History Terrytoons

1 history

1.1 before terrytoons
1.2 peak era
1.3 changing hands

history
before terrytoons

farmer al falfa in river of doubt (1927)

terry first worked bray studios in 1916, created farmer al falfa series. make farmer al falfa short edison pictures, called farmer al falfa s wayward pup (1917), , later cartoons made paramount pictures.

around 1921, terry founded fables animation studio, named aesop s film fables series, in conjunction studio of amadee j. van beuren. fables churned out fable cartoon every week 8 years in 1920s. in 1928, van beuren, anxious compete new phenomenon of talking pictures, released terry s dinner time (released october 1928). van beuren urged terry start producing actual sound films, instead of post-synchronizing cartoons. terry refused, , van beuren fired him in 1929. immediately, terry , of staff started terrytoons studio. 1 staff member during time art babbitt, went on become known disney animator.

peak era

through of history, studio considered 1 of lowest-quality houses in field, point paul terry noted, disney tiffany s in business, , woolworth s. terry s studio had lowest budgets , among slowest adapt new technologies such sound (in 1930) , technicolor (in 1938), while graphic style remained remarkably static decades. background music entrusted 1 man, philip scheib, , terry s refusal pay royalties popular songs forced scheib compose own scores. paul terry took pride in producing new cartoon every other week, regardless of quality of films. following success of disney s snow white , 7 dwarfs (1937) paul terry considered making animated feature film adaptation of king lear starring farmer al falfa. however, after seeing commercial failures of disney s pinocchio , fantasia (both 1940) , max fleischer s mr. bug goes town (1941), decided abandon project. until 1957, screen credits sparse, listing writer (until 1950, solely john foster; tom morrison thereafter), director (terry s 3 main directors connie rasinski, eddie donnelly , mannie davis), , musician (musical director philip a. scheib).

terrytoons first distributor educational pictures, specialists in short-subject comedies , novelties. audio-cinema in 1930s backed production of terrytoons , distributed educational library internationally, except in united kingdom , ireland, library distributed educational , gaumont british in partnership ideal film company. fox film company (from 1935, 20th century-fox) released educational shorts theaters in 1930s, giving terry cartoons wide exposure. after 20th century-fox withdrew support educational pictures, company both backed , distributed terrytoons. farmer al falfa terry s familiar character in 1930s; kiko kangaroo spun off farmer al falfa series. of other cartoons featured generic animal characters. 1 of stock designs scruffy dog black patch around 1 eye; terry built series around character, known puddy pup.

paul terry may have realized educational in financial trouble, because found lucrative outlet product. in 1938 arranged release older cartoons through home-movie distributor castle films. educational went out of business within year, 20th century-fox continued release terrytoons theaters next 2 decades. new emphasis on star characters, terrytoons featured adventures of super mouse (later renamed mighty mouse), talking magpies heckle , jeckle, silly gandy goose, dinky duck, mischievous mouse little roquefort, , terry bears.

despite artistic drawbacks imposed terry s inflexible business policies, terrytoons nominated 4 times academy award animated short film: out v in 1942, boy, johnny in 1944, mighty mouse in gypsy life in 1945, , sidney s family tree in 1958.

changing hands

the studio sold outright retiring paul terry cbs in 1955, 20th century fox (tcf) continued distribute studio s releases. became division of cbs films subsidiary. following year, cbs put under management of upa alumnus gene deitch, had work lower budgets.

deitch s notable works @ studio tom terrific cartoon segments captain kangaroo television show. introduced number of new characters, such sidney elephant, gaston le crayon, john doormat, , clint clobber.

after deitch fired in 1958, bill weiss took control of studio. under supervision, heckle , jeckle , mighty mouse went production. besides 3 core directors of terry era still involved animators , directors, 2 famous studios stalwarts joined crew, dave tendlar , martin taras. other new theatrical cartoon series included hector heathcote, luno , hashimoto san. in addition, studio began producing deputy dawg series television in 1960. television production captain kangaroo show adventures of lariat sam, written in part gene wood, later become announcer several tv game shows including family feud.

phil scheib continued studio s musical director through mid-1960s when replaced jim timmens , elliott lawrence.

the best-known talent @ terrytoons in 1960s animator/director/producer ralph bakshi, started terrytoons in 1950s opaquer, , helmed mighty heroes series. bakshi left terrytoons in 1967 paramount, closed cartoon unit later year. later go on produce mighty mouse: new adventures television in 1987.