THE Cartoon/Animation thread (Discussion)

(02-04-2019 16:19 )GreenMachine Wrote:  Now this is a fascinating bit of trivia:
The voice of BAMBI went on to becoming a decorated War Hero.

Donnie Dunagan spent 25 years in the Marines. He was a decorated Vietnam War veteran who rose up the ranks quickly—13 promotions in 21 years, as he recalls—and held such honors as being the youngest ever drill instructor and receiving a Bronze Star and three Purple Hearts for his service. And when he retired as a Major in 1977, he was finally able to talk about a little secret he'd kept from his colleagues all those years: Long before he was barking orders at new recruits, they'd all definitely heard his voice before, as children, when he was far less menacing. Major Dunagan was the voice of Bambi.

^ great stuff.

Another bit of Bambi trivia,it was Walt Disney's personal favourite and the last to be reissued(1966)during his lifetime.

Going to be doing an in-depth look into Top Cat(Boss Cat here) this weekend, some pretty interesting stuff coming up.

Here's a small appetizer: Arnold Stang, the man who voiced Top Cat appeared once on British television on Blue Peter and he was nothing like you imagined. A thin, weedy looking chap with glasses and a bow-tie but created one of the best loved cartoon characters ever. As I stated elsewhere it was based on Phil Silver's comedy army character Sgt Ernie Bilko, the fast-talking con man in 'The Phil Silvers Show' then 'Bilko' and that also provided some other actors who provided voices for Hanna-Barbera productions. More to come.

^ Arnold Strang appeared as Pretzie alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in the atrocity that was Hercules In New York(1970).

"Alright boys, let's blur, blur, blur!" So said Top Cat(Boss Cat here) in a series of cartoon misadventures of the 1970's(although originally aired in the US in the 1960's). He was a fast talking con-cat (as stated based on Ernest 'Ernie' Bilko from the Phil Silver Show) and the bane of lovable, yet gullible Officer Charlie Dibble, who keeps having run-ins with Top Cat and his gang. These were made up of Spook, Choo-Choo, Fancy-Fancy, Brains and Benny the Ball. Bit of a misnomer Brains was a bit dim, Spook was streetwise, Choo-Choo the thoughtful one, Fancy-Fancy the romeo(who spoke like Cary Grant) and Benny who was almost childlike but good-natured. They lived in an alleyway (in trash cans) which was always a mess much to the chagrin of Dibble, who was trying desperately to get a promotion but thwarted each time having to cover for T.C. Top Cat was the leader of the group and always thinking up new and disastrous schemes to get rich quick but never quite made it. The voices were very good. Arnold Stang(as mentioned above) was TC, Leo DeLyon as Spook, Marvin Kaplan as Choo-Choo, John Stephenson as Fancy-Fancy and Maurice Gosfield as Benny the Ball. Maurice was the lovable yet gullible Private Duane Doberman in Bilko. There is more than one link to Bilko & Hanna-Barbera. John Stephenson's name will crop up a few times in Hanna-Barbera productions.



If you've ever wondered what the lyrics were to the song for Top Cat/Boss Cat they were:

"Top Cat, the most effectual Top Cat,
whose intellectual close friends get to call him TC,
pro-vid-ing its with dignity...
Top Cat, The indisputable leader of the gang
He's the boss, he's the pip
He's the championship
He's the most tip top
Top Cat

Yes he's the chief, he's the king
But above everything
He's the most tip top
Top Cat!
At the end of the cartoon, TC is seen on the back of a refuse lorry drinking milk through a straw from a bottle which he promptly throws over a fence. TC climbs up to the police telephone on a pole(having repeatedly been warned not to use it by Dibble), takes out a toothbrush and paste and then puts in ear protectors plus a sleeping mask and after getting into his trash can, puts out a sign DO NOT DISTURB.

Incidentally Duane Doberman and Benny are virtually the same as Gosfield was quite a large man and slightly dumpy, as was Benny. Allen Jenkins who played the gruff-talking Dibble can be seen as an aging Italian gangster type in an episode of 'The Man From U.N.C.L.E. My source for all this has been a mixture of Encyclopaedia of Children's TV and IMDB, however the book makes a few mistakes; one glaring one is calling Arnold Stang, Larry Steng!

Coming soon-The Flintstones.

One thing I've always been puzzled about were Paul Winchell and Paul Lynde the same person? Apparently not. Paul Lynde had a fantastic voice and has been used in all sorts of films and cartoons, particularly as the voice of Sylvester Sneekly aka The Hooded Claw in The Perils of Penelope Pitstop( a spin off of Wacky Races) yet I never saw his name mentioned in any end credit sequences of Hanna-Barbera cartoons, but for some reason he was uncredited as The Hooded Claw and Paul Winchell who has been in loads of cartoons is credited as Clyde & Softt(two of the Ant Hill Mob) and voice of Dick Dastardly. It is a mystery, was he embarrassed by what he did? He did the voice of the rat Templeton in Charlotte's Web and of course most famously as the original Mildew Wolf in 'It's the Wolf' cartoon shorts.

^ fascinating stuff again GM.

A classic from my childhood is The Flight of Dragons(1982).
Based on the book by Peter Dickinson,it was released straight to video in 1982 but then received a cinematic release in 1986.The superbly animated and dark story of magic and wonder being cast aside by cynicism and technology is backed about up by a great voice cast that includes John Ritter,Harry Morgan, James Earl Jones,Alexandra Stoddart and Victor Buono,who,sadly passed away shortly after he completed the project.
A fun bit of trivia regarding Harry Morgan and Alexandra Stoddart,they voice father and daughter characters in the film and they appeared together in an episode of M*A*S*H ten years prior to this.

I've got a copy of that on video that I recorded when it was shown on the BBC years ago, but since then I've not seen it anywhere. Had a very whimiscal song at the beginning and yes some great voices like Harry(Henry) Morgan and James Earl Jones. Victor Buono appeared in villainous roles like King Tut in the 60's BATMAN tv series and The Man From UNCLE.

One of my favourite Daffy Duck cartoons I found on that cartoon website. It is called 'STUPOR DUCK' and is based on the Superman character with Daffy as Cluck Trent, mild-mannered reporter for a great paper who overhears what he thinks is a plot to blow up the world(it is in fact a television programme being watched by his editor) who has probably the funniest and best villain name going, Aardvark Ratnik! It is really funny demonstrating one of the best writers at the time for Warner Brothers, Michael Maltese. It also contains some good gags as Stupor Duck makes mistakes of ordinary situations that to him look like the work of "that rat, Ratnik...or I don't know my rats!"

^^
Yeah I recorded The Flight of Dragons when it was shown on the BBC sometime in the 80s.I bought it on DVD in 2005 via mail order from a guy in California.
Don McLean sang the theme song.