I recently watched the movie Lt. Robin Crusoe U.S.N. for my Disney film project. You can click the link to read my review of it, but the important thing is how that movie relates to this post. Early on into the film, there was this fantastic scene where Dick Van Dyke was reading a survival guide, and the voice-over narrator of the said guide was interacting with him. It was one of the best scenes from that movie, but it got me thinking of the Tarts and Flowers cartoon that I will highlight later in the post. And thinking about the Tarts and Flowers cartoon had me wanting to watch a bunch of old cartoons I grew up watching, and that is how the idea for this post was born!
Now in the post title, I use the word “important.” I am not using it to mean that these cartoons directed my path or altered my life in any way, shape, or form. No, none of that. Certainly not with these cartoons. But rather, they were all cartoons that I repeatedly watched (some more than others), and for better or worse, they are a part of my childhood, and whether they aged well or not, the nostalgia factor comes into play here. So let’s begin!
Ah, actually, I should state that the summaries I include for these cartoons are SUPER BASIC. (Also, SPOILERS BE FOUND HERE.) In fact, some might even be less than basic, and the purpose of that is to encourage you to watch the cartoons for yourself. Such ‘treasures’ must be seen to be believed.
- Somewhere in Dreamland (1936)
- You can find this cartoon on Youtube here.
- Basic Summary: Super poor children are walking through the town streets picking up logs of wood (because that makes sense). A baker, a toy shop owner, and a grocery store owner see them. When the kids get home, they eat water and bread and then go to bed where they go visit Dreamland. Morning comes and a surprise awaits the children.
- I get such a kick out of watching this. I just love it so much. Don’t get me wrong, it’s weird. It’s a trip for sure. The facial expressions, the dialogue, DREAMLAND ITSELF, but I love the datedness of it all. I would love to visit Dreamland just to see it (not to eat). I myself would have preferred a seafood buffet and goodness knows what else over the sweet treat fest that was Dreamland, but I think my younger self might have enjoyed it.
- Tarts and Flowers (1950)
- You can find this cartoon on Youtube here.
- Basic Summary: Little Audrey is baking a gingerbread man, falls asleep, wakes up to find the gingerbread man has come ALIVE, and then follows him to Cakeland. She meets his fiancee, participates in his wedding, and then shows off her ‘baking skills’ before waking up.
- So the radio announcer at the beginning of this cartoon was the inspiration for this post. He’s kind of an interactive narrator so to speak, as he narrates the gingerbread man recipe that Little Audrey follows. His snarky responses were what I was reminded of during the survival guide scenes of Lt. Robin Crusoe, U.S.N. Anyway, back to this cartoon. The majority of the story takes place in Cakeland and I would absolutely go visit. Though the difference between this cartoon and the Dreamland cartoon is that in Cakeland, the desserts are all alive! The Gingerbread man is marrying Miss Angel Cake, the Devil’s Food Cake (my favorite flavor of cake, hands down) comes to steal her away, and the Cop Cakes (what a good visual pun) follow behind to put him behind bars after Little Audrey saves the day with her whisk (because that is what all child bakers carry with them always…jk but she’s a lucid dreamer, that one). Actually, one thing that I really love about this cartoon is that Audrey both clearly falls asleep and wakes up during the cartoon, yet the appearance of the Gingerbread Man, Miss Angel Cake, and two Ginger/Cake kids in the oven after Audrey wakes up implies that it might not have been a dream after all. Love it.
- Wackiki Rabbit (1943)
- You can find this cartoon on Youtube here.
- Basic Summary: Two guys are adrift at sea, clearly starving, and proceed to find land and Bugs Bunny where they make multiple attempts to eat him before a cruise ship arrives.
- The trippiness of this cartoon is apparent from the very beginning and I am here for it. I think I remember watching this cartoon the most during late night hours or early morning hours. There are still some comedic moments that keep me entertained.
- Farm Foolery (1949)
- You can find this cartoon on Youtube here.
- Basic Summary: Who doesn’t love watching animals harvest and store food? And then to top off that excitement, they then have a barn dance.
- Why I find such enjoyment from watching the animals harvest food is a question I don’t know that I will ever be able to answer. Also the Popeye’s reference…Not even just the harvesting, but the storing of the harvested food is so detailed and specific. Also, the fact that there’s both a sing-along song (Shine On Harvest Moon) and barn dance to “Turkey in the Straw” is dated gold.
- Jack Frost (1934)
- You can find this cartoon on Youtube here.
- Basic Summary: A little bear learns why it’s important to listen to the wisdom of his elders (like Jack Frost) in going to bed when Momma bear says to go to bed.
- A few weeks ago, I showed this to my sister for fun and she thought it was low-key creepy, which is accurate, and then when I told our dad later that afternoon that I had shown her this “old and really weird cartoon”, his first guess was this Jack Frost. But seriously, I absolutely adore this cartoon, I really do. That being said, I have no idea what was going on during the discussions back in 1934 but they amped up the creepiness from the music to the characters to that Scarecrow death scene. I swear, he literally dies on screen and that whole segment (including the nightmarish song/dance number) still haunts me to this day. Between you and me, the scarecrow was scarier than the actual “Old Man Winter” character, the real ‘villain’ of the cartoon.
- As a bonus “Early Disney Connections” bit, Jack Frost was a “P.A. Powers presents” cartoon, produced by Ub Iwerks and with the musical score by Carl Stalling.
- Snow Foolin’ (1949)
- You can find this cartoon on Youtube here.
- Basic Summary: Animals enjoy winter fun with ice skating and sledding and lots and lots of snow.
- When I was hunting for cartoons for this post, I stumbled across this. I do remember watching this (though I’m 93% positive that Farm Foolery was the one that I watched more) and I’m also pretty sure this is a sequel to Farm Foolery. Okay, quick research does confirm that they’re from the same studio, with this cartoon released just a few months after Farm Foolery. Anyway I could be wrong but I’m pretty sure that the mother hen says (right before the sing-along song break) “Just follow the bouncing hen fruit.” aka her egg…that didn’t hatch. Jingle Bells is the featured song for this cartoon, for the sing-along portion, and I had forgotten how long the full song is, with verses on top of verses that I didn’t really need to be reminded of. All that being said, I enjoyed rewatching this cartoon. There were some fun gags and comic lines that I really like (especially the final ending joke about living in Florida).
- Chick and Double Chick (1946)
- You can find this cartoon on Youtube here.
- Basic Summary: Little Lulu has to prove to her dad that her dog can be a good watchdog and protect the soon-to-hatch chicks. But that may be more difficult when a hungry cat gets in the way.
- This was the only Little Lulu that I saw as a kid and I would always get Lulu and Audrey mixed up (which is why it took me so long to find this cartoon again. I won’t be making that mistake again, but that is neither here nor there now. So except for a quick bit of setup at the beginning, it’s mostly comedic gags throughout. A tennis match, so to say. And I love it. It’s not “laugh out loud” funny, but I was going ‘hehe’ after several of the gags (including the final gag with the cat).
- Santa’s Surprise (1947)
- You can find this cartoon on Youtube here.
- Basic Summary: 7 kids sneak aboard Santa’s sleigh and decide that since Santa is a bachelor, they should help him clean up his house while he is asleep IN THE SAME ROOM to thank him for bringing them presents.
- I really have so many questions. From beginning to end and just questions. So many of them. When I was a kid, did I have any questions to ask about this cartoon? No. No, I did not. I just thought “Ooh, it’s an old cartoon. That’s for me.” because I’m that type of person. Yet I still have a very much nostalgic love for this cartoon despite its many flaws.
- Timeless Tales Rapunzel (1991)
- You can find this cartoon on Youtube here.
- Basic Summary: Parents essentially sell their future child to a witch for vegetables. The witch takes the child to a tower and when that child grows up and meets a man, she cuts Rapunzel’s hair and turns the man into a bird. Ah, the hoops to go through for true love.
- I tell you, it took me YEARS to find this again. We had a VHS tape when I was a kid and it’s quite possible my parents still have it but I haven’t been able to find it anytime I go scouring through the VHS tapes. And it wasn’t until finding this cartoon on Youtube that I realized that it was part of a cartoon series hosted by Olivia Newton-John?! My mind was blown, not gonna lie. Honestly, it wasn’t even the Rapunzel cartoon that I remember the most from my childhood (though there are a few moments that still stay in the brain), it was the live-action attic scene at the beginning and the magical talking teddy bear. Okay, now to the cartoon itself. The melodramatic nature of this cartoon. Oh my laws, it was so entertaining to watch. I was laughing the entire time. The level of cheese in this cartoon, I swear! It’s a flippin’ fondue show. I highly recommend it for a good laugh.
- The Song of the Birds (1935)
- You can find this cartoon on Youtube here.
- First time seeing this IN YEARS. It’s mainly a music-only cartoon, with very, very little dialogue. And after having finished it, I have no words. None. That’s a lie, but yeah. I watched this so many times as a kid and I’m watching it now and I’m just wondering why? I actually called my brother up after watching it (because he’s the only one of my siblings to have seen this or any of the cartoons mentioned in this post) and told him, while laughing, about how I had just watched this. And then I proceeded to rehash the entire cartoon for him. Bless him for not telling me to stop haha. He’s such a trooper for having me as a sister. Anyway, back to this cartoon. So this cartoon focuses on a flock of birds (with a mom/dad/baby bird at the center) and a little boy who lives in the big house next to where the birds live. Now this child, this punk of a 1930s child, has a BB gun that he LOVES playing with. So while our lovely parent birds are teaching their baby how to fly, our human child is literally shooting pellets all throughout the house, breaking everything! Whether it was for gags or not is fine, but where are the parents?!?! Oh my gosh, coming home and seeing pots, pans, dishes ALL SHOT AND DESTROYED. This child….. Anyway, so the baby bird is flying (and doing such a good job at it) and gets too close to where the human child then SEES him. What follows includes a funeral choir, rainfall, a happy song, and the destruction of the precious gun. Make of that what you will. But seriously, it’s a trip of a cartoon and should obviously be experienced by more people.
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