Fanny Zilch is an animated cartoon character, part of the Terrytoons series. She made her debut in 1933. Her cartoons were musical spoofs of melodrama serials like The Perils of Pauline , in which blonde sweetheart Fanny -- "the Banker's Daughter" -- was pursued by the villainous Oil Can Harry, and protected by the heroic J. Leffingwell Strongheart.
138-603: Terrytoons later used the melodrama spoof as a running theme in the Mighty Mouse cartoons, beginning with A Fight to the Finish in 1947. The endangered heroine was renamed Pearl Pureheart in Mighty Mouse , and Oil Can Harry became Mighty Mouse's cat archvillain. Fanny Zilch also inspired a series of Betty Boop melodrama spoofs, beginning in 1934 with She Wronged Him Right . Fanny's character design originated in
276-413: A CGI Mighty Mouse feature film that was tentatively scheduled to be released some time in 2013. In April 2019, Jon and Erich Hoeber signed on to script the film for Paramount Animation while Karen Rosenfelt ( Wonder Park ) and Robert Cort ( Terminator Genisys ) are set to produce. The film will be a live action/animated production. In November 2024, it was announced Matt Lieberman took over as
414-498: A "family picture" that had the same impact as his adult-oriented films. British illustrator Ian Miller and comic book artist Mike Ploog were hired to contribute backgrounds and designs. The crew included Vita, Turek, Sparey, Vitello and Spence, who had become comfortable with Bakshi's limited storyboarding and lack of pencil tests. As the production costs increased, Fox president Alan Ladd, Jr. declined Bakshi's requests for salary increases, and refused to give him $ 50,000 to complete
552-434: A Niggerman". Its structure was rooted in the history of the slave plantation - slaves would "shout" lines from poems and stories great distances across fields in unison, creating a natural beat. Bakshi has described its vocal style, backed by fast guitar licks, as an "early version of rap ". Bakshi intended to attack stereotypes by portraying them directly, culling imagery from blackface iconography. Early designs in which
690-548: A children's cartoon, its heavy satirical tone, risqué humor and adult jokes made the Bakshi Mighty Mouse series a collector's item for collectors of older television series. The best-remembered episode of this series featured a crossover with Mighty Mouse and another Bakshi creation, the Mighty Heroes (Strong Man, Tornado Man, Rope Man, Cuckoo Man and Diaper Man). In the 1988 episode "Heroes and Zeroes",
828-431: A copy of the book and learned every lesson in it. During his teenaged years, Bakshi took up boxing. While attending Thomas Jefferson High School , he took little interest in academics, spending most of his time focusing on "broads, mouthing off, and doodling". After participating in a food fight and being caught smoking, Bakshi was sent to the principal's office. Believing Bakshi was unlikely to prosper at Thomas Jefferson,
966-511: A cultural icon on television. In 1955, Paul Terry sold the Terrytoons studio to CBS , which repackaged the theatrical cartoons as a popular Saturday morning show, Mighty Mouse Playhouse . The show aired from December 1955 through September 1967, using the existing film library. Only three new cartoons were produced after the sale. The final season also included a new feature, entitled The Mighty Heroes . Tom Morrison of Terrytoons provided
1104-445: A deal with Jerry Gross, the owner of Cinemation Industries, a distributor specializing in exploitation films. Although Bakshi did not have enough time to pitch the film, Gross agreed to fund its production and distribute it, believing that it would fit in with his exploitation slate. Despite receiving financing from other sources, including Saul Zaentz (who agreed to distribute the soundtrack album on his Fantasy Records label),
1242-403: A film crew or actors, or develop 35mm stock, Bakshi requested prints of films that contained the type of large battle scenes needed, including Sergei Eisenstein 's Alexander Nevsky , and spliced together the footage he needed. However, the cost of printing photographs of each frame would have cost $ 3 million. Learning that IBM had introduced an industrial-sized photocopier, Bakshi asked one of
1380-436: A former marriage is the fly in the beer can. Will her lover arrive in time?" The cartoon opens with Fanny tied up in a sawmill by the sneering, silk-hatted villain. Oil Can Harry telegraphs her father with a ransom note, but her somewhat effeminate lover Strongheart rides a white horse to her rescue. When Fanny refuses to go along with Harry's plans, he sends her down a chute towards a spinning saw. Strongheart arrives and beats up
1518-419: A fuller figure with an exaggerated upper body, and is clad in a yellow outfit, with a red cape and trunks. Like his inspiration, Superman, Mighty Mouse's superpowers are vast and sometimes appear limitless. His main powers include flight, super-strength and invulnerability. The early cartoons often portray him as a ruthless fighter; one of his most frequent tactics is to fly under an enemy's chin and let loose
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#17327904794931656-553: A holiday film, United Artists pressured Bakshi to complete it on schedule for its intended November 15, 1978, release. Once it was finished, Bakshi was told that audiences would not pay to see an incomplete story; over his objections, The Lord of the Rings was marketed with no indication that a second part would follow. Reviews of the film were mixed, but it was generally seen as a "flawed but inspired interpretation". Newsday ' s Joseph Gelmis wrote that "the film's principal reward
1794-548: A huge, dim-witted, but super-strong cat named Julius "Pinhead" Schlabotka (voiced by Dayton Allen ) whose strength rivals Mighty Mouse's. In rare moments, he confronts non-feline adversaries such as human villain Bad Bill Bunion and his horse, or the Automatic Mouse Trap, a brontosaur-shaped robotic monster. In The Green Line (1944), the cats and the mice live on either side of a green dividing line down
1932-399: A massive chest and powerful biceps. His costume is like Superman's, with a flowing red cape, and his powers are similar, too: He can fly through the air and repel bullets with his chest. Super Mouse soars to the rescue of his fellow mice and dispatches the neighborhood cats to the moon. Returning to earth, he is hoisted on the shoulders of his happy comrades, as the narrator declares, "Thus ends
2070-414: A meeting with Peter Bogdanovich when he learned that Bakshi wanted to discuss acquiring the rights to The Lord of the Rings . Melnick agreed to pay United Artists $ 3 million, but was soon fired; the project was canceled by his replacement, Dick Shepherd. Bakshi contacted Saul Zaentz, who wrote a check to cover MGM's debt and agreed to fund the $ 8 million budget for the first of what was initially planned as
2208-459: A meeting with CBS. The network executives rejected all of Weiss's proposals as "too sophisticated", "too corny", or "too old-timey". As Fred Silverman , CBS's daytime programming chief, began to leave the office, an unprepared Bakshi pitched a superhero parody called The Mighty Heroes on the spot. He described the series' characters, including Strong Man, Tornado Man, Rope Man, Cuckoo Man, and Diaper Man: "They fought evil wherever they could, and
2346-416: A modern design sensibility. In response to the period's political climate and as a form of therapy, Bakshi drew the comic strips Bonefoot and Fudge , which satirized "idiots with an agenda", and Junktown , which focused on "misfit technology and discarded ideals". Bakshi's frustrations with his failing marriage and the state of the planet further drove his need to animate. In 1959, he moved his desk to join
2484-480: A particularly hungry cat and runs for shelter into an enormous supermarket. He examines the goods on the long lines of shelves and sets to work on a total transformation: He bathes in Super Soap, swallows Super Soup, munches Super Celery and plunges head first into an enormous piece of Super Cheese -- from which he emerges in a flash as Super Mouse! He's no longer a tiny rodent, but a two-footed, humanized mouse with
2622-493: A poor mouse girl attempts to sell flowers, and is repeatedly harassed by a rich man who crushes her flowers. She runs out of flowers and makes new ones from sundry items she finds, such as tomato slices, but the man crushes these too. Mighty Mouse attempts to purchase the flowers with his chunk of cheese, and to avenge the girl, but she gives Mighty Mouse the crushed flowers and insists that others need help more than she does. After successfully saving several different characters, he
2760-563: A real laugh number that will appeal to grown-ups with its cleverness and be received with delight by the kids. It is the first of a series of four. If the new technique catches on, it is liable to create a new slant in the animated field." Happy with the results, Paul Terry went on to create a variety of musical and operetta cartoons over the next couple years, including Jealous Lover , Robin Hood , Gypsy Fiddler , and The Pirate Ship in 1933, and A Mad House and Holland Days in 1934. Dates of
2898-625: A red contrail during flight that he can manipulate like a band of solid, flexible matter. In several of the cartoons, when Mighty Mouse achieves the impossible feats, the narrator exclaims, first in a normal voice: " What A Mouse!!!!!", followed by his louder triumphant voice: "WHAT A MOUSE!!!!!" In a 1969 interview, Terry said that Mighty Mouse's power had a religious aspect: "When a man is sick, or down, or hurt, you say, 'There's nothing more we can do. It's in God's hand.' And he either survives or he doesn't according to God's plan. Right? So, 'Man's extremity
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#17327904794933036-575: A red cape—but in the June 16, 1944, cartoon Eliza on the Ice , Mighty Mouse appears for the first time in a red costume, with a yellow cape. This is also the first time that the character was portrayed as living among the stars, hurtling down from the heavens to save the day. The final design of the character debuted in the 15th cartoon, The Sultan's Birthday , released on October 13, 1944. In this cartoon, redesigned by animator Connie Rasinski , Mighty Mouse has
3174-457: A restaurant, utterly unconcerned with a scene of chaos and terror visibly unfolding in the street outside. The commercial was later removed from air following the September 11 attacks . The character appeared in the 1999 pilot Curbside , voiced by Dee Bradley Baker . Until 2019, the rights to Mighty Mouse were divided as a result of the 2006 corporate split of Viacom (the former owner of
3312-433: A revolution. Krantz intended to release the sequence as a 15-minute short in case the picture's financing fell through; Bakshi, however, was determined to complete the film as a feature. They screened the sequence for Warner Bros. executives, who wanted the sexual content toned down and celebrities cast for the voice parts. Bakshi refused, and Warner Bros. pulled out, leading Krantz to seek funds elsewhere. He eventually made
3450-407: A segment of Mighty Mouse Playhouse on the network's 1966–67 Saturday-morning schedule; the series was renamed Mighty Mouse and the Mighty Heroes in recognition of the new segment. Bakshi received a pay raise, but was not as satisfied with his career advancement as he had anticipated; Rasinski had died in 1965, Bakshi did not have creative control over The Mighty Heroes , and he was unhappy with
3588-497: A series of three films, and later negotiated down to two. Before production began, Bakshi and Zaentz insisted that the Tolkien estate receive residuals from the film. Bakshi did not want to produce a broad cartoon version of the tale, so he planned to shoot the entire film in live action and animate the footage with rotoscoping . The film also incorporated brief cel animation and straightforward live-action footage. Production of
3726-515: A show called The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle . The show introduced two new characters: a vampire duck named Quacula (not to be confused with Count Duckula ), and Oil Can Harry's bumbling, large, but swift-running, henchman Swifty. The show premiered in 1979 and lasted two seasons. In the Filmation series and movie, Mighty Mouse and Oil Can Harry were performed by veteran voice artist Alan Oppenheimer , and Pearl Pureheart
3864-418: A single entity, ViacomCBS (now Paramount Global ), officially reuniting the rights to Mighty Mouse under the same company. In 2017, during his 75th anniversary, Mighty Mouse made his return with a 5-issue comic book series produced by Dynamite Entertainment . As early as 2004, Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon Movies announced their intention to bring Mighty Mouse back to the motion picture screen with
4002-704: A star or a cloud, up in the heavens, and that he became "a Christ-like figure, a savior of all 'mouse-kind'." While his typical opponents are nondescript cats, Mighty Mouse occasionally battles specific villains, though most appear in only one or two films. Several of the earliest "Super Mouse" films (having been made during World War II ), feature the cats as thinly veiled caricatures of the Nazis , hunting down mice and marching them into concentration camp –like traps to what would otherwise be their doom. The Bat-cats, alien cats with bat wings and wheels for feet, appeared in two cartoons; in two others between 1949 and 1950 he faces
4140-471: A voice for Wizards . Although Wizards received a limited release, it was successful in the theaters that showed it and developed a worldwide audience. Dave Kehr of The Chicago Reader saw it as "marred by cut-rate techniques and a shapeless screenplay". In the view of film historian Jerry Beck, the lead character, an aging sorcerer, "clearly owes much to cartoonist Vaughn Bodé's Cheech Wizard character." In late 1976, Bakshi learned that John Boorman
4278-480: A volley of blows, subduing the opponent through sheer physical punishment. However, his powers can vary, depending on the demands of the story; he is sometimes knocked unconscious or rendered temporarily immobile by the villain, only to rise again by the end of the cartoon and save the day. In some films, he uses X-ray vision and psychokinesis . He was also able to turn back time in 1946's The Johnstown Flood . Other cartoons, like 1945's Krakatoa , show him leaving
Fanny Zilch - Misplaced Pages Continue
4416-461: A week, Crumb left, leaving the film's production status uncertain. Two weeks after Bakshi returned to New York, Krantz entered his office and told Bakshi that he had acquired the film rights through Dana, who had Crumb's power of attorney and signed the contract. Crumb was subsequently hostile both to the film and Bakshi. Krantz produced a sequel, The Nine Lives of Fritz the Cat (1974), to which Bakshi
4554-425: Is God's opportunity.' So, taking that as a basis, I'd only have to get the mice in a tough spot and then say, 'Isn't there someone who can help?' 'Yes, there is someone; it's Mighty Mouse!' So, down from the heavens he'd come sailing down and lick the evil spirit, or whatever it was. And everything would be serene again." Biographer W. Gerald Harmonic notes that as of the mid 40s, Mighty Mouse would be pictured living on
4692-439: Is a visual experience unlike anything that other animated features are doing at the moment". Roger Ebert called Bakshi's effort a "mixed blessing" and "an entirely respectable, occasionally impressive job [which] still falls far short of the charm and sweep of the original story". Vincent Canby found it "both numbing and impressive". David Denby of New York felt that the film would not make sense to viewers who had not read
4830-553: Is known for his theme song, "Mighty Mouse Theme (Here I Come to Save the Day)", written by composer Marshall Barer . The character originated in 1942 from an idea by animator Isadore Klein at the Terrytoons studio, who suggested a parody/homage to the popular Superman character, making some sketches of a superhero fly. Paul Terry , the head of the studio, liked the idea but suggested a mouse rather than an insect. The character
4968-460: Is reminded of the girl, and attempts to smell the flowers she gave him (now a pink powder), inhaling them in the process. He then finds the man that has been harassing the girl, and spanks him. The girl is sympathetic to the man, and he is so moved that the two are married. A family in Kentucky saw the episode and reportedly interpreted the scene as Mighty Mouse snorting cocaine. The family called
5106-513: Is set in Brooklyn during the 1950s; its lead characters are Vinnie, the leader of a gang named "The Stompers", his friend Crazy Shapiro, and their girlfriends, Roz and Eva. Vinnie and Crazy Shapiro were based on Bakshi's high-school friends Norman Darrer and Allen Schechterman. Warner Bros. optioned the screenplay and greenlit the film in 1973. An initial version of Hey Good Lookin' was completed in 1975. A three-minute promotion of this version
5244-470: Is tied up in the other room, but refuses to give up hope. Harry manages to knock out Mighty Mouse, and leaves him tied to the railroad track with a bomb on his head, and the 5:15 train due to pass by. Harry drives Pearl away to his home, where he woos her in song, to no avail. Mighty Mouse manages to blow out the fuse, stop the train and escape from his bonds, and rushes to Pearl's rescue. At Harry's house, they fight with fists, guns and swords, as Pearl slips out
5382-537: The American Family Association in Tupelo, Mississippi . The group demanded Bakshi be removed from production of the series. Bakshi and CBS denied the allegations, Bakshi stating the whole incident "smacks of McCarthyism . I'm not going to get into who sniffs what. This is lunacy." To defuse the controversy, Bakshi agreed to cut the 3.5 seconds from the episode. Rev. Donald Wildmon claimed that
5520-750: The Cinequest Film Festival . Ralph Bakshi was born on October 29, 1938 in Haifa , British Mandate of Palestine , to a Krymchak Jewish family. In 1939, his family migrated to the United States, and he grew up in the Brownsville neighborhood of Brooklyn . The family lived in a low-rent apartment, where Bakshi became fascinated with the urban milieu. As a child, he enjoyed comic books, and he often dug through trash cans to find them. According to an interview in 2009, Bakshi said he
5658-488: The Motion Picture Association of America gave Bakshi's film an X rating, as well, Cinemation exploited it for promotional purposes, advertising Fritz the Cat as "90 minutes of violence, excitement, and SEX ... he's X-rated and animated!" Variety called it an "amusing, diverting, handsomely executed poke at youthful attitudes". John Grant writes in his book Masters of Animation that Fritz
Fanny Zilch - Misplaced Pages Continue
5796-410: The Terrytoons television cartoon studio as a cel polisher, Bakshi was eventually promoted to animator and then director. He moved to the animation division of Paramount Pictures in 1967 and started his own studio, Bakshi Productions, in 1968. Through producer Steve Krantz , Bakshi made his debut feature film, Fritz the Cat , released in 1972. It was based on the comic strip by Robert Crumb ,
5934-420: The (nonexistent) previous episode: "In our last episode, we left Mighty Mouse at the old Beaver River station. As you remember, folks, he was locked in a desperate struggle with a villain. But on with the story..." Mighty Mouse is engaging in "a fight to the finish" with Oil Can Harry, now a villainous cat with a mustache, a top hat and a big black cloak, voiced by Tom Morrison. The blonde heroine, Pearl Pureheart,
6072-462: The 1933 cartoon King Zilch , as a dancing girl who made romantic gestures toward the King. Her first starring role was in 1933's The Banker's Daughter , which begins with an opening crawl : "EPISODE I: Fanny Zilch, the banker's daughter, has been captured by the bootleggers ( the dirty skunks ). She has had nothing to eat but fried chicken for a week... poor Gal . "Oil Can Harry" her third husband by
6210-484: The 2000-Year-Old Mouse , a series of educational shorts paid for by Encyclopædia Britannica . Bakshi was uninterested in the kind of animation the studio was turning out, and wanted to produce something personal. He soon developed Heavy Traffic , a tale of inner-city street life. Krantz told Bakshi that Hollywood studio executives would be unwilling to fund the film because of its content and Bakshi's lack of film experience, and would likely consider it if his first film
6348-591: The 2000s, he focused largely on fine art and painting, and in 2003, co-founded the Bakshi School of Animation with his son Eddie and Jess Gorell. Bakshi has received several awards for his work, including the 1980 Golden Gryphon for The Lord of the Rings at the Giffoni Film Festival , the 1988 Annie Award for Distinguished Contribution to the Art of Animation, and the 2003 Maverick Tribute Award at
6486-495: The 3-D issue sold an extraordinary 1.2 million copies at 25 cents each, more than twice the standard comic price of 10 cents. At least one episode, Wolf! Wolf! , has fallen into the public domain and is available at the Internet Archive. In 1988, Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures was the subject of media controversy when one scene was interpreted as a depiction of cocaine use. In the episode "The Littlest Tramp"
6624-532: The Cat was "the breakthrough movie that opened brand new vistas to the commercial animator in the United States", presenting an "almost disturbingly accurate" portrayal "of a particular stratum of Western society during a particular era, [...] as such it has dated very well." Fritz the Cat was released on April 12, 1972, opening in Hollywood and Washington, D.C. A major hit, it became the most successful independent animated feature of all time. The same month as
6762-602: The Cat would bring diversity to the animation industry. Other animators were less pleased by Bakshi's arrival and placed an advertisement in The Hollywood Reporter , stating that his "filth" was unwelcome in California. By the time production wrapped, Cinemation had released Melvin Van Peebles ' Sweet Sweetback's Baadasssss Song to considerable success, despite the X rating it had received. When
6900-661: The Cat , and halfway through the production of Heavy Traffic , Bakshi asked when he would be paid. Krantz responded, "The picture didn't make any money, Ralph. It's just a lot of noise." Bakshi found Krantz's claims dubious, as the producer had recently purchased a new BMW and a mansion in Beverly Hills . Bakshi did not have a lawyer, so he sought advice from fellow directors with whom he had become friendly, including Martin Scorsese , Francis Ford Coppola , and Steven Spielberg . He soon accused Krantz of ripping him off, which
7038-592: The Mighty Heroes were middle-aged men (except for Diaper Man, who was 36) and were all accountants with the firm of Man, Man, Man, Man, and Man. Marvel Comics produced a 10-issue comic book series (set in the New Adventures continuity ) in 1990 and 1991. Since then, little else new has been produced using the Mighty Mouse character except for a 2001 "The power of cheese" television commercial. That commercial shows Mighty Mouse dining calmly on cheese in
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#17327904794937176-508: The Spanish film development lab discovered that telephone lines, helicopters and cars were visible in the footage, they tried to incinerate it, telling Bakshi's first assistant director, "if that kind of sloppy cinematography got out, no one from Hollywood would ever come back to Spain to shoot again." When Bakshi returned to the United States, he learned that the cost of developing blown-up prints of each frame had risen. He did not want to repeat
7314-563: The Terrytoons franchise) into two separate companies. CBS Operations (a unit of the CBS Corporation ) owns the ancillary rights and trademarks to the character, while Paramount Home Entertainment/ CBS Home Entertainment holds home video rights. The first official release of Mighty Mouse material has been announced and what is now CBS Media Ventures has television syndication rights (the shorts are currently out of circulation). On December 4, 2019, CBS Corporation and Viacom re-merged into
7452-476: The United States. Unknown to Bakshi, Krantz and producer Al Guest were in the middle of a lawsuit. Failing to reach a settlement with Guest, Krantz told Bakshi to grab the series' model sheets and return to the United States. When the studio found out, a warrant for Bakshi's arrest was issued by the Toronto police. He narrowly avoided capture before being stopped by an American border guard, who asked him what he
7590-400: The adventure of Super Mouse... he seen his job and he done it!" The trade journal Variety said The Mouse of Tomorrow "just misses being outstanding, mainly because of faulty narration and too much kidding of Superman. Idea of super-rat conquering prowling beasts of feline world is good, but too closely follows pattern of that super hero." Super Mouse (and his later alias, Mighty Mouse)
7728-409: The artist refused to sign the contract Krantz drew up. Artist Vaughn Bodē warned Bakshi against working with Crumb, describing him as "slick". Bakshi later agreed with Bodé's assessment, calling Crumb "one of the slickest hustlers you'll ever see in your life". Krantz sent Bakshi to San Francisco, where he stayed with Crumb and his wife, Dana, in an attempt to persuade Crumb to sign the contract. After
7866-630: The auto body shop, he met Liz, who later became his second wife. Though CBS passed on Tee-Witt , its designs served as the basis for Bakshi's 1977 film Wizards . While leaving the network offices, he learned that Paramount Pictures had recently fired Shamus Culhane , the head of its animation division . Bakshi met with Burt Hampft, a lawyer for the studio, and was hired to replace Culhane. Bakshi enlisted comic-book and pulp-fiction artists and writers Harvey Kurtzman , Lin Carter , Gray Morrow , Archie Goodwin , Wally Wood , and Jim Steranko to work at
8004-483: The book. He wrote that it was too dark and lacked humor, concluding, "The lurid, meaningless violence of this movie left me exhausted and sickened by the end." The film, which cost $ 4 million to produce, grossed $ 30.5 million. The studio refused to fund the sequel, which would have adapted the remainder of the story. The Lord of the Rings won the Golden Gryphon at the 1980 Giffoni Film Festival . Following
8142-424: The box-office obstacles—seems joltingly healthy." Bakshi called Coonskin his best film. After production concluded on Harlem Nights , Bakshi wanted to distinguish himself artistically by producing a film in which live action and animated characters would interact. Bakshi said, "The illusion I attempted to create was that of a completely live-action film. Making it work almost drove us crazy." Hey Good Lookin'
8280-582: The budget was tight enough to exclude pencil tests , so Bakshi had to test the animation by flipping an animator's drawings in his hand before they were inked and painted. When a cameraman realized that the cels for the desert scenes were not wide enough and revealed the transparency, Bakshi painted a cactus to cover the mistake. Very few storyboards were used. Bakshi and Vita walked around the Lower East Side , Washington Square Park , Chinatown , and Harlem , taking moody snapshots. Artist Ira Turek inked
8418-415: The celebrated poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow with the addition of a superhero mouse. A couple months later, the studio spoofed another classic, Robert Louis Stevenson 's Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde , under the title Mighty Mouse Meets Jeckyll and Hyde Cat . By summer, Mighty Mouse's costume got an overhaul as well. Until this point, he'd been wearing Superman's colors—a blue costume with
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#17327904794938556-576: The character in The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle , which ran from 1979 to 1980, and animation director Ralph Bakshi revived the concept again in Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures , from 1987 to 1988. Mighty Mouse also appeared in comic books by several publishers, including his own series, Mighty Mouse and The Adventures of Mighty Mouse , which ran from 1946 to 1968. Mighty Mouse
8694-452: The company's technical experts if he would be able to feed 35mm reels into the machine to produce enlarged copies of each frame. The experiment worked, and Bakshi got the pages he needed for a penny per copy. As War Wizards neared completion, Lucas requested that Bakshi change the title of his film to Wizards to avoid conflict with Star Wars ; Bakshi agreed because Lucas had allowed Mark Hamill to take time off from Star Wars to record
8832-588: The concept from their earlier Fanny Zilch series, a melodrama spoof that ran for seven cartoons from 1933 to 1937. Fanny was constantly tormented by a human version of Oil Can Harry, and protected by her lover, J. Leffingwell Strongheart. A Fight to the Finish begins with a snatch of Cole Porter's song "And The Villain Still Pursued Her", which had also been used as the theme for the Fanny Zilch cartoons. The narrator opens with an urgent recap of
8970-466: The disappointing result as a "typical 1967 limited-animation theatrical". Animation historian Michael Barrier called the film "an offensively bad picture, the kind that makes people who love animation get up and leave the theater in disgust". Production of Mighty Heroes ended when Bakshi left Terrytoons. Bakshi served as head of the studio for eight months before Paramount closed its animation division on December 1, 1967. He learned that his position
9108-417: The drawings he had created while learning the artist's distinctive style to prove that he could adapt Crumb's artwork to animation. Impressed by Bakshi's tenacity, Crumb lent him one of his sketchbooks for reference. Preparation began on a studio pitch that included a poster-sized cel featuring the comic's cast against a traced photo background—as Bakshi intended the film to appear. Despite Crumb's enthusiasm,
9246-406: The editing was a "de facto admission" of cocaine use, though Bakshi maintained that the episode was "totally innocent". It's because of Fritz that they're going after Mighty Mouse. I grew up in Brownsville in Brooklyn and attended High School for Industrial Arts. I remember teachers who quit. Because of McCarthyism they weren't able to teach what they wanted. This is the same thing. Mighty Mouse
9384-487: The eight Fanny Zilch cartoons: Fanny's first cartoon, The Banker's Daughter , was restored by the UCLA Film and Television Archive in 2019. Mighty Mouse Mighty Mouse is an American animated character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox . He is an anthropomorphic superhero mouse , originally called Super Mouse, and made his debut in the 1942 short The Mouse of Tomorrow . The name
9522-522: The environment. The total cartoons produced for the series were 32 Mighty Mouse cartoons, 32 Heckle & Jeckle cartoons, 16 episodes of "The Great Space Chase" and 16 Quacula cartoons. The "Space Chase" episodes were edited together into a theatrical matinee movie, Mighty Mouse in the Great Space Chase , which was released on December 10, 1982. In 1987 and 1988, animation producer Ralph Bakshi (who began his career at Terrytoons in
9660-413: The family to the black neighborhood of Foggy Bottom . Bakshi recalled, "All my friends were black, everyone we did business with was black, the school across the street was black. It was segregated, so everything was black. I went to see black movies; black girls sat on my lap. I went to black parties. I was another black kid on the block. No problem!" The racial segregation of local schools meant that
9798-618: The film "could be [Bakshi's] masterpiece [...] a shattering successful effort to use an uncommon form—cartoons and live action combined-to convey the hallucinatory violence and frustration of American city life, specifically black city life [...] lyrically violent, yet in no way [does it] exploit violence". Variety called it a "brutal satire from the streets". A reviewer for the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner wrote, "Certainly, it will outrage some and, indeed, it's not Disney. [...] The dialog it has obviously generated—if not
9936-426: The film an R rating, prepared different versions of scenes involving sex and violence, Heavy Traffic was rated X. Due to the success of Fritz the Cat , though, many theaters were willing to book adult-oriented animation, and the film did well at the box office. Bakshi became the first person in the animation industry since Walt Disney to have two financially successful movies released consecutively. Heavy Traffic
10074-425: The film is quite promising, with a garbage can discussing life on the streets with some garbage. This is an example of what Bakshi did best—using the medium of animation to comment on society. Unfortunately, he doesn't do it enough in this film. There is a wildly imaginative fantasy sequence during the climax, when the character named Crazy starts hallucinating during a rooftop shooting spree. This scene almost justifies
10212-479: The film's release, Bakshi's daughter, Victoria, was born. By the time Fritz the Cat was released, Bakshi had become a celebrity, but his reputation was primarily based upon his having directed the first "dirty" animated film. Facing criticism of his work on publicity tours and in trade publications, he began writing poetry to express his emotions. This became a tradition, and Bakshi wrote poems before beginning production on each of his films. The first of these poems
10350-451: The film. At the same time, Ladd was dealing with similar budget problems on George Lucas 's Star Wars . Bakshi and Lucas had negotiated contracts entitling them to franchise ownership, merchandising and back-end payment, so Ladd suggested that they fund the completion of their films themselves. Bakshi chose rotoscoping as a cost-effective way to complete the movie's battle scenes with his own finances. Because he could not afford to hire
10488-439: The final episode of the 1933 series, Fanny's Wedding Day , Harry tries to interrupt Fanny and Strongheart's wedding day. The characters were brought back in 1935 for a simpler, cheaper followup, Foiled Again . In this cartoon, Strongheart leads a gang in pursuit of Harry, who's got Fanny in yet another sawmill. This cartoon has less music and dialogue than the previous series; Harry is the only character with dialogue. In 1937,
10626-690: The final version was scored by John Madara. Hey Good Lookin' opened in New York City on October 1, 1982, and was released in Los Angeles in January 1983. The film's release was limited, and went largely unnoticed in the United States, although it garnered respectable business in foreign markets. In a brief review, Vincent Canby wrote that it was "not exactly incoherent, but whatever it originally had on its mind seems to have slipped away". Animation historian Jerry Beck wrote, "the beginning of
10764-464: The history of American pop and starred actor Ron Thompson in a dual lead role. While the film does not reflect Bakshi's own experiences, its themes were strongly influenced by people he had encountered in Brownsville. The film's crew included character layout and design artist Louise Zingarelli, Vita, Barry E. Jackson , and Marcia Adams. Bakshi again used rotoscoping, in an attempt to capture
10902-481: The late 1950s and worked on the last Mighty Mouse shorts filmed by that company) created a new series of Mighty Mouse cartoons entitled Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures for the CBS Saturday morning children's lineup. In this series, Mighty Mouse has a real identity, Mike Mouse (both identities voiced by Patrick Pinney ), and a sidekick, Scrappy Mouse (voiced by actress Dana Hill ), the little orphan. Though
11040-562: The live-action sequences took place in Spain. During the middle of a large shoot, union bosses called for a lunch break, and Bakshi secretly shot footage of actors in Orc costumes moving toward the craft service table, and used the footage in the film. Jerry Beck later wrote that, while he found the rotoscoped animation "beautiful", he felt that it was unclear whether the use of live action was an artistic choice or due to budgetary constraints. After
11178-549: The main characters (Brother Rabbit, Brother Bear, and Preacher Fox) resembled figures from The Wind in the Willows were rejected. Bakshi juxtaposed stereotypical designs of blacks with even more negative depictions of white racists, but the film's strongest criticism is directed at the Mafia . Bakshi said, "I was sick of all the hero worship these guys got because of The Godfather ." Production concluded in 1973. During editing,
11316-472: The middle of their town's main street. They agree to keep the peace as long as no one crosses it. An evil entity, a Satan cat, starts the cats and mice fighting. At the end, Mighty Mouse is cheered by mice and cats alike. In 1945, Mighty Mouse and the Pirates was the first Mighty Mouse cartoon to feature sung dialogue, in the operetta style. Gypsy Life (1945) and The Crackpot King (1946) followed in
11454-644: The movie was banned by the Film Censorship Board in the province of Alberta , Canada. In 1973, Bakshi and Ruddy began the production of Harlem Nights , which Paramount was originally contracted to distribute. While Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic proved that adult-oriented animation could be financially successful, animated films were still not respected, and Bakshi's pictures were considered to be "dirty Disney flicks" that were "mature" only for depicting sex, drugs, and profanity. Harlem Nights , based on Bakshi's firsthand experiences with racism,
11592-432: The musical melodrama spoofs that were soon to emerge, they didn't have an overwrought narrator, or the suggestion that the cartoon is an episode of a continuing story. In November 1947, A Fight to the Finish was the first in a series of musical melodrama spoofs, with Mighty Mouse saving damsel in distress Pearl Pureheart (sometimes "Little Nell") from the villainous, mustache-twirling cat Oil Can Harry. Terrytoons revived
11730-400: The nearest white school was several miles away; Bakshi obtained his mother's permission to attend the nearby black school with his friends. Most of the students had no problem with Bakshi's presence, but a teacher sought advice from the principal, who called the police . Fearing that segregated whites would riot if they learned that a white, let alone Jewish student was attending a black school,
11868-427: The outlines of these photographs onto cels with a Rapidograph , the technical pen preferred by Crumb, giving the film's backgrounds a stylized realism virtually unprecedented in animation. The tones of the watercolor backgrounds were influenced by the work of Ashcan School painters such as George Luks and John French Sloan . Among other unusual techniques, bent and fisheye camera perspectives were used to portray
12006-446: The pair have a brief romantic chorus together as the cartoon delivers a happy ending. The melodrama spoofs continued as an occasional series over the next six years, with Oil Can Harry and Pearl Pureheart returning in thirteen more cartoons. Another memorable short was 1949's The Perils of Pearl Pureheart , in which Oil Can Harry hypnotizes Pearl into singing " Carry Me Back to Old Virginny " on stage at an old saloon, where he vacuums up
12144-422: The police removed Bakshi from his classroom. Meanwhile, his father had been suffering from anxiety attacks. Within a few months, the family moved back to Brownsville, where they rarely spoke of these events. At the age of fifteen, after discovering Gene Byrnes ' Complete Guide to Cartooning at the public library, Bakshi took up cartooning to document his experiences and create fantasy-influenced art. He stole
12282-511: The principal transferred him to Manhattan 's School of Industrial Art . At the school, he was taught by African-American cartoonist Charles Allen. In June 1956, Bakshi graduated from the school with an award in cartooning. He attended and graduated from the School of Industrial Art (now known as the High School of Art and Design ) in 1956. When Bakshi was 18, his friend Cosmo Anzilotti
12420-410: The process that had been used on Wizards , which was unsuitable for the level of detail he intended for The Lord of the Rings , so Bakshi and camera technician Ted Bemiller created their own photographic enlarger to process the footage cheaply. Live-action special effects and analog optics were used in place of animation to keep the visual effects budget low and give the film a more realistic look. Among
12558-509: The producer denied. As he continued to work on Heavy Traffic , Bakshi began pitching his next project, Harlem Nights , a film loosely based on the Uncle Remus story books. The idea interested producer Albert S. Ruddy , whom Bakshi encountered at a screening of The Godfather . Bakshi received a call from Krantz, who questioned him about Harlem Nights . Bakshi said, "I can't talk about that", and hung up. After locking Bakshi out of
12696-406: The production struggles of The Lord of the Rings , Bakshi decided to work on something more personal. He pitched American Pop to Columbia Pictures president Dan Melnick . Bakshi wanted to produce a film in which songs would be given a new context in juxtaposition to the visuals. American Pop follows four generations of a Russian Jewish immigrant family of musicians, whose careers parallel
12834-414: The project. Bakshi financed the film's completion himself from the director's fees for other projects such as Wizards , The Lord of the Rings , and American Pop . The live-action sequences of Hey Good Lookin' were gradually replaced by animation; among the eliminated live-action sequences was one featuring the glam punk band New York Dolls . Singer Dan Hicks worked on the initial musical score, but
12972-454: The quality of the animation, writing, timing, and voice acting. Although the series' first 20 segments were successful, Bakshi wanted to leave Terrytoons to form his own company. In 1967, he drew up presentation pieces for a fantasy series called Tee-Witt , with help from Anzilotti, Johnnie Zago, and Bill Foucht. On the way to the CBS offices to make his pitch, he was involved in a car accident. At
13110-513: The range of emotions and movement required for the film's story. According to Bakshi, "Rotoscoping is terrible for subtleties, so it was tough to get facial performances to match the stage ones." Bakshi was able to acquire the rights to an extensive soundtrack—including songs by Janis Joplin , The Doors , George Gershwin , The Mamas & the Papas , Herbie Hancock , Lou Reed , and Louis Prima —for under $ 1 million. Released on February 12, 1981,
13248-411: The rest of the animators; after asking Rasinski for material to animate, he received layouts of two scenes: a hat floating on water and a running Deputy Dawg , the lead character of a Terrytoons' series then being shown on CBS . Despite threats of repercussion from the animators' union, Rasinski fought to keep Bakshi as a layout artist. Bakshi began to see Rasinski as a father figure; Rasinski, childless,
13386-418: The same style. Gypsy Life was particularly successful, earning Terry his third nomination for an Academy Award for Short Subjects (Cartoon). There was a romantic, damsel in distress element in these cartoons—in each one, Mighty Mouse saves a dark-haired beauty from terrible trouble, and in the latter two, the camera fades out on the hero and the girl in a romantic clinch. While these were very similar to
13524-491: The series Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures , which ran for two years. After a nine-year hiatus from feature films, he directed Cool World (1992), which was largely rewritten during production and received poor reviews, consequently being his last theatrical feature-length film to date. Bakshi returned to television with the live-action film Cool and the Crazy (1994) and the anthology series Spicy City (1997). During
13662-488: The series was revived again as "Oil Can Harry" in The Villain Still Pursued Her with new character designs, including a dark-haired Fanny. The characters were brought back for one more cartoon in 1937's The Saw Mill Mystery . The 1933 episodes were deemed a success, with Film Daily writing a glowing review of The Banker's Daughter : "The opera idea combined with the burlesque meller makes this
13800-448: The speaking voice of Mighty Mouse in the show's new framing sequences. The show's theme song was credited on some early records to "The Terrytooners, Mitch Miller and Orchestra". However, writer Mark Evanier credits a group called The Sandpipers (not the 1960s easy listening group of the same name ). In 1979–1980, Filmation made television cartoons starring Mighty Mouse and fellow Terrytoon characters Heckle and Jeckle in
13938-415: The storyboards. We couldn't affect anything, but I still tried. I'd re-time, mix up soundtracks—I'd fuck with it so I could make it my own." Other animation studios, such as Hanna-Barbera , were selling shows to the networks, even as the series produced by Terrytoons (which was owned by CBS) were declining in popularity. In 1966, Bill Weiss asked Bakshi to help him carry presentation boards to Manhattan for
14076-533: The studio the next day, Krantz called several directors, including Chuck Jones , in search of a replacement. Arkoff threatened to withdraw his financial backing unless Krantz rehired Bakshi, who returned a week later. Bakshi wanted the voices to sound organic, so he experimented with improvisation, allowing his actors to ad lib during the recording sessions. Several animation sequences appear as rough sketchbook pages. The film also incorporated live-action footage and photographs. Although Krantz, in an attempt to get
14214-494: The studio. After finishing Culhane's uncompleted shorts, he directed, produced, wrote, and designed four short films at Paramount: The Fuz , Mini-Squirts , Marvin Digs , and Mouse Trek . Marvin Digs , which Bakshi conceived as a " flower child picture", was not completed the way he had intended: It "was going to have curse words and sex scenes, and a lot more than that. [...] Of course, they wouldn't let me do that." He described
14352-703: The tips thrown by the audience. Hypnotized for three and a half minutes of the six-minute cartoon, Pearl continues to sing as the battle between Harry and Mighty Mouse rages around her, even underwater. To vary the formula, the melodramas started traveling to exotic locales, including Italy ( Sunny Italy , 1951), Switzerland ( Swiss Miss , 1951), Holland ( Happy Holland , 1952) and even prehistoric times ( Prehistoric Perils , 1952) and medieval times ( When Mousehood Was in Flower , 1953). The fourteen Oil Can Harry melodrama theatricals were: Mighty Mouse had little theatrical impact, but became Terrytoons' most popular character and
14490-553: The title was changed to Coonskin No More... , and finally to Coonskin . Bakshi hired several African-American animators to work on Coonskin , including Brenda Banks, the first African-American female animator. Bakshi also hired graffiti artists and trained them to work as animators. The film's release was delayed by protests from the Congress of Racial Equality , which called Bakshi and his film racist. After its distribution
14628-464: The turn of the century, and they were repainted a lot but the paint was faded by, you know the hundred years of snow and rain, repainted and faded again." Bakshi loved the faded colors, the nails, the wooden crates, and he would build his own toys from the wood. He recalled having "a great feeling with wood, cement, and nails". In the spring of 1947, Bakshi's father and uncle traveled to Washington, D.C., in search of business opportunities, and soon moved
14766-581: The villain, saving Fanny from her dreadful fate. In Episode II, The Oil Can Mystery , Fanny is once again in Oil Can Harry's power, with Strongheart tied to a railroad track. Episode III, Fanny in the Lion's Den , has Harry lock Fanny up in a dungeon filled with lions, but over the course of several months, she befriends the lions, and they try to help her escape. In Episode IV, Hypnotic Eyes , Harry has gained power over Fanny through hypnosis. In
14904-419: The villains were stupider than they were." The executives loved the idea, and while Silverman required a few drawings before committing, Weiss immediately put Bakshi to work on the series' development. Once Silverman saw the character designs, he confirmed that CBS would greenlight the show, on the condition that Bakshi would serve as its creative director and to oversee the entire project. It would appear as
15042-407: The voice actors was the well-regarded John Hurt , who performed the role of Aragorn . The project's prominence brought heavy trade journal coverage, and fans such as Mick Jagger visited the studio for the chance to play a role. Animator Carl Bell loved drawing Aragorn so much that Bakshi gave Bell the live-action Aragorn costume, which he wore while animating. Viewing The Lord of the Rings as
15180-430: The way the film's hippies and hoodlums viewed the city. Many scenes featured documentary recordings of real conversations in place of scripted dialogue; this, too, would become a signature of Bakshi's. In May 1971, Bakshi moved his studio to Los Angeles to hire additional animators. Some, including Rod Scribner , Dick Lundy , Virgil Walter Ross , Norman McCabe , and John Sparey , welcomed Bakshi and felt that Fritz
15318-621: The whole film. But otherwise, this is a rehash of ideas better explored in Coonskin , Heavy Traffic , and Fritz the Cat ." The film has since gained a cult following through cable television and home video. Quentin Tarantino stated that he preferred Hey Good Lookin' to Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets . In 1976, Bakshi pitched War Wizards to 20th Century Fox . Returning to the fantasy drawings he had created in high school for inspiration, Bakshi intended to prove that he could produce
15456-528: The window and onto a passing log which is floating down the river into a mill. Mighty Mouse throws Harry into the river and rushes to rescue Pearl, who's heading for the buzzsaw. The narrator asks, "Is our little heroine doomed to destruction in the sawmill? Will Mighty Mouse arrive in time? See the following episode, next week!" The camera starts to iris out, but then stops, as the narrator relents, "Stop! Gosh, we can't wait until next week. Please, show us what happens, won't you?" Mighty Mouse grabs Pearl in time, and
15594-571: The world". Bakshi Productions paid its employees higher salaries than other studios and expanded opportunities for female and minority animators. The studio began work on Rocket Robin Hood , and later took over the Spider-Man television series. Bakshi married Liz in August 1968. His second child, Preston, was born in June 1970. In 1969, Ralph's Spot was founded as a division of Bakshi Productions to produce commercials for Coca-Cola and Max,
15732-401: The writer for the film and Mighty Mouse will be voiced by Ryan Reynolds . The first seven films starred the character named Super Mouse. In these early films the character's costume is much closer in design to that of Superman (blue tunic and tights with red trunks and cape). In the eighth cartoon, the character's name was changed to Mighty Mouse. Mighty Mouse's first comic book appearance
15870-436: Was "Street Arabs", which preceded the production of Heavy Traffic in 1972. Inspiration for the film came from penny arcades , where Bakshi often played pinball , sometimes accompanied by his 12-year-old son, Mark. Bakshi pitched Heavy Traffic to Samuel Z. Arkoff , who expressed interest in his take on the "tortured underground cartoonist " and agreed to back the film. Krantz had not compensated Bakshi for his work on Fritz
16008-414: Was 21. Their son, Mark, was born when Bakshi was 22. Elaine disliked his long work hours; parodying his marital problems, Bakshi drew Dum Dum and Dee Dee , a comic strip about a man determined "to get—and keep—the girl". As he perfected his animation style, he began to take on more jobs, including creating design tests for the studio's head director, Gene Deitch . Deitch was not convinced that Bakshi had
16146-611: Was always intended to be temporary and that Paramount never intended to pick up his pitches. Although Hampft was prepared to offer Bakshi a severance package, Bakshi immediately ripped up the contract. Hampft suggested that Bakshi work with producer Steve Krantz , who had recently fired Culhane as supervising director on the Canadian science-fiction series Rocket Robin Hood . Bakshi and background artist Johnnie Vita soon headed to Toronto , planning to commute between Canada and New York, with artists such as Morrow and Wood working from
16284-475: Was an adaptation, luckily he would find a Comic that would become his first animated feature. While browsing the East Side Book Store on St. Mark's Place , Bakshi came across a copy of Robert Crumb's Fritz the Cat . Impressed by Crumb's sharp satire, Bakshi purchased the book and suggested to Krantz that it would work as a film. Krantz arranged a meeting with Crumb, during which Bakshi presented
16422-417: Was an attack on racist prejudices and stereotypes. Bakshi cast Scatman Crothers , Philip Michael Thomas , Barry White , and Charles Gordone in live-action and voice roles, cutting in and out of animation abruptly rather than seamlessly because he wanted to prove that the two media could "coexist with neither excuse nor apology". He wrote a song for Crothers to sing during the opening title sequence: "Ah'm
16560-522: Was changed to Mighty Mouse in his eighth film, 1944's The Wreck of the Hesperus , and the character went on to star in 80 theatrical shorts, concluding in 1961 with Cat Alarm . In 1955, Mighty Mouse Playhouse debuted as a Saturday morning cartoon show on the CBS television network, which popularized the character far more than the original theatrical run. The show lasted until 1967. Filmation revived
16698-508: Was changed: now he becomes Super Mouse by eating vitamins A through Z. The hero made seven films in 1942–1943 before his name was changed. In 1944, Paul Terry learned that another character named "Super Mouse" was to be published in Standard Comics ' Coo-Coo Comics , so his character's name was changed to Mighty Mouse. The first short under the character's new name was The Wreck of the Hesperus , released February 11, 1944, adapting
16836-445: Was contracted to direct an adaptation of The Lord of the Rings , in which J. R. R. Tolkien 's three-volume novel would be condensed into a single film. Bakshi arranged a meeting with Mike Medavoy , United Artists ' head of production, who agreed to let Bakshi direct in exchange for the $ 3 million that had been spent on Boorman's screenplay. Down the hall from Medavoy was Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer president Dan Melnick , who interrupted
16974-762: Was contracted to the Bryanston Distributing Company , Paramount cancelled a project that Bakshi and Ruddy were developing, The American Chronicles . Coonskin , advertised as an exploitation film, was given limited distribution and soon disappeared from theaters. Initial reviews were negative; Playboy commented that "Bakshi seems to throw in a little of everything and he can't quite pull it together." Eventually, positive reviews appeared in The Hollywood Reporter , New York Amsterdam News (an African-American newspaper), and elsewhere. The New York Times ' Richard Eder said
17112-594: Was doing. Bakshi responded, "All of these guys are heading into Canada to dodge the draft and I'm running back into the States. What the fuck is wrong with that!?" The guard laughed, and let Bakshi through. Vita was detained at the airport; he was searched and interrogated for six hours. Bakshi soon founded his own studio, Bakshi Productions, in the Garment District of Manhattan, where his mother used to work and which Bakshi described as "the worst neighborhood in
17250-433: Was dubbed "Super Mouse", and his first theatrical short, The Mouse of Tomorrow , debuted on October 16, 1942. In his book Of Mice and Magic , critic Leonard Maltin describes the character's origin story: Cats of the city have imposed a reign of terror on the rodent community. The mice have barely a chance to live in peace, with endless traps and clever feline footwork sealing their doom. One mouse manages to escape from
17388-410: Was happy after smelling the flowers because it helped him remember the little girl who sold it to him fondly. But even if you're right, their accusations become part of the air we breathe. That's why I cut the scene. I can't have children wondering if Mighty Mouse is using cocaine. In the book Astro Boy Essays , author Frederik L. Schodt quotes Japanese animator Osamu Tezuka as saying that Mighty Mouse
17526-429: Was happy to serve as Bakshi's mentor. At the age of 25, Bakshi was promoted to director . His first assignment was the series Sad Cat . Bakshi and his wife had separated by then, giving him the time to animate each short alone. Bakshi was dissatisfied with the traditional role of a Terrytoons director: "We didn't really 'direct' like you'd think. We were 'animation directors,' because the story department controlled
17664-564: Was hired by the cartoon studio Terrytoons ; Anzilotti recommended Bakshi to the studio's production manager, Frank Schudde. Bakshi was hired as a cel polisher and commuted four hours each day to the studio, based in suburban New Rochelle . His low-level position required Bakshi to carefully remove dirt and dust from animation cels. After a few months, Schudde was surprised that Bakshi was still showing up to work, so he promoted him to cel painter. Bakshi began to practice animating; to give himself more time, at one point he slipped 10 cels that he
17802-580: Was in Terry-Toons Comics #38 (November 1945), published by Timely Comics . Mighty Mouse was featured in: Mighty Mouse was also featured in two main titles by several different publishers: Mighty Mouse and The Adventures of Mighty Mouse . In 1953, Mighty Mouse was featured in Three Dimension Comics #1, the first three-dimensional comics publication, produced by St. John Publications. According to co-creator Joe Kubert ,
17940-418: Was originally voiced by Roy Halee Sr., a tenor who often sang on radio and first started doing cartoon voices for J. R. Bray 's studio. In the operatic melodramas to follow, Halee and his quartet provided all of the vocals. In Super Mouse's next film, he spoofed the popular Universal Monsters films ( Frankenstein's Cat , 1942). In Pandora's Box (1943), he battled bat-winged cat demons, and his origin story
18078-467: Was screened at the 1975 Cannes Film Festival , and the film was scheduled for a Christmas 1975 release, but was moved to the summers of 1976 and later 1977, before ultimately being postponed indefinitely. Warner Bros. was concerned about any controversy the film would encounter as a result of the backlash over the film Coonskin , and felt that the film was "unreleasable" because of its mix of live action and animation, and it would not spend further money on
18216-524: Was steadfastly opposed, having wanted to kill Fritz off to avoid further movies. After Bakshi pitched the project to every major Hollywood studio , Warner Bros. bought it and promised an $ 850,000 budget. Bakshi hired animators with whom he had worked in the past, including Vita, Tyer, Anzilotti, and Nick Tafuri, and began the layouts and animation. The first completed sequence was a junkyard scene in Harlem, in which Fritz smokes marijuana, has sex, and incites
18354-661: Was supposed to work on into the "to-do" pile of a fellow painter, Leo Giuliani. Bakshi's deception was not noticed until two days later, when he was called to Schudde's office because the cels had been painted on the wrong side. When Bakshi explained that Giuliani had made the mistake, an argument ensued between the three. Schudde eventually took Bakshi's side. By this point, the studio's employees were aware of Bakshi's intention to become an animator, and he received help and advice from established animators, including Connie Rasinski , Manny Davis, Jim Tyer, Larry Silverman, and Johnnie Gentilella. Bakshi married his first wife, Elaine, when he
18492-448: Was the first animated film to receive an X rating from the Motion Picture Association of America , and is the most successful independent animated feature of all time. Over the next 11 years, Bakshi directed seven additional animated features. He is well known for such films as Wizards (1977), The Lord of the Rings (1978), American Pop (1981), and Fire and Ice (1983). In 1987, Bakshi returned to television work, producing
18630-754: Was the influence that inspired him to name his well-known character Mighty Atom (also known as Astro Boy). He also chose to imitate Mighty Mouse's signature flying pose with one arm stretched ahead with a clenched fist. Ralph Bakshi Ralph Bakshi (born October 29, 1938) is a Palestinian-American animator, filmmaker and painter. In the 1970s, he established an alternative to mainstream animation through independent and adult-oriented productions . Between 1972 and 1994, he directed nine theatrically released feature films, predominantly urban dramas and fantasy films , five of which he wrote. He has also been involved in numerous television projects as director, writer, producer and animator. Beginning his career at
18768-409: Was very poor and the walls of his neighborhood were constantly repainted. He liked the feeling when he looked out the window and saw the sun as a little boy, and whenever he would walk out in the streets, someone would break open the wooden crates in the push-carts that were filled with food, stating as such: "And the push carts were wood, and most of the buildings were made out of old wood, going back to
18906-485: Was very well received by critics. Newsweek applauded its "black humor, powerful grotesquerie, and peculiar raw beauty." The Hollywood Reporter called it "shocking, outrageous, offensive, sometimes incoherent, occasionally unintelligent. However, it is also an authentic work of movie art and Bakshi is certainly the most creative American animator since Disney." Vincent Canby of The New York Times ranked Heavy Traffic among his "Ten Best Films of 1973". Upon release,
19044-419: Was voiced by Diane Pershing . Frank Welker played Heckle, Jeckle and Quacula, and Norm Prescott played Theodore H. Bear. Each episode included two traditional Mighty Mouse cartoons, as well as an episode of a Mighty Mouse science-fiction serial, "The Great Space Chase". The hour was rounded out with two Heckle & Jeckle cartoons and one Quacula cartoon, plus short bumpers with tips about safety and
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