Cruisin' with Cartoons

I thought about a dozen cartoons that have aired on "Toon In With Me" in the last few years. They are entertaining for having themes from even before WWII. Viewing them across generations provides different perspectives of childhood, parent-agehood, and oldsterhood. Despite mostly 2D looks, these animations are amazing in indicating movement, character looks consistency, and great imaginations for improbable realities.

What kind of improbable realities? How about characters that get totally destroyed in scenes, yet recover to perfect health and wholiness within seconds? Violations of laws of physics with backgrounds that snap out of rigidity and back to immovable state? How about constant uses of dynamite, TNT, office safes, anvils, and the like for attempted destruction between adversaries? Such cartoons and items include the following characters: Roadrunner and Wile E. Coyote, Bugs Bunny and adversaries (Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Tasmanian Devil, ...), Tom and Jerry, and Tweety and Sylvester.

Thinking of various gadgets WRT to Wile E, the devices from Acme always fail him. Ordering delivery of a chicken meal would be more effective, filling, and less harmful to his health. Expanding thoughts wider about cartoons, some specific ones come to mind, with or without the usual weapons of personal destruction that I've mentioned.

Note: Links for cartoons are for full versions. Most are from YouTube. Ones from Daily Motion have slightly different play and audio controls; be sure to click "unmute".

Spider and Fly Interaction, Fly Saved By WWII Regulation

For "Meatless Flyday", the spider has four arms, four legs. Gloved hands show three-fingers and thumb most of the times. Feet are shod. In one instance, his shoe is cut open, exposing five toes. He counts his now five-digit hands to confirm full counts. The fly has two arms (gloved fingers) and two legs (three toes per foot). Comically improbable--a horseshoe magnet strong enough to attract the fly with ingested buck shot AND kitchen knives.

Note that the spider's cut-open-toe shoe and hand digits around the 4:00 mark. Also noteworthy is WWII-type references to meatless day—"Meatless Monday Then and Now", and nighttime blackouts ("Blackout (wartime)").

Another cartoon with nod to WWII, "LOONEY TUNES (Looney Toons): A Tale of Two Kitties (1942) (Remastered) (HD 1080p)" shows a Victory Garden and lights-out policing. The cartoon includes destructive devices that only temporarily disable Catstello while annoying Babbit in their mission to capture a proto-Tweety. Violations of laws of physics are rampant, especially during the last few minutes.

The two cartoons I've described show loads of violence and little music. Several of the following cartoons engage in both music AND violence, but not sax and violins.

Hungarian Musical Presences in Cartoons

"Cartoons using Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2" shows compiled snippets. "The Concerto Controversy | Plagiarism Accusations Between Tom & Jerry and Looney Tunes" provides background to two very similar cartoons that feature Hungarian Rhapsody #2. Star piano players are Bugs Bunny and Tom Cat, respectively. The video also includes additional content about cartoons' cultural impacts.

"Brahms – Pigs in a Polka – Hungarian Dances 5, 7, 6, 17" provides details about Hungarian Dances music and order. The embedded cartoon link points to a YouTube video, but "LOONEY TUNES (Looney Toons): Pigs in a Polka (1943) (Remastered) (HD 1080p)" is more complete.

Three Pigs Segue to Jazz

"Three Little Bops (starring Joe Bezek)", from 1950s has loads of jazz from the three pigs and wolf. The story bears some resemblance to the familiar pigs and wolf story. No house constructions, but wolf blowing anyway.

Another Three Pigs Twist, Mashed Up with Little Red Riding Hood

"Bugs Bunny E078 The Windblown Hare" stars Bugs Bunny in a mashup of the three pigs with wolf and Little Red Riding Hood. The lesson is that defrauding Bugs results in consequences.

Little Red Riding Hood Variations

"Little Red Riding Rabbit" shows twist of Little Red Riding Hood ending up as the least sympathetic character. Both Bugs Bunny and the wolf ultimately leave her in dire straits. Apparently, several cartoons vary in their approaches to Little Red Riding Hood. Warner Brothers and Walter Lantz (Woody Woodpecker) have additional variations Of LRRH and wolf, fineable on the web.

Violations of Laws of Physics In Popeye Adventures

Oddly enough, Popeye cartoons, despite loads of violence, don't seem to resort to dynamite. Surroundings (roads, trains, ...) seem to become elastic in many stories. BTW, Olive has elasticity in spades. In instances, she twists like a corkscrew, spans chasms with skinny legs that rival Mr. Fantastic, and frequently moves her limbs spaghetti-ishly. An example of laws-of-physics violations is "Popeye 147 I'll be skiing you 1947". It starts out with ice skating, but transitions to skiing, with amazing Olive Oyl improbable flexibilities not seen in other cartoons. A St. Bernard rescues Popeye with spinach so he can rescue Olive from the ever-growing and downhill rolling snowball. Bluto gets kissed by a she-wolf on the slopes and Florida.

A Valentine Story for Multiple Generations

"Don't Look Now (1936) (HD)" is a Valentine Day theme of Cupid and youngsterish devil with opposing goals upon arising. The story has something for youngsters and grownups. The cartoon sprinkles a few adult themes, such as planted "evidence" of infidelity among courting couples and false accusations of paternity.. Lots of music throughout.

A Couple of Single Working Women and Their Abodes

Betty Boop and Olive Oyl cartoons have shown them having their own careers, businesses, and residences. Some cartoons show them living in apartments or houses—no roommates, siblings, or parents. Betty does own Pudgy, her dog, which occasionally exhibits human mannerisms.

Couple of business examples:

• Olive and Popeye open a diner together as partners in "Popeye The Sailor Man - We aim to please".
• Betty Boop shows her auto repair business in "Betty Boop - So Does An Automobile 1939 // Colorized HD". Numerous autos are animated to display human movements and behaviors.

Rec'ed for Multiple Viewings

The following cartoons are great entertainment that invite multiple viewings, for absorbing details and also re-viewing fun stuff. They have great plot development, loads of music, and lots of innovations with devices and gadgets. Action-packed nearly throughout the adventures.

• "Betty Boop - Grampy's Indoor Outing (1936)"
• "Popeye the Sailor - Cartoons Ain't Human"
• "Rabbit Of Seville (1950)"

Generational Reaches

Whether you watch classic cartoons as first timer or old timer, favorites will form memories of happy entertainment. Oddly enough, some cartoons almost seem new if not viewed in many years.

Sthinker

A blended word is one that combines two words. Google results show some examples, such as "brunch", combination of breakfast and lunch and "sitcom", combination of situation and comedy. My blended word for my image is "sthinker", combination of stinker and (Rodin's) Thinker. Obvious initial terms and blended word, I hope.

About the time I thought about Sthinker, a few TV airings came to mind about tail endings, so to speak. I'm not sure how my train of thought started and ended, but the following items inspired my article.

• Afterthoughts about Rodin's Thinker
• Michelangelo's David
• Tom and Jerry cartoons showing improbable ends or endings
• Tweety and Sylvester adventure at Children's Museum
• Smoking gum ad prank

Afterthoughts about Rodin's Thinker

Curiosities arose upon researching various tie-ins to my overall theme of entrances and exits, so to speak. As I collected info about Michelangelo's David, I also gave Rodin's Thinker a look-see. "12 Things You Didn't Know About 'The Thinker'" provides food for thought. Rodin's quote about his statue could apply to my whimsical Sthinker image, no disrespect intended.

What makes my Thinker think is that he thinks not only with his brain, with his knitted brow, his distended nostrils and compressed lips, but with every muscle of his arms, back, and legs, with his clenched fist and gripping toes.

The article mentions that the statue was originally intended to be part of larger piece of work. A tie-in to a different Michelangelo statue (not David) is at "Michelangelo’s Thinker". FWIW, "cuirass" showed up in several places, piquing me. The torso item has nothing to do with the anatomical part that the last syllable might imply. Hmmm, I suppose the whole word's pronunciation COULD sound racy.

Michelangelo's David

The similarity between David and the Thinker is that they're both well-known statues. And nekkid. However, David is standing, and Thinker is seated. David looks flexed, maybe to imply his readiness for his upcoming battle with Goliath. As for Thinker, my Rodin's Mental Floss blockquote from above might explain his anatomical flexedness.

Recently, I had watched Philomena Cunk's Cunk on Earth episode that included a narrow look at the David statue, front and back. "Philomena Cunk, the art critic" delivers an amusing rant. Cunk on Earth is a wacky retelling of the history of the world, not to be taken as the gospel truth.

The David statue has been in the news this month. Google news results for "Michelangelo's David controversy" show headlines about the Florida charter school principal forced to leave her job over a class lesson that featured the statue. Even SNL addressed the controversy with Michael Longfellow as chiseled David, aired April Fool's day. Amusingly, SNL had featured David in a skit reaching back to 2013.

Apparently, this is not the first controversy over nekkid David. "10 Facts About Michelangelo’s David" mentions the statue having been censored with a plastered fig leaf in the distant past. "10 Facts about Michelangelo’s Statue of David in Florence, Italy" provides some overlapping and additional info about David.

Tom and Jerry Cartoons Showing Improbable Ends or Endings

A few Tom and Jerry cartoons provide some warped ideas of end results that could be very misleading for children to understand. They are highly amusing for grownups, if you don't overthink loads of violence that the duo seem to constantly inflict on each other.

• "Tom and Jerry, 54 Episode - Cue Ball Cat (1950)" shows Tom swallowing Jerry's aimed bridge cue stick (~2-minute mark). The outline of the stick straightens his tail, and the bridge ends up at his mouth.
• "Key Retrieval - Tom and Jerry: Robin Hood and His Merry Mouse" depicts a key shape at Tom's tail (~30-second mark). (Tom swallowed a key, which omitted any digestive tract route.) Watch Jerry enter Tom's mouth and beyond to retrieve the key.
• "Tom and jerry show, tom swallow jerry,hd" shows Tom starting out kicking a tennis ball a la hacky sack. About 20-seconds in, Jerry, ball, and other objects are inside Tom's stomach.

Tweety and Sylvester Bonus

"Looney Tunes Extras - Museum Scream" is an adventure at the Children's Museum. A snake catches and swallows Sylvester early in the cartoon, About 1:30 mark, Sylvester, still inside snake, stands up, then walks and emerges at its mouth. Sylvester, after cleaning himself as a fastidious cat would, pursues, catches, and loses Tweety. Eye-popping and somewhat accurate, Sylvester's digestion-system journey ends with Tweety's punchline. The chase resumes with more museum touring for us, the audience, with Sylvester becoming nine colorful lives.

"Unintentionally Sympathetic / Looney Tunes provides a sympathetic look at Sylvester's mishaps in Museum Scream cartoon, along with additional history about some of some other characters in various Looney Tunes cartoons.

Smoking Gum Ad Prank

"Aunt Chippy Cigarette Prank" is like an extended version of a Candid Camera segment. A former smoker (Jimmy Kimmel's Aunt Chippy) is hired to record an anti-cigarette commercial that features cigarette gum. The rest of the people are in on the prank. The punch line is precious!

Something that struck me was that the "director" was able to progressively cajole Aunt Chippy into doing things she would start out refusing to do. I think being talked into actions happens to lots of people (cough, cough) in lots of circumstances.

"Jimmy Kimmel's Real Relationship With His Aunt Chippy" provides info about the relationship between good-sport Aunt Chippy and nephew Jimmy Kimmel.