A blog for writers writing everything from history to suspense. Wife, blogger, writer.
Spooks (1930) - An Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon
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I have never watched an Oswald cartoon until today. It was definitely...something. Here we have a take on Phantom of the Opera and it is interesting. I can't say it makes me feel sane. This was a journey and it was only five minutes.
Courtesy of intanibase.com
Today we look at my research journey into 1930's era cartoons. Oswald is somewhat lost to history. I'm not real sad about it when I look at this cartoon. It is a drug-trip of a cartoon with a horrible script that sounds like a bad radio drama. To be fair, it is 1930, but whoever animated this and wrote the voice lines must have been on drugs. It makes no earthly sense.
Now, 1930 featured some real weird cartoons to begin with. It is not just Oswald that is like this. I can't say watching Betty Boop makes me feel sane, either. The anatomy of the cartoons is deeply in question. This is voice acting in infancy and I know it. But even that knowledge makes me think someone slipped stuff in my morning coffee while I watched this film. It's five minutes, but it broke my brain.
You'll also note an early view of Mickey. If you see it, you see it. He's there and I do like that.
The Review
Take a minute and watch this. It's five minutes and you can surely spare the time if you have time to read an entire blog post. Then read the review and you'll understand what I mean.
This started with the Phantom calling an owl "fat-faced". Yep, I know. Let's talk about the way this phantom speaks in old english. It's hilarious. I did laugh, mostly out of bewilderment. I knew this was going to be something when we started there. Making someone a great singer by shoving a record player in the back of their skirt was also a bold move. And did I mention playing the organ/piano with only his pointer fingers? I feel my sanity levels dropping. The voice acting alone is quite something (but I can absolutely forgive it because this is 1930).
Whoever wrote the vocal script was definitely not editing it. The last joke is "What does a chicken say when it lays a square egg?" - right after chasing Oswald in the goofiest way possible. He then smacks Oswald after he says he doesn't know. Oswald says "ouch" and the phantom says "Ouch is correct" and then disappears in a crack in the floor. Oswald then smiles at the audience and it ends. It's bewildering at best, horrible writing at worst.
Conclusion
I can forgive the voice acting because it's 1930, but the writing was bad. I felt like someone drugged my coffee before I pressed play. Oswald being lost to time is a thing, mostly because Universal took the rights from Disney. This cartoon makes me think Fleischer is more sane, and I feel like all the Betty Boops are drug trips. Let's put it this way, it's a 3 out of 10 stars because I was laughing and voice acting is just becoming a job in this era. It definitely broke something in my brain.
Morrow is coming out before Christmas 2025. This novella is the story of two women writing a family history for the Morrow family. They find a nasty secret while researching. Will they survive their internship? Find out when the book releases this year.
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