(1930)
Dir - Walter Lantz
Overall: GOOD
As oddly baffling as any cartoon in the medium's near-infantile age, Spooks is one of the Oswald the Lucky Rabbit ones produced by Walter Lantz Productions after Walt Disney and his producer Charles Mintz split, (Disney being the character's co-creator along with Ub Iwerks). The amiable departure between the two allowed Mintz to eventually work with Universal and Carl Laemmle, Spooks being the eighth Oswald cartoon released there. Problematic to explain, there is a phantom guy trying to win over a cat who is auditioning for a singing gig in an auditorium, with various other Halloween-esque imagery haphazardly thrown in as well as flatulence, risque site-gags, characters seeping through floorboards like liquid, a Lon Chaney moment, and all ending on a completely random dad joke as out of place as anything else that happens. Drugs folks, drugs.
(1931)
Dir - John Foster/George Stallings
Overall: MEH
Before there was Tom and Jerry there was, well, Tom and Jerry. Produced by another New York City based company Van Beuren Studios and distributed through RKO, a comparatively small number of cartoons featuring the characters were made in just shy of a two year period before being rebranded as Dick and Larry as not to be confused with that lovable and violent cat and mouse duo that would emerge the following decade. The pair's first short Wot a Night has a cloud demon who plays a castle like an organ, a whistling skeleton taking a bath, a group of singing skeletons in black face, and the title characters running around with their rib cages exposed at the end. It is a hodgepodge to be sure, but an interesting enough one for cartoon scholars all the same.
(1933)
Dir - Len Lye
Overall: MEH
Fitting snugly in the unintentionally "guh-yah!" type of creepy, The Peanut Vendor was made by New Zealand experimental artist Len Lye, (though there is some confusion circulating that it was a David Fleischer production with there being an entry in his studio's Screen Songs series with the same title). Intended as a mere prototype to achieve funding for future stop-motion animations which never came to pass, it has since been made available to the public from a 16mm transfer allegedly done in the 1980s. In any event, it is innocent enough in construction, featuring a monkey singing and dancing to the Red Nichols' 1931 jazz single. Yet the monkey in question has startling googly eyes, overly-long arms and a tail, and his jerky motions and perpetual grin all to the tune of such cheerful music makes it just a bit nightmarish to say the least.
(1933)
Dir - Ladislas Starevich
Overall: GOOD
Two versions exist currently of Ladislas Starevich/Władysław Starewicz' The Mascot, (aka The Devil's Ball), the butchered, twenty-five minute cut made by distributors in 1934 unfortunately being the most commonly available compared to the original forty minute one that has been restored as Fetiche 33-12 in 2012. Even in its incomplete form, it is still a startlingly well done and dreadfully imaginative work from one of the most influential stop-motion animators of all time. The first in a series of films featuring an adorable toy dog named Fétiche, (Duffy in the English dubbed version), it begins innocently enough with him simply wanting to locate a fresh orange for his creator's daughter, only to find himself in a supernatural junkyard where Satan and various other characters are the causes or recipients of devilish mischief. The edited version makes these tone shifts seem more abrupt than they originally where, but they also give it more of an avant-garde feel which is certainly beneficial.
(1933)
Dir - John Foster/George Stallings
Overall: MEH
Returning to the not-cat-and-mouse Tom and Jerry, The Magic Mummy was the second of the duo's shorts made by Van Beuren Studios in 1933 and one of the last overall cartoons to feature them. Equipped with an odd opening of an entire police force singing and dancing to a jovial jazz tune, (sung by two very overweight, effeminate officers for some reason), it gets even stranger as the title characters investigate an underground lair where a society of skeletons kidnap mummies who either are or are turned into beautiful, singing maidens that perform in a giant theater for their amusement. It gets points for being rather daft, but definitely feels out of date with none of the humor coming off as anything except lame and kinda vanilla. Skeletons must have been easier to animate than one would think though due to the huge abundance of cartoons of the day that relied on them.
(1937)
Dir - Frank Tashlin
Overall: MEH
This early Porky Pig short from Warner Bros. was made during the Leon Schlesinger-produced run, a period which introduced the character two years prior in I Haven't Got a Hat. The Case of the Stuttering Pig is a parody of the Perry Mason film The Case of the Stuttering Biship, (also by Warner Bros.), and is one of the earliest Looney Tunes' to featuring a horror element. A fiendish lawyer, (what a stretch), takes a Jekyll and Hyde potion clearly labeled for convenience to turn into a towering monster, all with the master plan of kidnapping Porky and his family who have just inherited their dead uncle's fortune. There is some slightly amusing forth wall-breaking, but it still pales in comparison overall to future Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies that would put practically all other comedy cartoons of their day to shame.
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