Customer Reviews

Cartoon Rarities Of The 1920s

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

While a few of these cartoons are available elsewhere on more expensive releases and in "remastered" quality, the variety is worth the price.

TANKS (1917) The earliest cartoon on this colection, created by animaton pioneer and inventor of the "cell system," Earl Hurd.

MY OLD KENTUCKY HOME (1926) Quiet possibly the first "sound cartoon" produced by the Fleischer studio.

SWEET ADELINE (1926) This film was part of the Song Cartune series, produced by the New York based Max Fleischer studio. The Fleischers partnered with sound pioneer Dr. Lee Deforest for this one.

FOUR MUSICIANS OF BREMEN (1923) One of the first Disney cartoon shorts, produced by the newly formed "Laugh O' Grams" studio.

THE HUNT (1927) Starring Dinky Doodle, this short series was created by Walter Lantz while at the Bray Studio.

MECHANICAL COW (1927) An Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon when Disney was working for the studio before he lost the rights to his cartoon character.

ALICE RATTLED BY RATS (1925) Live action Margie Gay in a cartoon world.

There are more cartoons on this volume but trust me when I say the price is superb for this colection.

...and a great value for the less than ten dollars from Amazon third parties.

There's an emphasis on 'toons combining live action with the drawings and every cartoon is perfectly viewable and listenable.

Let's hope to see more from Alpha, maybe even an entire disc or two of the Fleischer's KoKo the Clown (please!). Also look for Cartoon Rarities From The Thirties, Farmer Al Falfa, and Bizarre Cartoons discs from Alpha.

The earliest cartoon on this disk is from 1917! It has the first cartoon with actual spoken words made by Max Fleischer and Dr. Lee DeForest. "My Old Kentucky Home" may appear a little racist, but it's all in good fun! Early works of animator Walt Disney are featured here as well, "Mechanical Cow", (an Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon), and "The 4 Musicians of Bremen"...wonderful music here, but no dialogue...This disk delivers what it says - actual early cartoons from the twenties, uncensored, full of crazy characters not found anywhere anymore!

This DVD has some amazing old classics on it. Many people reviewing these old cartoon collections give very detailed critiques of them. I just like these old cartoons. Yes, some are jerkey and/or dark etc., but that just makes them more realistic to me. That's what I expect from something that ole. Like listening to an old record. They remind me of my much younger years, and some have amazing imagery in them considering when they were made.

OK, I'll admit it. I am a cartoon collector and this program, despite being from Alpha Video, was something I had to have due to the titles it contains. Too many times I have been disappointed with products from Alpha Video as they often have poor video quality. In this case, however, these cartoons look quite good despite their age.

Being examples from the 1920s they were all, mostly, silent. In this program, however, musical accompaniment is included for all of them. Just know that the music you hear is probably not what theater audiences heard when these films played the local theaters. Notice I said "mostly" in that last sentence. Two of the films in this set are pioneering examples of adding sound to cartoons. There's even one where lip synced dialog is tried.

All of these cartoons were made well before the movie industry developed and enforced a self-censorship code so expect to see some ribald humor here and there and ethnic stereotyping that is no longer considered acceptable. This set makes it clear that during the early days of cartooning the intended audience was adults, not children.