The Puppetoon Movie

Starring:Paul Frees, Victor Jory
Director: Arnold Leibovit
Studio: Image Entertainment
Product Type: DVD

Amazon.com

Before Wallace and Gromit, before Gumby and Pokey, Hungarian-born animator and director George Pal (1908-1980) created the stop-motion shorts he dubbed "Puppetoons." Arnold Leibovit has assembled an affectionate tribute to Pal that includes animation from 11 "Puppetoons." Twelve other films are included on the DVD version, although there's some overlap. Pal used his charming little figures in miniature Busby Berkeley numbers and simple boy-meets-girl stories. But he could tackle more serious subjects, as he proved in "Tulips Shall Grow" (1943). He caricatured the Nazi wehrmacht as the goose-stepping, robotic Screwball Army, attacking Holland (where the artist had made his first films before coming to America). His most endearing short is probably "Tubby the Tuba" (1947), the story of an eager little horn who wants his song to be heard. In 1947, Ebony praised Pal's "John Henry and the Inky Poo" (1946) as "that rarest of Hollywood products that has no Negro stereotypes, but rather treats the Negro with dignity, imagination, poetry, and love." But the magazine criticized his series about Jasper, a little African American boy. These films have aged less gracefully, and modern viewers may find jokes about watermelon, haunted houses, and other standards of ethnic humor objectionable. Not rated: suitable for ages 8 and up. Parents may want to monitor the use of ethnic stereotypes. --Charles Solomon

Description

Enter a world of animated movie magic from eight time Academy Award winner George Pal. Hosted by Gumby, Pokey, and new pal "Arnie the Dinosaur," "The Puppetoon Movie" features classic characters like "Tubby the Tuba," "Jasper in a Jam," and "Speedy Alka-Seltzer." With hip jazz tunes from Charlie Barnet and Louis Armstrong, and as many as 5,000 individually carved puppets per short, "The Puppetoon Movie" will astound and delight children and film buffs of all ages!

Customer Reviews:

Clarification.......2007-01-20

The cartoon on this disc is not "Bravo, Mr Strauss", but "Mr Strauss Takes a Walk". The former is what I was looking for since it's the one I remember best. It features the Screwball Army invading Vienna. They tear things up, and a statue of Strauss comes to life and restores everything by playing the violin. I haven't been able to find it on home video.

Animated Heaven.......2007-01-05

George Pal's Puppettoons are unknown to today's kids, but when I was a boy, they were on TV along with cartoons, and I loved them. They have the charm, wit and the magic which George Pal brought to all his work. Best of all, there are so many bonus puppettoons that it's like getting two whole featrues. The only quibble is that a few of the "Extra" puppettoons are ones in the main feature, only in somewhat longer form. For fans of stop-motion animation, or just fans of charming shorts, this is a great collection.

Puppetoon Review.......2006-02-24

George Pal's Puppetoons are great. I remember watching them 45 years ago whilst growing up. I was hopeing for a few more toons with The Screw Ball Army in them but one is better than none. Well worth the little money I paid.

Worth it for Jasper in a Jam alone........2005-08-30

Before the movies there were the Puppetoons. Everyone who knows LooneyToons, Max Fleischer, and Disney should know George Pal's work as well. 'Jasper in a Jam', 'Tubby the Tuba' and 'John Henry and the Inkeypoo' are classics; the rest has bright spots here and there and is worthwhile if only for the advertising and political history. (Ignore the contrived intro and outro of the movie and focus on Pal's work.)
A companion piece: 'The Fantasy Film World of George Pal' covers his movies, including 'The Time Machine', 'War of the Worlds', 'Destination Moon', 'Atlantis', 'Tom Thumb', 'The Brothers Grimm' and 'The Seven Faces of Dr. Loa'.

Cute, but...........2004-05-24

It could have been more satisfying! There, of course, is the requisite "Tubby the Tuba", but just ONE piece featuring the Screwball Army! There were NUMEROUS Pal Puppetoon productions featuring these comical takes on fascism! Where's the Dr. Seuss "Mulberry Street" short? The short with the clarinet playing woodchopper? The other "Punchy & Judys"? (I wonder if the creators of "Little Lulu" ever commented on those!) And why so many from the thirties?? Most of Pal's best output of these little gems was in the forties and fifties....

Pal's Puppetoon work had a singular artistry to it. The figures moved unlike most other stop-action animated units, most of which generally just try to put across the tableau as plainly as possible. Pal's creations REACTED like cartoon characters...wild takes, feature distortion, ambient movement...all very idiosyncratic. The only other animation to be that generous with detailed movement were the Warner's Looney Tunes/Merry Melodies made between 1940 and 1955.

Most of them were funny, charming and quirky and embraced the art deco aesthetic like nothing else I've ever seen in animated art. What Pal's people could wring out of simple geometric shapes was amazing, and you'll notice, that's about all that they used...no weird freehand polygons are visible in the animation work...just spheroids, cones, rods and other distinct geometric solids. The only exception to this seems to be the "Punchy & Judy" bits.

His animation team must have suffered from gawrsh-awful cases of carpal tunnel syndrome and writer's cramp, because this was all incrementally implemented BY HAND to give the illusion of fluid movement. They just don't make them like that anymore...and this DVD should have featured fewer of the movie house adverts for Philips radios and Horlock's malteds and more of our old afternoon cartoon show favorites!

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