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The Nostalgia Thread


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I heard June Foray on the radio a few years back pitching the release of "Rocky and Bullwinkle" episodes on VHS. She was the one who always did the voice of the "princess" in the fairy tale and I think she did "Rocky" as well.

Anyway, she said when they got ready to record, that Jay Ward would hand out the scripts and then say, "Well there's a woodsman in here, uh, you take that part Paul, and June, you be the princess, Hans, you'll be the villain, and I'll play so-and-so." Then, no rehearsal, no "first takes" or anything else. They turned on the recorder and did it. Amazing if that's really how it went. Some of the funniest stuff ever on T.V.

BTW, anyone remember Hans Conried's spinoff of the series called "Fractured Flickers"? THAT was some outrageously funny stuff. I guess he got in a lot of trouble with studios and actors and relatives of same for "desecrating" the classics. Personally, I loved every minute of it.

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The lady you're referring to is June Foray, George, one of the best cartoon voice actors ever. Yes, she was the voice of 'Rocky', as well as every female from princesses, to witches.

She also did voices for most of the other studios since the 50's, and is still very much alive and well.

I'm not sure that they never rehearsed, though there was clearly a free spirit atmosphere that June may have been 'embellishing' a bit. As far as I know, Jay Ward never did a voice, and 'Doris' would have been June herself.

I'm headed for the east coast for a week or so, and will gladly turn the board over to other subjects. I really don't plan on being so long winded , or 'know it all'-one post just seems to lead to another.

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Just checked, you rent it on Netflix.

Created by the great minds that concocted the Rocky & Bullwinkle show, Jay Ward and Bill Scott, "Fractured Flickers" takes esoteric and better-known silent movies featuring greats such as Charlie Chaplin and Douglas Fairbanks and uses them as the foundation for a most unusual homage. Catch all 26 episodes of this highly entertaining series, a must for film history buffs and viewers who feed on pop history.

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Ala,

I agree with you, the Warner Bros. cartoons were far and away the better cartoons for animation. I can still crack up watching a good Road Runner-Wile E Coyote cartoon. It was the way they depicted the laws of physics tormenting poor Wile E. whenever he had some scheme to get the road runner all figured out. A rocket on his back and wearing roller skates.... using a tree bent over as a slingshot... whatever... and he hadn't figured on the extra acceleration or something.

Rocky and Bullwinkle is much more entertaining to me now than it was then though I haven't seen an episode in years. Hey Kathy... here's that link you couldn't hear placed on another site. Click HERE! and go on and take a guess. So far George is the only one and it looks like he knew it.

sudo
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As far as Warner Bros vs Jay Ward cartoons-Keep in mind that the great Warner cartoons were made for the movie theater, at a much higher budget, and with full animation.

Rocky and Bullwinkle was made for television, with limited budgets and animation, and really should not be compared as far as animation quality.

Bullwinkle, ( as well as other early tv cartoons , Yogi Bear for example)were extremely successful solutions to the limitations set before them. They weren't trying to out Bugs Bugs Bynny-they were just trying to be funny.

And, as is often the case, many of the artists , writers, and actors, spent time at

several studios, and learned to work within the boundaries given them-and it has not changed to this day.

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And even as crude as the animation was in Rocky and Bullwinkle, is was lightyears ahead of what Ward and Co. had been doing previously in "Cursader Rabbit". As I remember, they were like paper cutouts that were moved around a little for the "animation" part. I don't remember exactly, but it was really crude, that I know...

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Of course, if you're looking for BAD animation, I have two words for you: Clutch Cargo. Rather than have animators work at making lips move, they actually filmed actors speaking the lines and superimposed their lips on the characters. Even that wouldn't have been so bad had the lips been facing the same way as the cartoon character!

Oh, and did anyone else watch the old Krantz cartoons featuring Marvel super-heroes? They were more slide shows than actual cartoons, with the same scenes being used repeatedly and characters moving against backgrounds as if they were one picture sliding over another.

Ah, to be a kid again, where such things didn't matter!

George

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'Space Angel" also had the superimposed lips, tho 'Clutch Cargo' is the classic example. I used to watch Clutch every morning before school, and I have vivid memories of being creeped out, especially by the kid, Spinner. The lips were always so wet looking, with glimpses of tongue.

The Marvel Super Heroes cartoons were done as cheap as is humanly possible, yet I have an affection for them. Forget animation, they were basically moving slide shows, but they shot the art right from the comic books,so alot of the great Jack Kirby, and Gene Colan art was unfiltered.

It was shoddy tho, and a little off setting when they would take say, the Hulk's head out of context from another artist, and throw it in, mish mashing art styles, and anything actually animated was ridiculous.

They did fill in alot of blanks for Marvel's world for me though. I also dug the theme songs. Oddly, they didn't feature Marvel's 2 biggest properties, Spider-Man, and Fantastic Four, but we did get Captain America, Thor, the Hulk, Iron Man, and Sub-Mariner.

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1Knames...don't know about anyone else, but I got the "great with north" clue...good one. icon_smile.gif:)-->

Yep, it was The Stand. I loved the book. Was really excited when I heard it was going to be a mini-series. Was REAL dissapointed after I watched it. Don't get me wrong...if I had never read the book I would have loved it. But you know...when you read a book, you get a picture of all the people how YOU think they look/act. I didn't think they really cast anyone right. There were a few that worked, and in fact, for the movie, the worked great. Guess it just didn't measure up to the pictures I had in my head from reading the book. Oh wel...icon_smile.gif:)-->

Now something I have been meaning to do for a few weeks. A couple posters mentined ChattyKathy's singing. Well...click HERE and you can listen to her! Now...I had trouble converting this song...it will only work with the Windows Media Player for now...but I'm working on it. icon_smile.gif:)-->

Rick

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