Tom And Jerry: Pencil Mania
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This Tom and Jerry cartoon (the human versions, not the cat and mouse) is an opportunity for the animators to have fun with the medium. There is no specific plot. One of the boys uses a pencil to create a myriad number of animated illusions that could only work in a cartoon. For example, a short vertical line is drawn, which when held by both ends suddenly becomes a saxophone. When played, the notes pop out of the bell of the instrument to suddenly grow legs and transform into ducks. After the song, the saxophone itself quickly follows suit and becomes a goose. The entire short consists of these disjointed, though often creative and humorously unlikely events.
September 20th, 2005 at 1:59 am
Great black and white cartoon – seemingly influenced by the Fleicher brothers… contains a great song about banana’s sung by 3 large fruit! *grin* utterly odd and wonderfully surreal!
December 5th, 2005 at 9:18 pm
If you are familiar with early animation like Betty Boop or early Disney cartoons like the Skeleton Dance then Pencil Mania will seem perfectly normal. If you are used to modern cartoons, this is going to seem like a really weird dreamscape. In Pencil Mania, eggs and fruit are created from ink drawn into a pencil; the fruit later become people — even leading to a “Perils of Penelope” moment!
December 30th, 2005 at 8:40 pm
Enjoyable and creative.
January 3rd, 2008 at 3:07 am
I love the style of these old cartoons, with they’re bendy characters and surreal charm, and this one was no exception. Well worth watching.
January 3rd, 2008 at 4:03 am
The Van Beuren oufit was probably the weakest in story and animation skills of all the “golden age” studios. They made up for it with, uh… well, they never really made up for it but I get the sense that these guys were trying real hard. If they had just had someone on board who knew how put all the parts together, they might have been a contender.
May 6th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I love this cartoon. Better than any 60’s Looney Tune. The company that made this was very underrated, along with Noveltoons, Pre-60’s Terrytoons and Hanna-Barbera toons.