Sure, as far as the animation and score are concerned, this cartoon is on a par with other MGM cartoon shorts of the period. And of course, MGM had a release schedule to meet. But the fact that this cartoon is filled with violent, tired "gags" which were old even then, and the fact that there is NO Director/Supervisor credit, leads me to believe that whoever was responsible for this 7 minutes of wasted Technicolor film didn't want his name on it. And after seeing it yet again, I can't blame the guy or guys. The donkey character appears in at least one cartoon that's credited to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera (and it seemed like there was no low to which they wouldn't stoop at MGM). The violence is similar to that found in many of their Tom and Jerry cartoons. But if they DID direct this one, even THEY were ashamed of it. I'll guarantee you it's no Tex Avery cartoon.
Reviews
9 Reviews
Me Musical Nephews
(1942)
Makes a great promo, too!
16 November 2011
Warning: Spoilers
One of the Fleischer's best (DESPITE the nephews - in fact this one could be the ONLY good Popeye cartoon that features them, aside from the 1950 color remake of this cartoon, "Riot In Rhythm" which contains fewer of the great gags... These days when you see this one, it's been colorized, which looks okay for cartoons - everything has a black line around it). Cartoon Network's "Boomerang" channel seems to agree, since they did indeed make a killer promo with THIS cartoon, and not the 1950 version.
When the story opens, Popeye is having trouble keeping his eyes open as he and his four nephews (later cartoons feature only three nephews - cheaper to draw, I'm guessing) are in the living room, and the normally annoying nephews are practicing their music. At the time this one was made (1942), Big Band Swing music was all the rage, therefore the nephews are playing brass and woodwind instruments, along with a rhythm section of drums and piano.
Popeye just wants to get some sleep, but the kids are still wound up from playing music and have no intention of sleeping. Having played Swing and Jazz tenor sax professionally many years ago myself, it's easy to understand why it could take a while to wind down from a jam session... even a sleepy one as at the top of this cartoon.
Anyway, after Popeye confiscates the instruments and ad libs a cheesy excuse for a bedtime story, which turns out to be an off-kilter amalgam of several fairy tales, he hauls the boys off to bed for some overdue shut-eye. However, the boys soon discover things in their bedroom upon which they can continue to play more Swing. Meanwhile, Popeye is trying to sleep, but to no avail due to the music played by the boys. And by the way, kids, NEVER smoke your pipe in bed as Popeye does in the 1950 version! It's a fire hazard! After several times getting out of bed to see where the music's coming from (smashing a perfectly good radio in the process), Popeye figures out that the music is coming from the room belonging to the nephews. But every time he opens their door and looks inside, the boys are one step ahead of him and feign their rhythmic snoring. At first, Popeye is fooled, but not for long. And as explained in several other user reviews, he temporarily escapes the musical din by stepping outside the "iris-out" and pulling it closed behind him. This solution doesn't last long, however, and the Sailor Man bounces his way up the aisle and out of the theater. All in all, in my opinion this is Dave Fleischer's best cartoon with the crummy nephews in it. At least they're not Swee' Pea.
When the story opens, Popeye is having trouble keeping his eyes open as he and his four nephews (later cartoons feature only three nephews - cheaper to draw, I'm guessing) are in the living room, and the normally annoying nephews are practicing their music. At the time this one was made (1942), Big Band Swing music was all the rage, therefore the nephews are playing brass and woodwind instruments, along with a rhythm section of drums and piano.
Popeye just wants to get some sleep, but the kids are still wound up from playing music and have no intention of sleeping. Having played Swing and Jazz tenor sax professionally many years ago myself, it's easy to understand why it could take a while to wind down from a jam session... even a sleepy one as at the top of this cartoon.
Anyway, after Popeye confiscates the instruments and ad libs a cheesy excuse for a bedtime story, which turns out to be an off-kilter amalgam of several fairy tales, he hauls the boys off to bed for some overdue shut-eye. However, the boys soon discover things in their bedroom upon which they can continue to play more Swing. Meanwhile, Popeye is trying to sleep, but to no avail due to the music played by the boys. And by the way, kids, NEVER smoke your pipe in bed as Popeye does in the 1950 version! It's a fire hazard! After several times getting out of bed to see where the music's coming from (smashing a perfectly good radio in the process), Popeye figures out that the music is coming from the room belonging to the nephews. But every time he opens their door and looks inside, the boys are one step ahead of him and feign their rhythmic snoring. At first, Popeye is fooled, but not for long. And as explained in several other user reviews, he temporarily escapes the musical din by stepping outside the "iris-out" and pulling it closed behind him. This solution doesn't last long, however, and the Sailor Man bounces his way up the aisle and out of the theater. All in all, in my opinion this is Dave Fleischer's best cartoon with the crummy nephews in it. At least they're not Swee' Pea.
One of the truly GREAT Twilight Zone episodes!
14 August 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I must not be the only guy who thinks it's great, since there a movie, yet to be released as I write this review, entitled "Real Steel" involving... boxing robots. And this ain't your big brother's "Battlebots", either.
Lee Marvin is outstanding in this Zone half-hour, as the owner/manager of a creaky, washed-up robot fighter which is so out-of-date they can no longer get parts for it. Naturally, the robot boxer breaks down before the big bout, and Marvin takes the broken robot's place in the ring. But I won't disclose the ending here. You'll just have to watch for this episode.
Interestingly (to me anyway, as a student of Hollywood history) this episode, like the vast majority of Twilight Zones, was shot at what used to be one of the six MGM Studio lots in Culver City, CA. Now the last remaining lot is the Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures lot. Anyway, Serling & company must have rented a Culver City bus for the very first shot of this episode (that's the uncut version only - the bulk of that shot is missing from the edited-for-time version that you most often see on TV these days). I reach this conclusion from the fact that in the "destination window" above the windshield of the bus, it says "Sunkist Park". Sunkist Park is in fact an actual Culver City neighborhood, just a few minutes from the studio by car, and was built eleven years before this 1963 episode was filmed.
If you haven't seen this episode, you've really missed something - not the least of which is Lee Marvin at his best. It would be well worth your while to keep an eye on the TV listings for it. And just for grins, if you're lucky enough to catch the uncut version during a Twilight Zone marathon, take a good look at that bus in the first shot as it turns the corner and pulls into frame.
Lee Marvin is outstanding in this Zone half-hour, as the owner/manager of a creaky, washed-up robot fighter which is so out-of-date they can no longer get parts for it. Naturally, the robot boxer breaks down before the big bout, and Marvin takes the broken robot's place in the ring. But I won't disclose the ending here. You'll just have to watch for this episode.
Interestingly (to me anyway, as a student of Hollywood history) this episode, like the vast majority of Twilight Zones, was shot at what used to be one of the six MGM Studio lots in Culver City, CA. Now the last remaining lot is the Sony Pictures/Columbia Pictures lot. Anyway, Serling & company must have rented a Culver City bus for the very first shot of this episode (that's the uncut version only - the bulk of that shot is missing from the edited-for-time version that you most often see on TV these days). I reach this conclusion from the fact that in the "destination window" above the windshield of the bus, it says "Sunkist Park". Sunkist Park is in fact an actual Culver City neighborhood, just a few minutes from the studio by car, and was built eleven years before this 1963 episode was filmed.
If you haven't seen this episode, you've really missed something - not the least of which is Lee Marvin at his best. It would be well worth your while to keep an eye on the TV listings for it. And just for grins, if you're lucky enough to catch the uncut version during a Twilight Zone marathon, take a good look at that bus in the first shot as it turns the corner and pulls into frame.
The Looney Tunes Show
(2011–2015)
The Looney Tunes Show is PURE GARBAGE
9 June 2011
Warning: Spoilers
I mean, come on! The original Warner Bros. cartoon Directors, Animators, Writers and Music Directors (first Carl Stalling and later Milt Franklyn) who are no longer with us, along with the late, great Mel Blanc are each doing about 1000 RPM in their graves. For the most part, the art work STINKS (Bugs Bunny painted PURPLE??), the voices are 98% dreadful (Witch Hazel suddenly became BLACK? The guy doing Bugs can't act. Daffy is only sort of okay. The two percent that sound right are as follows: Elmer Fudd is excellent, and of course Granny is still Granny, because she is still June Foray, thank God. And they called in Bob Bergen from Duck Dodgers to beautifully play Porky.) This show could easily evaporate from the face of the earth and fans of the GENUINE Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies would NEVER miss it. EVER!!!
The Cowboy and the Indians
(1949)
A Better Autry Film Than The First Reviewer Knows
9 September 2007
Warning: Spoilers
I was a bit angered when I read the first User Comment written here by KDWms in April of 2003, and for several reasons. Sure, he or she is entitled to their opinion, and I would never dispute that. And he/she was right about several things in the film. But some of the "facts" listed in that User Comment are just plain wrong. Plus, that writer doesn't seem to know much about the real Gene Autry or the conditions that inspired this movie.
I will be using a few of the statements of KDWms in this User Comment. Those words will appear in single quotes(') as I attempt to set the record straight.
1. '...this flick contains BOTH Clayton Moore (as a bad guy) AND Jay Silverheels (as a college-educated Indian) BEFORE they were The Lone Ranger and Tonto.'
WRONG! If KDWms had bothered to check the facts, he/she would have discovered that the first airing of "The Lone Ranger" Episode #1 and the theatrical release of Autry's "The Cowboy And The Indians" happened ON THE VERY SAME DAY - September 15, 1949. This was an easy one to check - listings for both of them appear right here on IMDb.com.
He/she was right about the characters they played in this film. After seeing The Lone Ranger for years, Jay Silverheels' performance here is quite striking. He played his character, a man with an engineering degree and a decorated former GI, with no trace of a "Hollywood" Indian accent - none of that phony "Keemosabe" stuff here.
2. '...this film must have been released near Christmas 'cause - get ready for a couple of song-standards of that season toward it's end.'
WRONG AGAIN!! Check that September release date one more time. The song, "Here Comes Santa Claus", featured toward the end of the film, was a certified platinum hit record for Gene Autry two years earlier - in 1947 - NOT in 1949 when this film was released. Come on, KDWms. Do your homework.
3. 'Aha!!! I know what's missing: the sidekick. Minimal comic relief.'
Okay. If that's what you're after, that's fine - there was indeed no Smiley Burnette or Pat Buttram in this film, which there could easily have been. After all, though the picture was distributed by Columbia, it was produced by Gene Autry Productions, so Gene could have done anything he wanted with it. He did just that, including the minimum of comic relief and lack of a sidekick. And unlike most "Cowboys and Indians"-type Westerns, it's not the Cavalry that rides to the rescue in the nick of time - it's the Indians! But I believe Gene wanted to make a point with this film. Come to think of it, you seldom see marauding bands of "wild" Indians in any Gene Autry movie. Not never, but seldom.
My guess is there is an important reason there's not much comic relief in this film, unlike any of the Autry films which co-starred either Burnette or Buttram. The truth behind this fictional story is not the least bit funny. Native Americans WERE starving on the reservation in 1949, and many still are today. This concerned Gene Autry greatly during his lifetime. The REAL Autry, as well as the movie Autry, was always concerned about Native American history, poverty and other issues. Notice too, that in his other films and his TV show, Autry included people of ALL races and generally treated them as equals, which was unusual in any Hollywood movie of the period. And the Bosses of the Bad Guys were white in Autry movies.
Autry wasn't afraid to put his money where his mouth was. His concerns that people should know the real history of the West were why he sold his extremely profitable Los Angeles TV station, KTLA, in 1981 in order to raise the money to build The Autry Museum of Western Heritage. It was never a shrine to Autry movies nor was it intended to be. Instead it is dedicated to REAL Western history, and is now called The Museum Of The American West. The Autry National Center, the Museum's parent organization, now operates three entities: The Museum Of The American West, The Institute for the Study of the American West and The Southwest Museum of The American Indian, all located in the Los Angeles area. You can learn more about the museums at www.GeneAutry.com. Gene wanted people to learn about the history of Cowboys, settlers and Indians...the REAL way they lived, and not as they were portrayed in standard Hollywood fare. Hence the exploitation of the Native American people depicted in "The Cowboy And The Indians", which is not the sort of thing you'd see in any movie made in 1949, and in only a few since.
Now that you know the truth, the next time you see "The Cowboy And The Indians", you just might cry. And it's why I would call this one of Gene Autry's better films, and anything but 'substandard'.
I will be using a few of the statements of KDWms in this User Comment. Those words will appear in single quotes(') as I attempt to set the record straight.
1. '...this flick contains BOTH Clayton Moore (as a bad guy) AND Jay Silverheels (as a college-educated Indian) BEFORE they were The Lone Ranger and Tonto.'
WRONG! If KDWms had bothered to check the facts, he/she would have discovered that the first airing of "The Lone Ranger" Episode #1 and the theatrical release of Autry's "The Cowboy And The Indians" happened ON THE VERY SAME DAY - September 15, 1949. This was an easy one to check - listings for both of them appear right here on IMDb.com.
He/she was right about the characters they played in this film. After seeing The Lone Ranger for years, Jay Silverheels' performance here is quite striking. He played his character, a man with an engineering degree and a decorated former GI, with no trace of a "Hollywood" Indian accent - none of that phony "Keemosabe" stuff here.
2. '...this film must have been released near Christmas 'cause - get ready for a couple of song-standards of that season toward it's end.'
WRONG AGAIN!! Check that September release date one more time. The song, "Here Comes Santa Claus", featured toward the end of the film, was a certified platinum hit record for Gene Autry two years earlier - in 1947 - NOT in 1949 when this film was released. Come on, KDWms. Do your homework.
3. 'Aha!!! I know what's missing: the sidekick. Minimal comic relief.'
Okay. If that's what you're after, that's fine - there was indeed no Smiley Burnette or Pat Buttram in this film, which there could easily have been. After all, though the picture was distributed by Columbia, it was produced by Gene Autry Productions, so Gene could have done anything he wanted with it. He did just that, including the minimum of comic relief and lack of a sidekick. And unlike most "Cowboys and Indians"-type Westerns, it's not the Cavalry that rides to the rescue in the nick of time - it's the Indians! But I believe Gene wanted to make a point with this film. Come to think of it, you seldom see marauding bands of "wild" Indians in any Gene Autry movie. Not never, but seldom.
My guess is there is an important reason there's not much comic relief in this film, unlike any of the Autry films which co-starred either Burnette or Buttram. The truth behind this fictional story is not the least bit funny. Native Americans WERE starving on the reservation in 1949, and many still are today. This concerned Gene Autry greatly during his lifetime. The REAL Autry, as well as the movie Autry, was always concerned about Native American history, poverty and other issues. Notice too, that in his other films and his TV show, Autry included people of ALL races and generally treated them as equals, which was unusual in any Hollywood movie of the period. And the Bosses of the Bad Guys were white in Autry movies.
Autry wasn't afraid to put his money where his mouth was. His concerns that people should know the real history of the West were why he sold his extremely profitable Los Angeles TV station, KTLA, in 1981 in order to raise the money to build The Autry Museum of Western Heritage. It was never a shrine to Autry movies nor was it intended to be. Instead it is dedicated to REAL Western history, and is now called The Museum Of The American West. The Autry National Center, the Museum's parent organization, now operates three entities: The Museum Of The American West, The Institute for the Study of the American West and The Southwest Museum of The American Indian, all located in the Los Angeles area. You can learn more about the museums at www.GeneAutry.com. Gene wanted people to learn about the history of Cowboys, settlers and Indians...the REAL way they lived, and not as they were portrayed in standard Hollywood fare. Hence the exploitation of the Native American people depicted in "The Cowboy And The Indians", which is not the sort of thing you'd see in any movie made in 1949, and in only a few since.
Now that you know the truth, the next time you see "The Cowboy And The Indians", you just might cry. And it's why I would call this one of Gene Autry's better films, and anything but 'substandard'.
The Adventures of Spunky and Tadpole
(1958–1961)
Most Unlikely Detectives - A Boy and His Teddy Bear
31 August 2007
Spunky, a boy (played by Joan Gardner, a.k.a. Joan Janis, wife of the producer) and Tadpole, his bear (played first by the always versatile Don Messick, then by series producer Ed Janis) are detectives - who get themselves into and out of improbable situations while chasing and catching the bad guys - working in locations as mundane as the Police Department (Gumshoe Division) and as far-flung as the moon. Along the way they spoof old movies and then-current TV shows, and find themselves working with characters such as detective Trick Casey and famous spaceman Trash Borden (both played by the always versatile Don Messick).
The show was serialized, with ten short episodes comprising one story. The series was sold to local stations for use during their locally produced kid shows.
The animation, although typical of the "limited" made-for-TV animation style of the period, looks not quite as good as comparable product from other TV animation producers of the day. The stories range from so-so to pretty good, but the gags are anywhere from groaners to hilarious.
Despite the budgets for the Spunky and Tadpole episodes looking not to be particularly high, the writing and production values were pretty good. And the producers, Beverly Hills Productions, had the foresight to make the shows in color - even though most TV's were black and white at the time. Unfortunately, the show didn't live up to expectations and was dumped from the major markets in which it ran fairly early on. It continued for a while in secondary markets until it disappeared from TV altogether in the mid-1960's.
"The Adventures of Spunky and Tadpole" started around the same time as Hanna-Barbera's "The Huckleberry Hound Show", in which Messick played Boo Boo Bear and Ranger Smith in the "Yogi Bear" segments of that show's first season, as well as additional voices in other segments. Yogi was then spun off to star in his own series, and Messick's Boo Boo and the Ranger went with him.
In 1978, "Spunky and Tadpole" was purchased for home video by ZIV, who edited the serialized episodes together into complete stories that ran roughly half an hour each. They actually play better that way than as individual episodes.
The show was serialized, with ten short episodes comprising one story. The series was sold to local stations for use during their locally produced kid shows.
The animation, although typical of the "limited" made-for-TV animation style of the period, looks not quite as good as comparable product from other TV animation producers of the day. The stories range from so-so to pretty good, but the gags are anywhere from groaners to hilarious.
Despite the budgets for the Spunky and Tadpole episodes looking not to be particularly high, the writing and production values were pretty good. And the producers, Beverly Hills Productions, had the foresight to make the shows in color - even though most TV's were black and white at the time. Unfortunately, the show didn't live up to expectations and was dumped from the major markets in which it ran fairly early on. It continued for a while in secondary markets until it disappeared from TV altogether in the mid-1960's.
"The Adventures of Spunky and Tadpole" started around the same time as Hanna-Barbera's "The Huckleberry Hound Show", in which Messick played Boo Boo Bear and Ranger Smith in the "Yogi Bear" segments of that show's first season, as well as additional voices in other segments. Yogi was then spun off to star in his own series, and Messick's Boo Boo and the Ranger went with him.
In 1978, "Spunky and Tadpole" was purchased for home video by ZIV, who edited the serialized episodes together into complete stories that ran roughly half an hour each. They actually play better that way than as individual episodes.
California Governor encourages clean, wholesome "talkies"
31 August 2007
Ronald Colman introduces Clement C. Young, Governor of California from 1928 to 1931, in this short made for public viewing in 1928. This was two years before the passage of the Motion Picture Production Code (not actually enforced until 1934) in an effort to show lawmakers that the film industry was policing itself. This film obviously didn't work, since the Code was put into effect anyway.
The Code's stated objectives were a lot of legal-speak for "The Bad Guy must never win nor get away with anything", "No nudity or explicit sexual material", "No graphic methods of violence", and "No illegal drug use", among others.
The Code was enforced until the late 1950's when squeaky-clean Hollywood films were subject to competition from more explicit foreign films and from the convenience of television. The old Hollywood "studio system" was pretty much dead by then and the Code fell by the wayside with it.
The Code's stated objectives were a lot of legal-speak for "The Bad Guy must never win nor get away with anything", "No nudity or explicit sexual material", "No graphic methods of violence", and "No illegal drug use", among others.
The Code was enforced until the late 1950's when squeaky-clean Hollywood films were subject to competition from more explicit foreign films and from the convenience of television. The old Hollywood "studio system" was pretty much dead by then and the Code fell by the wayside with it.
The Dudley Do-Right Show
(1969–1970)
For the users who don't get it
20 August 2007
For those writers whose comments appear here who don't know the actual chronology of how The Dudley Do-Right Show came to be, the story goes like this:
Dudley Do-Right was never conceived to be the star of his own show. Dudley was one of a number of segments which constituted Rocky His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, both of which were essentially the same program, made during different consecutive seasons starting in 1959 by Jay Ward Productions of Hollywood, CA. Jay Ward also produced the "Fractured Fairy Tales", "Peabody"s Improbable History" and "Aesop and Son" segments for Rocky and Bullwinkle.
The Dudley Do-Right Show was a repackaging of several Jay Ward-produced elements, which were distributed by a New York company called P.A.T., later to be called Filmtel and headed by Peter Piech (after whom Captain Peter "Wrongway" Peachfuzz was named). Filmtel controlled the TV distribution of the fabulously funny animated output of Jay Ward Productions (who not only made the various incarnations of "Rocky and Bullwinkle" but also "The Hoppity Hooper Show" and "George Of The Jungle").
Filmtel also distributed the rather mediocre output of New York's Total Television, Inc. Total Television was owned by cereal giant General Mills and produced "The King Leonardo Show" and "Tennesee Tuxedo and his Tales", which included the short "Commander McBragg" segments as part of those two shows (hmmm...Total Television...Total cereal...NAH! Couldn't be a connection there. How about "The Big G stands for Garbage"?). General Mills was also the original sponsor of Rocky and Bullwinkle. The reason Dudley and the Total Television segments look so similar is that the animation was filmed in Mexico by a company called Gamma Productions. Hence, people often confuse them as coming from the same production company, which they did not. Once all these program segments were "in the can", General Mills decided there was no reason to create anything new. It would be much cheaper for the cereal company to simply repackage the existing material and milk it (pun intended!) for every last dime they could.
The complete story of all this can be found in a book entitled "The Moose That Roared", written by Keith Scott (who played Bullwinkle in the live-action Rocky and Bullwinkle theatrical film). For any fan of Rocket J. Squirrel, Bullwinkle J. Moose or Dudley Do-Right, this book is required reading...if you can find it.
Dudley Do-Right was never conceived to be the star of his own show. Dudley was one of a number of segments which constituted Rocky His Friends and The Bullwinkle Show, both of which were essentially the same program, made during different consecutive seasons starting in 1959 by Jay Ward Productions of Hollywood, CA. Jay Ward also produced the "Fractured Fairy Tales", "Peabody"s Improbable History" and "Aesop and Son" segments for Rocky and Bullwinkle.
The Dudley Do-Right Show was a repackaging of several Jay Ward-produced elements, which were distributed by a New York company called P.A.T., later to be called Filmtel and headed by Peter Piech (after whom Captain Peter "Wrongway" Peachfuzz was named). Filmtel controlled the TV distribution of the fabulously funny animated output of Jay Ward Productions (who not only made the various incarnations of "Rocky and Bullwinkle" but also "The Hoppity Hooper Show" and "George Of The Jungle").
Filmtel also distributed the rather mediocre output of New York's Total Television, Inc. Total Television was owned by cereal giant General Mills and produced "The King Leonardo Show" and "Tennesee Tuxedo and his Tales", which included the short "Commander McBragg" segments as part of those two shows (hmmm...Total Television...Total cereal...NAH! Couldn't be a connection there. How about "The Big G stands for Garbage"?). General Mills was also the original sponsor of Rocky and Bullwinkle. The reason Dudley and the Total Television segments look so similar is that the animation was filmed in Mexico by a company called Gamma Productions. Hence, people often confuse them as coming from the same production company, which they did not. Once all these program segments were "in the can", General Mills decided there was no reason to create anything new. It would be much cheaper for the cereal company to simply repackage the existing material and milk it (pun intended!) for every last dime they could.
The complete story of all this can be found in a book entitled "The Moose That Roared", written by Keith Scott (who played Bullwinkle in the live-action Rocky and Bullwinkle theatrical film). For any fan of Rocket J. Squirrel, Bullwinkle J. Moose or Dudley Do-Right, this book is required reading...if you can find it.
Sky Trooper
(1942)
Unsung loud mouth
12 April 2006
There's one bit of information that's often left out when someone writes about "Sky Trooper": the great Billy Bletcher plays Donald Duck's nemesis, Sgt. Pete.
The diminutive Mr. Bletcher had a large vocal range and a voice that could be tiny or 10 feet tall. He could do everything from little high voices to big-voiced villains like Pete. He played The Big Bad Wolf in all three of Disney's "3 Little Pigs" cartoons.
Bletcher was also the voice of Papa Bear in several cartoons in Chuck Jones' "Three Bears" series as well as other voices at Warner Bros. He stars in MGM's "The Captain and the Kids" series as the blustery Captain himself.
Bletcher first appeared on-camera in 1915 (an uncredited appearance in a silent film) and he worked as an actor (both on-camera and in voice over), writer and director until 1971.
The diminutive Mr. Bletcher had a large vocal range and a voice that could be tiny or 10 feet tall. He could do everything from little high voices to big-voiced villains like Pete. He played The Big Bad Wolf in all three of Disney's "3 Little Pigs" cartoons.
Bletcher was also the voice of Papa Bear in several cartoons in Chuck Jones' "Three Bears" series as well as other voices at Warner Bros. He stars in MGM's "The Captain and the Kids" series as the blustery Captain himself.
Bletcher first appeared on-camera in 1915 (an uncredited appearance in a silent film) and he worked as an actor (both on-camera and in voice over), writer and director until 1971.
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