I discovered yesterday that I have Boomerang from Cartoon Network.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, basically it's a channel cartoon network dedicated solely to all those cartoons of yester year that you can either remember waking up to on Saturday morning or on weekday afternoons after you get out of school. Or during the mornings if it was either a snow day, you were sick or it was Summer vacation.
However, most of the cartoons on this network consist of all the absolutely shitty cartoons Hanna-Barbera churned out from the late 1960's until the 1980's.
I always knew Hanna-Barbera was awful in the way it dumbed down animation, but I didn't know how awful it was until I watched The Perils of Penelope Pitstop this morning.
I was even more horrified to see the name Michael Maltese in the writing credits.
Michael Maltese wrote many of the great Chuck Jones animations in the heyday of Warner Brothers Animation such as the Duck Season/Rabbit Season cartoons with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, Duck Dodgers in the 24 1/2 Century, Bully for Bugs and Ali Baba Bunny just to name a few that make me tear up with laughter everytime I watch them.
What I have began to notice watching a great number of Hanna-Barbera cartoons is the way they would have the characters explain a scene. Like Scooby Doo chickening out when Daphne or Velma asks him to do something and hides himself in a room putting a "Do Not Disturb" sign on the outside of the door and Velma then proceeds to read aloud "Do Not Disturb". Like we didn't see that already.
Or if a villainous character is driving along in some contraption, and he suddenly states, "If I press this red button" Of course we see the red button like we didn't know it was a red button, "I will activate my jet-propelled, superfast rocket boosters and win the race. NAAAH!! HA HA HA HA HANAAAAA!!" or some crap.
Again, like we wouldn't have known that if you didn't explain that to us, Dick Dastardly.
I just feel like if I were to slowly and methodically dissect every joke I wrote in that manner and explain the scene away, the scene ceases to be funny.
But of course, they add the canned laughter into the mix just to make sure we know this is suppose to be a funny scene.
Companies like Hanna-Barbera and Filmation really helped in the cheapening and dumbing down of animation. They treated their audience, which was primarily children I suppose, like they were morons.
Honestly, kids aren't that stupid. I can remember watching Bug Bunny and Droopy cartoons when I was young and it didn't bother me that I didn't understand every single joke. The cartoons just made me laugh. And that's all that mattered.
Now, I'm just waiting for Hollywood at some point to release a Peril of Penelope Pitstop movie starring Jessica Simpson in the title role and Steve Carrell as the Hooded Claw. You know it's bound to happen.
2 comments:
Hi,
Found your blog through a google search. Mike Maltese was my grandfather. I can only speak of a then under ten child while he was there. I loved those cartoons. But I do know that Looney Tune fans weren't happy. Then again, Hanna-Barbara fans weren't happy when he retired to write comic books. I think his first priority was to work doing what he loved, while making his family come first. Hanna-Barbara was right by his home. He even wrote from home most of the time. Now that I'm in my 40's, I see how after Warner Bros. it could be disappointing to see his name on half hour yelevision cartoons.
I did ask him once to babysit my toy lamb while my parents and I went away for the Summer. When I came home that lamb wasn't at his house. I had to go with him to Hanna Barbara to pick it up. There I found not only my toy, but cells everywhere drawn of him. I learned that day that my stuffed toy was about to have it's own cartoon "It's the Wolf." Very thrilling for a 7 year old. Something I can't say happened to my mom when she was little during his Warner Bros.days. My mother has the Warner scrapbooks stuff. I made one from his clips from Hanna-Barbara. With Quick Draw & Huckleberry Hound to name a few, he felt happy with what he accomplished there. He'd be blown away with this cable channel still showing them.
Thanks for blogging and letting me reminise.
Lisa Matthews-Guyette
As I stated in my blog, I've never been a fan of Hanna-Barbera. But at the same time, I can definitely understand your grandfather working for them in the same way Mel Blanc did voice work for them.
Work is work.
And I definitely can't fault him for doing what he loved and continue to work in cartoons and comics in one for or another after Warner Animation went pear shaped in the 1960's.
You're entirely welcome. And you're right. I think all his work stands the test of time. Sure, not everything is for everybody. But there is definitely something for everybody in a resume like your Grandfather's :-)
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