Thursday, November 1, 2012

Classic Cartoons: Toys

by Gary Scott Beatty, Publisher and Editor, MuskegonOnline.NET

With the toy buying season upon us, we look at classic cartoons starring toys this month.

http://muskegononline.net/1112/cartoon-1112.html

Van Beuren Studio's A Toy Town Tale, produced in 1931, makes more sense than a lot of Van Beuren Studio cartoons from this period. (No, I don't know what the man in the moon has to do with awakening toys, or what happened to the elephant.) This includes the songs Silent Night, Parade of the Tin Soldiers (by Leon Jessel), and the 1911 ragtime hit Oh, You Beautiful Doll (by Seymour Brown and Nat D. Ayer).

Van Beuren Studio's Toy Time (1932) is a cartoon musical featuring mice playing with toys, and the most emaciated cat I think I've ever seen in cartoons.