Comments on: Rambling about Cheats

by: Steven Hartley

Sat, 05 Jun 2010 15:44:31 +0000

Michael,

About the comment I send before, well I started a website yesterday called “Blabbing on Arts and Culture” and I begun my first “official” post which is about Tom and Jerry and its history.

I feel proud of what I’ve written.

by: Steven Hartley

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 21:47:06 +0000

Thanks for your reply Michael, I mean we all have different opinions, you don’t like Tom and Jerry, I love Tom and Jerry. We all have different tastes to things, and yes I do notice that Tom and Jerry are very heartless and violent, but to be honest, I think they are supposed to be,

Yet, there have been Academy Award films that were rubbish, I mean I wasn’t keen on ‘The Milky Way’ because I found it quite boring, I thought Bugs Bunny’s 1st appearance of ‘A Wild Hare’ should have won it, oh well, can’t expect everything perfect, and thanks for sharing your opinions.

by: Michael

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 11:25:02 +0000

Steven, you present a good case for Hanna & Barbera at MGM. However, I don’t like these films, so it doesn’t help me. They’re heartless and violent in a way no other animated characters of the period are.

The Academy Award has rarely been a sign of excellence. I can name two dozen horrible films that won - including Logorama. And I’m an Academy voter.

by: Steven Hartley

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 10:02:41 +0000

Actually Michael, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera did direct ‘Puss Gets the Boot’ and they were uncredited for their positions, Fred Quimby was an uncredited producer, and maybe the cartoon led to the ‘booting’ of Rudolf Ising’s career at MGM’s, but to be honest, I think the Fred Quimby cartoons of Tom and Jerry were just better than Rudolf Ising’s “Puss Gets the Boot”, I mean it led them up to seven Academy Awards for Best Cartoon, and it tied against Disney’s Silly Symphonies.

Yet, I think they did a good job of Tom and Jerry, and I was a fan of it as a boy, and I still am, In fact, I love it so much that I’ve downloaded the cartoons onto my Ipod. Yet, they’ve done some pretty awful remakes of Tom and Jerry, like the MOVIE, Chuck Jones’ cartoons, the 1975 TV series, the Tom and Jerry Kids, and the new Tom and Jerry Tales.

Kind regards,

Steven Hartley

by: Michael

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:13:05 +0000

Thanks for the Top Cat clarification.

A companion I once had thought that the animation industry was run by women: Hannah Barbera, Patty Freleng, and Ruby Spears.

by: John Tebbel

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 21:08:10 +0000

Hal Erickson’s Television Cartoon Shows says H-B made 30 episodes of Top Cat, aired on ABC from 9/61 through 3/63. He also mentions that the characters were used in Yogi’s Treasure Hunt in the 80s and in the 90s in Wake, Rattle and Roll. Maybe that explains the ink/Xerox memories.

Kids Say the Darndest Things Dept.: When speaking to my son some years ago about Mary Blair, I got on to the lack of women in the top echelons of animation. He asked, “But what about Hannah Barbera?”

by: Tom Sito

Sat, 19 Jan 2008 01:01:37 +0000

NIce post Mike. Sorry I came in so late, I’ve been nursing a cold. Yeah, I always wondered when there would be a good book on how the relationship between Bill and Joe really worked. All their publications were always kept on the surface about such things. I was surprised to learn that despite being lifelong partners, they rarely socialized together. Bill and his wife were over Joe’s house for dinner only twice in their lifetimes. All the time I worked there, I never saw them together for more than a quick conference, but I wasn’t privy to the higher echelons then .
Whatever the truth to the system to their partnership, one of the most successful in film history, it worked.

by: Eddie Fitzgerald

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 06:03:24 +0000

I agree with much of what you’re saying here. I can’t stand Hanna Barbera cartoons! I love the things about it that John K discussed on his blog — some good people worked there, no doubt about it — and the toys and Golden Books were great, but the cartoons themselves were unwatchable.

I thought the best parts of the HB cartoons were the intros. Was Joe responsible for those? The singers were bursting with energy and enthusiasm, and were incredibly professional. The visuals on the best examples fit the music perfectly. If only the rest of the show had been half as good.

I haven’t seen Jerry’s book but he has pretty good taste and probably managed to find the fun stuff.

by: Michael

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 02:16:31 +0000

I’ll have to do a little research, but I believe TopCat came back for more (much later) after its initial season. The first season had inked lines, the remainder were xeroxed.

by: Michael J. Ruocco

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 01:22:26 +0000

I saw the book at my local Barnes & Noble the other day. I flipped through it & there’s a lot of toy pictures & stuff in it, but there’s a fair supply of drawings and such there too.

Besides The Flintsones & Top Cat, I never really cared for Hanna-Barbera cartoons. Flintstones & Top Cat had some pretty good artwork & designs in it & were entertaining, but everything else to me was a complete bore. I guess as a kid I enjoyed it more, but I grew out of it as I got older.

I know HB cartoons had extremely low budgets, but they’re really “assembly line cartoons”: shelled-out, mass-produced TV fodder. The early ones (Huckleberry Hound to Top Cat) were great, but they gradually went downhill from there. They had good intentions, but they did really blow they’re chances. So much potential.

I know I might sound too negative here, but I’m just speaking from my heart. Sure, animation hasn’t really had too many inspiring moments since the Golden Age, but I agree with Dave: there are a few diamonds in the rough out there, but nobody really has stretched the creative boundaries. It’s like a rubberband, you get to an apex at one short moment & then it pulls back before it can go any farther.