Follow the bouncing ball, folks! The Cel Bloc is stuck in the early 1930's for the next couple of weeks. Most of the films hail from one company, the Van Beuren Studios, who folded in 1936 after RKO pulled the rug out from under them and went with Disney instead. Hard to blame them, of course, but the company that went down produced a lot of fun little pictures over the years. Not great films, but fun little pictures. Thunderbean Animation has produced an exquisite collection of many of these films, and when the title of the DVD, Aesop's Fables From the Van Beuren Studio - Volume 1, promises it is the first of a series, then I hope that they follow through with the rest. Dig the cat girl on the cover, too! Meeee-owww!I took a little time and checked out the special Collector's Edition of The Wizard of Oz -- you know, the great and powerful one -- and this time around, the set comes with numerous other versions of Oz, including a 1933 animated one by the mysterious Ted Eshbaugh. Charming though a little wayward in its second half, it was the first film to start with the now-obligatory "black-and-white Kansas turns to colorful Oz" gimmick that was used in the 1939 MGM classic. No lion, munchkins or witches in this one, though, and it suffers for their loss; a decent enough time, so check out my review. Also, downloaded one of the Fleischer Bros.' Screen Songs from animationarchive.org. It has to do with bubbles, so see if you can locate it on the list below. C'mon, I dare ya! Ooh, don't you feel proud?
This week on the Cinema 4: Cel Bloc -
Sunday, 5/28/06: The Wizard of Oz (1933) Cel Bloc Rating: 6
Monday, 5/29/06: I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles (1930) Cel Bloc Rating: 6
Tuesday, 5/30/06: Happy Polo (1932) Cel Bloc Rating: 6
Wednesday, 5/31/06: Summertime (1929) Cel Bloc Rating: 5
Thursday, 6/01/06: The Iron Man (1930) Cel Bloc Rating: 6
Friday, 6/02/06: The Haunted Ship (1930) Cel Bloc Rating: 7
Saturday, 6/03/06: Noah Knew His Ark (1930) Cel Bloc Rating: 6
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