Like the other reviewer pointed out, Walter Lantz is identified as the animator on this particular cartoon on YouTube. Happy Hooligan is on a park bench with another person when he gets offered a trip to the moon. Sounds absurd right now, right? Anyway, since this was way before the 1969 trip of those astronauts, Happy goes on a rocket that's shaped like the car convertible of the time and therefore has no worries of not getting any air when he gets there especially since the planet's inhabited in this version! When on this planet, he becomes king (unbelievable, right!) and falls for a ballerina before...Let me just say that if you didn't think this was possible before, you're right! Anyway, it's because of that ending that I sorta liked this cartoon despite not having much in the way of gags. So on that note, I say give this A Trip to the Moon a chance if you're an animation buff like I am.
3 Reviews
I sorta liked this Happy Hooligan cartoon called A Trip to the Moon
tavm31 August 2014
Warning: Spoilers
Lantz?
boblipton29 October 2011
This early example of animation in the Happy Hooligan series doesn't come with much information attached, although the source of the Youtube copy I saw attributes it to Walter Lantz.
It's not much of a cartoon by modern standards: Happy speaks with someone in the park and takes a trip to the moon on a rocket that looks like the front half of a current racing car, where he is made king of the moon. A ballerina does a shimmy and Our Hero winds up back in the park being accosted by a cop. The inference is that he has fallen asleep and dreamed the entire trip.
Visually there are some glosses on the famous 1902 Melies film and the animation is spiffy for the year this was made. However, this effect to the modern eye is .... well, it seems pretty pointless. It's of some interest for its position in animation history, but that's about it.
It's not much of a cartoon by modern standards: Happy speaks with someone in the park and takes a trip to the moon on a rocket that looks like the front half of a current racing car, where he is made king of the moon. A ballerina does a shimmy and Our Hero winds up back in the park being accosted by a cop. The inference is that he has fallen asleep and dreamed the entire trip.
Visually there are some glosses on the famous 1902 Melies film and the animation is spiffy for the year this was made. However, this effect to the modern eye is .... well, it seems pretty pointless. It's of some interest for its position in animation history, but that's about it.
Awfully good for 1917
planktonrules25 July 2020
"A Trip to the Moon" is a cartoon featuring Happy Hooligan. Hooligan was a popular comic strip character from about 1900 to the early 1930s and he was a perennially happy hobo who never let life get him down.
When the story begins, a guy approaches Happy in the park and convinces him to ride his rocket to the moon. The moon people all come to meet Happy and make him their king. And, soon a parade of weirdos come to entertain him. The final one is a pretty (and normal) ballerina and Happy is in love....leading to a rude awakening.
If this cartoon was made 10 or 20 years later, I wouldn't have been impressed. But for 1917, it was amazingly good--funny and clever. Sure, the animation quality could have been better, but for the time, the simple line drawings were the norm. Well worth seeing and a cartoon that has aged well.
When the story begins, a guy approaches Happy in the park and convinces him to ride his rocket to the moon. The moon people all come to meet Happy and make him their king. And, soon a parade of weirdos come to entertain him. The final one is a pretty (and normal) ballerina and Happy is in love....leading to a rude awakening.
If this cartoon was made 10 or 20 years later, I wouldn't have been impressed. But for 1917, it was amazingly good--funny and clever. Sure, the animation quality could have been better, but for the time, the simple line drawings were the norm. Well worth seeing and a cartoon that has aged well.
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