I managed to get a lot of things resolved yesterday, so when i got home i treated myself to a nap and then watched old time cartoons all night.
Overwhelmed with the need to show everybody, i put my favourite up on here for both your, and my, future enjoyment. I've also opted to write a little in between, so that you cant brand me a total copy-n-paste youtube junky! although you can if you like, cuz its kinda true.
The 1940s cartoons are particularly cute, with their hideously gaudy eyes and incomprensible squeaking ^^
Probably my favourite cartoon was this betty boop one, because it just sums up all a girl could wish to be..
What makes it especially cute, is this was 1935- and we all know what happened next!
The original mickey mouse ones are incredibly surreal, which came into being late 1920's, When ladies wore bold new fashions and art deco was exciting shit. This was my favourite:
They really made me think.. I've heard people claim that the discovery of psychedelic drugs, like LSD, changed the way people thought and opened their minds and all that stuff, but these cartoons imply otherwise.. they predate the drug by a few decades, and suggest society was already quite open minded, and if anything, their work was more 'whacked out' then than we are now.
Also i was really surprised by Minnie Mouse. We like to criticise the past as being judgemental and oppressive to women, but minnie comes off as pretty human and normal. She allows humourously undignifying things to happen to her, like being being picked up on a crane by the pants. She has a normal sense of humour and gets up to all the same things with mickey. She even has a non-gender-specfic hobby, playing the violin! it just really struck me how she makes many female cartoon characters today seem inhumanly over-feminised..
Perhaps i'll be branded an evil feminist for saying this, but it seems an indication that although there were much lower expectations of women back then, especially financially, they were, at least, left alone to be human.
I'm afraid ill also have to include this- partly because it's another favourite character's first appearance, and also because it has an absolutely fantastic ending!
As you may know she used to be a dog (no you know what i mean) and in this episode (excellently titled) you can see her nose fluctuates between being a human and a dog one!
Another thing that fascinates me is how many old cartoons are now banned on the grounds of racism and drug abuse. A lot of the racism ones are quite controversial, all being personal interpretation, so i wont even go there. But some of the 'drug abuse' episodes actually confound me. In this episode for example, the 'drug' being used is laughing gas at a dentists, and the weirdness that follows still just seems like pretty normal 1930's cartooniness. Also, 1934 is still nine years before the discovery of acid, and still another couple of decades before it was used in america..
Furthermore even smoking is potential grounds for censorship too. Is it just me or, if cartoon influence is a real threat, surely that particular cartoon is responsible for a lot worse?
I also had a look to see the oldest cartoon i could find, and all i got was this lousy guy. there were others, groundbreaking in their day.. but frankly too incomprendible to mean anything :s Then i was pleased to find my favourite silent-era character, (ok how many are there to choose from??) from 1919!! 90 years old and a silent film:
felix was the first animated star, popular enough for more animations of him to be commissioned and merchandising to be sold. Mickey Mouse/ Oswald was allegedly inspired by him. cheats! here he is called 'master tom'- he was renamed after the film's success.
It has a pretty sad ending :( These films weren't made with kids in mind! its sad, but as he points out he's got 8 more.
Ok.. one more video.. pleeeeaaaaaasse! This ones from japan, 1933. Pre-WW2 Japan was still very traditional, if you've seen memoirs of a geisha (surprisingly good film) then i guess about that time. I just think it's interesting that it looks so american, unlike japanese anime today.
It's worth bearing in mind that in japanese myth, foxes can shape shift and use magic, as can tanuki, these raccoon-type-creatures. i think the other creature is a raccoon, although it can be mistaken for a felix-clone with round ears!
Also, remember that piece of ww2 american propaganda featuring popeye with the japs i linked to earlier? Well here is a japanese animation also from the war- and people in the comments are debating over whether or not it's japanese propoganda. I have no idea either way, since there's no translation it's a bit of a blind argument.. but its cute none the less.
Well, i best give it a rest there before i do any damage to myself. I might, y'know, start smoking. Or even start inhaling laughing gas!
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