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What A Cartoon! - Gerald McBoing Boing & Rooty Toot Toot (Patreon)

Published:
2021-03-22 04:00:00
Imported:
2026-06
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Chosen by premium Patreon subscriber Alex, we explore some defining works of Golden Age animation from UPA. We cover the complex history of UPA and its two best directors, and then explore two of their most beloved cartoons, the original Gerald McBoing Boing and the jazzy Rooty Toot Toot! Listen now before HUAC makes us name names!

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Thad Komorowski

I think you overstate how UPA showed that it could be done cheaper, given that the UPA cartoons were notoriously overbudget, even though that's the irony – it ultimately did lead to limited, cheap animation. What they were showing was that animation could be done differently and in the style of modern artists and that was what made the biggest impact with the better directors and designers at the other studios. I'm also pretty sure most modern creators were influenced by the imitators (specifically early TV) and not UPA itself. Funny you should talk about availability, as there were two big DVD box sets last decade, one collecting all of the Magoo cartoons and one collecting all the non-Magoo cartoons. So actually, UPA is the one theatrical studio whose output is 100% collected… The first Fox and Crow cartoon, "The Fox and Grapes", was directed by Frank Tashlin and is in a league ahead of all the other Screen Gems cartoons. It was cited by Chuck Jones as an influence on his Road Runner series, so I urge you to give it another chance. I do like the Fox and Crow cartoons and characters, mostly for the voice work by Frank Graham, but their best moments were on the printed page in DC Comics, mostly done by cartoonist Jim Davis (the GOOD one). The beauty was how many inventive variations they got out of the simple premise of "Fox has something, Crow tries to chisel it out of Fox", and they're easily my favorite funny animal stories after the Carl Barks comics. Got to say, in reviewing several hundred (thousands of?) stories, I did not encounter one iota of black caricature in the Crow – he's simply a typical New Yorkese race form reading scammer. The Fox is definitely gay, though. And speaking of Chuck Jones, UPA truly is from his seed. He was the most innovative of the '40s shorts directors, not just with his posing and approach to movement, but design: take a look at all the cartoons from the Dover Boys period to see proto-UPA starting to sprout. Lastly, we covered UPA ourselves on Cartoon Logic last year and discussed the dreary but still great "Christopher Crumpet" in detail… listeners interested in more chat (and not a ton of overlap with Bob and Henry's great podcast) check it out here: https://cartoonlogic.libsyn.com/cartoon-logic-episode-20-upa-cristopher-crumpet

tiny crow

Big Pink Panther fan here! Friz Freleng was asked during an interview what was the stylistic influence for the Pink Panther cartoons. He, potentially in a defensive manner, was adamant that he was creating a new aesthetic. He said he worked off the animated titles for the 1963 Blake Edwards film done by Friz and Panther designer Hawley Pratt. Friz said he wanted to do a film that had an abstract aesthetic with barely any backgrounds or colors, thus creating a new style. To Friz’s eyes he was doing something different, but you can certainly feel the UPA influence or the imitation-UPA shorts they were doing at Warners. John Dunn was considered the main artistic influence at DePatie-Freleng. He worked on the Ward Kimball’s Tomorrowland shorts and his heavily abstract style definitely had UPA tones to it. He drew all the (forgotten) DFE characters with those heavily stylized features such as the Panther’s foil “The Little Man”, as he is christened. Though the animators also saw him as a caricature of Friz Freleng himself. Also, Friz was still alive during the production of the 1993 series where they made him talk. He a consultant, of sorts, and he was very upset at the idea of giving his character a voice (probably because Friz tried and failed to give him one in 1965’s Sink Pink). But apparently his demands when ignored. Great episode on the two best UPA cartoons!

Rhomega

I wanted to point out that Lucille Ball was not a Communist. She was pushed by her grandpa to register for the party in 1936, but never actually joined, and even voted for Eisenhower in 1952. To quote Desi Arnaz: "The only red thing about Lucy is her red hair, and even that is not legitimate."

Thad Komorowski

Also please go easy on Mr. Schlesinger. He was nowhere near as much a dick as Mr. Walt (that’s why his cartoons were better and all the best directors were his hires) and he was retired and cashed out of the business YEARS before the Red Scare. Also he died in 1949.

Christmas Ape

I saw both of these and a bunch of other UPA cartoons a few years ago during one of Turner Classic Movies' animation nights. Those marathons were always really fun and illuminating, and they'd even show obscure animated movies, like the Fleischer Studios ones, while the hosts provided plenty of historical context...much like this podcast!

Sara

long live Hanna-Barbanime

Joe Hodgson

Listening to this podcast just made me remember the Nickelodeon puppet show Wienerville, which filled time with cartoons like Mr. Magoo and Gerald McBoing-Boing. I had mostly forgot that show had ever existed, but that was definitely the source for much of my UPA viewing as a kid.

SomeBloke

I had never seen Rooty Toot Toot before, so thank you to Alex for forcing me out of my comfort zone. I did end up wondering if the courtroom scenes were meant to play to cliches or not - I'm conditioned to think a lawyer turning down cross-examinations in media has some master plan, so clearly the joke is that he doesn't and just spins some obvious bullshit that still works, right? But did people in the early 1950s have that same expectation? I spent entirely too long wondering about this.

Echo Cimarron

I never really saw the UPA shorts growing up. I guess they just weren't as widely syndicated as a lot of other classic shorts. I was eventually introduced to them thanks to the fist Hellboy movie, of all thing. Guillermo Del Toro is a fan, and had a Gerald McBoing-Boing short playing on a TV in Hellboy's apartment. When the DVD came out, they threw several of the shorts in as a bonus feature. They weren't readily available at the time, so it was a pretty cool of del Toro to help introduce them to a new audience.

Lorin Bernsen (edited)

Comment edits

2026-09-07 10:00 This episode has maybe the most FASCINATING (or, “fask-in-ay-tin”, as Popeye would have said) pre-history segment you guys have ever done! I learned so much, & it really ties in with the history & culture of the entire 20th Century in so many ways!
2021-04-03 00:37 This episode has maybe the most FASCINATING (or, “fask-in-ay-tin”, as Popeye would have said) pre-history segment you guys have ever done! I learned so much, & it really ties in with the history & culture of the entire 20th Century in so many ways!

This episode has maybe the most FASCINATING (or, “fask-in-ay-tin”, as Popeye would have said) pre-history segment you guys have ever done! I learned so much, & it really ties in with the history & culture of the entire 20th Century in so many ways!