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- SoundtracksAch, du Lieber Augustine
(uncredited)
Traditional
Played by the band at the beginning and occasionally in the score
Featured review
Sets Your Toes a-Tapping
Synchronization was a phase in animation after the first sound films -- depending on whether you think the gong belongs to Disney for SEAMBOAT WILLIE or not. The Fleischer Brothers were producing early versions of their Screen Songs in 1925 and van Beuren's first sound cartoons came out several month's before Disney's.
In any case, there was a transition period during which a cartoon might play in a theater equipped with sound one day and one without the next. Therefore sound tracks had to be merely accompaniment to a gag and not the gag itself. These were the synchronized cartoons. This is one of the best I have ever seen.
It still shows all the typical shortcuts intended to cut down the cost of a cartoon: repeating action, light on the backgrounding and so forth. However, this cartoon about the travails of an Oompah band wandering the streets of the city trying to earn some money has some topnotch gags going for it -- notice the throwaway gag of the pendulum clock in the courthouse -- and some very nicely handled characters. I am quite taken with the policeman, whose dark uniform shows up beautifully in the print I saw.
Synchronization left its mark on cartoons for many years afterwards, particularly with two classes of gags that were driven into the ground: the rubber-tire animation in which everything transformed into everything else, and the items-come-to-life gag. You see some of them here but they appear in sufficient variety that they are very funny.
In any case, there was a transition period during which a cartoon might play in a theater equipped with sound one day and one without the next. Therefore sound tracks had to be merely accompaniment to a gag and not the gag itself. These were the synchronized cartoons. This is one of the best I have ever seen.
It still shows all the typical shortcuts intended to cut down the cost of a cartoon: repeating action, light on the backgrounding and so forth. However, this cartoon about the travails of an Oompah band wandering the streets of the city trying to earn some money has some topnotch gags going for it -- notice the throwaway gag of the pendulum clock in the courthouse -- and some very nicely handled characters. I am quite taken with the policeman, whose dark uniform shows up beautifully in the print I saw.
Synchronization left its mark on cartoons for many years afterwards, particularly with two classes of gags that were driven into the ground: the rubber-tire animation in which everything transformed into everything else, and the items-come-to-life gag. You see some of them here but they appear in sufficient variety that they are very funny.
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- boblipton
- Apr 28, 2013
Details
- Runtime7 minutes
- Color
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