I want to reminisce on old cartoons.
No, I don't consider '90's cartoons old. Not 50's. I'm talking about pre- to early Mickey Mouse era work. What I want to talk about is old, OLD animation history that, while as an animator myself I appreciate for its historical impact, I will be the first to say... it's creepy. Like... really creepy.
From The Enchanted Drawing, 1895. Frankly, I don't understand
how people could sit in a dark room and watch this stuff without squirming
a little bit.
As an adult, it's much easier to say "Well, those are just cartoons, especially early cartoons... some of the drawings are going to be crude!" And I would agree, but I know as a child, there was a lot of imagery that just made me feel uncomfortable. To the point where I would go to sleep with the blanket over my head just thinking about it. I'm just thankful that I didn't see any of these twisted pieces of animation history as a kid.
While there's a lot of content that I could rifle through here, I am going to choose the creepiest of the creepy images from cartoons I have had the uh... pleasure... of seeing in all of the time I spend on YouTube.
Which is a lot of time.
Without any further ado, though... I want to introduce you to Tom and Jerry.
You: "... I thought we were going to talk about Tom and Jerry."
In brief, a company called Van Beuren Studios came up with these brilliant, timeless characters in 1931, and their adventures charmed animators for a healthy 2 years, when they finally hung up their hats in July of 1933. According to this ever-reputable source. Interestingly enough, Joseph Barbera, of actual Tom and Jerry fame, started his significantly more successful career working at Van Beuren. Barbera no doubt donated blood and sweat to the decidedly non-cat and mouse duo until he left to work for MGM to pursue a series that was probably going to be slightly more successful than this Tom and Jerry.
But I'm not here tonight to wax history. No, I'm here to talk about how creepy these cartoons are. For example, 1932's Pencil Mania, where the basic premise is that the little man uses what I can only assume is dark magic to conjure terrifying images out of thin air, is full of frightful things to make you wish you weren't going to sleep tonight. In one particular sequence, he conjures up a barbershop trio consisting of a tomato, a banana, and an expired potato. They begin to sing about... something... when all of a sudden they perform this inexplicable act of horror.
This might be a thing that's living in your closet right now. I would
go check if I were you.
In fairness, that's actually pretty tame compared to other pants-crappingly scary things they've had to face. We now come to an episode from 1931 called Wot A Night, where Tom and Jerry are taxi drivers who chase a couple of bearded men down for not paying their fare. And than they end up in an old dungeon. Mind you, I think that this is the obligatory "spooky" cartoon that most famous cartoon stars of the day had at least one run-in with, so scary ghosts and skeletons are par for the course. I assure you, though, that Tom and Jerry takes it to the next unfortunate level. Let me show you the first monster they run into upon entering this maze of imminent death.
I don't care how brave you think you are... you'd just freeze in terror
if this thing came out of the dark and charged after you.
And speaking of coming out of the dark, after Tom and Jerry escape from a room full of skeletons obviously having a contest to see who can do the most uncomfortable dance to watch, they find themselves face-to-face with a gigantic shadow, when this happens.
"You will join us in our unholy choir."
They turn out to be skeletons (of course), but what makes these skeletons particularly terrifying is that, if you listen to what they're singing - outside of the entirely racially insensitive perspective - they are begging to be taken from the terror that is their Purgatory. Look at how their eyes are, for the most part, constantly facing up as they sing. Listen to the lyrics. Their inflection implies that they are ready to escape their present existence. If you'd like to think that I'm looking into this a tad too deeply, you might be correct... but consider, for one, that these cartoons were not made for a child audience. These are made to precede feature films, and as such, contain very adult messages. Does Purgatory seem a bit too outlandish now?
For another thing, consider this next and (thankfully) final sequence of the short. Tom and Jerry finally manage to find the exit to this portal to hell, where they confront the two men who they offered a taxi ride to. The two men spend 20 seconds pointing at the duo and than walk off screen, which is apparently the cartoon's code for "Lift up that shirt!" the little one does exactly that, when they come to the final revelation of this 7 minute nightmare...
Where they find out that they can never truly escape.
The point I want to make with this final sequence is that I think that, if my theory about the singing skeletons holds merit, that just by being in this castle, Tom and Jerry have died and they themselves have entered Purgatory. The cartoon ends on the note that they are running away, flailing their arms in a desperate attempt to escape, but the iris out indicates to me as a viewer that we never really find out if that is they manage to get out.
Also, judging by the happy cartoony flute music that accompanies,
trying to escape their eternal fate is also hilarious.
Once again, am I looking too far into this? I'll let you be the judge.
Well... I spent a lot more time talking about Tom and Jerry than I was ever planning to. Oops. Well, this is an excuse to add yet another series to my blog. What are your thoughts overall, though? Is there an old cartoon that was your personal nightmare fuel? Let me know in the comments!
And if you haven't yet, please Like the Matt's Musings Facebook page to keep tabs on when I update my blog, and we can definitely spend more time discussing more nightmare fuel together!
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