THOUGHTS ON RALPH BAKSHI AND THE HISTORY OF ANIMATION

I don't claim to be an expert on either the famous animator or animation's varied history. That said, my recent re-screening of Bakshi's notorious semi-animated flop THE COOL WORLD moves me to ponder some aspects of Bakshi's history in the world of American cartoons.

First, it should be said that although there had been various "adult" live-action films dating back to the pre-Code Hollywood era, American producers and audiences did not seem to desire adult material in animated cartoons. One might occasionally catch some slightly risque content in the Fleischer Brothers' BETTY BOOP or in the post-war shorts of Tex Avery, but the emphasis was on keeping all animated cartoons "mainstream," so that they could be enjoyed by kids as well as adults.

The very nature of the short cartoon, for that matter, mitigated against adult content, particularly when the format was worked out in Hollywood's silent era. Before dialogue was possible, at least beyond the level of the occasional intertitle card, the main charm of short cartoons was what one author termed the "metamorphosis gag," where something in the cartoon magically transformed into something else, usually for no reason except that some character wanted it to do so. There are exceptions to this assertion, like Windsor McCay's "Gertie the Dinosaur," but it seems to me that the basic paradigm was that of the Fleischer's "Out of the Inkwell" series of 1918-29, in which the animators called attention to the cartoons' ability to take any number of peculiar shapes and sizes.

Sound changed the paradigm. Though there were a few cartoons during this period that eschewed verbal elements of any kind-- Chuck Jones' "Inki" series, for one-- sound meant that characters had to express themselves; had to become more consistent, even at the Fleischer studios. Metamorphosis gags still abounded-- just before Popeye hit Bluto, the sailor-man's arm-muscles would change into the Rock of Gibraltar or somesuch-- but now the gags had to work in concert with the established characters of Popeye, Bluto and Olive Oyl. Before sound, an animator like McCay might *choose* to keep a character consistent, but the greater tendency was toward gags for their own sake, and characters like Koko (seen above) and Felix the Cat, who largely existed to set up the gags.

Norman Klein's book SEVEN MINUTES goes into much more detail than I can here as to the way American animation developed, taking on more "sentimental" dimensions due in large part to the influence of Walt Disney-- but whether the cartoons pursued sentiment or slapstick, they were all still largely mainstream in tone.

Possibly only after 1966, when the MPAA replaced Hollywood's production code with a system whose ratings identified adult content in films, was it possible for Ralph Bakshi to pioneer the first full-length animated cartoons with an adult sensibility-- two of which, FRITZ THE CAT and HEAVY TRAFFIC, were monetarily successful. But many factors mitigated against even live-action adult films, and so Bakshi's later attempts at producing adult animation features lost steam, even as figures like Michael Eisner and Don Bluth resurrected the popularity of all-ages cartoon-flicks. Thus when Baskhi completed COOL WORLD-- which to date remains his swan song in the world of animated feature films-- he was in essence selling HEAVY TRAFFIC to an audience that had come to expect LITTLE MERMAID-- or, more appropriately, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?, since COOL WORLD took at least some of its conceptual fire from ROGER's success at blending live-action and animation.

It's impossible to know what Bakshi's COOL WORLD might have turned out like, had he been able to execute his original idea. A Wikipedia essay asserts that once a new screenplay was forced upon Bakshi, he didn't even show the new screenplay to many of his animators, instructing them to simply come up with whatever cartoon-gags they wanted to do. This undoubtedly accounts for the fact that almost all of the gags in COOL WORLD are, unlike those of ROGER RABBIT, extremely disjointed and irrelevant to the plot, such as it is.

Probably more by dumb luck than by design, COOL WORLD ended up being a de facto salute to the hoary days of silent animation, when little beyond metamorphic sight gags, cut free from considerations of plot or character, abounded in American animation. I don't think for a moment that Bakshi intended to make such an homage, he grew up in the 1950s, at a time when there were no venues where anyone could generally see silent cartoons. But during his apprenticeship at Terrytoons he was working within a very minimalist system of cartoon-making. somewhat akin to animation in its silent years. Possibly Bakshi's creative disinterest in COOL WORLD may have contributed to the divorce between the gag-humor and the plot and characters that had been forced upon the director.

COOL WORLD status as an "accidental homage" does not, of course, make it a good film, and there's no guarantee that Bakshi's original idea would have been any good either. But even if it was done through dumb luck, the film does offer some insights on the more chaotic permutations of the cartoon image, with which viewers sometimes forget in a world where mainstream values have largely effaced any hardcore adult sensibility.

THE 100 GREATEST CROSSOVERS OF ALL TIME #54

Though I made up my "best 100 crossovers" list months ago, the gradual nature of the project has allowed for me to occasionally bring in more recent stuff and drop out previous choices.

"Say Uncle," a STEVEN UNIVERSE cartoon lasting less than a quarter-hour, debuted in April 2015 on Cartoon Network. I just saw it, and it's easily one of the most "meta" commentaries on the dynamics of engineering a crossover between franchise-characters. The above scan takes place when visiting guest-star "Uncle Grandpa" assures Steven that the episode in which they're jointly appearing "is not canon"-- and then he proceeds to show him how to use a real cannon, by firing off his own head as a projectile.

In contrast to many non-canonical episodes of serial shows, in which nothing much happens aside from the crossover, "Say Uncle" does relate to a continuing storyline from the UNIVERSE show, in which he struggles to master his latent powers as one of the "Crystal Gems." At the same time, the story is written so that writers dealing with more canonical matters can freely ignore the intrusion of Uncle Grandpa into Steven's universe. Similarly, when the goony Grandpa transports Steven into his own universe, one of Steven's Gem-friends ends up devouring one of the regular characters of Grandpa's show-- an event which I imagine was also cheerfully ignored in any GRANDPA episodes that followed.

I've become only a minor fan of STEVEN UNIVERSE, and have not really followed UNCLE GRANDPA, but this episode does what any good crossover should do. The whole purpose is to encourage audiences to partake of both franchises more regularly-- and after this, I may even watch UNCLE GRANDPA a little more.

THE 100 GREATEST CROSSOVERS OF ALL TIME #33

There's not much to say about this odd duck, THE MAN WHO HATED LAUGHTER, except that it only qualifies for this list by the sheer uniqueness of the crossovers.  About three dozen characters syndicated by King Features appeared in this phlegmatic 1972 episode of THE ABC SATURDAY SUPERSTAR MOVIE.  However, whereas ROGER RABBIT wisely kept the majority of its cameo-characters confined to quick, highly visual appearances, LAUGHTER-- written by Lou Silverstone and directed by long-time animator Jack Zander (best known for his Tom-and-Jerry shorts)-- pokes along, trying to give all its characters some little something to do. LAUGHTER is a lot like those "Hollywood Canteen" films of the 1940s, in which big-time movie stars, often playing themselves, were assembled to participate in some worthy project, often involving entertaining the troops. Unfortunately, this barely animated TV-movie is even less funny than those stodgy films. The movie won't make anyone hate laughing, but watching it will probably make some viewers hate LAUGHTER.

Mad scientist Morbid Grimsby hates laughter, but can't figure out how to end that phenomenon. He decides to abduct all the funny characters from comic strips, because his computer tells him that comic strips like BLONDIE and HI AND LOIS contribute so much to human amusement.  To do this, Grimsby commissions Popeye and his entourage-- that is, Olive and Wimpy-- to gather the various characters together on a ship, promising them a fabulous ocean-voyage. Popeye, nominally the hero of the story, is totally clueless that Grimsby, upon getting his "guests" to a remote island, plans to keep them imprisoned so that they will never again create laughter. Maybe the sailor-man would've caught on if he'd met Grimsby's henchman, who happens to be Popeye's old sparring-partner Brutus (a TV-cartoon version of the Fleischer Studio's heavy, Bluto). The island-bound guest-list includes such notables as Henry, Snuffy Smith and his wife, the cast of the Katzenjammer Kids, Beetle Bailey and Sarge, the Little King, Little Iodine, and the respective households of the Bumstead and Flagstone clans, among others.

Though Popeye and his buddies don't know what's going on, the government somehow gets wind of Grimsby's plot, and calls into action most of the King Syndicate's adventure-heroes: the Phantom, Mandrake, Steve Canyon, Flash Gordon, and Tim Tyler of TIM TYLER'S LUCK, which strip had been cancelled since 1966. The Phantom's wolf-ally Devil and Flash's girlfriend Dale also make quick appearances.  The amusing thing about the "serious" heroes being called up to rescue the supposedly vulnerable "funny" characters is that in real life the former were already on their way out, as all forms of story-strips-- not just those centering on martial heroes-- while the "funny" strips would regain the dominance in the comic-strip market that they had enjoyed prior to the adventure-boom of the 1930s.

Since Popeye is framed as the hero, the serious heroes are eventually defeated by Grimsby, though they do get one little victory. Brutus, dressed up like a cockamamie excuse for a knight-in-armor, is sent packing when Mandrake conjures up a more prepossessing armored knight: Prince Valiant, complete with horse-- though Valiant doesn't stick around to get captured.

Once the serious heroes are out of the way, the captured comic-heroes-- including Popeye and his retinue-- attempt to make Grimsby laugh, in the hope that the experience will cause him to change his ways.  Given the supposedly funny routines performed by the captives, it's a wonder that the mad scientist doesn't atomize the lot of them.  But yes, they finally make Grimsby laugh. For a desultory climax, one of Grimsby's devices goes haywire, and Popeye, finally getting access to his beloved spinach, saves the day.

As a closing note, the comics-characters all seem to be aware that they occupy comic strips in addition to their ongoing lives.  I have not been able to determine whether or not credited scripter Silverstone is the same author known for contributing to MAD magazine. If so, in this endeavor he was a long way from the wit displayed in the classic sixties spoof "Bats-Man!"

THE 100 GREATEST CROSSOVERS OF ALL TIME #32

Despite the multitude of animated characters appearing in 1988's WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?, the vast majority of them are walk-ons, as seen in the memorable crowd-scene above.

And to be sure, if they were all just walk-ons, then ROGER wouldn't qualify for my list, given that in this post I said that my list wouldn't include simple walk-on/cameo crossovers. Often the crossovers stories that I've selected in the past hinge on two or more characters who have already been established crossing one another's paths-- though I've bent this rule somewhat for "back-door pilots," in which a new character is introduced to an audience by being "written in" to the mythos of an established character, or group of characters.

In the case of ROGER, the three primary protagonists-- the titular rabbit, detective Eddie Valiant, and Roger's wife Jessica-- originated in Gary Wolf's 1981 book WHO CENSORED ROGER RABBIT?  This book, which I have not read, had the protagonists encounter characters from the comic strips. The combination live-action/animation film principally took the idea of human and comic-strip characters co-existing in the same world, and altered the concept to that of humans and animated cartoons-- specifically, those spawned by American theatrical cartoons-- sharing a world.

One salient difference between the two media involved was that in comic strips crossovers were extremely rare, while one could frequently come across intra-company crossovers in American theatrical cartoons. particularly between the two companies licensing their franchises to the ROGER production: Disney and Warner Brothers. The animation divisions of the two studios were in many ways antithetical, so it's not surprising that when ROGER does allow for some crossover side-plot action, the effect is not very salutory.

Many reviewers have pointed out that the scene between Bugs Bunny and Mickey Mouse lacks pizzazz:

The one between Daffy Duck and Donald Duck is a little better, but not by much.

The better bits are those in which Eddie Valiant interacts with famous faces like Betty Boop, but there aren't many of these: the focus is on the interaction of Wolf's key characters. That said, given that I did say I would include crossovers of characters and milieus, as I did with TARZAN AT THE EARTH'S CORE.

 ROGER is perhaps best described as a melding of Wolf's characters with a "super-continuity" that merges the cosmoi of both Warners and Disney.  Since the comedy stylings of each company's respective characters don't really play off one another that well, it's probably just as well this "super-continuity" was never, and probably will never, be seen again.  ROGER, like a certain stage-act by Daffy Duck, could only be done once.