Animation Restorations Highlight UCLA’s 2017 Festival of Preservation

Animation Restorations Highlight UCLA’s 2017 Festival of Preservation

February 18th, 2017

Jerry Beck

UCLA Film & Television Archive’s 18th Festival of Preservation kicks off in early March with a showcase of the latest restoration projects from its renown archive. In addition to undiscovered gems from classic Hollywood, rare silents, the films of Laurel & Hardy, 1960s television specials – and much more – the archive is devoting one special night, March 11th, to recent restorations of Paramount animated shorts including several Max Fleischer two-reel Technicolor rarities and a George Pal Puppetoon.

Several of these restorations – including Fleischer’s Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (1941), A Cartoon Travesty Of The Raven (1942) and Dinah (1933, a Screen Song featuring The Mills Brothers) were restored with funding provided by Asifa Hollywood. A panel discussing the Fleischer studio, its influence and these restorations will precede the screening – which will be held Saturday March 11th, 7:30pm, at the Billy Wilder Theatre in The Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd. in Westwood, California.

The program will include:

Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy (1940)

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood)

A charming musical adaption of the beloved Johnny Gruelle story books. 35mm, color, 18 min. Director: Dave Fleischer. Production: Paramount Pictures Corp. Distribution: Paramount Pictures Corp. Adapted from stories by Johnny Gruelle. Story: William Turner, Worth Gruelle. Musical Arrangement: Sammy Timberg.

Restored from the 35mm nitrate successive exposure negative and the 35mm track negative. Laboratory services by YCM Labs, Fotokem, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Inc., Simon Daniel Sound. Special thanks to Paramount Pictures.

A Cartoon Travesty of the Raven (1942)

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood)

In the Fleischer Bros.’ animated take on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, the titular bird still comes “rapping and a tapping” at the door but rather than a harbinger of inconsolable grief, he’s selling vacuum cleaners.

35mm, color, 14 min. Director: Dave Fleischer. A Max Fleischer Cartoon. Production: Paramount Pictures Corp. Distribution: Paramount Pictures Corp. Story: Carl Meyer, Pinto Colvig. Musical Arrangement: Sammy Timberg.

Restored from the 35mm nitrate successive exposure negative and the 35mm track negative. Laboratory services by YCM Labs, Fotokem, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Inc., Simon Daniel Sound. Special thanks to Paramount Pictures.

Dinah (1932)

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood)

The Mills Brothers, in this Fleischer “Screen Song” short, invite you to follow the bouncing ball and sing along with their rollicking rendition of “Dinah.”

35mm, b/w, 7 min. Director: Dave Fleischer. Production: Paramount Publix Corp. Distribution: Paramount Publix Corp. Presented by: Max Fleischer. Cast: The Mills Brothers.

Restored from a 35mm acetate print. Laboratory services by Fotokem, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Inc., Simon Daniel Sound. Special thanks to Paramount Pictures.

Honest Love and True (1938)

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by The Packard Humanities Institute

Betty Boop, lost in the Klondike, found! Honest Love and True is one of two Boops for which all the original elements were lost long before the cartoons were sold to television in the 1950s. Betty is a Klondike saloon singer and as usual, the moustachioed proprietor tries to take her boop-oop-a-doop away, only to be foiled by a friendly member of the RCMP. Sadly, we can’t hear Betty’s booping as the 16mm copy discovered in the Netherlands by animation historian Dave Gerstein lacks a soundtrack.

35mm, b/w, 7 min. Director: Dave Fleischer. Production: Paramount Pictures, Inc. Distribution: Paramount Pictures, Inc.

Restored from a 16mm mute print. Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory. Special thanks to: Eye Filmmuseum, Elif Rongen, Catherine Common, David Gerstein, Jerry Beck, Paramount Pictures.

Educated Fish (1937)

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

A rascally, truant fish who refuses to pay attention in class learns his lesson in this Fleischer “Color Classic” that earned an Academy Award nomination.

35mm, Technicolor, 8 min. Director: Dave Fleischer. A Max Fleischer Color Classic. Production: Paramount Pictures Corp. Distribution: Paramount Pictures Corp. Presented by Adolph Zukor. Animated by Myron Waldman and Hicks Lokey. Music and Lyrics by Sammy Timberg and Bob Rothberg.

Restored from the 35mm nitrate successive exposure negative and the 35mm nitrate track negative by The Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Paramount Pictures. Laboratory services by Cinetech, Deluxe Media Services, Chace Audio by Deluxe.

Rhythm in the Ranks (1941)

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The AFI/NEA Film Preservation Grants Program

Sargent Jan is drummed out the of the service after a beautiful ice skater catches his eye when the Screwball army declares war. Set to the syncopated sound of The Raymond Scott Quintette’s “The Toy Trumpet,” Rhythm in the Ranks earned George Pal, employing his Puppetoons stop-motion animation technique, his first Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject.

35mm, color, 10 min. Director: George Pal. Production: George Pal Productions, Inc.

Restored by The Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Paramount Pictures from the 35mm nitrate original successive exposure picture negative and track negative. Laboratory services by YCM Laboratories, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Inc.

Here is the post-screening discussion with ASIFA-Hollywood president Jerry Beck and executive director Frank Gladstone, moderated by UCLA Film & Television Archive head of preservation Scott MacQueen.

For more information on this Festival of Preservation program, check out the archive website.

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Jerry Beck

Writer, cartoon producer and author of more than 15 books on animation history. A former studio exec with Nickelodeon and Disney; currently on the faculty at both CalArts in Valencia and Woodbury University in Burbank, California.