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Directors: Charles Bowers & Raoul Barré
Release Date: March 2, 1919
Stars: Mutt and Jeff
Rating: ★★★
In this short Mutt and Jeff are firemen. First they extinguish the ‘fire’ of a smoking policeman, then they rush to a real fire. Mutt has to rescue a girl (which turns out to be a vicious dog), while Jeff relaxes, eats some fried eggs and drinks some coffee. In order to escape from the dog Mutt jumps down, but his colleagues are too busy looking at a beautiful dame descending a ladder…
‘Fireman Save My Child’ is a pure gag cartoon, with the gags coming in fast an plenty. The film is pretty fast and funny for its age, but animator Dick Huemer uses some surprising tricks to cut short on animation, making Mutt and Jeff move across the room without movement, or firemen sprouting from beds using the vaguest inbetween drawings. Nevertheless, it’s nice to watch some animation by this later Disney legend.
‘Fireman Save My Child’ is available on the Blu-Ray-DVD-combo ‘Cartoon Roots’
Directors: Raoul Barré & Bill Nolan
Release Date: August 18, 1915
Rating: ★
‘Cartoons on Tour’ is an entry in Raoul Barré’s and animator Bill Nolan’s’Animated Grouch Chaser’ series.
The entries in this series were essentially live action comedies, with cartoons injected of ca. three minutes length. ‘Cartoons on Tour’ is a typical example: the film features a live action story of a girl and a boy planning to elope. While waiting for her Bob to pick her up, the girl reads one of Raoul Barré’s animated comic strip: “The Tales of Silas Bunkum”, in which a bearded man tells a tall tale about an elephant (who moves just like Gertie in ‘Gertie the Dinosaur‘).
Then Bob arrives and the two drive to the chapel, but the girl’s old man hops along. Luckily he’s distracted by the comic book,, and reads’The Kelly Kids’ Kite’ about a boy flying off with a kite. This part knows a rather crude beheading of a crow. The second comic the old man reads is ‘Mr. Hicks in Nightmare Land’ about an old man spying on a girl in the water. Later he dreams he drinks from the fountain of youth, turning him into a baby. When he lands on the couch of a beautiful lady, he wakes up… At that point the man discovers a telegram inside the comic, and realizes what’s going on. But he’s easily soothed by a last comic: ‘The Pleasure of Being a Grandpa’.
The animation is extremely limited in this cartoon, with most images hardly moving at all. Moreover, the action is slow and terribly unfunny, making the film a rather tiresome watch.
Watch ‘Cartoons on Tour’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Cartoons on Tour’ is available on the Blu-Ray-DVD-combo ‘Cartoon Roots’
Directors: Charles Bowers & Raoul Barré
Release Date: 1916
Stars: Mutt and Jeff
Rating: ★★★★
In this cartoon Mutt and Jeff share an apartment and sleep in the same bed. At night Jeff gets a terrible belly ache, and Mutt tries to prepare a medicine to cure his pal. At one point, however, he thinks he has killed his friend, while he, instead, has cured the little fellow.
‘Cramps’ is a pure gag cartoon that uses quite a lot of text balloons without getting too “talkative”. Instead, the drawing, the staging and the animation are all outstanding. One can really feel the bond between the two friends and we’re totally with Mutt in his attempts to save his partner from the aching pains. The short shows that the Mutt and Jeff cartoons were among the best animated studio shorts of the 1910s. It also reveals that Mutt and Jeff wear their gloves even in bed.
Watch ‘Cramps’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Cramps’ is available on the DVD ‘Mutt and Jeff – The Original Animated Odd Couple’
Directors: Charles Bowers & Raoul Barré
Release Date: 1916
Stars: Mutt and Jeff
Rating: ★★★½
When compared to other studio animation film of the era, Bud Fisher’s Mutt and Jeff cartoons come across as remarkably sophisticated and lush.
Made by animation pioneers Charles Bowers and Raoul Barré at the Barré Studio, the Mutt and Jeff cartoons are very akin to Fisher’s original comic strip, relying heavily on text balloons. In this respect these cartoons are no different from the other studio animation films of the time, However, the animation is much more intricate and less stiff than animation films made at Bray’s studio, and the drawings have an unparalleled clarity, foreshadowing Hergé’s ligne claire. Nevertheless, even this cartoon relies heavily on repeated animation, with many cycles used twice or more.
In this short Mutt sneaks out to go drinking with his mate Jeff, but he’s punished by his wife, who awaits him at home with a rolling pin. There are several gags in this cartoon, but the best is when the whole background keeps revolving around the two drunk characters. This is a very original and wonderful way to depict the drunkenness of the two.
On their way home the two friends sing ‘Yaaka Hula Hickey Dula’, a big hit in 1916. Notice that Mutt and Jeff wear Mickey Mouse-like gloves, showing that these attributes are much older than the mouse.
Watch ‘Domestic Difficulties’ yourself and tell me what you think:
‘Domestic Difficulties’ is available on the DVD-set ‘Popeye the Sailor 1933-1938’
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