OK folks, as I grind through the the last days of an extended Ebay slump which could well mean that the last days for the business itself are nigh, but I’m pretending everything’s fine, I’ll foist the most concentrated bit of artistic joy I can think of. My hope is that rewatching this insanely great ‘toon a few times and imagining that someone might actually do the same will make the bad stuff remain at arm’s length for whatever length of time I must endure.
Things look bleak… The next sale will help, and the next, but the likelihood is that I’ll need to sell 4-5 things before I see actual, spendable money again. And what do I have to do with that money, if it’s enough? Buy more guitars. At least one, so I’ll have a box to send out the next contestant in this little game, where if I’m extra lucky and nobody sneezes the sale will stay a sale and I’ll be able to plan ahead without another _____ disaster! I’ll start shipping things on time again, people will be happy customers again instead of angry morons and cats will become our overlords.
I’m a little punchy after so many weeks, months of this, not ashamed of that either. If I can’t wallow in self-pity over what all’s happened over the past months, I’m gonna need some hard drugs man. Some powdery shit. White. The bad stuff is usually white…
I’m somber, folks, sorry! All the more reason to foist and try to live within, as best I can, one of the greatest bits of 20th century art/entertainment ever made. I’m gonna start doing that right now as I hand you off to old me, from 2015, a happier time. THIS should be the happiest time, but no, I have to worry myself silly day after day instead of planning for all the great possibilities ahead.
So here he is. He’s not me. He’s an idiot, but still happy-ish, for a few more years. He sure does know his cartoons though! I’m not changing a thing from the original tumblr post either. Laziness is key if victory is to be attained!
OK, those of you that have read even a few of my ruminations on cartoons will know that I almost always refer to a certain rubbery quality to the animation styles of my favorite directors’ (Robert Clampett primarily) work. Today we illustrate this quality with one of the most rubbery and just plain bizarre Clampett cartoons ever made.
Baby Bottleneck is perhaps the single most iconic and visually stunning example of mid 1940’s Warner Brothers cartoon craftsmanship. It has all the elements that, for me, are the most fun. Of course there’s the extreme rubberiness, but there are also lots of references to contemporary culture, mostly radio, and the use of the fabulous Raymond Scott composition “Powerhouse” as the perfect background music to the manic assembly line scenes and more.
This ‘toon won’t be laugh out loud funny to most people. The jokes will go right over your head unless you’re intimately familiar with old time radio and post WWII culture. For example, the tag line “Mr. Anthony, I have a problem!!” is a reference to John J. Anthony, who had a radio advice program at the time called The Goodwill Hour. Not too different from how The Simpsons uses current entertainment culture as fodder for some of its best laughs, though maybe more subtly.
But what I think anyone can appreciate here is the sheer goofiness, the chaotic hurly burly, the flat out surreality of the entire premise as meticulously drawn and colored and animated frame by beautiful frame. A factory that literally makes babies. The baby boom, envisioned at its inception, carried to sublimely ridiculous visual metaphorical extreme, with interspecies confusion for added strangeness and laughs.
You have Daffy Duck and Porky Pig here too, at their absolute best (for me) visually at least, and in terms of voice characterization. Just watch that spittle fly with Daffy, Porky’s stuttering never more extreme! But they’re really not the main event, nor is any one character.
The star is the animation, as every last frame of what is essentially a string of gags (as are all WB cartoons really) is just spectacularly well crafted. Drawn, colored and animated to an insanely high standard that may never again be reached. It’s like Dali or Picasso, but thousands of frames of it, and it moves! Lots of wonderful primary colors too! Not a gaudy, focus grouped pink nor purple in sight!
I simply love this cartoon. I understand that most may not, but I wanted to at least offer an example of what I yammer on and on about when comparing Chuck Jones ‘toons to other things that I at times find preferable. There’s a whole lot to love about the later cartoons that are less surreal and rubbery. In fact in many if not most cases they hold up better and are just plain funnier, at times almost as well animated.
But what I love first and foremost about animation is the animation itself. The movement, the individual frames, the colors, the attitude, all that goes into making fabulously hand painted drawings become magically alive on screen. For me, it doesn’t get any better than in Baby Bottleneck, and maybe never will.
Those aesthetic sensibilities are long gone… Just as the best blues is the original item, the best cartooning was done way back when, before computers and teams of low paid overseas labor. In my humble opinion. I’m even older in spirit than I am in age I’m afraid… And twice as curmudgeonly.
It’s current me again! I had trouble finding a version of this on YouTube that wasn’t in French or in several pieces or just individual scenes, Them weasels need all the weasel chow they can get, and your cash is the only way! Can’t show whole ‘toons on a service with corporate tendrils that might not get along with other corporate tendril havers! But I found something even… nerdier!
It’s a guy talking about what’s going on, but you also get the whole ‘toon, just smaller and with a nerd talking instead of the original sound, which is a big loss! So a very poor alternative really, but better than nothing. Sorry!
The real thing is out there, just not on this particular mass of lawyered up tendrils, so look around! You’ll be glad you did! Even I’m feeling perkier after having watched it a few times on the giant monitor here, in gloriously restored color! So much better than the nerd thing. It did its magic on my innards and now I’ll get through the day.
It’s a good thing there are so many great ‘toons, and music! I’m gonna foist a tune here in a few too! It’s all hands on deck as I attempt to stave off madness in every one of its forms! Here’s the nerd:
Music and more with claudecat17 (aka Chris Davlin)! 
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