Weird references in vintage cartoons

[Gyrate]

@digs

But this is where I think WB and others made a misstep. If they hadn’t featured “current” celebrities, the cartoons would be timeless. (side note: I remember the first time I heard ‘contemporary’ rock music in an animated movie. My first thought was ‘THIS is not going to age well.’)

NARRATOR: “Nooo, it didn’t.”

You don’t see Disney having a George Clooney cameo in Moana, or interrupting SOUL by drawing a so-detailed-it-doesn’t-fit-the-style Kim Kardashian in the afterlife…

Earlier drafts of the original The Jungle Book had the four vultures doing a Beatles-style version of their song - you can hear a recording of it here (ignore the fan video). I think we can agree the barbershop version they ended up with aged a lot better

[terentii]

I wonder how much Warner Bros. executives thought about producing classic cartoons with enduring appeal, as opposed to just pleasing audiences of the day.

In the '50s, those in charge of TV networks thought that people like Jackie Gleason and Desi Arnaz were crazy for wanting to film their shows. “Nobody’s gonna want to watch the same thing twice!”

[Skywatcher]

@Gyrate

Earlier drafts of the original The Jungle Book had the four vultures doing a Beatles-style version of their song

Disney supposedly tried to get the Beatles but the Fab Four couldn’t fit the movie into their schedule.

[dorvann]

@terentii

A slightly different example: Carroll O’Connor was a relatively unknown actor in 1963, when he was cast as a Roman senator in Cleopatra . Audiences watching the movie ten years later invariably laughed when they saw Archie Bunker wearing a toga.

Similar to that …watching Rebel Without A Cause and trying to take it seriously when Jim Backus is playing James Dean’s father and I can’t stop thinking of Thurston Howell III from Gilligan’s Island

[74westy]

Or Mr. Magoo.

[NDP]

@Just_Asking_Questions

Humphrey Bogart shows up in a Bugs Bunny cartoon right out of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and if I wasn’t for wikipedia I still wouldn’t know what he was doing, because I still haven’t see it.

If you do ever see the movie, pay attention to the man Bogart’s talking to in the scene for some bonus trivia.

[Miller]

@terentii

I wonder how much Warner Bros. executives thought about producing classic cartoons with enduring appeal, as opposed to just pleasing audiences of the day.

I’m pretty sure it was 100% the latter. Being popular with audiences fifty years from now doesn’t help when you have bills due last Friday.

[terentii]

@NDP

@Just_Asking_Questions

Humphrey Bogart shows up in a Bugs Bunny cartoon right out of Treasure of the Sierra Madre, and if I wasn’t for wikipedia I still wouldn’t know what he was doing, because I still haven’t see it.

If you do ever see the movie, pay attention to the man Bogart’s talking to in the scene for some bonus trivia.

A very young Robert Blake (aka “Beretta”), if I recall correctly. Or are you thinking of someone else?

[LSLGuy]

@dorvann

Similar to that …watching Rebel Without A Cause and trying to take it seriously when Jim Backus is playing James Dean’s father and I can’t stop thinking of Thurston Howell III from Gilligan’s Island

Or in reverse, anything involving William Shatner after Star Trek is unwatchable. Captain Kirk makes a lousy cop, lawyer, or lecher. Hell, he’s doing ads on TV right now for a CPAP machine cleaner. Sorry, Jim, I’m not buying it.

That’s not what the thread is about, but once folks get typecast then all their work, both earlier and later, is forever tainted. It’d be funny to find something Shatner did pre-Trek. Wiki lists a surprisingly long list of shows & movies he played a role in.

[terentii]

I take it you’ve never seen the unsold Alexander the Great pilot? If not, you’re in for a real treat!

[CalMeacham]

@digs

You don’t see Disney having a George Clooney cameo in Moana, or interrupting SOUL by drawing a so-detailed-it-doesn’t-fit-the-style Kim Kardashian in the afterlife…

Actually, Disney has done pop culture and current star references, just not as often as Warner Brothers. Their cartoon Mother Goose Goes Hollywood predates Warner Brothers’ Hollywood Steps Out by three years, and is filled with Hollywood caricatures – many of them ones that W-B used

The film begins with a nursery book that opens by itself. Mother Goose appears on the title of the Leo the Lion from the MGM title cards. Underneath the goose is written, in Pig Latin, “Nertz to You”. The opening disclaimer states that “any resemblance to characters herein portrayed to persons living or dead, is purely coincidental.” Little Bo Peep (Katharine Hepburn) claims she “lost her sheep, really I have”. After performing a few ballet steps she looks behind the next page of the book, which is turned around.

The next scene shows Old King Cole (Hugh Herbert) excited when his fiddlers arrive (The Marx Brothers). The trio starts playing their violins, but then break them over their knees. The king enjoys this very much, but his court jester (Ned Sparks) obviously does not. The king commands “off with their heads.” Then Joe Penner brings the king a bowl and, in reference to his famous catch phrase, asks “wanna buy a duck?” Donald Duck appears out of the water in the bowl, repeats Penner’s catchphrase and starts laughing. The king then replaces the lid on the bowl, much to the chagrin of Donald.

On the following page the nursery rhyme Rub-a-dub-dub is portrayed with Charles Laughton (as Captain Bligh from Mutiny on the Bounty ), Spencer Tracy (as Manuel Fidello from Captains Courageous ) and Freddie Bartholomew (who also appeared in Captains Courageous and is dressed as Little Lord Fauntleroy, which he also starred in). Just like a similar scene in Captains Courageous Bartholomew falls overboard, but Tracy pulls him back in. Then Katharine Hepburn passes by on an outboard motor still looking for her sheep. The tub overturns when the trio tries to hitch a ride with Hepburn.

W. C. Fields plays Humpty Dumpty. He inspects a bird’s nest with the words, “My Little Chickadee”, but discovers Charlie McCarthy sitting in it. He insults Fields who tries to attack him, but then falls off the wall onto a mushroom which then resembles an egg cup.

Simple Simon (Stan Laurel) is seen fishing with a fish on his hook and catching worms instead of the other way around. The Pieman (Oliver Hardy) is busy tending a large stack of his pies on a wagon. Laurel refuses an offered pie, but picks one from the middle of the stack, which alarms Hardy, fearing the stack will collapse. Nothing happens, however and a reassured Hardy tries to do the same. When the stack collapses and one of the pies lands on his head, he looks angrily at Laurel. Laurel swallows his pie in one piece and then snickers at Hardy. Hardy throws one of his pies at Laurel, who ducks his head inside his shirt, and the pie lands in the face of Katharine Hepburn. The pie transforms her face into a blackface and she starts speaking in African-American slang.

See Saw Margery Daw is performed by Edward G. Robinson and Greta Garbo on a seesaw. Garbo says: “I want so much to be alone”, to which Robinson replies: “O.K., babe, you asked for it!”. He leaves and Garbo falls off the seesaw.

Little Jack Horner (Eddie Cantor) opens the next scene, a big musical sequence. He sings Sing a Song of Sixpence and when he mentions the line, “four and twenty black birds baked in a pie” several African-American jazz and swing musicians stick their heads out of a large pie. One of them is Cab Calloway (singing “Hi-de-Ho!”) who invites Little Boy Blue (Wallace Beery) to blow his horn. When this takes some time, Fats Waller asks “Where’s that boy?” to which Stepin Fetchit replies “What boy?” Beery finally wakes up and blows his horn until he’s out of breath.

The book pops open to reveal a big shoe (a reference to There was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe) and all the characters start singing, dancing and playing instruments. The camera zooms in on three trumpet playing ladies (Edna May Oliver, Mae West and ZaSu Pitts), a flute player (Clark Gable) and a saxophonist (George Arliss). Oliver Hardy plays trombone and Stan Laurel plays clarinet, whose repeated notes annoy Hardy so much he hits Laurel over the head with a hammer. Laurel’s clarinet then sounds like a bass clarinet.

Fats Waller plays piano until Groucho and Chico start playing with him. He sends them away, but discovers that his piano now plays by itself. When he looks inside, Harpo is seen plucking the strings. He exclaims: “The man’s crazy!”. Fred Astaire tap dances and invites Stepin Fetchit to dance along with him. Fetchit tries to encourage his feet by saying “Git Along, Little Dogies”, but he is too lazy, and his feet release steam from the effort. Cab Calloway is much more excited and energetic and sings and dances along with his band. W.C. Fields plays double bass with Charlie McCarthy sitting on the instrument. Charles Laughton declares the music to be “It’s mutiny, but I love it!”. Martha Raye and Joe E. Brown are seen dancing and laughing so loud that their mouths are opened wide. When Raye kisses Joe E. Brown (leaving a large lipstick smear) his mouth opens so wide that the camera tracks inside. There, Katharine Hepburn is still looking for her sheep.

Mother Goose Goes Hollywood

And let’s not forget Robin Williams’ many impersonations in Aladdin, which were rendered into cartoon caricatures of Groucho Marx, Peter Lorre, William F. Buckley Jr., Rodney Dangerfield, and Jack Nicholson. Williams bragged that he’d turned a Disney cartoon into a Warner Brothers cartoon, evidently unaware of Mother Goose Goes Hollywood.

The end of The Sword in the Stone, by the way, features a play on a then-popular Pepsi commercial. Or so I’m told. I haven’t been able to figure it out.

[John_DiFool]

@digs

But this is where I think WB and others made a misstep. If they hadn’t featured “current” celebrities, the cartoons would be timeless. (side note: I remember the first time I heard ‘contemporary’ rock music in an animated movie. My first thought was ‘THIS is not going to age well.’)

Note these refs became much more rare as the series moved into the 50’s & 60’s.

[Darren_Garrison]

@digs

You don’t see Disney having a George Clooney cameo in Moana

But there is a Twitter joke. Think Twitter will still be around in 2100?

[markn_1]

I haven’t seen it, but before Star Trek William Shatner was in a horror movie called Incubus. An interesting feature of the movie is all the dialog is in Esperanto. (In case hearing Shatner mispronounce Esperanto is on your bucket list.)

[Jackmannii]

Bugs Bunny is a goldmine for obscure pop culture references.

@dorvann

…watching Rebel Without A Cause and trying to take it seriously when Jim Backus is playing James Dean’s father and I can’t stop thinking of Thurston Howell III from Gilligan’s Island

…which is akin to accepting William Bendix of “Life of Riley” fame as a gangster, a role he took on in multiple movies, or even worse, Zero Mostel as a sleazy hood in “Panic In The Streets”, a movie about an outbreak of pneumonic plague in New Orleans which also starred Richard Widmark as the good guy (a bit jarring if you associate Widmark with his performance as a giggling hood who pushes a wheelchair-bound victim down a flight of stairs).

[Q.Q.Switcheroo]

“Baseball Bugs” (1946) has quite a few:

“I’m only ninety-three-and-a-half years old!”
“Does your tobacco taste different lately?”
“Was this trip really necessary?”
“That’s what the man said! You heard what he said! He said that!”

…and one I still haven’t identified. Just before Bugs’ last pitch, a male chorus is heard singing “What’s the score, boys? What did Bugs Bunny do? What’s with the carrot league baseball today?” Was this a reference to some 40s ad jingle?

[terentii]

Enjoy!

Incubus 1966

Bareback beefcake: William Shatner as Alexander the Great!

[Peter_Morris]

@terentii

After she saw Airplane! for the first time, I had to explain to my daughter that she got only half the joke when she laughed at “The old woman who spoke Jive.”

I think I only got half the joke too. What am I missing?

[digs]

@markn_1

William Shatner was in a horror movie called Incubus… (In case hearing Shatner mispronounce Esperanto is on your bucket list.)

I was going to start The Esperanto Club at my school (which would’ve been me and Jimmy McGinty and no one else), so I know a few phrases.

But now I can’t read them without hearing Shatner’s “novel” cadences…

Mia KU…sen…veTUREEELO estaaas plena… da ANG…iloj!

…

(“Will someone get these motherfukkin’ eels outa my motherfukkin’ hovercraft?!”)

[NDP]

@terentii

A very young

Summary

Robert Blake (aka “Beretta”

), if I recall correctly. Or are you thinking of someone else?

There’s that but this person appears twice.