I’ve been really soaking in getting a bunch of films ready for broadcast as of late, and making really good progress doing so. This particular film we’re working on cleaning up a bit right now, and since it’s in the queue I thought it would be a good one to share this week.

I really do love cartoons, and as I’ve been getting older I’m more and more appreciative of the little things in a lot of not-so-great animated films. I especially enjoy a lot of Terrytoons for this reason. If the internet had been around when I was a kid, I think I would have had a very different version of tracking down animated films to see and collect.

When I was 14 or so, I went to a film show and bought a bunch of cartoons from a dealer named Frank Bueno. Frank wasn’t always the most fair of collectors, and even though things didn’t always work out so well, he did do me a solid by selling me a bunch of 16mm cartoons for a few bucks each. It was a huge education in seeing films I had only seen in filmographies, and a lot of those were really beat up old rental prints. Among those (in a much worse print than this) was His Off Day (1938). Castle released the cartoon as “Tricky Troubles” to the home movie and non-theatrical market.

I’ve always been a little bit steamed about the cartoons that Castle and Official Films chose to release . It seems like it’s pretty random since there’s some pretty good ones next to a lot of not very good ones. This particular film isn’t among the better, but it does have some merits.

Watching Terrytoons from this era, production-wise, is sometimes like looking at the evolution of other studios through many years of production and animation quality all rolled into one film. There’s pretty primitive stuff early in the film, and later better animation by our usual Terrytoon hero animators. Still, it’s odd to think this was out at the same time as the Popeyes, Oswalds, Mickeys and Warners cartoons- the quality of the overall animation is just at a much lower level mixed with some very nice work at times- but it all looks like work from 1936 or earlier if it was outside of Terry.

In this nearly plotless short, Puddy chases birds, plays with a ball, plays with Kittens, is confronted by cows from 1932 Terrytoons, is kicked out of his own house by perhaps the poorest-voiced Stepin Fetchit stereotype, then spends the rest of the cartoon with an Italian stereotype organ grinder and his monkey. That’s the plot.

While it isn’t premium entertainment, there are some really fun and well-animated shots in this last part of the film. I especially love the Monkey drawings and animation- lots of appealing poses and drawings. I recognize some of the scenes by Carlo Vinci, one of the finest animators at the studio for many years of course.

I’m happy they made these little films, and they’ve been enjoyed by tons of people through the years. If you haven’t seen this one, I hope you folks enjoy it!