Standout Terrytoons

[Der Captain]

They have the cheesiest reputation of all the Golden Age studios, and yet it's longevity, considering Terry's "Quality-be-damned! Get 'em out on schedule!" approach, is remarkable. You can't keep a studio like that going for such a stretch without a few charmers shining through. Even the best Terrytoons make you wonder how much better the other studios could have worked with the same concept, but let's take a look at some of the best. (I'm not counting the work of Gene Deitch and beyond. That should be the subject of a separate post.)

"The Magic Pencil". - The best of the Gandy's, due mostly to a can't miss plot: Gandy Goose acquires a pencil that makes drawings come to life. The animation looks better than usual. Even the non-pencil-related gags are fun, including the radio sucking up the box tops. Sourpuss gets turned on by a "goil" even thinner than Olive Oyl!

"The Banker's Daughter" - Well, nothing great, but interesting as the first of the mellerdrammer send-ups that featured the operatic adventures of Fanny Zilch and Top-hatted Oil Can Harry. They're human characters, but Oil Can would later get a species-change.

"Catnip Capers"(I'm pretty sure that's the right title.) - A cat chasing some of those myriad Terry mice comes across some catnip and starts trippin'! "I wonder what that is."

"Nutty Network" - Spoof of that infamous Orson Welles scare-the-crap-out-everyone-in-radioland "War of the World's" broadcast.

"Love's Labor Won" - When we last left Oil Can Harry, I mentioned he was going to get a species-change and he did. Now he's a cat battling Mighty Mouse. Still singing too.

"The Power of Thought" - The most famous Heckle and Jeckle film. They decide to take advantage of the ephemeral nature of cartoons and this time anything can REALLY happen.

"Dancing Shoes" - Another H&J. It's just funny.

[Thad]

Other stand-out Terrytoons for me (there aren't that many of them...):

HECKLE & JECKLE: The Uninvited Pests, Hula Hula Land, Log Rollers, House Busters, Blind Date
LITTLE ROQUEFORT: Cat Happy (contains the most insane sneeze ever in animation history by Jim Tyer)
MIGHTY MOUSE: Triple Trouble, Spare the Rod
GANDY & SOURPUSS: Post-War Inventions, Dingbat Land
Others: The Helpful Geni

[Pietro]

As much as I enjoy them, I never really considered any Terrytoon to be a "stand-out" from the rest. No offense to any hardcore Terry-fans here (and I know that there are some), but I always felt that most of them just seem to be repetitive (even Jim Tyer's animation, as great as it is, gets a little tiresome after awhile). I can't watch more than three Terrytoons in a row from the same time period.

Again, this is just my opinion. You are welcome to disagree if you like. :)

-Pietro:daffy:

[Thad]

The thing that gets me is that you CAN'T tell right off the bat whether you're watching a Terrytoon from 1938 or 1952. They all look and sound the same (Jim Tyer's animation the only exception - hey, he's the only guy at Terry who's actually TRYING). I mean, even Lantz and Famous had transitional periods... Terry didn't until Gene Deitch took over.

[Geezil]

The thing that gets me is that you CAN'T tell right off the bat whether you're watching a Terrytoon from 1938 or 1952. They all look and sound the same[...].

Ah, yes, Urban Legend #5500, as also perpetuated by Leonard Maltin. You don't always need Jim Tyer or Gene Deitch to disprove it either, Thad, as I will try to demonstrate shortly in some satisfactory way. (That is, unless I'm beaten to it by Nelson, or Tom Stathes, or Sogturtle Tim, or Jon Cooke, or...!) ;)

[BloodyChamp]

I have only seen a few Terry Toons but "L'Amour the Merrier" was one of them and it was hilarious. A real lost gem... (http://www.bcdb.com/bcdb/cartoon.cgi?film=16293&cartoon=L%27Amour%20The%20Merrier)

[Thad]

I have only seen a few Terry Toons but "L'Amour the Merrier" was one of them and it was hilarious. A real lost gem...

That's actually a Modern Madcap from Paramount/Famous! :huey:

[doctoon]

I like the CBS-Terrytoons best. My standouts are SON OF HASHIMOTO, BROTHER FROM OUTER SPACE, and THE PHANTOM SKYSCRAPER.

[Jon Cooke]

Other stand-out Terrytoons for me (there aren't that many of them...):

HECKLE & JECKLE: The Uninvited Pests, Hula Hula Land, Log Rollers, House Busters, Blind Date
LITTLE ROQUEFORT: Cat Happy (contains the most insane sneeze ever in animation history by Jim Tyer)
MIGHTY MOUSE: Triple Trouble, Spare the Rod
GANDY & SOURPUSS: Post-War Inventions, Dingbat Land
Others: The Helpful Geni

Those are good choices. I also enjoy "Mother Goose's Birthday Party" (Mighty Mouse), "A Hare-Breadth Finish" (one-shot), and "How to Relax" (Dimwit).

Sadly, I don't know the titles of many Roquefort/Dinky Duck/Terry Bear/Gandy Goose/Mighty/H&J off the top of my head, even though I find many of them enjoyable. Sorry, Geezil, I'm a disgrace to the Terry Toonheads. :shame: :p


-Jon

[Sogturtle]

Wellllll right off the top of my head as "standout Terrytoons" are two essentially banned race-related ones...

I speak of the actually very enjoyable "Mississippi Swing" (1941), with various stops being pulled out for this steamboat musical. Much of it is clever, while the concluding slot-machine gag will make you, well, gag...

The other is the one that our friend, Doctoons, mentioned a little while back. Probably the strangest Mighty Mouse ever made, namely "Eliza On Ice", whereon Eliza' is not simply black (with huge feet), but horribly ugly, think Olive Oylsdub-ugly and you'll get the picture... But in the toon we have a giant ice-cube machine making and spewing out the ice floe for Eliza to escape from Simon Legree! And then... Mighy Mouse turns up and joins the battle, finally prevailing and freeing the slaves (forget that Abe Lincoln and the Emancipation Proclamation, it was REALLY Mighty Mouse!:D

[Geezil]

... and as promised/threatened, :p here are just a few other New Rochelle toon treats that, IMO, vary enough in sound and/or art and/or story to beat the "Terry Monotony Curse":

Much Ado About Nothing (Dinky)
The Last Round-Up (Gandy & Sourpuss)
Rival Romeos (Heckle & Jeckle)
All Out for "V" (hey, when you're a Terrytoon, you can't beat getting an Academy Award nomination, now can ya?) :D
Billy Mouse's Akwakade (just count the "don't try this at home, kids" moments)
and, love 'em or hate 'em,
"School Daze" and "Doing Their Bit" (Nancy)!

[Duck Dodgers]

A few of my choices:

FARMER AL FALFA'S APE GIRL
PINK ELEPHANTS
A BATTLE ROYAL
THE NUTTY NETWORK
MISSISSIPPI SWING
ALL OUT FOR V
SOMEWHERE IN EGYPT
GYPSY LIFE
MIGHT MOUSE AND THE PIRATES
KRAKATOA
THE SULTAN'S BIRTHDAY
PREHISTORIC PERILS
THE TALKING MAGPIES
RIVAL ROMEOS
DINGBAT LAND

[Cool Cat]

I've seen only some of Terrytoons cartoons. But, I liked Hula Hula Land (1949), Rival Romeos (1951), The Talking Magpies (1946) and Moose On The Loose (1952). I dunno why, but Terrytoons cartoons aren't very enjoyable. Maybe due to scripts or maybe due to musical score.

I'm looking for a title of Terrytoons cartoon of late 30s~early 40s. This cartoon is about two cats wich they dreams strange things, and in final parts of the cartoon they dream a wich wich appears in some places, and becoming a chicken. I've taped only some seconds of this cartoon in early 90s from Rai Tre, the cartoon was aired with original audio and italian subtitles.

[Tom Stathes]

I've seen only some of Terrytoons cartoons. I dunno why, but Terrytoons cartoons aren't very enjoyable. Maybe due to scripts or maybe due to musical score.
A very dear friend of mine worked for Terry in the 50s and we once discussed the problem with Terrytoons. He blames the music which becomes pretty monotonous when watching more than two 30s entries in succession. Once when I brought The Dancing Bear (1937) to his house and we screened it, he said it was a good cartoon but the bear character had no special "signature" which would make the cartoon special. We also screened a bootleg Puddy the Pup print which had Sharples music tracks instead of the original sountrack, and he thought the music worked better with the cartoons than the tracks they were released with.
I have nothing against Terrytoons though and as many of you know, I'm a big fan!
-Tom

[Jack G.]

"The Power of Thought" - The most famous Heckle and Jeckle film. They decide to take advantage of the ephemeral nature of cartoons and this time anything can REALLY happen.
I watched Terrytoons on TV as a kid and this is one of the few I actually remember. Due to their repetitive nature, Terrytoons are all a haze to me. Heckle and Jeckle seemed to be the best Terrytoon characters that I saw. I didn't care for the Mighty Mouse cartoons due to the "Musical" style those cartoons were generally done in. When most films break into song, I want to change the channel right away.

[Thad]

I didn't care for the Mighty Mouse cartoons due to the "Musical" style those cartoons were generally done in. When most films break into song, I want to change the channel right away.

I actually quite enjoy the melodrama Mighty Mouse parodies, with Pearl Pureheart and Oil Can Harry, with everyone singing. I guess with the singing there was more to work with music score wise (which is the biggest detracting factors on the whole at Terry).

(Though none of the Mighty melodramas beat the underrated Dick Lundy classic, The Flying Jalopy, with its great old-tyme villain parody, Ben Buzzard!)

Also, if anyone thinks I greatly dislike the Terrytoons, I really don't. They're at the bottom on my list of favorite cartoon studios, but they still beat out UPA on the whole in my book.

[cpdavison]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned THE POWER OF THOUGHT with Heckle & Jeckle!

Craig D.

[Duck Dodgers]

Also, if anyone thinks I greatly dislike the Terrytoons, I really don't. They're at the bottom on my list of favorite cartoon studios, but they still beat out UPA on the whole in my book.

This let me think...I will open a thread in which we can speak about a list of our favorite studios and the explanations.

[Jack G.]

I can't believe nobody's mentioned THE POWER OF THOUGHT with Heckle & Jeckle!

Craig D.
Um... I think you need to take a look at the posts above once more.:D

[Jack G.]

They're at the bottom on my list of favorite cartoon studios, but they still beat out UPA on the whole in my book.
I've only seen a few UPA's: Rooty Toot Toot, Gerald McBoing Boing, The Unicorn in the Garden. Those were excellent. When I saw those, it was like a fresh breath of air for me. Somebody had a different take on what a cartoon could be. I haven't seen anything at Terrytoons that rises to that level- at least to my tastes.

[Bartman]

Terrytoons don't rank high on my list either, but the Heckle & Jeckle series is my favorite out of the entire Terrytoons library. I have almost all of the H & J shorts and many stand out:

The Uninvited Pests (another go-round with Farmer Al Falfa and their first with Dimwit)
Free Enterprise (good prison storyline and some excellent Carlo Vinci animation!)
The Stowaways (H & J try to go to Africa)
'Sno Fun (H & J as mounties after Powerful Pierre)
Log Jammers (the return of Powerful Pierre, this time as a lumberjack)
Hair Cut-Ups (H & J as western barbers who 'trim' Dangerous Dan the outlaw)

[Thad]

I've only seen a few UPA's: Rooty Toot Toot, Gerald McBoing Boing, The Unicorn in the Garden. Those were excellent. When I saw those, it was like a fresh breath of air for me. Somebody had a different take on what a cartoon could be. I haven't seen anything at Terrytoons that rises to that level- at least to my tastes.

I like the shorts you listed, but I still think on the whole the studio is very overrated. I don't like the studio when they decided to just do boring Mr. Magoo shorts. They're not BAD cartoons. I just enjoy the Terrytoons more than them, that's all.

[cpdavison]

Um... I think you need to take a look at the posts above once more.:D

:o <EOM>