David Hand had worked very closely with Walt Disney in the 1930s and the early 1940s, on the regular Mickey Mouse cartoons and even in such feature length cartoons as SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARFS. He left Disney in the 1940s to work for British cinema as the head of the cartoon production for J. Arthur Rank. On Friday, July 27, 2007 three of his nine "Animaland" cartoons were shown on TCM, on CARTOON ALLEY with Ben Mankiewicz. Although the last one shown in that half hour, it is the first in terms of when it was produced.
The cartoon is a good one - it traces the life of a house cat from his days as a kitten to the days of his romancing a female alley cat (and fighting a male alley cat while he is in the romance). We see the cat playing with a venetian blind's string and hoop - his imagination changing the two items into a mouse, a snake, and even a miniature man (whom he enjoys chasing and annoying - the man, by the way, looks like David Low's classic cartoon figure "Colonel Blimp". We then see him a few years later, and he is smitten by a female alley cat. In his imagination she is smartened up into a feline version of a sex goddess, her facial hair done up in a fancy hairdo. The house cat smartens himself up too - including slicking down his own head hair, and parting it in the center.
He goes into the alley and serenades the female cat, and she id impressed (she should be - he's singing like a quartet by himself). A rival male alley cat takes advantage of the house cat's temporary concentration on his singing to pull the female cat away. The house cat does pursue and confront his rival - and nearly bites the dust. In the end though he triumphs, and discovers he has won the female cat, but also four kittens of her's. At first shocked, the house cat imagines they are his and starts acting proud. As he and the female cat embrace, she slyly winks at the audience.
It is funny, and has it's moments. It also shows a problem for Hand in his career - his figures are familiar looking because he worked for Disney, so it looks like a Disney project. But it is quieter in spirit, and the touch of English life (the miniature "Col. Blimp") makes it Hand's not Disney's. Certainly a fine cartoon in it's own right.
The cartoon is a good one - it traces the life of a house cat from his days as a kitten to the days of his romancing a female alley cat (and fighting a male alley cat while he is in the romance). We see the cat playing with a venetian blind's string and hoop - his imagination changing the two items into a mouse, a snake, and even a miniature man (whom he enjoys chasing and annoying - the man, by the way, looks like David Low's classic cartoon figure "Colonel Blimp". We then see him a few years later, and he is smitten by a female alley cat. In his imagination she is smartened up into a feline version of a sex goddess, her facial hair done up in a fancy hairdo. The house cat smartens himself up too - including slicking down his own head hair, and parting it in the center.
He goes into the alley and serenades the female cat, and she id impressed (she should be - he's singing like a quartet by himself). A rival male alley cat takes advantage of the house cat's temporary concentration on his singing to pull the female cat away. The house cat does pursue and confront his rival - and nearly bites the dust. In the end though he triumphs, and discovers he has won the female cat, but also four kittens of her's. At first shocked, the house cat imagines they are his and starts acting proud. As he and the female cat embrace, she slyly winks at the audience.
It is funny, and has it's moments. It also shows a problem for Hand in his career - his figures are familiar looking because he worked for Disney, so it looks like a Disney project. But it is quieter in spirit, and the touch of English life (the miniature "Col. Blimp") makes it Hand's not Disney's. Certainly a fine cartoon in it's own right.
