1940's

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1940's cartoons

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" Seven Wise Dwarfs is an educational short animated film made by the Walt Disney Studios, and commissioned by the National Film Board of Canada, released theatrically on December 12, 1941 as a short film for educating the Canadian public about war bonds during World War II. The short features the seven dwarfs from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 4 years after the characters made their screen debut. " (Source:Wikipedia)

" The Woody of early days is a truly deranged-looking animal. His buggy eyes look in different directions, and his head is all angles and sharp points. However, the familiar color scheme of red head and blue body is already in place, as is the infamous laugh: "Heh-heh-heh-HEH-heh!" Woody is perhaps the best example of the new type of cartoon character that was becoming popular in the early 1940s -- a brash, violent aggressor who pesters innocents not out of self defense, but simply for the fun of it. Woody's original voice actor, Mel Blanc, would stop performing the character to work exclusively at Warner Bros., where he had already established the voices of two other famous "screwball" characters who preceded Woody, Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny. Ironically, Blanc's characterization of the Woody Woodpecker laugh had originally been applied to a "primordial" Bugs-like rabbit ("Happy Rabbit") and then transferred to Woody. Blanc's regular speaking voice for Woody was much like the early Daffy Duck, minus the lisp. Woody's own voice was taken over by Ben Hardaway after his first four cartoons. " (Source : Wikipedia)

" The cartoon begins with the fattened version of Elmer Fudd prospecting for gold, singing "Oh! Susanna", except that instead of 1849, the cartoon is set during World War II, with the implication that Elmer hopes to donate the gold to the war effort: "Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me, 'cause I'm going to dig up wots of gold, 'V for Victowy!"

"Through much of its history, Terrytoons studio was considered one of the lowest quality houses in the field to the point where Paul Terry noted, "Disney is the Tiffany's in this business, and I am the Woolworth's." To that end, it had the lowest budgets and it was among the slowest to adapt to new technologies such as sound (in about 1930) and Technicolor (in 1942), while its graphic style remained remarkably static for decades. This conservative attitude was aggravated by its inflexible release schedule which Paul Terry took pride for providing a new cartoon every other week, regardless of the cost to the quality of the films. Popular series during this period included Mighty Mouse, Heckle and Jeckle, Gandy Goose, Dinky Duck, Little Roquefort and The Terry Bears. Despite these practices, Terrytoons was nominated four times for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film" (Source : Wikipedia)

" Education for Death: The Making of the Nazi is an animated short film produced by Walt Disney and released on January 15, 1943 by RKO Radio Pictures. It was directed by Clyde Geronimi and principally animated by Ward Kimball. The short is (loosely) based on the book by Gregor Ziemer. The cover of that book appears as the short's title card. " (Source : Wikipedia)

"Droopy first appeared in the MGM cartoon Dumb-Hounded, released by MGM on March 20, 1943 which is considered one of Avery's best works by animation scholars. Droopy's first scene is when he saunters into view, looks at the audience, and declares "hello all you happy people...you know what? I'm the hero." In the cartoon, Droopy is tracking an escaped convict and is always waiting for the crook wherever he turns up. Droopy's meek, deadpan voice and personality were modeled after the character Wallace Wimple on the radio comedy Fibber McGee and Molly; actor Bill Thompson, who played Wimple, was the original voice of Droopy. " (Source : Wikipedia)

"Casper was created in the early-1940s by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo. Intended initially as the basis for a children's storybook, there was initially little interest in their idea and when Reit was away on military service during the Second World War, Oriolo sold the rights to the character to Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios animation division, for which he had occasionally worked. The Friendly Ghost, the first Noveltoon to feature Casper, was released by Paramount in 1945. In the cartoon, Casper is a cute, pudgy ghost-child, who prefers making friends with people instead of scaring them. " (Source : Wikipedia)

Notable shorts from the wartime period include the so-called Army shorts, seven films that follow Donald's life in the US Army from his drafting to his life in basic training under sergeant Pete to his first actual mission as a commando having to sabotage a Japanese air base.

" Barney Bear was a series of animated cartoon short subjects produced by Metro-Goldwyn Mayer. The titular character was an anthropomorphic cartoon character, a sluggish, sleepy bear who often is in pursuit of nothing but peace and quiet." (Source: Wikipedia)

" The Wee Men" AKA "Leprechaun's Gold" tells the story of Leprechauns who make shoes for the poor. When the youngest reaches manhood, he insists on making the delivery. However, a local crook makes plans to catch him so he'll lead him to their crock of gold" (Source: IMDB)

Mr. Quincy Magoo is a cartoon character created by John Hubley in 1949, for UPA. Hubley based the character on his former professor Francis Peabody Magoun, who bore some physical resemblance to the character. Voiced by Jim Backus (also famed in popular culture for his role as Thurston Howell III in the 1960s sitcom Gilligan's Island), Quincy Magoo is a wealthy, short-statured retiree who gets into a series of sticky situations as a result of his nearsightedness, compounded by his stubborn refusal to admit the problem, in which the affected people (or animals) think that he is a lunatic, rather than just being near-sighted. Mr. Quincy Magoo's first appearance was in the theatrical short cartoon The Ragtime Bear (1949), scripted by Millard Kaufman. Columbia was reluctant to release the short, but did so, only because it included a bear.