Ub Iwerks' Willie Whopper (Blu-ray/DVD combo)

Touted as the “little boy with the big imagination” by MGM’s Leo the Lion himself, Willie Whopper’s adventures are gathered into a Blu-Ray/DVD collection by Steve Stanchfield’s Thunderbean Animation. The first in a series of sets chronicling the films of the Ub Iwerks studio, Willie only starred in 14 cartoons – though the first entry, THE AIR RACE, was withdrawn from theatrical distribution – from 1933-34. Image Entertainment’s “Cartoons That Time Forgot” releases included only half of the Willie Whoppers, but this set now contains all fourteen. What makes this distinguishable from other Thunderbean releases is that Stanchfield partnered with a rights holder and film archive -- Blackhawk Films and UCLA -- to obtain the best materials of the films available. With the other releases, he would perform restoration work on the best available material on cartoons in the public domain.Today, a “whopper” is linked to a popular fast-food hamburger, but is also defined as a blatant lie. In this series, the boastful Willie brags about his preposterous tales, where the façade is displayed on-screen. During his brief run, Willie competed in an aerial race, fought in a boxing match, portrayed Robin Hood, and set himself in various locales such as Constantinople, the Stone Age, the Wild West, the South Seas, outer space and even Hell. Unfortunately, as a producer, Iwerks couldn’t finesse a story in his cartoons, unable to decipher an idea that was good or lackluster. Willie Whopper himself is a mere cipher, only carried by the “whoppers” of his namesake. Incidentally, to further illustrate Iwerk’s lack of story and characterization sense, his slack-jawed friend “Goofy” only participates in the framing devices and not in Willie’s exploits, as his girlfriend Mary does.In Willie’s first three cartoons, he resembles a humanized version of Iwerks’ previous star character Flip the Frog. MGM kept urging for this design change on Flip, and the studio prepared a model sheet. This look never came to use, but adding a few freckles lent to the first incarnation of Willie Whopper. By the fourth cartoon, the cult classic STRATOS-FEAR, Willie ballooned to a roly-poly figure, which was kept throughout the rest of the series. He appeared in two cartoons processed in Cinecolor, DAVY JONES’ LOCKER and HELL’S FIRE. Both titles are lovingly restored from their original 35mm camera negatives.HELL’S FIRE only existed in edited B&W and color prints, omitting scenes referring to Prohibition and the National Recovery Administration (they even excised characters belching). Thankfully, the cartoon is finally showcased in its complete form on this set, unseen since its 1934 release. ROBIN HOOD JR. was originally slated as the next color release, but Iwerks decided to have the artists paint the cels and backgrounds in color on black-and-white film. It was an ingenious idea on Iwerks’ part, lending itself to richer visuals, particularly different gray tones.The Willie Whoppers have their weaknesses, but like the other Iwerks series, there are exceptional entries. The first two theatrical Whoppers, PLAY BALL and SPITE FLIGHT are very brisk and have genuinely funny moments, something that was rare as the series progressed. STRATOS-FEAR is a bona-fide classic, highly regarded in the annals of surreal 1930s American animation. Animator Grim Natwick was mainly in charge of the animators at the studio, some that were imports/colleagues from Fleischer (Shamus Culhane, Berny Wolf, Al Eugster, Rudy Zamora.) REDUCING CRÈME definitely bears his mark in unbridled animation and distorted backgrounds. The same applies in THE CAVE MAN, made distinguishable from the pristine 35mm camera negative. Viewers will appreciate the clarity of the inking outlined around the characters in the cartoon, absent from faded prints. Bob Stokes and Norm Blackburn, previously animators for Harman-Ising’s Warners cartoons, are credited on a few entries, including an engaging Good Samaritan adventure, THE GOOD SCOUT, where the look resembles the Boskos and early Merrie Melodies than Iwerks cartoons.Musical composers Carl Stalling (of Warner Bros. animation fame) and Art Turkisher shared similarities in their original scores for Iwerks in their fragmented usages of popular tunes. As Chris Buchman notes in the liner booklet, the musical scores for the Willie Whoppers vary from original studio orchestral recordings, commercial records edited and interspersed with sound effects, or a combination of both. Using commercial 78RPM recordings in the cartoons seemed more cost-effective than conducting an original score. As a result, contemporary jazz found its way into the Whoppers. THE CAVE MAN uses recordings from Bennie Moten’s Kansas City Stompers, and THE GOOD SCOUT is underscored with 1920s hot jazz accompanied by McKinney’s Cotton Pickers.While Grim Natwick took charge of the studio and the animation staff, Iwerks worked on mechanical apparatuses in the studio’s basement to improve the quality of his cartoons. Iwerks’ innovation of combining live action and animation for Disney is actually showcased in the early Willie Whoppers. In THE AIR RACE, Willie’s spiraling plane crashes into a live-action tower, collapsing it into a pile of dust. Wiilie Whopper’s victory against Babe Ruth in PLAY BALL places the animated characters against stock footage of a New York ticker-tape parade. THE CAVE MAN uses Iwerks’ multiplane camera -- built before Disney’s – to distinguish the characters against shallow background depth on different spatial planes. It’s used to a great effect when Willie swings on vines, set against the jungle foliage around him.Viewers might take interest in the inconsistencies of Willie’s voice. In some entries (SPITE FLIGHT, THE GOOD SCOUT, REDUCING CRÈME, to name a few), he sounds much like a small child, as he’s depicted. In others, the choices are often bizarre; in RASSLIN’ ROUND, his voice and enunciation slightly resembles W.C. Fields. In the three Willie Whoppers where he plays the piano on-stage in the opening titles (STRATOS-FEAR, HELL’S FIRE, ROBIN HOOD JR.), his voice changes in every introduction. It’s even stranger in ROBIN HOOD JR., compared to the professional singing voice in the film.The set includes a booklet with informative liner notes by animation historian/author J.B. Kaufman, Steve Stanchfield and Chris Buchman, with illustrations drawn by Stephen DeStefano. The bonus features include a still gallery with production art, publicity ads and merchandise. Original film outlines of THE AIR RACE, HELL’S FIRE and ROBIN HOOD JR. are also on the set, but interestingly, there is one for an unproduced entry in the series, THE EARLY BYRD detailing Willie’s adventures in the North Pole is. Stanchfield also includes a compilation of re-issued opening titles that were used in television and home movie prints. Three bonus cartoons include two versions of HELL’S FIRE, one a B&W print re-issue known as “Vulcan Entertains” and a truncated Cinecolor print known as “Masquerade Holiday.” FUNNY FACE, one of the finest Flip the Frogs, is added as a precursor to the Whopper series, as Flip is pressured to undergo facial reconstruction. As an added treat, the original 78RPM recordings used in THE CAVE MAN and THE GOOD SCOUT are also present in unaltered form.I didn’t care for the series after seeing them in dark, murky prints on the Image DVDs, but this set made me fully appreciate the series as it is, even it isn’t the best of Iwerks’ repertoire. Thunderbean has outdone themselves, and I’m looking forward to seeing pristine restorations of Flip the Frog (all from 35mm prints) and ComiColor series, coming soon...

It’s great a company like Thunderbean exists to restore these great public domain cartons! Keep up the good work!

Steve Stanchfield has contributed another gem to the preservation of classic Hollywood animation. While none of these cartoons are masterpieces, they are very good examples of the loosy-goosy attitude that makes early sound cartoons still so charming and surprising.Prior to this disc, these cartoons were only viewable in adequate, soft dupey versions. Presentation is key to how these vintage cartoons come across, and the breath-taking restorations, done by Thad Komorowski and other skilled and devoted people, bring these films out of quaint mode and back to life.The restoration on the 1934 short "The Cave Man" is jaw-dropping. Here, we see what a mid-1930s cartoon looked like when new. The ink lines on the characters are lithe and crisp, the field of grays is strong, rather than washed out or the victim of high contrast. It's a knockout!The disc is worth acquiring for the restoration of two rare color episodes, "Davy Jones' Locker" and "Hell Fire." Acquired from original camera negatives, these cartoons dazzle with their punchy, sharp and vivid colors, and the freeform lunacy of their quote-unquote narratives. The latter film, which celebrates the end of Prohibition, shows how topical these cartoons could be, and how they now help us understand--and learn about--the times in which these films were made.Extras include promotional materials for these films, story outlines and a few jazz recordings which were used in these lively cartoons. The only thing missing are commentary tracks by animation scholars. I'd love to hear what some of this cartoon in-crowd has to say about Ub Iwerks' works. Here, the cartoons speak for themselves. In strikingly sharp restorations, these playful films truly come to life.Thank you, Thunderbean, for keeping such loving and painstaking attention on these delightful early sound cartoons. This disc is one I'll return to often. Now, if you'll do similar honors on the "Flip the Frog" cartoons, I can chuck my old Image DVDs at last!

Stunning. Steve Stanchfield, the man behind Thunderbean Animation, is a savior to those who love classic animation. The big studios, with animation treasures still rotting in their vaults, refuse to release any more of them due to poor return on investment. Thunderbean has taken the boutique approach and appeals to the hard core animation aficionado. In this set he in effect introduces us to Willie Whopper, an obscure character produced for MGM by the Iwerks Studio, the Iwerks in question being Ub Iwerks, a genius animator who actually drew and made the early Mickey Mouses move for his boss, Walt Disney. Iwerk's output was not exposed on television the way Popeye and the early Looney Tunes were, and didn't become part of the baby boomer psyche. Flip the Frog, another Iwerks original, was a peer of the early cartoon icons, but also did not see much exposure after flickering on silver screens in the early 1930s. (And of course Steve has a Flip the Frog project coming up for release). Since Steve is an early animation lover himself, he knows what his audience likes. Something as simple as allowing the entire image within the film frame to be seen when viewing on a home television sounds simple. The big studios often cut off edges of frames to take up the entire television screen, often axing off portions of the whole image the artist created. Steve also does a wonderful job restoring these old prints as lovingly as possible, bringing them back to near their original glory. I have Thunderbean's BluRay edition of Gulliver's Travels, along with other collections. I recommend all of them.