A super-short post today, as I’m about to battle a snowstorm here in an attempt to get home from the school…

As I’m prepping files for broadcast on MeTV, I’ve really been enjoying watching whole series of films that I haven’t watched for a while. Most of what we’re sending are things that we’ve restored in recent years, but as I look at the older stuff that we’ve done, I’ve been doing a little additional work pretty frequently to make them look the best we can from what we’ve got to work with.

Sinister Stuff (1934) was actually a bit of a surprise to me as we were working on it. I had forgotten how good some of the animation is in the short — and was especially impressed by how much the camera work at Van Beuren had improved at the studio between 1933 and 34.

This spoof of 1890’s Melodramas is fun, and is trying really hard to be funny. The improvement in animation in this film is really noticeable, especially when comparing not-as-well animated shots that are right next to the better animated ones. The Van Beuren shorts were getting better and better. One especially impressive scene in timing features the unnamed bad wolf and his henchmen riding on a bike, with their bike (and camera work) syncing to the music.

The best animation in the film features a very appealing and personality-rich version of Cubby and Cuddles. If Van Beuren had continued to produce shorts without the Gillett management and direction taking over, I think the animation quality would have kept improving – but we can only wonder if the writing and comedy aspects of the shorts would have led to a different kind of success.

This print is a combination of 16mm prints made by Official films. The titles were a lucky eBay find- the only original title sequence I’ve ever seen for the film. Long live Cubby!