I'm sure some wonder why I'm reviewing these things. My interest in early cinema takes me all over the place. This uses a staple of early animation: an animal orchestra, led by a lion (he has the crazy hair) and a group of characters with some bizarre instruments that won't cooperate. Some nice little bits occur and we conclude with a bouncing ball sing-along. The Fleischers seemed to go a step further with the initial characters becoming part of the song-leading. Nothing is particularly interesting about this one.
4 Reviews
Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet was another of Max Fleischer's interesting early talkie Screen Song cartoons
tavm30 November 2009
Warning: Spoilers
Just watched this Max Fleischer Screen Song cartoon on YouTube. In this one, an animal musical quartet-let by their long-haired lion conductor-play their instruments with their own kind of eccentricities. Like one of them swatting a fly and then putting it on his instrument as one of its keys to press for notes! Or another one spanking it when it behaves badly! And how about when one of them sleeps causing the conductor to hit him on the head, then when that musician sleeps again the conductor again hits him on the head with the stick whose ball then bounces on the other musicians' heads which leads the narrator to tell us to follow the Bouncing Ball as the lyrics of the title song appear on the screen. Near song's end, cartoon characters jump on the words as those words are being sung. Quite amusing if not hilarious cartoon and one of the last ones to use the "slash" method of overlapping paper drawings before celluloid completely took over animation. So on that note, I say give Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet a look.
Follow the Bouncing Ball
boblipton2 September 2009
A band of cartoon animal musicians-- including their long-haired lion conductor -- warm up before going into the title song.
Although Walt Disney claimed to have produced the first sound cartoon with STEAMBOAT WILLIE in 1928, the Fleischers had begun their regular series of Screen Songs in 1925, a continuation of the live sing-alongs from early days of vaudeville and purpose-built movie theaters -- sing the song and then buy the sheet music. This sort of short subject would continue through the end of regular short subject production in the 1950s.
In the meantime, this is a fairly simple version of the elaborate Screen song that the form would evolve into. After the warm-up, the song is sung through once, straight, then there is a little more by-play. A decent if not remarkable example of the series.
Although Walt Disney claimed to have produced the first sound cartoon with STEAMBOAT WILLIE in 1928, the Fleischers had begun their regular series of Screen Songs in 1925, a continuation of the live sing-alongs from early days of vaudeville and purpose-built movie theaters -- sing the song and then buy the sheet music. This sort of short subject would continue through the end of regular short subject production in the 1950s.
In the meantime, this is a fairly simple version of the elaborate Screen song that the form would evolve into. After the warm-up, the song is sung through once, straight, then there is a little more by-play. A decent if not remarkable example of the series.
Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet
Michael_Elliott26 September 2017
Put on Your Old Gray Bonnet (1929)
** 1/2 (out of 4)
The Fleischer Studio produced a number of these animated short films where the "bouncing ball" would have audience members singing together. The story here is pretty simple as a group of animals are warming up with their instruments before going into the title song. If you're familiar with these shorts then you know the plots really aren't anything special. With that said, these were meant to be fun for a crowd of people and to get them to sing together. On that level this here was mildly entertaining and there's no question that the animation itself was good. This won't have much appeal today but it's worth watching for film buffs.
** 1/2 (out of 4)
The Fleischer Studio produced a number of these animated short films where the "bouncing ball" would have audience members singing together. The story here is pretty simple as a group of animals are warming up with their instruments before going into the title song. If you're familiar with these shorts then you know the plots really aren't anything special. With that said, these were meant to be fun for a crowd of people and to get them to sing together. On that level this here was mildly entertaining and there's no question that the animation itself was good. This won't have much appeal today but it's worth watching for film buffs.
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