Other Countdown to Halloween Thrills in Cinema 4 Land...

If you stopped by here because of the Countdown to Halloween website, thanks for visiting. I have posted new material every single day in October thus far, and plans are to keep that going for the rest of the month. But I have other sites taking part in the Countdown this year, so I want to take the opportunity to let you know about what is going on at one of them today.

On my animation website, Cinema 4: Cel Bloc, I have a post about a 1930 cartoon from Van Beuren Studios called The Haunted Ship, starring a long-forgotten team called Waffles the Cat and Don the Dog. The pair would only star in a few shorts before being humanized into a more well known team called Tom and Jerry, who would make a couple dozen shorts before retiring for good. Years later, MGM would take up those character names for a totally unrelated cat and mouse team of their own, and make cartoon history.

The Haunted Ship is an odd little cartoon, both an undersea adventure involving sharks, eels, rays, turtles, and octopuses, but also a full on Halloween cartoon, in which they tangle with skeletons and monsters as well. And its also a bit of a musical. Somehow, it ends up being far more enjoyable and watchable than you might think.

You can read all about The Haunted Ship by clicking here.

And keep checking back here on The Cinema 4 Pylon for more Countdown to Halloween fun!

RTJ

More New Fun at the Cinema 4: Cel Bloc!

"I command you to visit Cinema 4: Cel Bloc!"

This is just a quick reminder that my animation blog, Cinema 4: Cel Bloc, is indeed live and breathing again. I have spent some time recently updating images and doing some edits (large and small, depending on the circumstances) to posts that were first published eight to nine years ago, and I plan on doing that until the entire site looks sharper than ever.

However, the best part is that I am creating new material for the site again, reviewing cartoons that I had not hit yet, and having a grand time doing it. My second post of the new era just went up tonight, a look back at MGM's Tom and Jerry classic, Heavenly Puss. Tom tries to kill Jerry, and gets crushed by a piano. His soul takes an escalator to heaven, but his past misdeeds against the little mouse might get the better of him. To avoid going to hell, Tom has to convince Jerry to sign a Certificate of Forgiveness, or Tom will be tossed into the pit with a Satanic bulldog!!

To see some swell pictures from the cartoon and to read the full synopsis and my comments, click this link: http://bit.ly/1Q2QRlJ. I hope you have fun with these articles, and feel free to check some of my older articles.

Thanks!

RTJ

Joseph Barbera 1911-2006

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