Scooby-Doo, aren't we through with you?

I'm pretty amazed that the Scooby-Doo franchise is making a comeback and seems to be getting popular again. While the various series throughout the years were never any of my favorites, I understand its camp appeal and why people like the characters (I certainly do), and Cartoon Network used to play them A LOT so I was always seeing them. I have a certain fondness for the music of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and for the sheer craziness that is The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo- seriously, who doesn't like Vincent Price's role in that?

I recall that Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island made a big deal out of the monsters being real, and in hindsight it was probably a pretty big step. The monsters were real in 13 Ghosts and all those movies from the '80s, but Zombie Island made it clear that this was a shocker (or at least highly abnormal), and that the gang didn't have to always unmask some yokel in a costume. Since then, it seems like the gang has been able to switch back and forth between fakes and genuine articles with ease. And why not? The whole unmasking was getting kinda jokey.

The direct-to-video and TV movies seemed to breathe some new life into the franchise, and so after so many years of messing with the formula and having to put up with Scrappy, we got the '02 live-action film... which is basically a big wish fulfillment for long-time fans. This was an era of pretending that the gang had reunited after a dry spell (something that certainly appealed to me), and so the logical conclusion was to create a throwback series, which gave us What's New, Scooby-Doo?.

The franchise seems more popular than ever now, even going so far as having alternate continuities and reboots. I notice that The Mystery Begins doesn't mention anything about A Pup Named Scooby-Doo... It would seem that audiences have grown tired of pretending that the gang are continuing their adventures, and are more interested in them simply having new ones- so the universe has completely reinvented itself. Previously we had logical extensions of their base personalities, but now it seems as though WB wants to make them seem like they're real teenagers "just like you", de-emphasizing their outdated fashion sense and emphasizing romantic relationships.

I'm inclined to agree that starting with a clean slate is the best direction that Scooby-Doo can take, considering today's audiences. It was perhaps not the best idea to treat the series like an old fossil that needed cleaning up- as much as that has a certain ironic, nostalgic appeal- and that rather WB should peek at the subconscious decisions made by the original creators that show underneath the surface and expand on them- that is, use the basic personalities of the gang more realistically. Pre-teen and teenage TV viewers like relationships, it would seem.

It seems that Mystery Incorporated, Batman: The Brave and the Bold, and soon Epic Mickey are heralding an era in animation built on reinvention- they're reinventing themselves by looking to the past and revitalizing what was already there but strangely overlooked. I think perhaps what gave these franchises their edge in the first place is what is often forgotten, and what audiences always wanted!

I certainly hope I can say the same thing about The Looney Tunes Show.
UPDATE: I can't.

Random rant

The advertising for Adventure Time is really starting to bug me. The disconnected butchering of dialogue makes it sound like poorly written stream-of-consciousness poetry.

Ice King!
...cold-hearted marauders...!
Lumpy space princess.
Piñata!

I don't care much for the show. I get that it's supposed to be a pastiche of old-school fantasy video games, but for the life of me, I can't tell WHAT sort of fantasy video games they were trying to make fun of. You'd think after all these years of games based on the basic molds set down by Zelda, Final Fantasy, Dungeons & Dragons, and World of Warcraft, a parody of such things would be recognizable as such.

I find the art terribly unattractive- it's like the scribbles of a teenage girl from high school who decided to experiment with marijuana and confused Zelda with the Care Bears or Candyland or something.

I watched an episode and didn't really find it funny- it was more confusing than anything. Worse, the one part I was looking forward to, the scene with the Dream Fish wannabe owl, was a real let-down. I really thought it was going someplace clever, but then it didn't!

I sure hope the episodes with the teenage vampire aren't nearly as disappointing- I get the feeling that I'd like the character. I guess if I really want my fix of fantasy video game parodies, I should stick to webcomics.

Toon Music: America Sings- Modern Times

I think the fourth and final act of America Sings is my least favorite. It covers approximately six-and-a-half decades from the '10s to the early '70s (with the '60s barely making a scratch), a period of accelerated musical evolution, and would be more aptly titled "The Jazz Era and Early Rock 'n' Roll squeezed together plus a recent hit tacked on to the end". It's fairly obvious that Buddy Baker (the musical director) and Marc Davis (the character designer), knew next to zip about rock music, evident in that they assigned the rock 'n' roll songs to hippy-dippy Summer-of-Love musicians. Oldies-revival music was only just beginning with such things as "Crocodile Rock" and American Graffiti. The fact that the '60s is almost completely glossed over also shows ignorance of the genre.

Luckily the songs in this act aren't nearly so obscure as past ones.

"Ja-Da", written by Bob Carleton in 1918.

Toon Music: America Sings- The Gay '90s

The era animators and other filmmakers love, an era of gentility, straw hats, handlebar mustaches, and ragtime piano. This is the era Disneyland's Main Street USA takes place in, though more recently that has been expanded to a broader "old-timey" era, with '00s-'20s and a little bit of '30s, as well as more recent throwbacks (you'll hear songs from The Music Man playing among the authentic tunes). Disney's lack of research shows through again as a few of these songs aren't even from the 1890s.

The third act begins with "She May Be Somebody's Mother", written by William C. Carleton, which is all that I could find out about it.

"The Bowery", music by Percy Gaunt, words by Charles H. Hoyt, part of the Broadway play A Trip to Chinatown.

Don't worry, it's in there somewhere.

Toon Music: America Sings- The Old West

The Old West- where you couldn't throw a rock without hitting somebody singin' a song about hittin' the trail, workin' hard, or that ol' gal I left behind me. This was the time of the Westward Expansion, the Transcontinental Railroad and COWBOYS DADBURNIT.

"Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill", a railway song first published in 1888, and one of those folk tunes that changes lyrics and even melody depending on who's performing it, if these wildly different versions are any indication.

Toon Music: America Sings- The Deep South

America Sings first section showcases the songs of the Southern United States, where popular music began, dramatically shifting the focus of music from classical composers to the melodies of the common man. It was also during this period that the nationalism movement began, and fully orchestrated arrangements of folk tunes began cropping up.

Just a little warning: some lyrics are a tad racist.

"Dixie", traditionally attributed to one Dan Emmett, 1859. Wikipedia, as usual, provides a detailed history that I couldn't possibly summarize.

Toon Music: America Sings- Intro and Send-off

If you've never seen America Sings, here's the basic rundown: At Tomorrowland in Disneyland (Anaheim) from '74 to '88, in the old Carousel of Progress building, Sam the Eagle and Ollie the Owl presented a revue of America's music, from the earliest folk songs to the rock 'n' roll era, sung and performed by animatronic cartoon animals.
Yeah, I know, not exactly animation, but the characters designed by Imagineer Marc Davis for the show might just as well be three-dimensional cartoon characters as far as I'm concerned. And hey, it's Disney!

The show is long gone, but if you want to see it, there is a two-part video on YouTube of the complete farewell performance, or you can just ride Splash Mountain and see the reused characters sing "Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah".

In this first entry, I'll be covering the beginning and end of the show, which both focus on the earliest songs known to Americans, some of which were inherited from our ancestors from the British Isles.

First up: Yankee Doodle. I think Wikipedia can explain this better than I ever could.


"Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", often heard and punned on in Looney Tunes. Written by Stephen Foster in 1854.


"Pop Goes the Weasel", another folk song of uncertain origins and even more uncertain meaning, best known as the tune that plays on every jack-in-the-box ever. Ollie sings the American lyrics, as any patriotic owl should. Alvin's first encounter with psychedelic drugs seems an oddly appropriate accompaniment:


"Auld Lang Syne", the "New Year's Eve song". Words written by Robert Burns in 1788, the music being a traditional melody. As she is wont, Julies Andrews provides a lovely, sincere rendition:
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x288b8_ja-show-auld-lang-syne_news

And finally, for the exit music, a lively '70s soul version of Sousa's "Stars and Stripes Forever", which I've already covered in a previous entry.

Next up: the Ol' South!

Toon Music: "Kingdom Coming"/"The Year of Jubilo"

Song whistled by Daws Butler's wolf in the Tex Avery cartoons The Three Little Pups and Billy-Boy. Composed by Henry Clay Work c. 1863.



Sheet music:
http://www.gutenberg.org/files/21566/21566-h/images/kingdom.pdf

Toon Music: Hi-ho, Tinfoil!

The William Tell Overture, composed by Gioachino Rossini in 1829, best known as the theme song for the Lone Ranger.

First and second movements:

The second movement should be instantly recognizable, and is pretty much always used to accompany wild thunderstorms.

Third and fourth movements:

Again, both movements are instantly recognizable, being used to accompany daybreak and Western action, respectively.

Toon Music: The Minah Bird

Felix Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, Op. 26 (aka Fingal's Cave), composed in 1830, as heard in Chuck Jones' series of Inki cartoons, accompanying the odd yet menacing skip of the mynah bird.

The curious tale of Ringy Roonga and Freddy Fox

Children's comic books have the uncanny tendency to transform licensed characters who- in their original medium, be it film, TV, what have you- typically did little beyond get into a conflict of some sort and proceed to do some gags around the premise for about 9 minutes. Plots weren't exactly complex. In the comics, your favorite characters, ranging from Donald Duck to Howdy Doody, traveled to far-off lands, encountered fantastic creatures, and met strange people for up to 56 pages. As near as I can tell, this trend began in 1930 with the first Mickey Mouse newspaper strips, which took Plane Crazy and eventually turned it into Mickey winding up lost on a desert island (although it wouldn't be until "Race to Death Valley" that it would move beyond the gag-a-day format). The animated Donald throws a tantrum over a box of cake mix, whereas comic book Donald discovers the lost city of Camdenia.

Even more remarkable is when these writers and artists take these characters and breathe such life into them as to create their own universe with a full cast of characters and places that last for years and even decades in print, without ever being seen on the big or small screen in motion. Famous as he is, Scrooge McDuck only appeared once animated in his long career before DuckTales and Mickey's Christmas Carol even existed (Scrooge McDuck and Money, 1967), and one need only take a look at his page on INDUCKS to see his worldwide popularity- with thousands and maybe even more appearances in comics the world over. It's hard to believe that he was originally created by one man as a one-off villain.

One curious off-shoot of this phenomenon is that every now and then the characters chosen aren't very popular or even that well-known. They may have appeared only once, and the average person will never know that their adventures continued elsewhere, hidden from them between the pages of an old comic lying about in some antique store, often not even in English. One of the best-known examples would have to be Sniffles and Mary Jane, who appeared in Dell's Looney Tunes comics for many years.

Sometimes, characters who never even appeared alongside each other on celluloid will team up together and create a surprisingly coherent whole- Disney comics in particular have succesfully blended the worlds of the Three Little Pigs, Brer Rabbit, and Chip 'n' Dale, with the worlds of Snow White, Bambi, and even Bongo occassionally making appearances, all living within the same presumably massive woods.
(These don't always work out, however, and such pairings such as Supergoof and The Jungle Book will pop up, making one wonder how these could have possibly been conceived without the aid of hallucinogens.)

Licensed children's comics are odd ducks. Suffice to say, this particular entry is about one of the odder ducks.

Toon Music Special: Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

"Stars and Stripes Forever", composed by John Philip Sousa in 1986 (briefly featured in an over-the-top rendition by a toon brass band in the Acme warehouse)-



Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2, S.244/2, composed by Franz Liszt in 1847. If there was a "national anthem" for toons, this would be one of the contenders. It first appeared in animation in Disney's 1929 short The Opry House, performed by Mickey Mouse. It's best known for appearing the Warner Bros. shorts Rhapsody in Rivets (1941) and Rhapsody Rabbit (1946), and MGM's The Cat Concerto (the same year- no one's sure who plagiarized who). It's been adapted to lyrics as "Freddy Get Ready" (sung by Bugs Bunny, Doris Day and Jack Carson) in My Dream is Yours (1949) and "Daffy Duck's Rhapsody" (1950, sung by you-know-who).



"Why Don't You Do Right?", written by Kansas Joe McCoy in 1936 (originally titled "Weed Smoker's Dream (Why Don't You Do Now)")-





Lyrics: http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/p/peggylee6999/whydontyoudoright260656.html

"The Merry-Go-Round Broke Down", written by Cliff Friend and Dave Franklin in 1937, best known as the theme tune of the Looney Tunes.



Lyrics: http://lyricsplayground.com/alpha/songs/t/themerrygoroundbrokedown.shtml

"Witchcraft", music by Cy Coleman, words by Carolyn Leigh, 1957 (exactly ten years after WFRR's 1947...)-



Lyrics: http://www.metrolyrics.com/witchcraft-lyrics-frank-sinatra.html

And finally, "Smile, Darn Ya, Smile!", words by Chas O'Flynn and Jack Meskill, music by Max Rich, 1931. Disney probably chose the song because of its appearance in the '31 Merrie Melodie of the same name below:



Here's a little digression on the cartoon above:



And, the song itself-



Lyrics: http://www.jbott.com/smildar.html http://www.ceder.net/recorddb/lyrics.php4

That's all, folks!

Toon Music: "The Daughter of Rosie O'Grady"

Look, I'm dancin'!

Written in 1917 by Walter Donaldson and Monty C. Brice, as featured in 1947's A Hare Grows in Manhattan. The song was also used as the title song of a 1950 Warner Bros. musical film: http://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title.jsp?stid=3808



Lyrics: http://www.ukulelesongs.com/uke/ukulele_chords/music/tabs/Brice_Donaldson/The_Daughter_Of_Rosie_O_Grady.php

Speaking of A Hare Grows in Manhattan, did you know that it was originally based on an illustrated feature in the Dec. 1945 issue of Coronet magazine?: http://www.animationarchive.org/2007/08/illustration-coronet-magazine-1945.html

John K

While I don't dislike John K as a person, as an artist he just turns me off, to tell you the truth. What he does is really just what underground comics did twenty years before Ren and Stimpy, and probably better...

See, my real problem with his art is that he can somehow make the music video for Weird Al's "Close But No Cigar" more violent and disturbing than "Weasel Stomping Day".

I've seen his blog and his comments on Looney Tunes, Preston Blair, and classic cartoons of many eras and mediums, and I must say that he has incredibly good taste when it comes to cartoons. He knows exactly how and why they work and what makes them good, different, and entertaining. I actually agree with the things he says! But from what I've observed, he doesn't apply these methods and philosophies to his own work- it's like the creative side of his brain refuses to listen to the logical side of his brain- what comes out of his pencil doesn't seem to reflect his knowledge and appreciation. He could draw well if he wanted to, but instead he just does everything squishy and distorted and lacking in basic construction.

Instead, in my opinion, he just rips off Bob Clampett and makes what he did as ugly and gross as possible, and makes the gags as disgusting and perverse as possible. Throw in some Basil Wolverton (never one of my favorites), Harvey Kurtzman and Robert Crumb, and you've basically got John K.

Here's the thing: while Clampett did some really insane, weird, and totally whacked-out drawings and gags, none of them fell into the category of gross-out humor. Clampett didn't refer to all the bodily functions and twist once innocent aspects of pop culture into something dark and sick- satire teases culture, it doesn't twist it to its own desires. Clampett just threw out rules of logic and Disney-style refinement and appeal.
And before you say anything, my opinion has nothing to do with a "safe and sanitized upbringing" or anything like that... Even as a small child I found Ren and Stimpy gross and barely watchable, simply because it was... well, gross. I only watched it when nothing else was on. Unlike other children, I didn't find any humor in poop and huge zits and farts- I just found it gross. It makes me wonder if most children try to soften the grossness of bodily functions by laughing at it...

(It's my theory that gross-out humor stems from nervous laughter in reaction to discomfort caused by a fart or a Garbage Pail Kids card, which is then falsely interpreted as genuine laughter. Over time, it becomes a conditioned response.)

I don't think John K's work is very original, either. I go by the philosophy of "there's nothing new under the sun", so it bugs me when they treat him like a pioneer or something, when, like I said, it's just a combination of childish potty humor and Clampett-ish animation. It gets worse when so many other artists copy him down to the last detail, which I doubt is what he ever wanted.
(I admit, though, that I liked his parodies of 1950s advertising and his use of vintage stock music.)

I prefer to go back to the original and actually try to capture some of its essence- I think it's a bad idea to only refer to the art and music of the past five or ten years (to use hyperbole), or even less than that.

Because of this, I find his criticisms of Tiny Toon Adventures to be rather ironic. According to Wikipedia (I wish they would include links to their citations in this case), he dislikes it mainly because the characters are directly based on Looney Tunes characters. Okay, so maybe they're essentially younger versions of them (no one ever said Tiny Toons was a masterpiece), but I personally find them distinguishable enough to not confuse them... it's not like they're the same thing as Baby Looney Tunes. But just because his characters are less specific- Ren is the angry straight man with a Peter Lorre voice, and Stimpy is your typical childish idiot with a Larry Fine voice- doesn't mean he's any less derivative.
He also has a problem with the fact that so many episodes were parodies of popular films. What, and Looney Tunes didn't do that? Parody is one of the staples of Looney Tunes humor. And can John K claim that he never parodied anything? I don't think so...

Myself, I never color myself as a pioneer when it comes to art- more of a "revivalist" than anything. I use art from the past as a springboard for my own ideas. I honestly think that artists should be more honest about themselves and admit that they take inspiration from other people...

Animated masterpieces

The Thief and the Cobbler is like the Yngwie Malsteem of animation. Extremely impressive, masterful, and technical, but a little lightweight on the emotion and storytelling.

Fantasia, on the other hand, is like Jimi Hendrix. Extremely experimental and colorful.

Pinocchio, I would say, is like Brian May, full of passion and emotion and grandeur.

The Lion King is B.B. King- soulful and emotional, yet fundamentally simple.

The Secret of NIMH is Robert Johnson- raw and bleeding, yet masterful.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit? is Brian Setzer. Madcap and old-school!

Toon Music: "Steamboat Bill", "Turkey in the Straw"

This is the very song Mickey whistles in the debut cartoon Disney will never let you forget, 1928's Steamboat Willie. Words by Ren Shields, music by "Leighton Bros." (whoever they are), 1910 or 1911.

If you don't recognize this song, you probably don't exist.



Lyrics: http://dig.lib.niu.edu/twain/songs/bill.html

And of course, everybody knows this tune (it dates back to before recorded sound), but have you ever heard it with lyrics?



I'm not sure what to make of this version.

The same melody was also used for the rather racist tune "Zip Coon"- unfortunately (or perhaps not!) I can't find any version with the lyrics, if there are any.

You say griffin, I say gryphon

I think I finally understand why so many people have switched to spelling it as "gryphon". It's so you don't get any Family Guy in your or anyone else's search results. In that case, I wholeheartedly approve, and I'll be switching to "gryphon" immediately and permanently!

Open Up Your ****ing Heart

Just for good measure, here are more versions of "Let the Sunshine In".

The original:



Popular version:

Screeching Weasel vs. Pebbles & Bamm-Bamm

Now what am I rambling on about THIS time? What could I possibly be doing pairing a loud, fast, hormone-enraged skate punk band with two adorable, iconic cartoon babies? Well, let me tell you.

So here I am, watching Boomerang late at night, and The Flintstones come on. I hadn't seen the episode before, because I'm not a terribly avid Flintstones fan (although I know a thing or two), nor an avid television watcher. I prefer watching DVDs late at night, because then I can watch whatever I want. But my point is that I discovered this completely by accident.

At first the episode disgusted me with its horrid, outdated, and narrow-minded views on rock 'n' roll. I was willing to accept the laughably out-of-touch quality of "The Bedrock Twitch" and the terribly unflattering caricature of The Beatles that shows no understanding of their music whatsoever. But when Fred AND Barney, the latter normally being a much more liberal-minded fellow, started ranting about stuff like "TEENAGERS ARE EVIL AND ARE TAKING OVER THE WORLD" and "THIS MUSIC IS AWFUL AND MADE BY TALENTLESS HACKS" and "ME WANT BIG SPORTS GAME"- which has been proven embarrassingly wrong a million times over in the past forty-plus years- I almost wanted to cry.

Things started looking a little better when I realized that this was an episode described in one of my favorite books: The Rocklopedia Fakebandica, which is all about one of my favorite subjects- namely, fictional rock groups. I looked forward to whatever dopey song the two toddlers got to sing. Here's the song:

4Kids is evil, apparently

At least that's what people keep saying for some reason. I can't imagine why. I don't approve of their censorship practices, but I fail to see what it is that makes them evil or why it's so hilarious to make such a claim.