Stick to Shorts is closing down for the foreseeable future. I would like to thank the listeners who have stuck with it and especially thank the guests who donated their time to record with me.

- J.D.

In this especially nerdy episode, we're going back to the land before time (the silent era) to discuss the work of Winsor McCay! Learn about where animation comes from and just how much McCay changed it.

Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel

Guest: Kristi O.

Cartoon Content Warning: smoking.

If you’d like to support the podcast, you can contribute on Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/jdhansel.

Notes

The source I relied on the most for my understanding of silent era animation was Of Mice and Magic by Leonard Maltin. The Maltin quote about cave drawings is from page 2 of the revised and updated edition, as is the quote about the zoetrope; "One might say that Gertie launched an entire industry" is from page 5. I also paraphrased another statement from page 5: "For years Gertie has been named in film histories as the first animated cartoon. With all its impact, it might as well have been."

The Charles Solomon quote about Gertie and the development of character animation is from page 17 of his book The History of Animation: Enchanted Drawings.

For my explanation of straight ahead action and pose-to-pose animation, I relied on The Illusion of Life by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston. I was also influenced by this tutorial video.

I got a little bit of additional info about McCay from this video of his biographer, John Canemaker - I mostly used it for clarification about his Split System.

Click here for information about why a dinosaur would eat a rock.

Welcome back! It's the Season 2 premiere, so the podcast is reseting as we transition to a more chronological, narrative driven format.

We begin with a discussion of vaudeville, list our favorite Friz Freleng cartoons, and talk about one of the all-time great Bugs and Daffy shorts!

Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel

Guest: Anthony Strand

Cartoon Content Warning: self-immolation.

Episode Content Warning: mentions suicide; describes of minstrel shows.

Go to 00:35:28 to skip past the minstrelsy history.

Go to 00:42:02 to skip the vaudeville and radio history and go straight to the cartoon history.

Go to 00:58:08 to skip to the Show Biz Bugs section.

If you'd like to support the podcast, you can contribute on Ko-Fi at ko-fi.com/jdhansel.

Notes

The cold open for this episode and the premise for this season were largely inspired by Donald Crafton's book Shadow of a Mouse. The book proposes that the cartoon characters can be thought of as performers, develops a framework for understanding cartoon performativity, considers the function of the classic cartoon as a "memory palace" of vaudeville, and examines the development of cartoon acting in the years after the appearance of Mickey Mouse.

Relatedly, this interview with Crafton is how I found out that early Paul Terry shorts received funding from a vaudeville circuit.

I got my vaudeville information from the PBS American Masters episode about it.

To hear more about the connections between vaudeville and cartoons - especially their use of slapstick comedy - seek out the documentary short Vaudeville, Slapstick and Tom and Jerry from the Blu-Ray Tom & Jerry Golden Collection: Volume One.

My Friz Freleng info can mostly be attributed to the documentary Friz on Film - specifically the fact that this cartoon was one of Friz's favorites of those he directed.

I believe I got the idea that the filmmakers behind Show Biz Bugs seem to be expressing a frustration they felt about Bugs Bunny's stardom usurping Daffy's from a quote from Jerry Beck in the "Behind the Tunes" featurette "Hard Luck Duck": "It’s funny that the animators themselves acknowledged that Daffy wants to be the star. ‘He is the star, and who’s this rabbit?’ ‘Cuz I think that’s the way they felt. And we can identify with his frustrations."

Other cartoon shorts referenced: What's Cookin' Doc? (1944), What's Up, Doc? (1950), Yankee Doodle Daffy (1943), Three Little Bops (1957), Back Alley Oproar (1948), Canned Feud (1951), Baseball Bugs (1946), High Diving Hare (1948), Daffy – The Commando (1943), The Chuck Jones Hunting Trilogy (Rabbit Fire [1951], Rabbit Seasoning [1952], Duck! Rabbit, Duck! [1953]), Ali Baba Bunny (1957), Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2th Century (1953), Drip-Along Daffy (1951), Deduce, You Say! (1956), Robin Hood Daffy (1958), You Ought to Be in Pictures (1940), Tick Tock Tuckered (1944), Booby Traps (1944), Ballot Box Bunny (1951), Hair-Raising Hare (1946), Broom-Stick Bunny (1956), Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur (1939), The Scarlet Pumpernickel (1950), Rhapsody in Rivets (1941).

Fig Leaf Rag by Kevin MacLeod is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Source: http://incompetech.com/music/royalty-free/index.html?isrc=USUAN1100701

Artist: http://incompetech.com/

For the season finale, J.D. ties up loose ends with the help of Danny Horn (The Fantastic Miss Piggy Podcast) as they discuss a Friz Freleng masterpiece. We get into Freleng's early career, the peculiar popularity of Porky Pig, and, making his Stick to Shorts debut, Daffy Duck!

Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel

Guest: Danny Horn

Content Warning for Cartoon: smoking.

Availability: Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 2; Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection, Vol. 2; Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, Vol. 2; Porky Pig 101.

Notes:

Here's an interview with Friz Freleng (alluded to near the beginning of the episode) that was a helpful resource for learning about his story. Content warning: he uses an outdated, now offensive term around 7 1/2 minutes in.

The episode of the podcast Stuttering Is Cool I referenced in the show is #230. (I feel the need to clarify that my chuckling around this part of the episode was not snickering or mockery, but just something that happens sometimes when I feel particularly anxious. I found the conversations in the Porky episode of Stuttering Is Cool episode highly valuable, so I hope my listeners with check it out.)

The Friz Freleng quote about The Captain and the Kids is from page 283 of Of Mice and Magic by Leonard Maltin. The Freleng quote at the end of the episode pertaining to You Ought to Be in Pictures is from page 242 of the same book.

The episode mentions the Schlesinger Productions Christmas Party film, which is worth watching shortly before or after watching to this cartoon or listening to this episode. It is available on the Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Volume Six DVD set or the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Volume Two Blu-Ray set as part of "The World of Leon Schlesinger".

You will find most of the trivia and casting information about this cartoon repeated in lots of places, but I was specifically pulling from Jerry Beck's audio commentary track on the cartoon and his book The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons.

Tori Schmidt joins J.D. to talk all things Tom and Jerry! We needed an example of a generic Tom and Jerry cartoon, and we decided this one’s ordinary enough. We think you’ll find that this run-of-the-mill MGM cartoon proves their mill was pretty darn good.

We talk about William Hanna and Joe Barbera’s early careers, the remarkable success of their cat and mouse duo, and the remarkable failure of Chuck Jones’ Tom and Jerry era.

Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel

Guests: Tori Schmidt

Content Warning for Cartoon: spanking; cartoon violence.

Content Warning for Podcast Episode: mentions of gun violence and other harm that these characters do to each other (whacking, cutting, etc.).

Availability: Tom & Jerry's Greatest Chases, Vol. 2; Tom and Jerry Spotlight Collection, Vol. 1; Tom and Jerry Golden Collection, Vol. 1; Tom and Jerry: 85th Anniversary Kids Collection.

Notes:

My main sources for the history of Tom and Jerry were the MGM chapter of Of Mice and Magic and the documentary How Bill and Joe Met Tom and Jerry.

My comments on the kind of violence that Hanna and Barbera were willing to do compared to what was happening at Warner were greatly influenced by Michael Barrier's observations about the use of sharp objects in their cartoons on pages 407-408 of Hollywood Cartoons.

I learned of Joe Barbera's penchant for plate rail gags from Mark Kausler's audio commentary track for Puss Gets the Boot.

In the episode I mention the Cartoon Research article "The INVISIBLE Article" by Charles Gardner.

G! G! Ryan Roe and Anthony Strand (Movin' Right Along) attempt to help J.D. decipher the pop culture references in classic cartoons. Do they succeed? Listen to find out! (They don't.) Listen anyway! (You won't.)

Topics include: one-shot cartoons, the old celebrities we first encountered in cartoon caricatures, the career of Tex Avery, and what this cartoon tells us about how the animators saw their own place in the Hollywood system.

Please write in to tell us who has the most oomph!

Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel

Guests: Ryan Roe and Anthony Strand

Content Warning for Cartoon: wolf-whistling; visual fat joke; smoking.

Content Warning for Podcast Episode: discussion of a joke that is definitely bad, but I don't know how best to categorize its badness. Racist? Antisemitic? Xenophobic? All of the above?

Availability: Looney Tunes Golden Collection, Vol. 2; Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection, Vol. 2; Looney Tunes Platinum Collection, Vol. 2; Looney Tunes: Parodies Collection.

Notes:

I strongly encourage you to check out Devon Baxter's article "'Hollywood Steps Out': The Full Scoop" on CartoonResearch.com. It has a lot more info than I shared on the podcast, naturally.

Other sources that I cited in the podcast (but feel I might as well name again here) include Donald Crafton's essay "The View from Termite Terrace: Caricature and Parody in Warner Bros. Animation" from Kevin S. Sandler's Reading the Rabbit, the "Behind the Tunes" featurette "Looney Tunes Go Hollywood", and The 100 Greatest Looney Tunes Cartoons by Jerry Beck for its introduction by Leonard Maltin and its entry on Hollywood Steps Out by Keith Scott.

For the explanation of Avery's departure from the Schlesinger studio, I refer you to the article "The Heckling Hare Problem" by Thad Komorowski and pages 365 and 609 of Hollywood Cartoons by Michael Barrier.

The info about Avery's sabbatical comes from Hollywood Cartoons by Michael Barrier, pages 430-431.

ToughPigs' Danny Horn and Joe Hennes fly in to talk about Superman in his cinematic debut! We also look at where this fits into the history of the Fleischer studio.

Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel

Guests: Danny Horn and Joe Hennes

Content Warning for Animated Short: flashing lights; death.

Selected Availability: Public Domain; Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection; The Superman Motion Picture Anthology (among other releases of Superman: The Movie); Max Fleischer’s Superman 1941-1943.

Notes:

At some point in this episode, one of us referred to comic book writer Grant Morrison using he/him pronouns. It should be noted that, in recent years, Grant Morrison has expressed a preference (albeit a very loose one, from what I've read) for being referred to with they/them pronouns. Apologies for the error.

Click here to read the article on Cartoon Research by Jerry Beck on the rumored deleted dialogue from this cartoon.

In all honesty, my homework for this episode was a little rushed and relied on video sources almost exclusively, possibly at the expense of accuracy. Most of my info about the Fleischer studio came from the documentary Out of the Inkwell: The Fleischer Story. For information more specific to Superman and his shorts, I relied on the audio commentary track on the cartoon by Paul Dini on the Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Academy Awards Animation Collection and the featurettes Max Fleischer's Superman: Speeding Toward Tomorrow and First Flight: The Fleischer Superman Series.

Our Cartoonorama continues with our introduction to the MGM studio! Ryan Roe joins this discussion about the debut of one of our favorite characters: Droopy! We talk about Tex Avery's talent for over-the-top gags and how this cartoon fits into (and doesn't fit into) the genre of chase cartoons.

Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel

Guest: Ryan Roe

Content Warning for Animated Short: attempted suicide (sort of?); guns.

Content Warning for Episode: mentions of above.

Selected Availability: Tex Avery’s Droopy: The Complete Theatrical Collection; Tex Avery Screwball Classics: Volume 1.

References:

The voice cast credits can be found in this article: "'Hello All You Happy Taxpayers': Tex Avery's Voice Stock Company" by Keith Scott

The MGM chapter of Of Mice and Magic by Leonard Maltin was used for general information on the MGM studio and Tex Avery's time there.

I heard/saw the interview with Tex Avery in which he talks about his approach to cartoons in relation to Disney's in a Behind the Tunes featurette called "A Conversation with Tex Avery". That version had music under it, so the audio I used is from this upload of the footage on the YouTube channel Historic Films Stock Footage Archive.

I can't remember if one or both of them got cut, but the script includes quotes from animators Eric Goldberg and John R. Dilworth. These come from the documentary King-Size Comedy: Tex Avery and the Looney Tunes Revolution.

The John Canemaker quote is from the documentary featurette Droopy and Friends: A Laugh Back.

I mentioned that Chuck Jones said Tex Avery felt that something had gone wrong with Bugs in Avery's Tortoise Beats Hare. I heard this in the audio commentary track for that cartoon that is made up of archival clips from Chuck Jones interviews.

In our first proper look at the Disney studio, J.D. is joined by artist Kristi O. to discuss this essential Mickey Mouse cartoon. Topics include: Mickey's status as Disney's icon and how that affected his cartoons, how the Disney studio pushed animation forward, the particular talents of animators Bill Tytla and Fred Moore, the weirdness of the Brothers Grimm's publication of "The Brave Little Tailor", where to watch Disney movies in Canada in the 1990s, and Bill Roberts: Mystery Man.

Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel

Guest: Kristi O.

Content Warning for Animated Short: smoking depiction.

Selected Availability: Disney+ (unrestored); The Sword in the Stone; Mickey Mouse in Living Color; Mickey and the Beanstalk; Celebrating Mickey; Mickey & Minnie: 10 Classic Shorts.

Special Thanks: Tori Schmidt

References:

As mentioned in the episode, Devon Baxter's excellent profile of director Burt Gillett for CartoonResearch.com is a nifty history of one of the most impactful cartoon directors.

Directing at Disney by Don Oeri and Pete Docter and The Illusion of Life: Disney Animation by Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston are cited throughout the episode, but I also relied on Of Mice and Magic by Leonard Maltin for further context.

The translation I used for "The Brave Little Tailor" by the Brothers Grimm comes from Jack Zipes' 2002 third edition of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.

Anthony Strand from ‘Movin’ Right Along’ joins J.D. for a chat about one of the most acclaimed animated shorts of all time, ‘One Froggy Evening’! We discuss Chuck Jones, The WB, and how weird it is that Michigan J. Frog and Kermit the Frog are about the same age.

Host/Producer: J.D. Hansel

Guest: Anthony Strand

Content Warning for Animated Short: involuntary hospitalization.

Content Warning for Podcast Episode: mention of outdated language in the original recording of “Hello! Ma Baby”; mention of involuntary hospitalization; mention of suicide.

Selected Availability: Looney Tunes Golden Collection: Vol. 2; Looney Tunes Spotlight Collection: Vol. 2; Looney Tunes Platinum Collection: Vol. 1; Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Looney Tunes; Looney Tunes Musical Masterpieces

References:

The Leonard Maltin quote about Chuck Jones and Michael Maltese is from the Behind the Tunes featurette "It Hopped One Night: The Story of One Froggy Evening"

The Jerry Beck quote about Jones' early work being "cutesy-poo" comes from his audio commentary track for Naughty but Mice on Looney Tunes Mouse Chronicles: The Chuck Jones Collection (Blu-Ray).

The Michael Barrier quote about Jones' poses is from his book Hollywood Cartoons, p. 485.

I heard the Chuck Jones quote about One Froggy Evening on the audio commentary track.

The Tom Kenny quote is from the Behind the Tunes featurette "One Hit Wonder".