Well, there's a there's a print at UCLA. It's like, no, that is the negative that is listed in the online database. And I was very fortunate to get it out. I was also very fortunate that the uh dialogue transcript survived in the copyright synopsis, so I was able to have subtitles for it to tell you what Buzzy and Sam the Cat are saying in this cartoon.

Tim Millard 36:36

Yeah, yeah. Well, that's part of the bonus uh materials. And let's just talk about uh some of the other stuff that you have there. You already mentioned the audio commentaries, but let's uh dive into this Spree for All from 1940.

Commentaries And “Lost” Cartoons

Thad Komorowski 36:48

Spree for all, yes. That is the soul Snuffy Smith cartoon produced in the 1940s, uh de facto directed by Jim Tyre. It's the only Tire cartoon featured that was not for uh lack of trying. I know Jim Tyre is a very popular figure, he's one of my favorite animators. Um just think of like the Wildest Warner cartoon, and then think of that ten times wilder and weirder. That's Jim Tyre in a nutshell. Tyre mostly worked on the Popeyes at Famous, and he did a great job on them. Um they're all featured on the uh Fantastic Warner Archive sets of the Popeye cartoons. But Spree for All, that was a casualty of the policy that King Feature Syndicate had that the negatives and materials had to be destroyed after 10 years for their licensed properties. That's affected a lot of material. That's why the Barney Google cartoons from Columbia from the 30s are all missing. Fortunately, the one exception to the rule was Popeye. So they do have the materials on that one still. But um, it's kind of a nothing cartoon, as uh Jerry and Mike say on the commentary track. It's kind of a hillbilly 101 gags picture, but I just thought I had access to it through my friend Jericho. He accessed the best surviving element right now, known uh known to all of us. It's over at the uh BFI. Um it's a 35 black and white print. It's unrestored, it's raw. I didn't want to put in the manpower to clean it up if you know miraculously some Cinecolor print might show up of it one day.

Tim Millard 38:28

Right. Yeah. Well, it it's still I I enjoyed it that it was on there. Now you just mentioned all the work that goes into this. Tell me a little bit about that.

Thad Komorowski 38:37

Paramount provides the scans of the picture negative or whatever the case may be. We get the scan of the audio track, and it's up to us to put it all together, which in the case of these color cartoons, it's combining the separation exposure negatives, grading it, doing any stabilization, doing any cleanup, doing any flicker mitigation, and then restoring the audio, which is uh the genius uh Ray Fayola's job. He's been doing all the sound work for this famous release, and he's been doing all the sound work for Jane Flaischer's project. I will say that working with the separations is honestly a godson because they get pretty clean already. They're pretty stable as is because the prints were not made off of the negatives, they were made off of a generation or two later. So it has the benefit of working with the camera negatives. But there's a lot of sweat, blood, and tears into this set. I think we did a fantastic job, Samantha and I, and Ray and uh a few others that have worked on this. And uh yeah, I'm just very happy that it's done. And I definitely would love for Cartoon Logic to do further uh famous studios releases.

Tim Millard 40:03

And I take it that's you know, like everything, dependent on how sales go.

Thad Komorowski 40:06

The sales have been very good so far. Um, and I think a second volume is definitely in the realm of possibilities. It will not be for a while. I am not going to give any ballpark or any kind of date, but it is more likely than not.

Tim Millard 40:25

Am I correct that this, you know, this title is going to be a little bit more for hardcore?

Thad Komorowski 40:31

It's definitely a more esoteric set, but you know, the diehard animation fans are the main buyers of these releases, so they're all going to buy it anyway.

Tim Millard 40:41

Yeah. Yeah. Well, I I think trying to widen the scope of letting people know about it. If you've been buying the, you know, the various releases from the Warner Archive, you've been buying the various classic animation releases from the other studios, um, even like the Woody Woodpecker, you know, uh collection recently that Jerry was uh was uh on the podcast to talk about. And if you're enjoying these, you're gonna enjoy these famous studios collections.

Bonus Features Plus Where To Buy

Thad Komorowski 41:11

Oh yeah, I think I think the uh I'm not to put anything down, but these are much better than a lot of the Walter Lance ones that were just featured on that Blu-ray. Yeah, especially much, much more in the wheelhouse of the golden age of animation when this was full. Because what a lot of people don't realize is that Fleischer and Famous were they they were expensive cartoons. They were they had higher budgets than Warner's, even. And you finally get to see that in these high-quality transfers and restorations because there is a lot of prejudice about famous, you know, that they were too repetitive, too juvenile, too violent, too tasteless, and all accurate charges. But they had a lot of talented people working on these things, and I don't think the very poor quality transfers that have circulated for years have done them any favors.

Tim Millard 42:09

Yeah. If if you're a Tech Avery fan, I think you're gonna really enjoy these Blackie Sheep and Wolfie cartoons, especially. They're they really fit that that mode, that golden era uh of the 40s. And uh those are you have a lot of those on here, so just just those alone, but of course, all the others we've talked about. Yeah, that's a terrific release. Well, hey Tad, uh this has been a lot of fun. I I really thoroughly enjoyed this release. I'm glad we got a chance to talk about it.

Thad Komorowski 42:38

I'm happy to be here and thank you for the opportunity.

Tim Millard 42:41

Yeah, you bet. Well, just a little more information on this release. It is on Blu-ray and DVD. So, those of you who prefer DVD, there is an option for that. The title released April 21st. There are 18 cartoons and 134 minutes, so it's really loaded. And the list price for the Blu-ray is $29.99, the DVD is $24.99. Both are on sale, both on Classic Click, websites and Amazon. That could change, but if you add quickly at it, you'll get that sale price. And as I mentioned earlier, if you enjoyed the text average from the 1940s, if you enjoyed that golden era, there are a lot of cartoons on here that I think we'll fix to use. And then of course there are all of these kinds of special little cartoons of blue and uh the cat screws on there that are just really quick if the rest great test on there as well. That's the mother one stuff. That's a great stuff that's the expert. If you want more information, there are purchase links in the show notes here. That's quite information. That's what until next time.