It’s a short one today since I’m trying to finish cleanup on a film tonight, with lots of success. I’m hoping to do a short video to show some film that just came in next week.

First — on the Thunderbean front:

As I write this on a Wednesday night, I’m surrounded by hard drives, with notes all over my computer desktop on this or that, what to fix, what to remember to find, what to finish. Teaching at the college is busy as heck during the school year, but the amazing thing is having the extra time in the summer to tackle the various film and Blu-ray projects. It seems like every summer is busier than the last; What is different this year is that I’ve never had so many projects nearing finish at once— but it seems to happen this way frequently somehow, just usually not as many.

Luke gives the thumbs up

Luke visited the tiny Thunderbean office and did some tweaking on Neptune Nonsense as well as doing some copy for the back of the Blu-ray and package art suggestions. Freelancers Dave and Becky are cranking on several films, Becca just finished another two films for the Bunin set, and Helge cut his teeth on cleanup for ‘Toonerville Picnic’. That one is almost all done as well.

The Bunin Alice in Wonderland set is really getting there, and the Halloween set is also mostly finished. Other projects are getting some attention since scans are coming in, including some more Comi-Colors. Plus, there’s two other sets I’m helping on that are rounding the corner. Some of the new film material I’m looking over right now includes a handful of 35mm Cinecolor Mini-toons produced for Coca-Cola in the 40s. I’ve never seen *any* of these ones, and that’s so exciting to share. I’ll definitely be writing more about these after we scan them. I’m definitely not lacking in being around classic animation most days.

On August 11th, I hope to join our very own Jerry Beck for a screening in New York City at the Film Forum featuring Thunderbean restorations, titled Musical Cartoons Before the Code. It’s a fun show, and always a treat to see classic animation on the big screen. It screens Monday night at 6pm… Click HERE for more info.

And… a cartoon to boot!

I’ve shown some of the Hound For Hire – Sam Basset, Private Eye cartoons in this space before, and seeing as Jerry just presented his annual Worst Cartoons Ever program at the San Diego Comicon, it seems appropriate to show a film from this nearly forgotten series.

I don’t think of the Sam Basset shorts are some of the worst cartoons at all — in fact, I really like them, but it’s an understatement to say they’re pretty strange. This audience, at Cartoon Research, is pretty familiar with oddities though. I know you can take it. I really think the sense of humor from these shorts is right at home with Beany and Cecil and The Rocky Show, and it’s clearly what they’re going for in some ways—just maybe not quite hitting the funny bone in exactly the right way, but trying really hard. You’re often left wondering what the creators of the show thought….

In this outing, The Case of the Nervous Sheriff, a Sheriff in the town of Dismal Seepage, Wyoming is terrorized by Black Bart the outlaw wolf. Sam decides to dress as the Sheriff to prevent the real sheriff from getting shot. I *think* that’s the plot anyway.

My favorite moment in this one is Sam firing his gun for no reason out the door, unintentionally killing a vulture, who crawls into the sheriff’s office and declares “You got me Sam!” Before turning over and dying. Is this cartoon for kids?

This is one of the strangest things ever to come from the Zagreb Studio. Zagreb’s animation style allows for some fun poses along the way. I hope you enjoy this strange one as much as I did today. It was a nice break from a lot of really full animation.

Have a good week all!