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Customer Review
Reviewed in the United States on July 11, 2015
The Van Beuren Corporation, run by Amadee Van Beuren, made animated cartoons from 1928 to 1936 across the street from the esteemed Fleischer Studios. Animation circles had maligned Van Beuren’s cartoons when the theatrical era became more historically significant in later years. Part of the reason was due to the lack of exposure. They hadn’t been seen on television since the 1960s, and were often sold for non-theatrical use, especially in home movie rentals. They saw a different life on generic video collections in recent years since the entire output is in the public domain, but the copies were often visually and audibly muddied.
However, Thunderbean has been proven more of a haven for these cartoons. Animation historian Steve Stanchfield has released about seven different Van Beuren DVD collections from his company, giving them the proper treatment these deserve. CLASSICS FROM THE VAN BEUREN STUDIOS is his first dual format collection with these cartoons, with high-definition transfers from original 16mm and 35mm materials. (Some of them are from 16mm print-downs, culled from 35mm negatives.)
Van Beuren partnered up with animator Paul Terry when they formed the Fables Pictures, where Terry and his staff created a series of animated films based on Aesop’s Fables. The cartoons featured Terry’s Farmer Al Falfa, along with different humanized animals. The first two cartoons on the set are “Fables” from the silent era. HUNTING IN 1950 features big game hunter Al Falfa set in the jungle, though I’m not quite sure what the year 1950 has with any relevance to the cartoon. LAND O’COTTON is an interesting entry in the series, and portrays racial connotations without the blatant imagery (no blackface). It’s also alarming to see a slave auction portrayed in a cartoon from this era.
The Van Beuren Corporation formed in 1928 and Paul Terry was forced to convert his “Fables” to sound. While Terry was skeptical to comply, there were several released under Terry’s name. CUSTARD PIES – sourced from a great 16mm print from Tom Stathes – is not synchronized in the matter of Disney’s STEAMBOAT WILLIE, but rather a silent “Fable” with a musical soundtrack and dissonant sound effects tacked on for novelty's sake. Shortly after these sound Fables were released, Van Beuren fired Paul Terry from his corporation, and went on to create his own animation studio, producing “Paul Terry-Toons” in the Bronx. In turn, Vaan Beuren inherited the series.
THE FLY’S BRIDE shows more regard for lip-sync to spoken dialogue and timing to the music. It even has the earliest use of my favorite Van Beuren trademark: the “zooming head,” where a character’s head foreshortens up to the camera. The early Fables up until early 1930 still had Paul Terry’s influence in the drawing -- and even placed humorous morals at the end as the silent Fables did -- but by the time THE OFFICE BOY was released, their look started to take on its own identity. OFFICE BOY is a racy entry with Milton and Mary Mouse, who closely resemble Disney’s Mickey and Minnie. The cartoon is one of the richest-looking, presented from an original 35mm nitrate print in Movietone aspect ratio.
Many of the more surreal cartoons Van Beuren released were on a different level than the Fleischers, since their drawing/animation wasn’t entirely polished but the irregular gag execution make it all the more better. THE WILD GOOSE CHASE has Waffles the Cat and his girlfriend on a search for a pot of gold, which might be one of the few Van Beurens that retains a structure, where the oddities take part in the story. New characters Tom and Jerry have their debut, WOT A NIGHT, displayed on this set. The cartoon is a great introduction for the duo inside a haunted house, with plenty of skeletons abound!
Apart from the bizarre cartoons that the studio produced, they balanced charm with their strangeness. MAKIN’ ‘EM MOVE - probably one of the more notable titles - has the Fables Animals animating their own melodrama spoof inside of their own cartoon studio. Their new character after Tom & Jerry was Cubby Bear, and BARKING DOGS is a superb entry from the series, with slick animation and a beautiful score by composer Gene Rodemich. The beautiful print used on this set enhances the experience.
SILVERY MOON – re-titled CANDY TOWN on home movie prints – visit a lunar landscape filled with delicious candies and sweets. THE BULLY’S END, one of the last in the Fables series, demonstrates a slight improvement in animation/inking that occurred within around their ’33 releases. Watch for some fast cutting that accords with the music during the build-up to the boxing match between little Runty Duck versus the bully rooster. While Cubby Bear continued on with his series, Van Beuren decided to gain licensing rights to Otto Soglow’s comic strip character The Little King. That venture lasted only ten cartoons, but SULTAN PEPPER is a bawdy outing, about the titular character’s attempts of sexual intimacy with a visiting sultan’s harem women. There was a desperate venture for success, even with the potential of a series based off the popular Amos n’ Andy radio program – not present on the set – but that backfired as well. The distributor, RKO Radio Pictures, knew they needed to find a talented artist to create cartoons with “box-office appeal.”
Burt Gillett, director of Disney’s sensational THREE LITTLE PIGS, was brought into the studio to capitalize on similar achievements. Ted Esbaugh, who had previously made fantasy cartoons in color, was also brought into Van Beuren. Gene Rodemich passed away around the same time, and was replaced by Winston Sharples, whose scores were not as jazzy as Rodemich’s, but showcased a more harmonious range. Gillett’s first series, Toddle Tales, combined live action sequences of children, with animated characters that recount a story that ultimately ended with a moral. A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME, the strongest of the Toddle Tales, is the last of the three films that were made, and was the last black-and-white cartoon the studio produced.
The Rainbow Parade series was the official color series for the studio. Ted Esbaugh only directed three cartoons at the studio, but his work is represented on this set with the highest regard, from beautiful 35mm Cinecolor prints from the Library of Congress. PASTRYTOWN WEDDING was Van Beuren’s first cartoon in color, but THE SUNSHINE MAKERS is a cult classic for many animation fans, with sophistication on par with some of Disney’s finest Silly Symphonies. PICNIC PANIC presents its original two-color Rainbow Parade titles – a rarity in itself given the original elements’ scarcity – and presents the debut of Molly Moo Cow in a small role. NEPTUNE NONSENSE, featuring Felix the Cat (sans the devious spirit), looks dazzling, displaying vibrant three-strip Technicolor far better than previous video releases.
The bonus features are slim, but add well to the set. They include a 1931 Aesop’s Fables Movie Book with wonderful two-color illustrations, an original 16mm Cinecolor home movie print of PASTRYTOWN WEDDING, and excerpts from the Disney/Van Beuren lawsuit, where Disney sued the corporation for cribbing Milton and Mary Mouse’s design from Mickey and Minnie. The highlight of the document is the photocopies of filmstrips that display original Mickey title sequences and Van Beuren cartoons in full aperture. If only those prints would surface today...
Even though it was a little difficult to navigate back to the menus (being a DVD-R), I heartily recommend this set to hardcore animation fans, novices that are looking into watching cartoons from a different studio or someone who is a lover of 1930s animation.
However, Thunderbean has been proven more of a haven for these cartoons. Animation historian Steve Stanchfield has released about seven different Van Beuren DVD collections from his company, giving them the proper treatment these deserve. CLASSICS FROM THE VAN BEUREN STUDIOS is his first dual format collection with these cartoons, with high-definition transfers from original 16mm and 35mm materials. (Some of them are from 16mm print-downs, culled from 35mm negatives.)
Van Beuren partnered up with animator Paul Terry when they formed the Fables Pictures, where Terry and his staff created a series of animated films based on Aesop’s Fables. The cartoons featured Terry’s Farmer Al Falfa, along with different humanized animals. The first two cartoons on the set are “Fables” from the silent era. HUNTING IN 1950 features big game hunter Al Falfa set in the jungle, though I’m not quite sure what the year 1950 has with any relevance to the cartoon. LAND O’COTTON is an interesting entry in the series, and portrays racial connotations without the blatant imagery (no blackface). It’s also alarming to see a slave auction portrayed in a cartoon from this era.
The Van Beuren Corporation formed in 1928 and Paul Terry was forced to convert his “Fables” to sound. While Terry was skeptical to comply, there were several released under Terry’s name. CUSTARD PIES – sourced from a great 16mm print from Tom Stathes – is not synchronized in the matter of Disney’s STEAMBOAT WILLIE, but rather a silent “Fable” with a musical soundtrack and dissonant sound effects tacked on for novelty's sake. Shortly after these sound Fables were released, Van Beuren fired Paul Terry from his corporation, and went on to create his own animation studio, producing “Paul Terry-Toons” in the Bronx. In turn, Vaan Beuren inherited the series.
THE FLY’S BRIDE shows more regard for lip-sync to spoken dialogue and timing to the music. It even has the earliest use of my favorite Van Beuren trademark: the “zooming head,” where a character’s head foreshortens up to the camera. The early Fables up until early 1930 still had Paul Terry’s influence in the drawing -- and even placed humorous morals at the end as the silent Fables did -- but by the time THE OFFICE BOY was released, their look started to take on its own identity. OFFICE BOY is a racy entry with Milton and Mary Mouse, who closely resemble Disney’s Mickey and Minnie. The cartoon is one of the richest-looking, presented from an original 35mm nitrate print in Movietone aspect ratio.
Many of the more surreal cartoons Van Beuren released were on a different level than the Fleischers, since their drawing/animation wasn’t entirely polished but the irregular gag execution make it all the more better. THE WILD GOOSE CHASE has Waffles the Cat and his girlfriend on a search for a pot of gold, which might be one of the few Van Beurens that retains a structure, where the oddities take part in the story. New characters Tom and Jerry have their debut, WOT A NIGHT, displayed on this set. The cartoon is a great introduction for the duo inside a haunted house, with plenty of skeletons abound!
Apart from the bizarre cartoons that the studio produced, they balanced charm with their strangeness. MAKIN’ ‘EM MOVE - probably one of the more notable titles - has the Fables Animals animating their own melodrama spoof inside of their own cartoon studio. Their new character after Tom & Jerry was Cubby Bear, and BARKING DOGS is a superb entry from the series, with slick animation and a beautiful score by composer Gene Rodemich. The beautiful print used on this set enhances the experience.
SILVERY MOON – re-titled CANDY TOWN on home movie prints – visit a lunar landscape filled with delicious candies and sweets. THE BULLY’S END, one of the last in the Fables series, demonstrates a slight improvement in animation/inking that occurred within around their ’33 releases. Watch for some fast cutting that accords with the music during the build-up to the boxing match between little Runty Duck versus the bully rooster. While Cubby Bear continued on with his series, Van Beuren decided to gain licensing rights to Otto Soglow’s comic strip character The Little King. That venture lasted only ten cartoons, but SULTAN PEPPER is a bawdy outing, about the titular character’s attempts of sexual intimacy with a visiting sultan’s harem women. There was a desperate venture for success, even with the potential of a series based off the popular Amos n’ Andy radio program – not present on the set – but that backfired as well. The distributor, RKO Radio Pictures, knew they needed to find a talented artist to create cartoons with “box-office appeal.”
Burt Gillett, director of Disney’s sensational THREE LITTLE PIGS, was brought into the studio to capitalize on similar achievements. Ted Esbaugh, who had previously made fantasy cartoons in color, was also brought into Van Beuren. Gene Rodemich passed away around the same time, and was replaced by Winston Sharples, whose scores were not as jazzy as Rodemich’s, but showcased a more harmonious range. Gillett’s first series, Toddle Tales, combined live action sequences of children, with animated characters that recount a story that ultimately ended with a moral. A LITTLE BIRD TOLD ME, the strongest of the Toddle Tales, is the last of the three films that were made, and was the last black-and-white cartoon the studio produced.
The Rainbow Parade series was the official color series for the studio. Ted Esbaugh only directed three cartoons at the studio, but his work is represented on this set with the highest regard, from beautiful 35mm Cinecolor prints from the Library of Congress. PASTRYTOWN WEDDING was Van Beuren’s first cartoon in color, but THE SUNSHINE MAKERS is a cult classic for many animation fans, with sophistication on par with some of Disney’s finest Silly Symphonies. PICNIC PANIC presents its original two-color Rainbow Parade titles – a rarity in itself given the original elements’ scarcity – and presents the debut of Molly Moo Cow in a small role. NEPTUNE NONSENSE, featuring Felix the Cat (sans the devious spirit), looks dazzling, displaying vibrant three-strip Technicolor far better than previous video releases.
The bonus features are slim, but add well to the set. They include a 1931 Aesop’s Fables Movie Book with wonderful two-color illustrations, an original 16mm Cinecolor home movie print of PASTRYTOWN WEDDING, and excerpts from the Disney/Van Beuren lawsuit, where Disney sued the corporation for cribbing Milton and Mary Mouse’s design from Mickey and Minnie. The highlight of the document is the photocopies of filmstrips that display original Mickey title sequences and Van Beuren cartoons in full aperture. If only those prints would surface today...
Even though it was a little difficult to navigate back to the menus (being a DVD-R), I heartily recommend this set to hardcore animation fans, novices that are looking into watching cartoons from a different studio or someone who is a lover of 1930s animation.
