Apple Original Films Academy Award nominee The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse won the BAFTA Award for Best British Short Animation. The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse, based on the beloved book by Charlie Mackesy, has been hailed as a “stunning” (Awards Daily) film “translating the exquisite illustrations into hand-drawn animation” (Indiewire), while telling a poignant “tale of love and hope” (The Independent). The acclaimed film was also recently honored with an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Short Film, seven Annie Award nominations, and an NAACP Image Awards nod for Outstanding Short Form (Animated) film. The winners of the 2023 EE British Academy Film Awards were announced at a ceremony at the Royal Festival Hall on Sunday, February 19.

This year’s win for The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse follows Apple Original Films BAFTA Award wins in 2022 for CODA, including Best Adapted Screenplay by Siân Heder and Best Supporting Actor Troy Kotsur, and nominations for Best Actress Emilia Jones in CODA, Best Actor Mahershala Ali in Swan Song and Best Cinematography for The Tragedy of Macbeth. Apple was recognized in 2021 with nominations for Best Animated Film for Wolfwalkers, in addition to Best Special Visual Effects and Sound for Greyhound.

To date, Apple Original films, documentaries, and series have earned 323 wins and 1,398 award nominations and counting, including multi-Emmy Award-winning comedy Ted Lasso and historic Oscar Best Picture winner CODA.

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse is currently streaming on Apple TV+.

The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and the Horse
A story of kindness, friendship, courage and hope for viewers of all ages in a heartwarming, classically animated film based on Charlie Mackesy’s book, The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse. The poignant and heartfelt journey follows the unlikely friendship of a boy, a mole, a fox and a horse travelling together in the boy’s search for home.

The film, featuring Mackesy’s distinctive illustrations brought to life in full color with beautiful hand-drawn animation, stars BAFTA Award winner Tom Hollander as The Mole, SAG Award winner Idris Elba as The Fox, Golden Globe Award winner Gabriel Byrne as The Horse, and newcomer Jude Coward Nicoll as The Boy.

Apple TV+ offers premium, compelling drama and comedy series, feature films, groundbreaking documentaries, and kids and family entertainment, and is available to watch across all your favorite screens. After its launch on November 1, 2019, Apple TV+ became the first all-original streaming service to launch around the world, and has premiered more original hits and received more award recognitions faster than any other streaming service in its debut.

About Apple TV+

Apple TV+ is available on the Apple TV app in over 100 countries and regions, on over 1 billion screens, including iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, popular smart TVs from Samsung, LG, Sony, VIZIO, TCL and others, Roku and Amazon Fire TV devices, Chromecast with Google TV, PlayStation and Xbox gaming consoles, and attv.apple.com, for $6.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. For a limited time, customers who purchase and activate a new iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac or iPod touch can enjoy three months of Apple TV+ for free.

For more information, visit apple.com/tvpr and see the full list of supported devices.

There are Popeye cartoons, and then there are Popeye cartoons. The good stuff, as many fans know, are the black and white Fleischer theatrical shorts of the 1930s through the early 1940s (plus their three color two-reelers), which began just a few short years after Popeye first appeared in the Thimble Theatre newspaper comic strip. The subsequent color shorts from Famous Studios (essentially what became of the Fleischer studio once Paramount took them over) in the 1940s and 1950s are still pretty good, but cannot match the amazing quality of the Fleischer ones, and over time the Famous offerings devolved into largely formulaic and bland cartoons that many fans don’t mind forgetting. And next came the television cartoons and a further, inevitable dip in quality.

Popeye animated cartoons initially entered people’s homes via television syndication of his theatrical shorts; but King Features Syndicate, the owner of the character, hoped to grab a bigger piece of the profits by producing their own series of cartoons for mainly television exhibition. The result was a package of 220 cartoons of variable quality. “Variable” might be charitable, as many fans would describe these shorts – on the whole – as cheap, poorly-animated, mistake-filled messes that offend the eyes and heart.

Ah, but Popeye superfan Fred Grandinetti would like to remind us that the KFS cartoons were not all bad, not at all. Many were decent, and a few were even pretty good; and even the bad ones are interesting in their way. He has touched on this topic previously in his book Popeye: An Illustrated Cultural History, but he has now expanded on the topic considerably in his new book, Popeye The Sailor: The 1960s TV Cartoons. Bear Manor media is offering the book in hardcover and softcover editions, for anyone for wishes to have some help in navigating through the many KFS cartoons.

One might say, “Fred has watched them all, so that you won’t have to!” However, as you read the book, you will inevitably be curious to watch these cartoons, either to appreciate some fun Popeye action, or to pick apart the worst of the worst. Regardless, the cartoons are an important part of television history. I previously reviewed a DVD set of these cartoons, and I can confirm that the quality ranges from poor to good, and none of them can match the best of the theatrical output. The reasons for the differences is explored in Grandinetti’s book, as he describes the production history of the cartoons and the players involved. We learn of how the cartoons were farmed out to several producers, in studios across the US and Europe. It may surprise some that many of the folks involved were well-respected pros, like Jack Kinney, director of many a classic Disney short. Directorial talent, however, can only go so far, and Grandinetti details how budget, time, and the availability of animation talent adversely affected this series.

Anyone with even a passing interest in the squinty-eyed sailor should find the text interesting, as it delves into a brief history of the character in comics and animation, then proceeds to describe how the KFS cartoons came together. The main players, like Kinney, Gene Deitch, Larry Harmon and others are given concise biographies, and the various studio circumstances are described. Spin-offs of the cartoons – including merchandise and exercise campaigns – are discussed, participating television stations are identified, and there are plenty of trade ads presented. Ratings and profits are highlighted, and the success of the shorts is celebrated. This is a basically a treasure trove of TV cartoon history- and that’s all before we get to the bulk of the book, which gives a synopsis for each cartoon, consisting of a solid one or two paragraphs each, in which we learn of the story but also any trivia or animation mistakes related to the short. Most helpful in our appreciation is that the cartoons are divided by studio, and the directors are identified, with Grandinetti pointing out differences in how the series was handled depending on who worked on each cartoon. This scholarship is most welcome, as we learn to understand that this was not a uniform glob of cheap cartoons, but rather the product of many hands in several places.

This makes for a fun and informing read on a lazy Saturday afternoon, likely to be followed by seeking out the cartoons themselves either on DVD, or on YouTube, where they have all been uploaded onto the official Popeye channel. With that kind of availability, and a helpful text that contextualizes each short, it’s a great time to re-evaluate the KFS Popeye cartoons.

The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2 comes courtesy of producer Arnold Leibovit, who – along with Paramount Pictures and film archives around the world – is overseeing a project to restore Puppetoons that have not been seen in generations. These were the very first masterworks from legendary director George Pal. Before creating such dazzling entertainments as 1953’s War Of The Worlds and 1960’s The Time Machine, Pal spent the 1930s and 1940s creating a popular series of stunning animated short films that utilized puppet replacement techniques and amazing special effects. The second volume features original Puppetoon characters such as Punchy and Judy, Jim Dandy, Rusty, and Jasper, with cameos by the one and only Bugs Bunny and Superman! The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2 Blu-ray/DVD received rave reviews, helping to guarantee an upcoming third volume.

Bring the Puppetoons home or make a gift of them this holiday season. Anyone interested in learning more, or wishing to offer support for the third volume project, is invited to visit Puppetoon.org.

Storyboard:

A group of ensigns on the aging star ship USS Cerritos bond together as they assist the crew on their many missions.

The Sweatbox Review:

I have always loved Star Trek, ever since watching reruns of it on Saturday mornings back in the 1970s, starting when I was about seven years old. I thrilled to the adventure, the characterizations, and the explorations of both themes and alien worlds. But I have to admit, there has always been an aspect of camp to the franchise, which has been embraced to varying degrees through the years. So, while the idea of turning it into a situation comedy may seem weird or antithetical on the surface, it may actually be viewed as a natural and even inevitable evolution. So, for those that found Deep Space Nine too serious (which is crazy, since that show could be hilarious, too), Lower Decks may tickle your neglected funny bone.

It is also a tremendously fun show for anyone who has loved Star Trek in its many forms. Sure, it pokes fun, but it does so lovingly, with deep cuts that reference everything that fans love and treasure. The idea is not to berate Star Trek in any way, but to instead find the humour in Star Trek situations. The dialogue comes fast and hard, but if you pay attention, you may get a few extra laughs. Those who still adore mighty Chief Miles O’Brien, or who can wistfully reminisce at how Wesley Crusher was almost executed (so close!) on a planet of half-naked beautiful people just for stepping on the grass, will enjoy all the many refences to past shows. Not that it’s necessary to know all those things, but the show’s writing certainly rewards old-time fans.

Creator Mike McMahan (Rick And Morty) and his writers know their Trek lore, making Lower Decks an honestly in-canon experience, seen through a comedy lens. The last time that Star Trek was animated, it was the 1973 Filmation TV show, which served as basically a fourth season of the original series, complete with voice work by the original cast and generally serious stories. This time around, executive producer Alex Kurtzman gave CBS All Access a new premise, though one based somewhat off of a beloved episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation (also called Lower Decks), which took a look at the lives of crew members that were outside the command structure.

The USS Cerritos (named after a small, humble California city) is a starship that – while it still serves an important purpose within Starfleet – it has admittedly already seen its best days. Its equipment is getting old, breakdowns are becoming more common, and the missions are not as A-list as they once were. Captain Carol Freeman, though quite capable, has been relegated to taking on more minor missions, often in support of larger ones. Aiding her is second-in-command Commander Ransom, a somewhat narcissistic, rule-loving pretty boy of an officer. The tactical officer is a tough Bajoran named Shaxs, and the doctor is T’Ana, a cat-like humanoid that is a nod to bridge officer M’Ress from Star Trek: The Animated Series.

But, while the command officers play an important role on the show, they are not the main characters. No, that honor goes to the ensigns of the lower decks, the ones who actually make the ship run, the ones who do all the menial but vitally important stuff, similar to the ship they serve.

Brad Boimler is an uptight, huffy rule-follower who delights in acting according to regulations and is aiming to be a Captain someday. His opposite is Beckett Mariner, a female ensign who actively eschews protocol, rejects authority, and generally just tries to enjoy herself. Fortunately, she is also eminently capable and resourceful when she wants to be, which makes her worthwhile keeping around. Boimler, on the other hand, turns out to be next to useless in a crisis. The relationship between Boimler and Mariner is at the heart of the show, and provides its most comic moments. Though they are initially repelled by each other’s natural tendencies towards order and chaos respectively, they inevitably become the best of friends. They both love Starfleet in their own way; and ultimately, they believe in the mission, even if they have drastically different takes on how to accomplish it.

Joining them are a female Orion named D’Vana Tendi, a typical eager young space cadet who serves in the medical bay and largely concerns herself with being liked; and keen engineering ensign Sam Rutherford, who is adjusting to new cybernetic implants.

The show takes place one year after the events of Star Trek: Nemesis. Design elements therefore reference the Next Generation era, with unique takes. Uniforms belong distinctly to Lower Decks, with additional color piping elements. The Cerritos itself is very nacelle-heavy, reflecting that it is one of the more utilitarian Starfleet ships. There are also cameos by such characters as Q, and Will Riker and Deanna Troi, creating a further link to Next Gen..

The premise basically flips the A and B stories that one would normally find on a dramatic program. So, while there are major battles, alien conflicts, and supreme threats, the viewer is mostly following character stories and what goes on behind the scenes. And behind the scenes, things are not always going well! And sometimes, those behind-the-scenes folk sneak up and become heroes, too.

Over ten episodes, the series quickly sets up the premise and then engages in a number of supposedly routine (yet ultimately dangerous) away missions, beginning with a “second contact” situation. Mundane tasks amplify into dire situations, like transporting a Klingon general then losing him; delivering diplomatic trinkets but creating a diplomatic incident instead; towing a ship somehow becomes a deadly business; and ship salvage turns into conflict. There is also the matter of a trial, holodeck hijinks, and of course transporter malfunctions.

So, it’s just like any other Star Trek show, but with more laughs!

Is This Thing Loaded?

Disc One opens with an ad for Picard on disc. After that, the extras are all shown from the menu of each episode, with the exception of the final two. The first episode gets a full episode animatic, and some animatics for deleted scenes are also available on a few episodes.

Featurettes include:

Lower Decktionary: Joining Starfleet (6:22) Executive Producer Kurtzman, creator McMahan, and others discuss the conception of the show. I appreciate how McMahan wanted to write a comedy, but still have it be “a real Star Trek.”

Lower Decktionary: Aliens Among Us (7:31) Directors and artists talk about adapting old aliens to the Lower Decks series, and creating new ones.

Lower Decktionary: The Animation Process (8:09) Here, they examine the process of bringing together the right group of writers, and then move into general production of episodes.

Lower Decktionary: The Main Titles (7:15) The titles are examined, in terms of conception and intent, and also the show’s theme.

Lower Decktionary: Art Direction (4:59) The idea of designing the characters as “prime time sitcom” characters while still allowing for drama and action is explored.

Lower Decktionary: The Holodeck (6:32) Obviously, the writers love the holodeck more than I ever did. Good for them.

Lower Decktionary: Division 14 (4:05) The “medical specialists” who deal with such things as transporter accident victims is touched upon.

Lower Decktionary: Deck Dynamics (5:06) The creators discuss how the crew interacts, and how even the command crew is flawed in the most human ways.

Lower Decktionary: The Music of Lower Decks (6:19) McMahan and composer Chris Westlake describe the effect that the show’s earnest score has on making the comedy even better. The wonder of Starfleet’s mission comes out in the music, and is totally evocative of Trek.

Crisis Point: The Rise Of Vindicta Trailer (1:28) This is an in-episode joke.

Lower Decktionary: All In The Family (6:31) Here, star Tawny Newsome (Beckett Mariner) describes how natural it is to explore humour on Star Trek, given how comedy has always been a part of the franchise. McMahan also talks about how the show fits into the legacy of Trek, and we hear about the use of classic characters and how their appearances had to be earned.

Faces Of The Fleet (24:42) examines the talented cast, with numerous cast interviews.

Hiding In Plain Sight (7:39) reveals numerous “Easter eggs” placed into the show.

Case Study:

Paramount sent us the DVD version, which comes with a swing tray for one of the discs, a slip that duplicates the cover, and a small insert advertising Trek and Paramount+, the new name for CBS All Access. A Blu-ray and a Blu-ray Steelbook edition were also released.

Ink And Paint:

While it would have been great to see how the show looks on high-def disc, the DVD itself looks pretty good. The 16:9 picture is quite solid, aside from very occasional aliasing when a ship or other object is moving through space, but that might even be inherent to the original animation.

Scratch Tracks:

Though the show was largely recorded in the actors’ homes, due to pandemic restrictions, the dialogue comes across well, never sounding difficult to understand, though there is often a mild echoey quality if you listen for it. The sound design utilizes classic sounds from the franchise, particularly the Next Generation era. The music is also done straight, reflecting that these are real missions with serious consequences, even if we are seeing the funny side of things. The contrast works perfectly, keeping the stakes real, the drama potent, and the laughs sincere.

The surrounds and rear speakers get a modest workout, and there is light use of bass. The English track is available in 5.1 or 2.0. There are English captions, and no other language options.

Final Cut:

Before watching the show, I was feeling pretty ambivalent about it. But then you hear that theme, which is honestly one of the best Trek themes ever done, not giving any hint of the show’s comedic intent, but matched with visuals that betray the show’s true nature. Having now watched the first season, I am really quite enthusiastic. Someone should have told me that it was kind of like Futurama, another favourite show of mine, but taking place in the Star Trek universe, using only Star Trek references. How could I not love that? Even then, though, it could have gone badly, but thankfully that is not the case. Genuinely funny writing, stories that are authentically Trek, a slick animated style, and wonderful voice work – that sells both the humour and the drama – make for a very entertaining show. Really, it’s the Star Trek show I never knew I wanted.

The ambitious plan is to release 18-20 shorts on that disc, consisting mostly of Paramount-distributed shorts, as well as possibly some surprises. In order to help make Volume 3 a reality, please follow this link: The Puppetoon Movie Volume 3 Crowdfunder.

Storyboard:

This compilation grants us a second volume of amazing stop-motion shorts from Hollywood legend George Pal, including some rarities representing his earlier European works.

The Sweatbox Review:

The Blu-ray release of The Puppetoon Movie was Animated Views’ Best Release Of The Year back in 2013. With so many studios frustratingly sitting on their classic animation output, it was wonderful to see not only the 1987 compilation film, but also many additional amazing shorts (plus extras) being made available for viewing after years of – to be frank – unfair obscurity. Now, just as with that 2013 disc, we can give thanks to producer Arnold Leibovit for bringing to us many more of the stop-motion masterpieces in stunning high definition.

When Leibovit first announced the Volume 2 project a couple of years ago, I was personally extremely excited, and I began a correspondence with Arnie that led to me helping him in a small way behind the scenes on the release. Naturally, I am inclined to gush over the disc he has produced, but I am confident that the praise is all well-earned regardless. For some background on this release, and Arnie’s history with George Pal, I refer you to the interview we did in the summer of 2019.

Filmmaker George Pal would eventually produce or direct such film classics as The Time Machine, The War Of The Words, Destination Moon, and The Wonderful World Of The Brothers Grimm; but the first time that he imbued many childhoods with wondrous images of fantasy, it was in the 1930s and 1940s with the beloved Puppetoons – produced first in his native Europe, and then in the United States for Paramount. He also did a number of advertising films for clients such as Philips and Horlicks. His shorts utilized the puppet replacement technique of stop-motion animation, using hundreds of little carved wooden puppets in a single film. The extraordinary result is still thrilling to see, even now, with the wooden characters dancing, swinging, and otherwise cavorting… not to mention fighting, celebrating, and falling in love. Like the best stop-motion masters, Pal and his technicians also utilized music, color, lighting, and special visual effects in pleasurable ways to enhance each story. Contemporaries such as new-found friends Walt Disney and Walter Lantz were captivated, as were audiences the world over.

The first Puppetoon Movie used bridging sequences to introduce the audience to Pal and his creations, while this second volume is strictly a shorts compilation. While I would have enjoyed seeing Gumby come back with Arnie the Dinosaur for this go-around, just having another collection of the shorts themselves seems miracle enough. Leibovit was granted access to numerous sources, including Paramount’s own three-strip Technicolor successive negatives, and – most astoundingly – newly-found material from Europe. The British Film Institute also pitched in. Leibovit was also thrilled to be contacted by a collector just before the Volume 2 project launched, only to be informed that the collector had a nitrate print of the once-thought lost film Wilbur The Lion.

Previous restoration work of some of the Paramount elements had been done at UCLA, and new work was commissioned to other helpers such as Steve Stanchfield and his crew at Thunderbean Animation, who performed an immense amount of much-appreciated work for the project. Additionally, ASIFA paid to restore A Hatful Of Dreams and Jasper Goes Hunting, two of this set’s most anticipated films.

The resulting disc has no fewer than eighteen high-definition short films, plus surprising extras. The eighteen films include mostly Paramount subjects, under the Madcap Models banner, with a few rare European films inserted into the program. The disc opens with a disclaimer about the nature of the Jasper cartoons, featuring as they do the depiction of a caricatured little black boy. Hopefully, viewers will realize that there was never any intent to offend anyone in the audience. Such depictions, while now viewed as wrong, were commonplace at the time that these films were produced. And, as such things go, the depiction of Jasper is otherwise quite positive, with Jasper being a delightful, honest, and adventurous boy.

For reasons unclear to me, the main menu offers selections of Puppetoons “A” and “B”; the cartoon selection for each menu seems random. Each subgroup gets its own “Play All” choice. One is unable to “chapter skip” to the next cartoon on the Blu-ray, unless going back out to a menu. (The DVD, however, still allows chapter skipping.) Scanning ahead at increased speed is no problem.

Puppetoons A
Dipsy Gipsy (1940, 8:48) (Note: “Gipsy” is the spelling on the title card, but it is spelled with the alternate “Gypsy” in the menu, as well as in most listings of the short in the public record.) – The happy-go-lucky recurring character Jim Dandy is singing in the forest, as he is prone to doing. He spots a gipsy girl and instantly falls in love, and he decides to propose. She is smitten as well, but before they can get together, Jim must sneak into the gipsy village and convince her father that he is gipsy material. He manages to do so, primarily through some fancy fiddling. This is a very fun, energizing short with great music and a large group of background players.

Radio Valve Revolution (1934, 4:21) – This is a real prize on the set, being a rare Philips advertising short done in hand-drawn animation. Despite the absence of wooden puppets, it has the same Pal charm. Treats like this make the disc all the more special. Worn out radio tubes celebrate the arrival of newer ones to take over their jobs so that they can retire.

Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves (1935, 11:09) – The booklet that comes with this set proclaims this short as “an amazing archival find,” and indeed fans should be thrilled to see this rare film. The French print has the French language titles and credits subtitled, but the film plays out in English. Here, the short is presented as one of “George Pal’s Dolly Follies.” The puppets are a little more primitive in this early effort, but there is still a surprising amount of sensuality and action.

A Hatful Of Dreams (1944, 9:43) – Most will find this cartoon particularly notable because it features a character turning into Superman, under authorized use from DC Publications. (Superman’s own cartoons, of course, were being distributed by Paramount until 1943.) It was also the first Puppetoon to feature Pal characters Punchy and Judy. (Character design here was by Fred Moore; fans of the Disney artist will recognize Judy as an obvious example of a “Freddie Moore girl,” also visualized as the “centaurettes” in the “Pastoral Symphony” section of Fantasia.)

Punchy falls in love with lovely Judy, and tries to impress her through the use of a magic hat – a hat that allows him to turn into Superman! However, his antics bring him afoul of the law, and he ends up in court. Not to worry, though – he still wins the girl! While the appearance of Superman is certainly notable, I was most amazed by Judy’s animation, which sees her chest heaving while breathing in and out near the beginning of the cartoon. It is attention to detail like this that makes these cartoons so amazing.

Rescue Brigade (1937, 5:48) – This Dutch advertising film (given English subtitles) presents numerous episodes of life, showing the virtues of owning a telephone in order to make life more convenient. Housewives, parents, and store owners all agree that having a phone is peachy! The short ends with a closing message that says, “Neem Telefoon” – or, “Get Phone!”

In Lamp Light Land (1935, 3:33) – While this is another Philips advertisement, this time for light bulbs, it is quite delightful. It begins with a cel-animated sequence, and ends with Puppetoons.

Jasper And The Choo Choo (1942, 7:27) – Jasper’s friendly nemesis, Professor Scarecrow, tempts him to gamble. This brilliantly surreal adventure sees giant dice form trains, and Jasper finds himself in a pinball machine. The fantasy sequence in this short is one of the top joys on the set.

Love On The Range (1938, 6:20) – Cowboy Bill gets the cold shoulder from Susie, who soon finds herself victimized by a much less savory fellow in this musical adventure. It turns out that what Bill needs to save her and win her heart is to drink that wonder tonic, Horlicks! Yes, it’s another ad, but it comes nicely disguised as a tremendously fun and energetic story, inspired by classic silent film melodramas – complete with mustachioed villain.

The Gay Knighties (1941, 9:26) – Jim Dandy tells the tale of his ancestor, who saved a kingdom from a goofy music-loving giant, and thereby won the heart of a princess. To me, the giant here is a clear ancestor to the Abominable Snowman in Rankin-Bass’s Rudolph Christmas special – further evidence of Pal’s influence on future animators.

Puppetoons B
Two Gun Rusty (1944, 8:27) – Little red-haired Rusty imagines being a cowboy. Charmingly, everyone in his fantasy looks like him. The Rusty cartoons are simpler in some respects, but capture a certain lovely innocence.

How An Advertising Poster Came About (1938, (4:52) – This print is from the Netherlands Film Museum. The black and white film is a real novelty, combining live action, hand-drawn animation (with a nod to Fleischer’s Out Of The Inkwell cartoons), and stop-motion puppets to tell what could otherwise be a dull tale of the making of an ad poster.

Jasper Goes Hunting (1944, 7:19) – Jasper once again gets into shenanigans with Professor Scarecrow. Cartoon buffs will be thrilled to see Bugs Bunny here, voiced by Mel Blanc and courtesy of Leon Schlesinger Productions, though the appearance is brief. Fortunately, this short has much more going for it, telling another fanciful tale with particularly colorful African jungle sets.

Sky Pirates (1938, 6:47) – This is a British print (in Technicolor), of what turns out to be another Horlicks commercial. As usual, though, Pal’s focus is on an engaging and entertaining story, here about an air squadron that must find the energy to win an aerial battle. The astounding anthropomorphizing of the planes (as they gallop down the airfield and dodge bullets in the sky) has to be seen in action to really appreciate the brilliance of the animation. The planes actually squash and stretch, accomplished through the crafting of numerous wooden figures. This is one of the coolest cartoons Pal ever produced, in a very long list of cool cartoons.

Jasper’s Close Shave (1945, 7:15) – Bugs Bunny and Woody Woodpecker were not the only ones to use the music of The Barber Of Seville to excellent effect in a cartoon! Jasper gets another delightfully surreal outing, as Professor Scarecrow attempts to get Jasper’s coins in exchange for a shave and a haircut.

The Ship Of The Ether (1934, 7:23) – This is the sole short on this set that originally appeared on the first Puppetoon Movie Blu-ray, but that time it was only in the bonus section of the disc, and shown then in standard definition. Here, the Dutch film is a fully restored HD version. A glass ship’s fanciful journey through the airwaves is set to music. Philips gets subtle on-screen plugs, and finally a larger notice about their radio sets.

Good Night Rusty (1943, 7:29) – Rusty decides to snatch his dad’s cigars, but in return gets a fever dream of a lesson in why not to smoke. This short has generally simple sets, but brilliant use of color and special effects.

Wilbur The Lion (194, 9:13) – As mentioned earlier, this film had been thought lost for decades, until a collector contacted Leibovit and told him that he had a nitrate print. A circus lion retires to the jungle, but finds he misses the comforts of the circus. It is a bittersweet story of how one’s life takes one into new worlds, and how difficult it can be to return to one’s roots.

Jasper Tell (1944, 8:09) – It’s likely no surprise that this film’s music features Rossini’s William Tell Overture, and that Jasper stars as the son who stands in front of his father with an apple on his head. The tale is told in the context of Professor Scarecrow trying to get Jasper’s apple, but he’s in for a surprise.

Wow, what a wonderful selection of animated shorts. The ingenuity, skill, and precision evidenced in these films is really quite extraordinary. There is really nothing else quite like the Puppetoons, brimming as they are with colour, music, and genius.

Is This Thing Loaded?

This Is Oil, No. 1: Prospecting For Petroleum (21:59) was filmed in Technicolor by producer Pal in collaboration with the Shell Oil Company. It uses miniatures and puppet animation to convincingly make the case for how important oil is to our lives, and teaches us where oil comes from. This film appears here in standard definition only.

I have viewed Trailers From Hell: Arnold Leibovit On The Puppetoon Movie (4:48) and Trailers From Hell: Arnold Leibovit On The Fantasy Film Worlds Of George Pal (4:58) on YouTube already, but it is nice to see them archived here.

The Puppetoon Movie Speedy Alka-Selzer (4:47) is a nifty behind-the-scenes look at how Speedy was animated for the bridging sequences in the first Puppetoon feature. (Standard definition.)

The Puppetoon Movie Montage (10:51) is actually a montage of fascinating rare photos of George Pal, spotlighting the creaton of his films, along with assorted clips from shorts that are found in both Puppetoon movies.

Full Production And Donor Credits (5:41).

Case Study:

Standard Blu-ray case, with the DVD sitting opposite the Blu-ray. An informative fold-out booklet helpfully provides information on George Pal and all the films from the set.

Ink And Paint:

All of the films in the main program were transferred from 35mm materials. The Paramount and Horlicks films were shot in Technicolor, while the older European films were in the less vibrant Gasparcolor (obviously, the exception is the black and white Advertising Poster short). I have taken some of my screen captures off of the DVD for convenience, while Leibovit also provided me with high definition images to use. So, if any of the images here look less sharp or detailed, they are likely from the DVD.

The restorations overall are quite stunning. Some of the films do show their age, naturally, being over 70 years old; but everyone should be immensely satisfied, all things considered. The prize ASIFA-funded restorations look particularly sharp. The image, on all the Paramount shorts especially, is extremely clean, practically free from dirt or scratches, except in a rare instance or two. The Technicolor shorts naturally are also the most brilliant, and – by virtue of being primarily from original negatives – they look the sharpest as well. The age of the materials, and perhaps the filming techniques, means that some shots look a wee bit soft; and sometimes details get lost in the blacks, which is most true in Wilbur, which was transferred from a nitrate print. The European shorts do look more worn, generally (and even Ship Of The Ether is still quite soft, despite the new HD transfer), but their rarity makes one able to forgive that easily enough.

Caveats aside, the general impression is certainly that of a triumph of film preservation and restoration.

Scratch Tracks:

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono sounds just about perfect, free from hiss or distortion. Lossy tracks were used in an effort to maximize the bit rate for the video, and I approve of the choice. Again, slight imperfections can show up on the older European shorts, but there are no strong complaints to be had at all.

The menu offers subtitles, but there are actually none to be had for the majority of the films. The only films that get English subtitles are the foreign-language films.

Final Cut:

This Blu-ray + DVD set has been years in the making, and it was worth the wait. The Puppetoon shorts are an absolute joy, and being able to see them looking so beautifully restored is a privilege. You really cannot fully judge these films by the screen captures shown in the review; the real magic is in the animation, and it is incredible. Arnie Leibovit has once again honored the memory of his friend and idol, George Pal. We look forward with great anticipation to a third volume!

The Movie

It may take a special type of science fiction fan to appreciate the wonders of Tokusatsu movies, the term for Japanese fantasy cinema – of which Warning From Spaceis an early example. Tokusatsu films may entail horror, monsters, and/or science fiction, but generally involve the use of special visual effects. Western viewers more accustomed to linear, rational storytelling can sometimes be a little confounded by the dreamlike logic and bizarre twists that these films can have, often made worse by bad attempts at dubbing them into English. Most of the general public is familiar with Godzilla as a character, though most people in the West probably don’t fully realize just what the creation of the monster brought about. Not only has Godzilla starred in over thirty Japanese films (including the recent anime seen on Netflix), his success resulted in a whole new film industry in Japan, unleashing a large number of movies and television shows about monsters and aliens. While many of these productions look pretty interesting, there is no doubt that they can also be confusing and strange.

In David Kalat’s excellent book A Critical History And Filmography Of Toho’s Godzilla Series, he explains some of the differences between Japanese and western culture, and how they relate to storytelling in film. While creators in the West favour logic, Japanese filmmakers may emphasize feelings and ideas, often dispelling with logic. Of course, American sci-fi films aren’t always totally adherent to logic either, whether one looks at the 1950s heyday of atomic, Cold War paranoia monster movies, or the effects-laden superhero blockbusters of today – but those Japanese movies can really be something else! Plots take off in different directions, sometimes without any real sense of cause-and-effect, odd happenings go unexplained, and one can tell that there are frequently aspects of Japanese myth and legend that enter into things, making it all somewhat impenetrable to the western viewer. Personally, though, I find these films incredibly fascinating and fun.

Prior to Arrow putting out their new Blu-ray of Warning From Space, I was familiar with the film only from seeing images of its preposterous starfish-like aliens, which I found more than a little reminiscent of the Justice League villain Starro The Conqueror, whom they fought in their first adventure in 1960 – which was actually a few years later! Seeing the frankly lame star-shaped costumes immediately puts one into a “camp” frame of mind. How can anyone take a film like that seriously, right? However, I had also read Stuart Galbraith’s Monsters Are Attacking Tokyo!, which seemed to indicate that Warning From Space was a much more earnest effort than what one might expect. I was intrigued. When I heard that the film had been prepared for an authorized Blu-ray, I was pretty excited to check it out.

From the opening moments, when we meet two friends at an eating bar, Warning From Space evokes thoughts of George Pal’s 1953 classic The War Of The Worlds. Lights are seen in the sky, meteorites appear to fall to earth, and eventually strange creatures emerge and terrify the populous. Rather than the superbly intimidating aliens in The War Of The Worlds, however, we get the rather silly star-shaped creatures previously mentioned. That’s okay, though, because the serious tone of the film keeps one quite involved, and one can forgive some bad costuming.

We come to know three great scientists and their families, though any attempts at characterization or personal growth are short-lived and ultimately quite subservient to the alien plot. For example, the daughter of one scientist has her choice of staying single questioned by her parents, but that storyline goes nowhere. Much more important is that the aliens turn out to be friendly, a message that is easier to take once they assume the forms of humans, including that of a famous, beautiful actress. At this point, my thoughts drifted more towards this movie being inspired a little by Invasion Of The Body Snatchers, also from 1956, though with more benevolent aliens. (Also, I recalled the later 1964 Godzilla movie Ghidorah, The Three-Headed Monster, where an alien entity appears as an Earth princess.)

The aliens offer a sincere message of warning: mankind much change its destructive ways or risk the consequences. Naturally, the film then reminded me of 1951’s The Day The Earth Stood Still. But hang on! There is also a rogue planet headed towards earth, ready to smash it to smithereens. Ah, so now the movie has become When Worlds Collide (also produced by George Pal, from 1951)! Mankind will undoubtedly perish, unless the aliens can work with an Earth scientist, who has a secret formula which can potentially destroy the hurtling planet.

If it sounds like a real hodgepodge of plots and ideas, it is. But it’s also good fun, though all taken quite seriously. Those starfish aliens don’t really appear too much, which helps. The constantly evolving plot actually keeps things moving. If you get bored, don’t worry – the story is about to head into another direction!

And I need to also mention one more instance of one film possibly inspiring another: Remember those spinning hoops seen on Krypton in Superman: The Movie? They appeared here first, on the alien star ship!

The Disc

Arrow’s Blu-ray has a reversible cover, so one may switch it to showing an English-language film poster, though the new art on the standard cover is also quite nice.

The disc contains both the Japanese version and the English-language version that was done for the American market. This US version was distributed by American International Television, and runs a little over a minute longer, perhaps mostly due to changes in the opening credits. The dubbing is okay, but there are the usual small differences in details or nuances that happen, making for an interesting comparison. I usually go for the original language version, but the dub is adequate.

Public domain DVDs have in the past used pretty crummy prints for this film, so word of a Blu-ray presentation was quite exciting. Well, temper your expectations. This is still an old film, shot on what I would guess to be lesser film stock. The Blu-ray image is quite clean, at least, with barely any dust or print damage evident. Sharpness, however, comes and goes, depending on the shot, with a few shots bordering on blurry. There is also some faint flicker. Color values also vary, becoming faded at times. Mostly, though, it’s a more pleasing presentation than one might expect, given the circumstances, and some scenes really look quite good. The mono sound is actually quite clear, with no discernible hiss in either version.

Looking at the extras, the aforementioned Stuart Galbraith IV provides a prepared, informative commentary that runs for a little over an hour, stopping just short of the complete film. No one knows Japanese cinema (especially Tokusatsu) like Galbraith, so it’s great that he could contribute. A teaser and theatrical trailer are here as well. The disc also contains a stills gallery, including many neat poster and lobby card images.

Cinematic Classic or Faded Print?

As the first true Japanese science fiction film to be filmed in color, Warning From Space does hold a certain place in film history. It’s not a great film, but it is a good one, and not at all campy once you get past the starfish pyjama suits. Lovers of Tokusatsu movies will find it a must-see, while fans of American ‘50s sci-fi will also find it engaging, if a bit derivative. Arrow’s disc does what it can with the faded elements, and gives the film by far its best representation in many years. With an informative commentary, the US version, a nice image gallery, and trailers, this is a satisfying disc for anyone inclined to check out this somewhat landmark film.

The man chiefly responsible for promoting the legacy of George Pal over the past few decades is film producer Arnold Leibovit. Leibovit considers his documentary The Fantasy Film Worlds Of George Pal to be his most significant film, and he was also the producer of The Puppetoon Movie, as well as 2002’s The Time Machine remake. Currently, he is overseeing the remastering of a large number of Puppetoon shorts that have not been seen in several decades, including some never seen at all outside of Europe. Some shorts have already been restored and remastered, while others are being worked on by Thunderbean’s Steve Stanchfield. The first batch of shorts will appear in The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2, and subsequent volumes are planned. In order for this to be achieved, Leibovit has set up a website at www.scifistation.com/puppetoon2.html to request donations and preorder the forthcoming Blu-ray.

We recently spoke with Mr. Leibovit about George Pal and his amazing legacy, as well as The Puppetoon Movie projects. Read ahead to learn more about Mr. Pal, his Puppetoons, and his relationship with other pillars of animation such as Max Fleischer and Walt Disney.

AV: With the first Puppetoon Movie having been released over 30 years ago, why was it that it took this long for Volume 2 to come out?

AL: When I did the first project, there were a lot of Puppetoons that were unavailable, primarily the Paramount Puppetoons. They weren’t at Paramount at the time. They were at Republic Pictures, and I was trying to get the clearances to do some of those Puppetoons. I think they knew they were eventually selling the library, and they didn’t want to break them up. So, that was number one— I didn’t have access to a number of subjects. And then there were a number of subjects that I didn’t even know existed. As far as anyone was concerned, they were lost subjects.

And it wasn’t like I spent thirty years thinking about the project. What happened was, after we did the Blu-ray (for The Puppetoon Movie), I was just wondering if any more of those subjects were around. And I happened to be on a long-distance call to Europe, which is where a lot of these archives are, and it turns out that a number of European films had turned up. It was a revelation to me that they existed. Nobody’s ever seen these films before. I hadn’t seen most of them, Americans hadn’t seen these films. There were a number of films that were thought to be lost. And I found four them, though not all of them will be on this disc. Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves I found in the BFI. They didn’t even know they had it. And that’s the problem. A lot of the archives that have these things don’t even know what they have. And once I identified the materials, they went, “Oh my God,” and it was like a revelation to them too.

AV: That’s amazing.

AL: Yeah. So, part of it has to do with synergies coming together. Things don’t always happen the way you want them to. Y’know. Timing is the thing. It can take a long time for a variety of reasons. And the reason here was, the material wasn’t available, and it became available. It wasn’t something I was thinking of doing immediately, but it became obvious that I needed to get this done. I wanted to do more, so I decided to put this together. So, what we’ll do is we’ll put part of them on Volume 2, and part of them will be on a Volume 3. Depending on how much money is raised, depending on how it does, I can put money into the next one. I may have to do more funding. And maybe there will be a Volume 4, I don’t know. So, it just depends.

AV: What have you been up to for the past thirty years?

AL: Well, of course I did that Time Machine remake in 2002. So, I was working on that film. That took a long time, too. The industry works in mysterious and slow ways. But I was on top of Time Machine for many years. I got the rights from Mrs. Pal, and she let me stand in Mr. Pal’s shoes to make the film, and it took a number of years, and eventually became the film that you know. It came out, and I was trying to get other films going since then. It seems like any time you want to do a film, it takes twenty years. I don’t’ know. But we’re doing another one now, of course. The director of It, Andy Muschietti, was a big fan of Time Machine, so we’re involved in another project, and it looks like it’s a go at Warner Bros.

I know there’s a lot of years there. I know. (Laughs.)

AV: What is your own background?

AL: I grew up in Florida. I was born in Miami Beach. My grandmother was Hungarian. My father came from Russian descent. And that was where I spent most of my youth, really. And I saw most of George Pal’s movies as a kid in Miami. When I was growing up, his name – for me – was synonymous with fantastic cinema. His name was like Walt Disney. For anyone who grew up in the 50s like me, George Pal meant a big movie. Pal was making epic films – big, colorful large-budget movies. I knew the name George Pal like I knew Walt Disney. So, when a Pal film came out, I was anxious to see the film, as were many people of that time. This was the fifties, you know, and the early sixties.

AV: Were you aware of his own Hungarian background?

AL: I wasn’t aware. I didn’t’ know the details of his life fully until serendipity happened to me. One of many projects I was working on was a film I was going to direct – a monster movie, a Jaws on land kind of movie. And I was in LA, and I was friends with Dan O’Bannon, who did Alien, I was friendly with him, and he helped me do designs for the film with Ron Cobb, who worked on Alien. And he said, you should take this to George Pal. And I said, “Is he alive?” Because I hadn’t been following him at that point. This was 1979, the year before Pal died. And so it was arranged for me to meet him.

And so I met him at his house in Beverly Hills. And it was life-changing for me. I didn’t expect for it to happen, and I didn’t expect for him to make such an impression on me. It brought back all of my childhood memories of him as a kid, and here I am sitting in his living room. All his Oscars are lined up on the wall and all his puppets. And in walks this very sweet Hungarian man, y’know, very self-effacing. And he helped, he advised me on the project, he helped me, and I stayed in touch with him for the better part of a year, before he died. And even then, the part with him being Hungarian didn’t connect; I didn’t have a sense of a connection. It wasn’t until I was in touch with Mrs. Pal.

I was in touch with her as soon as George died. I had called over at the house and I told her how badly I felt about his passing. It struck me really hard. And then I recognized the Hungarian accent. Zsoka was her name, Elizabeth in English, and then I struck up a 25-year relationship with her. She was like my second mother. And I told her we really needed to do something for George. And in your life, things like this don’t just happen by accident. There are things you can do in life – things you have a great desire to do, or things that are a good idea, but you don’t do them because it’s a big undertaking to do a project, any project, it’s an enormous undertaking. But, for some reason I was driven by this, and told her we need to do something. And it was four years later that I came out to Hollywood and I told her, okay, I want to make the film. Nobody had done anything.

This was The Fantasy Film Worlds Of George Pal, the documentary. This was 1983/’84. And I sort of showed up, I didn’t have very much money, and I kind of pulled it together and she helped me with introductions, and then I started making the film. The Fantasy Film Worlds Of George Pal is my most important film. I mean, it’s the film I’m the most proud of. Because it represents all of George’s work and incorporates all the people who were in his life.

It was in the process of doing The Fantasy Film Worlds that one evening I was going through a lot of Zsoka’s artifacts. She had given me access to everything that George had in his life that was still intact, because a lot of it burned down in the Bel Air fire in the 1960s. They lost a lot of things. A lot of artifacts were destroyed. Whatever she had, she had kept, and she let me look through those. She had these films in a closet, these 16mm films. And I said that we should take a look at those. She didn’t know what they were. And she had a Bell & Howell projector in the house, and it just happened that I knew how to thread a Bell & Howell projector because I used to show movies to friends, with this 16mm projector, and so I started showing these films in her living room and they were Puppetoons. They were these 16mm Puppetoons. I hadn’t seen Puppetoons since I was a kid. They used to show them on television in the 1950s. I remembered them as a kid. And I hadn’t seen them in color before, because it was black and white television. So, it just happened that it was Tubby The Tuba that I put up.

And I just— I couldn’t believe it. I was just watching it in the living room, and I was just so moved by it. It’s such a touching and affecting subject. It really is. A beautiful subject. And I told Zsoka the same way that I did with the other project: We’ve got to do something; we’ve got to preserve these films. They’re going to be lost, no one’s going to remember them. So, in the process of that period, I started all over again. While making the other film, I somehow convinced some people to help me and I got some financing, and I went to the whole process of trying to put that together. And that’s how that happened. That’s how the Puppetoon Movie started.

And then it became a much bigger proposition than I anticipated it to be. Because we did new animation for it, as you know. We could never do it today, what I did then; because I had the help of the whole industry helping me on these things. It’s quite a story.

AV: When the Puppetoon Movie first came out, how did Mrs. Pal first see it?

AL: Actually, the screening we had was at MGM. The actual premiere was at the American Film Institute. It was at the Film Institute film festival, and the head of that organization, her name’s Jean Firstenberg, with (AFI founder) George Stevens Junior, and she asked me if I wanted to show the premiere at the first festival. I think it had something to so with the fact that the AFI turned me down on the financing of the film. It wasn’t easy to get the film made. Generally, they are very happy to accommodate you after the film is done. It was very hard to get the film made. Everyone said, why don’t you take it to the Academy? They were very happy I was doing it. George even had a lecture in his name. But they just don’t finance things like that.

So, Mrs. Pal saw it when I did a screening at MGM, when it was actually MGM. That’s when it happened, and everyone who worked on the film was there. She liked it. She liked it very much.

But the bigger event was Fantasy Film Worlds Of George Pal. The screening for that was at the Academy. Everyone in Hollywood came to see it. Every star that was in the film: Charlton Heston, Rod Taylor, Alan Young, Barbara Eden, Ray Bradbury, Gene Roddenberry, Bob Wise, Janet Lee, Ann Robinson, and most of Hollywood. All the directors were there – Joe Dante, John Milius, all the various filmmakers were there. That was the bigger event.

AV: Mrs. Pal must have been very gratified to see all that support for her husband.

AL: She was, she was. It was a big thing for her. What happened was, after George passed away, she was devastated for many years. She was not the same person. They were very much in love. George was her whole life, and he died very suddenly of a heart attack. I think there was a void in her life for a couple of years there. When I came back into her life a couple of years later, I think it revived things for her, all the things he had done with her over the years. So, yeah, it was a terrific thing for her. It brought it all back, which was emotional for her. That I know. So yes, it was gratifying for her with all the industry turning out. It was a wonderful period. It was, for me, it was the greatest thing that ever happened to me in my life. If it wasn’t for her, if it wasn’t for Mrs. Pal, none of it would have been possible, because she opened up these things for me. She allowed me to have access to all this, and all the people. Of course, George was so loved. It was the most amazing experience I ever had. I never had any experience even close, and most people will tell me this all the time, the response to George Pal in the industry was unlike anything that anyone had ever seen before. George was loved by everyone. He was a unique man. He had a wonderful sense of humor. He helped everyone in the industry, he had no ego. His ego was left at the door when it came to George. He always deferred credit to other people. He never took credit for things. It was always this person or that person. He was just that kind of person. If you ever see my film on Pal, the documentary…

AV: Oh, yes. I ‘ve watch it a few times.

AL: It comes through the people. I didn’t tell them what to say, they’re just talking. They couldn’t wait to talk about George. People ask me – I was on TCM, I get asked this all the time, I get this question a lot, so I’ll just answer it. They say, how did you get so many people, which is not easy to do. When you do these projects, you get one or two people. I got thirty. And the answer was that I had two magic words: George Pal. And people just couldn’t wait to talk about him, they were so emotional. People were crying. I mean, I never had an experience like this in my life. Because that’s why I talk about it the way I do. Because it’s real. It was an amazing experience.

AV: Having seen the film a few times myself, that really comes out. They say you should never meet your heroes, but it becomes clear that those who knew him really did consider him a hero. They loved him a lot.

AL: The funny thing about it is, a lot of people that love him – people who knew George Pal and people who never knew him – loved him. Because it comes through his work. I’m using The Time Machine as the best example because it is his greatest film for many reasons. There’s a love in there, because he loved what he was doing, and his love of doing things… As Ray Harryhausen had told me, about this contagiousness, his excitement of doing things that in turn made you excited. It was like, they loved him, and they loved what he was doing.

I can’t help but think about it. I think about how to be a better person, y’know; he was like a role model. Absolutely he was. In life, you have these people that exist in our civilization, and they are few and far between, these people that exist. And he was one of those great, great people. Now, I was very lucky because I met Walt Disney when I was twelve years old, and that was equally powerful, for some of the same reasons.

Because George Pal was a Walt Disney, he was his equal in stature. And of course, he and Disney were very close friends. And that helped me too, by the way, in my relationship with the Disney Studios, and my relationship with Roy Disney and the Nine Old Men at Disney, who had viewed all of the Puppetoons. Walt, y’know, was in awe of them, because (Pal) was using three-dimensionality in animation. This was during the Snow White period, and (Disney) wanted to create three-dimensional animation, and here George is doing it right before his eyes. He had all those films screened for all his animators, and I became friendly with four of the Nine Old Men: Ward Kimball, who did Jiminy Cricket, probably the greatest genius animator of the Disney studios; Marc Davis, who was Maleficent in Sleeping Beauty, and Tinkerbell; Frank (Thomas) and Ollie Johnson, who did Dumbo, and Bambi, and Fantasia… they all told me of viewing the Puppetoons, how they influenced their animation at the studio, and how this eventually led to Disneyland. The Puppetoons were animatronic, essentially. It’s A Small World is basically a Puppetoon, as many of them are.

And that comes from George. His influence is so vast, but so unknown to the public. But George would never himself promote himself in such a way. That was never his nature. He did it in his own quiet way. He was an artist in the truest sense of the word. He wasn’t a promoter. He wasn’t promoting himself. That was just his nature. So, again, that’s a big part of the story. There’s the man of George Pal, and he just happens to be a genius. So, it’s like he’s this incredible human being, who happens to be this incredible innovator and pioneer in special effects, stop-motion animation, and literally the father of science fiction and fantasy in modern film. So that’s a mouthful.

AV: That’s quite a legacy.

Do you remember discussing the Puppetoons with him when he was still alive?

AL: The only thing I remember is that he had a number of things on his shelf. I now have some of the demonstration puppets that he had on display in his home. They were big enough that he could show them if he was with an audience. The actual Puppetoon puppets were tiny. I remember they were in the room while I was with him. So, I remember talking to him and seeing these sitting there. That’s the closest connection I had then. I never said anything to him about it.

I’ll be bringing these demonstration puppets with me to LA. Next week, I’m going to LA. Joe Dante is going to interview me for his Trailers From Hell. It’s a George Pal week. We’re going to show trailers from all George’s films, and he’s going to promote the Puppetoons Volume 2. (The photo below was taken during that meeting.)

AV: Were you involved in initiating the process of bringing the first Puppetoon Movie to Blu-ray?

AL: No, actually, a distributor, B2MP, came to me. The fellow, his name is Bruce Venezia, he was the Vice Present of Acquisitions for image Entertainment. They released my films prior to this. They did the box set, they did the Fantasy Film Worlds re-release on DVD… they already had done it on LaserDisc, and then they did a DVD of it. They did The Puppetoon Movie. They had a Laser then they had a DVD. So, he was wanting to do projects, and he said we should do this. So, he initiated it, he put it together. And I then helped him with all the materials, getting him the negatives, and the whole process of doing it.

AV: Was it always part of the plan to include the documentary on the Blu-ray, or was it something that you pushed for?

AL: He had suggested doing that; and I, well, I would have liked to have done it separately, but I don’t think it’s possible to get these things done on home media anymore. The market isn’t there for it. So, I used it as an opportunity to get it put on the Blu-ray, basically.

AV: I’m glad it’s at least there in the bonus material.

AL: I don’t consider it bonus material, that’s the whole thing. It really is the film that means the most to me, more than The Puppetoon Movie does; because it explains what he represents in the whole scheme of things. It’s an epic story. When I did The Puppetoon Movie, I wanted it to play as a movie, I didn’t want to have it play like a documentary. That’s why I made the decision to do the new material. It had Gumby, because he was the most well-known character. He still is. He’s the most popular stop motion character who’s ever been done. If you say to someone, “There’s Gumby,” they know immediately what that is. There aren’t many characters that are iconic characters, that were done in frame-by-frame hand animation. You could list them on one hand, there aren’t that many. So, I wanted to use something that the audience would recognize to get them into this Pal thing, to do it in a short way. I didn’t want to make it into a big documentary. I wanted people to see the Puppetoons. So, that’s basically why I did it that way. It was quite an undertaking to do an all-animation sequence. As I said, it’s no easy accomplishment. It’s the first time that Gumby was shot on film using widescreen color. It was never done before. As well as Speedy Alka Seltzer, the Pillsbury Doughboy. None of those characters was ever shot in that format before.

With Speedy Alka Seltzer, it was the first time he was ever shot in color. He was always in black and white in commercials. It was actually a replacement puppet that was shot at the end. Miles Laboratories actually came to the set to document it with the Smithsonian in Washington. They came out with a whole troupe of people from Washington to document it for historical purposes, because it had never been done before. It’s an actual replacement puppet. Miles Laboratories had thought it was lost, and they actually found it in Australia and they brought it to be animated. There’s a lot of interesting history about that segment.

AV: When you did the first Puppetoon Movie, I think you used Mrs. Pal’s prints, did you not?

AL: I used Mrs. Pal’s prints.

AV: For Volume 2, what are your sources this time?

AL: For (the first Puppetoon Movie), Mrs. Pal didn’t have all the films. I would have used some of these if she had them. All of the European films that I have, she had none of them. There are twenty films that are either going to be in Volume 2, or Volume 3. I’ll have to separate them, there’s too many films. None of those she had. And Wilbur The Lion will be on it, which she didn’t have. No one had it. A print hadn’t existed until it was just turned up by a collector, like a year and a half ago. He contacted me, and said he had a nitrate print of Wilbur The Lion. I couldn’t believe it. I had been looking for it for it for 35 years. I didn’t have it, UCLA didn’t have it, Mrs. Pal didn’t have it.

Some of the films we’ll be getting from Paramount. There’s six of them that have been restored from the three-strip successive negative; they’re already done. I’m going to get to use those. And there are probably four or five that I’m going to use from the Library of Congress. I’m making scans and getting restorations done. The problem is there’s too many films for one volume. Steve Stanchfield and Jerry Beck and everyone I talk to says you have to keep it to about 15 films, then you do another 15 films. And I have to, because it’s too expensive So, there will be about 15 films, basically.

AV: Are Volume 2 and subsequent volumes going to be straight-forward compilations, then?

AL: Yes, just the films themselves.

AV: No more Arnie the Dinosaur?

AL: No more Arnie the Dinosaur. I wish there could be, but it’s unaffordable to do it.

AV: And the elements from Europe: What type are they?

AL: They’re original nitrates. Every one of them is a nitrate. Every single film is a 35mm nitrate print. Again, I consider that to be amazing, considering no knew they existed after all these years. It’s unbelievable. They’re amazing to see. You’re not going to believe it.

AV: On the first Puppetoon Movie Blu-ray, there were a number of bonus Puppetoons included, though many were still shown in standard definition. Are any of the standard definition ones being upgraded to high definition for the new compilation?

AV: Some of them will, yes. I’m not going to be doing them all for this set, but I want to do Jasper And The Haunted House. I’m doing Aladdin. Ether Symphony is being upgraded from a successive negative. Paramount’s done it. My basic feeling is that I don’t want too much repetition on the next set. If people have already seen some of these things, I’d rather the next one be fresh. I want to keep it as fresh as possible. I would say that 95% of what’s on Volume 2 is totally new. The only one that’s possible would be maybe Aladdin.

AV: Aside from lending you the prints, is Paramount providing any other support?

AL: No financial support. The support they’re doing is they’re providing access to the material. And because I own the trademark of the Puppetoons, it’s a bit of a quid pro quo that’s involved in this. First of all, it’s a big deal to begin with. When I did my two-day tribute to Pal with Ben Mankiewicz (on Turner Classic Movies), that same day as I was doing it, Jim Gianopulos, who’s the president of Paramount, was doing a piece with Mankiewicz for the Motion Picture Home. He did, like, a special thing for three or four nights promoting the Motion Picture Home, for the actors. So, I met him. It was an important introduction, and I stayed in touch with him. I told him what I’d like to do with the Puppetoons, as I had met with a lot of resistance for many years. He’s very much a film historian. He believes in preservation. He believes in industry things. So, for about a year and a half, I stayed in touch with him. Eventually, he opened up the studio for me to be able to have access to the Puppetoons. It took over a year, but it’s because of the chairman, that he’s letting me do it.

AV: Is the project far enough along that you have distributor details yet?

AL: I’m going to do it myself, with Stanchfield. We have the promotional webpage, the funding page, and hopefully that page will also be selling it for a price. I don’t know what it’s going to be yet. Stanchfield will probably sell it. I want to be able to get my money back, whatever I’ve spent, so that I can put it into the next volume, as much as I can. But I’m still going to need, possibly, to fundraise. Once I have been able to get enough, then there’s a distributor that I’ve talked to who will do it. I’ve already discussed it with them. But I want to be able to get back so much, then I’ll go with a distributor. I don’t want to do it initially, I want to wait a little bit, because they take a percentage.

AV: I have a question about Jasper. Despite him having appeared in around half of the Puppetoons, there wasn’t much of him in the first movie; but it looks like you may be featuring him more the second time around. Has anything changed that allows you to use him more in the next volume?

AL: What we’ll likely be including will be Jasper Goes Hunting. It’s one of the restored subjects. ASIFA is involved here. I’m friendly with Jerry Beck, who’s the president of the society. I’ve known Jerry for 35 years. And he’s a big Puppetoon fan. And I said to him that maybe he could get them to help me restore some of these, and ASIFA paid for two of them to be restored this past year. They’re very expensive to do, just to do the restorations of each film. They did Jasper Goes Hunting, and Hatful Of Dreams. Jasper Goes Hunting is the one that featured Bugs Bunny, which is why he wanted to do it. Hatful Of Dreams features Superman, which was his only use outside of the Fleischer films at that time. It was the only time that Warner Bros. ever allowed Bugs Bunny to feature in another entity’s film, until many years later in Roger Rabbit. It was the first time that anyone was able to use other characters in their film. Now Lord and Miller have done it, but for all those years the only one to do it was George Pal. Superman appears in Hatful Of Dreams not as Superman, but Punch is dressed as Superman, with the big ‘S’ and he flies and everything.

There’s one Jasper I kind of like: it’s called Jasper’s Close Shave. I like it a lot because of the use of music in it. It uses “Barber Of Seville.” This was before Walter Lantz used it in the Woody Woodpecker cartoon. It’s a very frenetic piece of music. I like that one.

Yes, you were pointing out an issue. The stereotypic portrayal in the cartoons does in my view present a problem. I lot of people have said, “just release them.” I’m a little concerned. I don’t want to put more than a couple of them (on Volume 2). I was thinking we’d put on a couple more in Volume 3, and maybe the balance on Volume 4. But I need to have context created. There are a couple professors I know who have written articles about it. I might want them to express their opinion on it. Because the fourth one would be primarily Jaspers, but I’m a little worried about it personally.

AV: With Bugs Bunny appearing, and the iconography at least of Superman, did you need any cooperation from Warner Bros. now to present these films again?

AL: No, no. They’re a part of those films.

AV: Aside from the Puppetoons, are you an animation fan in general?

AL: Oh, yes. Oh my God. Disney and Warner Bros. cartoons primarily. I’m more in love with Disney feature animation. I’m not a big fan of Mickey Mouse cartoons or Donald Duck cartoons. I’m not a fan of Disney (shorts). It’s just certain cartoons, Sorcerer’s Apprentice, maybe Mickey And The Beanstalk. Some of the Silly Symphonies are really outstanding. I’m really a fan of the Warner Bros. cartoons for obvious reasons. I consider them to be the best. And Tex Avery has a very special place, Bob Clampett has a very special place, and to me the early Warner Bros. cartoons are very important. The Fleischer cartoons are very important for a variety of reasons.

Y’know, Pal was supposed to work with Fleischer. The way that was supposed to work, Fleischer was in Florida making the films, and when Pal went to work in the United Sates, he had the choice. Paramount was saying, y’know, we have this unit down in Florida doing Popeye and Betty Boop and these types of things, so they were thinking Pal could go there and set up. But George Pal and Mrs. Pal wanted to be in Hollywood and be in the heart of it. Plus, Pal had met Walt Disney, and that’s where he wanted to be. But there was talk for a time that he was going to be working for Fleischer. Of course, as it turned out, Pal ended up getting an Academy Award for the Puppetoons. Fleischer never got an Academy Award. So, it’s kind of interesting. Pal really got more accolades for the Puppetoons than Fleischer ever got for doing his cartoons. Part of it is that what Pal was fond of doing was so different from the other animators. It’s a very competitive business, everyone’s very competitive. But when Pal came, he was so different from anyone; he was embraced by the animation community in a very unique way. Plus, his personality and being the kind of person he was, it didn’t take long for them to realize everything I’ve just told you about him.

He and Walt Disney were close friends, they would talk all the time, and they would trade animators. A couple of the animators, Fred Moore being the most well-known, came over to the Puppetoon studio. Punch and Judy were his design, that was one example. It’s just an interesting factoid that people don’t know. Plus, Ray Harryhausen’s first job was with the Puppetoons, as you know. Willis O’Brien from King Kong worked on the Puppetoons. Gene Warren and Wah Chang were there. A lot of very well-known animators were there.

AV: You mentioned meeting Walt Disney when you were twelve. How did that happen?

AL: Oh, Disneyland. He was there. Basically, my whole day stopped, I remember the day vividly. I was with my mother and my brother and the family, then Disney came into the picture that day. I just wanted to be with him. I followed him around the park. He used to take his grandkids with him to Disneyland on the weekend. He was there a lot back then, especially on the weekends. That day, if he was on the monorail, then I was there on the monorail. I was sitting practically right next to him. And I was around the park, you know. But he loved the park, he loved talking to people. That was the most important thing in his life, was Disneyland; that was bigger than the movies for him. In fact, the movies really took second place. Marc Davis was telling me that with Sleeping Beauty, Walt was involved but he backed away from the project. He was just so involved in Disneyland. I would say he was spending 70% of his time at Disneyland, and that continued until he died. Even when Walt died, when he was in the hospital, Roy Disney Sr., his brother, came over to the hospital. They knew he was going to die. Roy was in the hospital room, rubbing Walt’s feet, right before he died, because he was in such pain. And even in all that, Walt was telling Roy things while looking up at the ceiling. And he was talking about EPCOT. He was telling him where he wanted everything, where he wanted the train. He was talking about it on his deathbed. It was so important to him to do that. So, I’m just saying, that was the most important thing in his life

AV: Is there anything else you would like to say about your project?

AL: Well, the most important thing is that we do need support for The Puppetoon Movie Volume Two. I haven’t gone big-time into social media with it. I have a Facebook page. I’ve basically raised 8 or 9 thousand dollars. I need more money, as much as I can get. I need many times that. I’m hoping that what you’re doing will contribute to getting more people to contribute. It’s a race against time to preserve these things before they’re lost forever This will include never-before-seen Puppetoons. It’s really important preservation work. We’re going to screen them at the Academy. They’ll be screened at the Museum Of Modern Art. They’ll be screened at various venues around the country. I’ll be trying to put on some sort of shows, probably with Jerry. It’s not just the release, it’s getting them seen.

It’s a big undertaking. That’s’ the biggest help, is just getting it promoted. That’s my biggest need is getting it out there. I would like to get the word out, and maybe get them all done.

Many thanks to Mr. Leibovit for chatting with us! To support The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2 project, please visit his website at www.scifistation.com/puppetoon2.html. And spread the word!