The story of how William Tell came to shoot the apple off his son's head is told in this Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoon from Walter Lantz.
This one looks like it went back into planning several times as various techniques collide, to little improvement. The character of William Tell -- Oswald plays the son -- looks like a Goofy knock-off. All the characters speak in recitative, which puts me in mind of all those operatic Terrytoons from the 1940s of which I am not fond. Finally, an uncredited narrator who sounds like Phil Harris fills in the details for the viewer. By this point, Oswald was aimed pretty squared at little kids.
Those are the points that annoy me. On the plus side, his black and white animation technique was the equal of any in the business at that point, the gags are a lot more raucous than kiddie fare is nowadays and they are spaced and executed flawlessly.
As a result, this is not a great cartoon, but for less than seven minutes it's okay.
This one looks like it went back into planning several times as various techniques collide, to little improvement. The character of William Tell -- Oswald plays the son -- looks like a Goofy knock-off. All the characters speak in recitative, which puts me in mind of all those operatic Terrytoons from the 1940s of which I am not fond. Finally, an uncredited narrator who sounds like Phil Harris fills in the details for the viewer. By this point, Oswald was aimed pretty squared at little kids.
Those are the points that annoy me. On the plus side, his black and white animation technique was the equal of any in the business at that point, the gags are a lot more raucous than kiddie fare is nowadays and they are spaced and executed flawlessly.
As a result, this is not a great cartoon, but for less than seven minutes it's okay.