From: 96dag@williams.edu (David A Gerstein)
Newsgroups: rec.arts.comics.strips
Subject: Re: Krazy Kat Cartoon ?!?!
Date: 5 Nov 1995 14:08:27 -0500
Organization: Williams College, Williamstown MA

	Re: Krazy Kat Cartoon ?!?!

	There were, indeed, several series of Krazy 
Kat cartoons. I've seen some from almost all of 
the different groups.

	1916-1920 (with a break in 1918) the episodes 
were often based on Herriman Sunday strips -- i. e. 
"The Awful Spook," which  is the old one 
about Krazy as a messenger boy bringing a replacement 
bowling ball to the alley, and Ignatz seeing the 
"walking" ball from behind a hedge.  And "Krazy 
Kat Takes Little Katrina for an Airing" is also 
apparently based on a Sunday strip,  although I 
haven't seen it.

	1926-1929 (Paramount Pictures)  These used a 
vaguely Herrimanesque style for Krazy and Ignatz, but 
were more slapsticky.  A drawing from one of these is 
in Shamus Culhane's book TALKING ANIMALS AND OTHER 
PEOPLE, and it shows that they strived for some 
degree of accuracy... but I've never actually SEEN 
one of this run.

	1929-1941 (Columbia) Made by the same staff as 
previous, but now Krazy turned into an essentially 
Mickey Mouse-like character. Early episodes like 
"Alaskan Knights" are very funny, but bear no Herriman 
resemblance;  in the later cartoons, Krazy is drawn 
very much like Warner Bros.' Sniffles Mouse (it's just 
as bad as it sounds, folks).  Good animation, though.
	These cartoons are just as rare and hard to 
find as the silents, because Columbia has done nothing 
to make their archive available to the public in the 
last 30 years.  I've even heard that they destroyed 
many of their negatives under a mistaken belief that 
ALL the cartoons contained racist stereotypes (I've 
only seen one that did).  I'm not sure about the truth 
of that rumor, though.	There was one exception among
Columbia's output though:

	In 1936, Columbia decided that their Kat was 
too far from the original and made a cartoon called 
"Li'l Ainjil" which was intended to be the 
first of a new batch of Herrimanesque KK films.  
Leonard Maltin criticizes the episode as a potboiler, 
which in my opinion it definitely ISN'T.  The art is 
brilliant, and the timing and music are very good. 
The sight of Offisa Pup stomping along in full 
animation with Mrs. Kwakk Wakk following him with 
her feet going twice as fast are uproariously funny.
	Unfortunately, when "Li'l Ainjil" hit 
the theatres, the common horde had no idea why 
"their" Kat was suddenly so different, so 
the law was laid down that Columbia's Sniffles-Krazy 
was to stay their standard Krazy.

	Finally, in the 1960s there was the series 
we've discussed, from King Features.  Very 
Herrimanesque art in some cases, but animation is 
really bad, and I find the voices agonizing 
(especially Krazy with her TEXAS accent).  These 
were the best of the cartoons King produced for 
TV and theatres at this time, but that isn't 
saying much at all.

	And, of course, in the 1970s there was the two 
or three-minute "L is for Love" sequence on SESAME 
STREET, which IMHO matched "Li'l Ainjil" as an 
excellent adaptation.  You don't expect a Sesame 
Street sequence about love to include the brick 
hitting Officer Pupp, but it does.  (Of course, good 
ol' Krazy gets hers, too.)

	David Gerstein
	<96dag@williams.edu>