Tag Archives: Max Fleisher Cartoon

Play Safe 1936

1 Reply

Paramount Pictures

Hey, how about a Max Fleischer Color Classic (Cartoon) to start things off for March…filmed in Technicolor, no less?! I found a copy on YouTube (see below) in remarkably good condition to review.

It’s basically a railroad safety film for kiddies back in the day with everyone from the narrator to anthropomorphic model trains to the gauges in the locomotive cab yelling at the boy to, “PLAY SAFE”… mostly to no avail.

In a bit of serendipity, I found this cartoon short whilst looking for the movie Play Safe 1927 (starring Monty Banks) as suggested by John Davies. I couldn’t find a decent version of that 1927 flick online, but found a great copy of what I review here. Enjoy.

Our short feature opens as a little boy (we’ll call him “Phil”), is reading in the backyard whilst straddling his electric train set, as his faithful dog (we’ll call him “Boots”) sleeps nearby. “The Ballad of Casey Jones” is playing in the background.

Phil’s house is right next to a double track main line featuring lower quadrant semaphores. The details in this frame alone are outstanding — fenced yard, back porch, train set complete with tunnel and water tower. How about that magnificent tree behind Boots?

Continue reading →
Advertisement

Onion Pacific 1940

Leave a reply

Paramount Pictures
A Max Fleisher Cartoon

It’s Popeye the Sailor (voiced by Jack Mercer) vs. Bluto (voiced by Pinto Colvig) in this 1940 cartoon send up of Paramount’s own epic movie Union Pacific 1939. In this black and white animation, it’s a race side by side on double track to win the state franchise (presumably to operate the railroad). Two steam engines (Bluto runs a 6-4-0, Popeye a 4-2-0) have to contend with choke points like a single track bridge and single track tunnel.

Being a cartoon allows many over-the-top gags and mishaps you simply could not do with real actors. Compared to a Warner Brothers Looney Tunes, the animation is not that great, but it’s fast with lots of action. I was able to review this picture from my Popeye The Sailor 1938-1940 DVD.

Now sit back and enjoy this train-laden feature from the early days of animation!

This sequence gets reused quite a bit as for much of the race, the two combatants are side by side, constantly trading the lead with each other. Notice animators left off one set of pilot wheels on Bluto’s locomotive making it a 4-4-0.

Continue reading →