Peak era Terrytoons

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.