To me, Columbia cartoons are the gift that keeps on giving, because by the time I get back to watching one of the ones I saw a while back it’s almost a new cartoon again!

But First: This week in Thunderbean!

Things are somewhat on track in the dubbing lane here. We’re working on prepping the current special sets, and are excited to get them out the door. Mid Century Modern 3 is finally going out to replication, and the pieces are coming together very nicely on Rainbow Parades, volume 2. So, basically, very little new news I can share in a few weeks of a lot of things happening – more on all that soon, I promise!

Now, onto our cartoon:

I hadn’t seen Scrappy’s Boy Scouts in a while. This particular print is one of two I own: this one is a nice sharp Official Films original. The other is a print with the original Columbia titles and end titles, but suffering from Vinegar Syndrome. I’m hoping to scan those opening and closing titles soon before it’s too late, but haven’t just yet.

Columbia’s talent pool of animators show off some very nice work in this somewhat extravagant short (for a Scrappy). Scrappy is the head of his scout troop, with poor not-quite up to the task of being a Boy Scout. Oopy goofs off with his dachshund dog friends (I sort of wish they were in more cartoons – the dynamic is pretty cute as an idea I think). In the end, Oopy and his 3 dog ensemble save the day during an especially tough storm that makes the world seem like a pretty unpredictable place, and Oopy does the Boy Scout pledge.

I think it’s a really nice little film in support of the scouts. The animation and posing is fun, and the action scenes are dynamic and well staged near the end of the picture. I especially like the moving skies in many of the shots and effects. It’s not in anyone’s top 10 cartoons, but it’s a pretty good effort in many ways. As in other cartoon from Columbia around this time, you can see they’re spending extra money to make them a little more extravagant.

In the 16mm print with original titles, the first shot has the characters in silhouette over a moving background while the title is on screen. At the end the film the Columbia logo frames the last shot of the ‘real’ scouts around a fire. I’ll be working on finally getting it scanned.

Have a good week all, and happy September!