Tacodidra

@Iforgotmybrain Wait until you see his successor Buddy! A true animation legend. Thanks, my friend! I already have the next couple of parts written, though I'll edit them a little more. I'll probably publish two each week until I catch up.

And now we're in 1931, with more Bosko and the introduction of a new series! All of these cartoons were directed by Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising. Big Man from the North Mountie Bosko is given the task of arresting a dangerous criminal. While this short still has a lot of focus on music, the series seems to be evolving, with this short clearly having more of a plot and conflict than the previous ones. 8 Ain't Nature Grand! And this is more like the earlier Bosko shorts, with a lot of small gags involving insects and other animals Bosko meets in the forest. Cute but not the most spectacular, apart from a pretty imaginative last couple of minutes. 7.5 Ups 'n Downs The focus is clearly starting to move away from musical sequences into funny gags, which is a good thing. Hot dog vendor Bosko participates in a horse race with quite an unreliable mechanical horse. 8.5 Dumb Patrol This war-themed cartoon is a combination of earlier and later Bosko – in his plane, he fights the unnamed villain who already appeared in a couple of cartoons, but there's also a musical sequence where he tries to impress Honey. The former sequences are far more interesting. 7.5 Yodeling Yokels Bosko and Honey in the Alps, including a lot of yodeling, of course – maybe too much yodeling. But still some entertaining gags, especially one involving an owl. 7 Bosko's Holiday Bosko and Honey (both more talkative than before) go on a picnic. The sequence with Bosko's phone and alarm clock is easily my favorite gag in this one. 7.5 The Tree's Knees Bosko is in a forest, but the focus is as much on the anthromorphic trees and animals as on him. Cute and fun in its simplicity! 8 And here's the start of the even more music-focused sister series, Merrie Melodies. Joining the Looney Tunes and the less successful Song'Nata series, it would continue for almost four decades. From now on, Ising will direct the Merrie Melodies and Harman the Looney Tunes (i.e. the Bosko cartoons). Lady, Play Your Mandolin! At first, the two series had genuine differences – instead of Bosko, the first Merrie Melodies star is Foxy (a pretty obvious Mickey Mouse rip-off). He may not have much of a personality, but the short itself is a standout. Foxy goes to a café where various (drunken) antics ensue while everyone sings the title song – a really catchy one! The best effort so far, and promising for the future of the series. 9 Smile, Darn Ya, Smile! Train driver Foxy has various problems along the way. Some scenes in this are very similar to some of the earlier Bosko shorts, but it's still an entertaining short. The most memorable thing in this short is the song, though! 8 Bosko Shipwrecked! After a storm, Bosko ends up on an island and meets not only another lion but also a tribe of cannibals. A fairly ordinary entry in the series. 7 One More Time Foxy is having some nice cartoons, and the third and last one (making him the first character to stop appearing in the series) is the best one yet! This time he's a police officer fining and arresting criminals. The music works well (almost all the dialogue here is sung) and the characters' antics are fun and at times surprisingly violent! 9.5 Bosko the Doughboy Another war-themed Bosko – this time he's in the infantry, mostly trying to avoid enemy fire with his friends. The most action-packed and violent Bosko cartoon (even including apparent deaths!), also less singing than usual. 8 You Don't Know What You're Doin'! Replacing Foxy, Piggy is the new Merrie Melodies star. He goes to a jazz concert with his girlfriend Fluffy, heckles the performers, starts performing himself, gets heckled by a group of drunks... This one features some surreal sequences and visuals involving drunken characters. For some reason, the Merrie Melodies are almost consistently more interesting and experimental than the Bosko cartoons – and jazzier, too! 9 Bosko's Soda Fountain Bosko works at a soda fountain, making ice cream dishes for his customers. Sadly, one of them is Honey's piano student, Wilbur the kitten. Not my favorite in the series, especially the scenes with the aforementioned annoying brat. 6.5 Hittin' the Trail for Hallelujah Land The first of the infamous Censored 11, removed from circulation by then-owner United Artists in the 60s due to perceived racist content (although this one seems quite tame to me). Piggy, making his second and last appearance, is on a ship with his girlfriend Fluffy who gets abducted by a typical movie villain, while her uncle Tom ends up in the graveyard where he is threatened by a group of skeletons. Piggy has to save both. Not quite as good as the earlier Merrie Melodies, but another nice jazzy soundtrack, and again more eventful than most of the Boskos. 8 Bosko's Fox Hunt The first Looney Tunes cartoon about hunting! With the help of a horse and a dog, Bosko is chasing a little fox, but they all keep getting outfoxed by him. A lot of chasing, probably the closest in spirit to the later cartoons, though they would obviously improve on this one. 8.5 Red-Headed Baby With Piggy not being used anymore (apart from the end titles), the Merrie Melodies will be one-shots from now on. At Santa's workshop, a doll (the red-headed baby of the title) is kidnapped by a spider, and a Napoleon doll has to save her. Quite fun – and why are all the songs in these so catchy? 7.5 For shorts not released in the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series, 1931 is a pretty bad year – most of them are extremely rare if not completely lost. The Song'Nata (formerly Spooney Melodies) series of animated/live-action organ performances had four more entries before being discontinued, "Just a Gigolo", "Say a Little Prayer for Me", "When Your Lover Has Gone" and "For You", but none of those are available for viewing anywhere (though they may still exist in archives). At the time, Warner Bros. also distributed a few cartoons not made by the Schlesinger studio. Buster Bear may have been rejected by Schlesinger earlier, but creator/director John R. McCrory managed to get WB to distribute one of his shorts anyway, to little success. Buster Bear Buster is hosting a revue at a town hall, featuring various acts. Some of them (like a pair of dancing ducks) are liked by the audience, while others get a worse reception. In style, it's quite similar to the Harman-Ising cartoons and many others of the era. Interestingly, it even uses the same theme song ("A Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight") as the early Looney Tunes. The animation quality is slightly worse though decent, but the voice acting is weak. An interesting curiosity if nothing else. 6.5 WB also released "Graduation Day in Bugland", a Listerine ad possibly made by Fleischer, and "'Neath the Bababa Tree" and "Put on the Spout", supposedly Terrytoons productions based on Dr. Seuss' Flit ads, but these commercial cartoons all appear to be lost. The second year already shows strong improvement, though there are some weaker entries in the bunch. The Merrie Melodies are much more fun and surprising in general, while the Looney Tunes seem to rely largely on Bosko as a somewhat established character. Will this remain the case in the future?

@ZiggWheelsManning "I Haven't Got a Hat" in 1935. The 98th cartoon in the series if we count both the Looney Tunes and the Merrie Melodies.

@Octavia Heartstrings Thanks, my friend! I'll try to have the 1931 part edited and released soon. @ZiggWheelsManning Porky first appears in 1935, so it will take a few more parts for him to show up. As fun as many of the early cartoons are, I'm looking forward to that myself.

For some reason, I never even had one as a kid. I wonder why, since I had a very active imagination and used to come up with fictional TV shows, songs and stuff like that all the time.

I think the ones where they use graphics instead of text are cute and a clever way to make it understandable regardless of language. As for changing texts for different language versions, it depends on how well it's done. The Ratatouille example looks good, but I've seen some cases where the translated text was added very clumsily (having to be placed over a giant square to block the original, or the original showing up for half a second before changing to the different language one). But I'd say I prefer seeing the original language, maybe because changing on-screen texts is rarely done here, even in dubs (it sometimes happens in movies but is rare in TV series).

Here's something of a long-planned project for me. After going through many cartoon series last year, I've finally decided to tackle an all-time favorite. The Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoon series (I'm treating them as one, as they were essentially the same for most of their existence) have been important to me since my early childhood when I was especially a huge Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner fan. But despite seeing many of these shorts, I've never seen the full series. So here it goes, starting from 1930 and going all the way to 1969. Along the way, I will also watch other related shorts made by WB and their cartoon studios. I'll try to review each cartoon with some occasional background details, though they'll be fairly short given the huge amount of content. I'll also try my best to take the era into account, so a cartoon that receives a certain rating in the early 30s might have got a slightly harsher review if it had come out in the later years. Especially innovative cartoons are bound to get some bonus points! It all started with a man named Leon Schlesinger. He had been producing intertitles for silent films, but with the advent of sound films, that business was no longer quite what it used to be. Inspired by the success of cartoon shorts, especially those by Disney, he decided to start producing his own ones. Supposedly John R. McCrory pitched his creation "Buster Bear" to him, but Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising's short film "Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid" made a much bigger impression and they were hired to produce and direct the new cartoons. Bosko the Talk-Ink Kid A live-action animator (played by Rudolf Ising himself) draws Bosko who then does his best to entertain the audience. The interaction between the animator and his creation and the cartoonish behavior of Bosko make this quite impressive for the time, I'm not surprised this convinced Schlesinger to hire the two. 8 The first short wasn't seen by the public until decades later. But on April 19, 1930, the first Looney Tunes cartoon was released – an event whose real significance would only be realized decades later. Sinkin' in the Bathtub And this is where it all officially began! Essentially a musical cartoon with Bosko making an instrument out of pretty much everything. He also takes his girlfriend Honey for a ride in his car but not everything goes well. Old-fashioned but in a charming way – no one would probably count this as one of the best in the series, but I think the series could have had a much worse start. 8 Congo Jazz Bosko is in the jungle and has some run-ins with various animals. Thankfully music is the solution to the problem! Not quite as good as the first one (I felt some scenes went on a bit too long), but I liked the jazzy soundtrack! 7.5 Hold Anything Bosko works at a construction site, and surprisingly, makes music with various objects and animals. Not much in the sense of a plot, but the funniest gags in the series so far (especially a surprising one involving a slightly Mickey-like mouse). 8 The Booze Hangs High Bosko on a farm, otherwise not much has changed, apart from the addition of alcohol and some toilet humor. The drunken piglets are quite memorable. The cartoons already seem to be getting a little edgier! 7.5 Box Car Blues Bosko is on a train with a hobo pig. Suddenly his car comes off, leading to a chase involving a cow. This felt quite repetitive (especially the admittedly impressive animation of the cow running from the train being shown many times) and maybe also too derivative of the car scenes in "Sinkin' in the Bathtub". 6.5 In addition to the Looney Tunes, Leon Schlesinger started another series of shorts this year, the Spooney Melodies (later renamed Song'Nata). This series, credited to Neil McGuire, featured popular songs, combining simple animation with live-action performances by a singer and an organist. It didn't prove as successful as its sister series and would soon be replaced by another one... Crying for the Carolines The first Spooney Melody features Milton Charles, "the Singing Organist" performing the titular song (which had also been performed by Bosko and the pig in "Box Car Blues"). The animation is very limited, but the drawings are very abstract and surreal for the time with interesting visual effects, and the song itself is quite haunting. Somehow this makes for a fascinating and a little creepy combination that works well, though I'm not surprised this series didn't last longer. 8 I think the first year, while not having many cartoons, is a promising one. The cartoons are still far away from the style and quality of the later ones, but they're definitely enjoyable for what they are. It must also be noted that in the Depression era, the cheerful characters singing and dancing must have made a much bigger impression than they would today, and most studios' cartoons followed this style back then. On to another year!

Bosko

No, I definitely don't believe in the thing about timelines changing and such. But I think a lot of people misremembering the same things is still a fascinating phenomenon. They just tend to be fairly unremarkable stuff that's either really easy to confuse (similarly pronounced words or intentional misspellings), practically impossible to remember (singular scenes or even lines in movies) or the kind of things you wouldn't really pay attention to (if you watch a cartoon, you're more likely to look at a cartoon character's face than their tail if they have one). One thing I can say is that the spelling-related ones aren't ones that have affected me. Like the Looney Tunes example in the first post – I was obsessed with Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner before I could even speak English, so I didn't even connect the word "tunes" in the name to any meaning, I just knew that was the title. And when I started learning English, I would always memorize both the spelling and pronunciation of each word separately.