That cheap cheater in no small measure helped to spawn a lifelong fascination with early, rare and forbidden animation. Hamburgers” proved something more intriguing: that some old cartoons were never broadcast at all, were kept locked up in a vault somewhere and hence practically impossible to see. The old Popeye cartoons and their outrageous violence were proof that these rules did not always hold sway in the past. Finally, Popeye sits on a throne and wears a crown while the cannibals bow obeisance before him, chanting “Salami! Salami! Baloney!”īy that age I was already conscious that broadcasters had a long list of rules governing what I could watch on TV, and in the spirit of adolescent rebellion I resented it deeply. Once Popeye has his spinach, he pounds his chest and gives out a Tarzan yell before clobbering the cannibals into submission. In the clip, black natives with hypertrophied lips pound Popeye into a pancake and fry him in a skillet while singing about how much they love white meat. One of these was from the cannibal cartoon “Pop Pie a la Mode (1945), which by the seventies had been taken out of syndication. Popeye’s nephews would rather eat hamburgers than spinach, so he recounts for them some of his adventures where spinach helped him save the day.
When I started watching Popeye cartoons seriously as a teenager in the seventies, I always felt cheated when they showed a cheater - with one exception. I call upon the readers to remind me – in the comments below – about other cheaters I completely forgot about. Then again, Walter Lantz found other ways to reduce costs in animation without resorting to cheaters. Here are a few more favorite examples:įinally, say what you will about Woody Woodpecker, he never appeared in a cheater between 19. Here’s a typical one:Ĭasper, The Road-Runner, The Pink Panther – no animation producer with a schedule to meet or a budget to make was beyond reusing older footage to fulfill his contractual obligations. They released several shorts that were simply edited down from the classic Fleischer two-reelers. Popeye may be tied with Tom & Jerry for the sheer amount of cheaters. And, of course, it recalls the theatrical cheater Popeye’s 20th Anniversary, but without the Hollywood celebrities–Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Dean Martin, Jerry Lewis–in the earlier film. One of the weirder cheaters from the television era was Popeye’s Testimonial Dinner (KFS, 1960), which has footage of other made-for-tv “Popeye” cartoons.
Perhaps the ultimate feature length cheaters were the Fred Ladd colorized fiasco’s Mutt and Jeff Meet Bugoff (1973) and Hooray For Betty Boop (from 1976, aka Betty Boop For President). These reuse the basic set-up of making new bridging footage to bracket old cartoons, the premise of the ABC-TV Bugs Bunny Show (1960).
KICK THE CHEAT MOVIE
Looney Tunes!Īnd then of course there were the “Cheater Features”: The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979), The Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981), Bugs Bunny’s Third Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982), Daffy Dick’s Fantastic Island (1983) and Daffy Duck’s Quackbusaters (1988). In Shutter Bugged Cat (MGM, 1969), Tom Cat studies old footage of himself in order to do better at catching Jerry Mouse, and some of the footage and soundtracks are played in reverse! I also admire how Harman and Ising made Bosko’s Parlor Pranks (MGM, 1934) by reusing animation from previous black & white Warner Bros. In Cruise Cat (MGM, 1952) and Matinee Mouse (MGM, 1968), Tom Cat and Jerry Mouse see themselves on film in theaters. What’s Cookin’, Doc? (1944), old footage serves as a film Bugs Bunny submits for consideration of an Academy Award. Max Fleischer’s The Adventures of Popeye (1934) reused scenes from previous Popeye cartoons to inspire a little boy (in live action) to overcome a bully. Some cheaters had more imaginative plots. The memory-lane genre of cheaters includes these films:īetty Boop’s Rise To Fame (1934), Jerry’s Diary (MGM, 1949), His Hare-Raising Tale (Warner Brothers, 1951), Life with Tom (MGM, 1953), Smarty Cat (MGM, 1955), Penny Antics (1955), This Is a Life (Warner Brothers, 1956), Assault and Flattery (Paramount, 1956), Hare-Abian Nights (Warner Brothers, 1959), Katnip’s Big Day (Paramount, 1959), Freudy Cat (Warner Brothers, 1964), and Pink-In (DFE, 1971). Every time a memory would be announced, the old clip would appear. Cheaters typically had plots involving someone sharing memories of the past. Whenever theatrical studios made them, they cut costs on the production of the films. In animation circles, a “cheater” is a cartoon consisting significantly of footage from earlier cartoons.
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