Puppetoons is a series of animated puppet

film A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...

s made in Europe (1930s) and in the United States (1940s) by

George Pal George Pal (born György Pál Marczincsak; ; February 1, 1908 – May 2, 1980) was a Hungarian-American animator, film director and producer, principally associated with the fantasy and science-fiction genres. He became an American citizen after ...

. They were made using replacement

animation Animation is a method by which image, still figures are manipulated to appear as Motion picture, moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent cel, celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited ...

: using a series of different hand-carved wooden

puppet A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or Legendary creature, mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. The puppeteer uses movements of their hands, arms, or control devices such as rods ...

s (or puppet heads or limbs) for each

frame A frame is often a structural system that supports other components of a physical construction and/or steel frame that limits the construction's extent. Frame and FRAME may also refer to: Physical objects In building construction *Framing (con ...

in which the puppet moves or changes expression, rather than moving a single puppet, as is the case with most stop motion puppet animation. They were particuarly made from 1932-1948, in both Europe and the US.

History

The Puppetoons series of animated puppet films were made in Europe in the 1930s and in the United States in the 1940s. The series began when

made an advertising film using "dancing"

cigarette A cigarette is a narrow cylinder containing a combustible material, typically tobacco, that is rolled into thin paper for smoking. The cigarette is ignited at one end, causing it to smolder; the resulting smoke is orally inhaled via the opp ...

s in 1932, which led to a series of theatrical advertising shorts for

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

Radio in the Netherlands. This was followed by a series for Horlicks Malted Milk in England. These shorts have an

art deco Art Deco, short for the French ''Arts Décoratifs'', and sometimes just called Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture, and product design, that first appeared in France in the 1910s (just before World War I), and flourished in the Unite ...

design, often reducing characters to simple geometric shapes. Pal arrived in the U.S. in 1940, and produced more than 40 Puppetoons for

Paramount Pictures Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...

between 1941 and 1947. Seven Puppetoons received

Academy Award The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...

nominations, including ''Rhythm in the Ranks'' (for the year 1941), ''

Tulips Shall Grow ''Tulips Shall Grow'' is a 1942 American animated short film in the ''Puppetoons'' series, directed by George Pal and starring Rex Ingram and Victor Jory. It was released by Paramount Pictures and originally photographed in 3-strip Technicolor. ...

'' (1942), '' The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins'' (1943), '' And To Think I Saw it On Mulberry Street'' (1944), ''Jasper and the Beanstalk'' (1945), '' John Henry and the Inky-Poo'' (1946) and '' Tubby the Tuba'' (1947). The series ended due to rising production costs which had increased from US$18,000 per short in 1939 () to almost US$50,000 following

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

().

—Pal's distributor—objected to the cost. Per their suggestion, Pal went to produce sequences for feature films. In 1956, the Puppetoons as well as most of Paramount's shorts, were sold to television distributor U.M. & M. TV Corporation. National Telefilm Associates bought out U.M. & M. and continued to syndicate them in the 1950s and 1960s as "Madcap Models". Pal also used the Puppetoon name and the general Puppetoon technique for miniature puppet characters in some of his live-action feature films, including ''

The Great Rupert ''The Great Rupert'' is a 1950 comedy family film starring Jimmy Durante, Tom Drake and Terry Moore, produced by George Pal and directed by Irving Pichel. It is based on a story written by Ted Allan that has also been published as a children's b ...

'' (1949), '' Tom Thumb'' (1958), and '' The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm'' (1963). In these films, the individual wooden figures were billed as The Puppetoons.

Technique

Puppetoon films used replacement

with puppets. Using a series of different hand-carved wooden

s (or puppet heads or limbs) for each frame in which the puppet moves or changes expression, rather than moving a single puppet. A typical Puppetoon required 9,000 individually carved and machined wooden figures or parts. Puppetoon animation is a type of replacement animation, which is itself a type of

stop-motion Stop motion is an animated filmmaking technique in which objects are physically manipulated in small increments between individually photographed frames so that they will appear to exhibit independent motion or change when the series of frames i ...

animation. The puppets are rigid and static pieces; each is typically used in a single frame and then switched with a separate, near-duplicate puppet for the next frame. Thus puppetoon animation requires many separate figures. It is thus more analogous in a certain sense to cel animation than is traditional stop-motion: the characters are created from scratch for each frame (though in cel animation the creation process is simpler since the characters are drawn and painted, not sculpted).

Jasper

Some controversy exists in modern times, as the black character, Jasper, star of several Puppetoons in the 1940s is considered a stereotype today. The Jasper series of shorts relied on a small, consistent cast. The titular character was a playful

pickaninny Pickaninny (also picaninny, piccaninny or pickinninie) is a pidgin word for a small child, possibly derived from the Portuguese ('boy, child, very small, tiny'). In North America, ''pickaninny'' is a racial slur for African American children ...

, his mother a protective mammy, Professor Scarecrow being a black

scam artist A confidence trick is an attempt to defraud a person or group after first gaining their trust. Confidence tricks exploit victims using their credulity, naïveté, compassion, vanity, confidence, irresponsibility, and greed. Researchers have def ...

, and the Blackbird serving as his fast-talking partner-in-crime. Pal described Jasper as the Huckleberry Finn of American folklore. Already in 1946, an article of the '' Hollywood Quarterly'' protested that the Jasper shorts presented a "razor-totin', ghost-haunted, chicken-stealin' concept of the American Negro". A 1947 article in '' Ebony'' pointed out that George Pal was a European and not raised on racial prejudice. "To him there is nothing abusive about a Negro boy who likes to eat watermelons or gets scared when he goes past a haunted house". The article, though, pointed that this depiction touched on the stereotypes of Negroes being childish, eating nothing but molasses and watermelons, and being afraid of their own shadows. Jasper's full name is Jasper Jefferson Lincoln Washington Hawkins. At one point, Jasper's popularity was on par with

Mickey Mouse Mickey Mouse is an animated cartoon Character (arts), character co-created in 1928 by Walt Disney and Ub Iwerks. The longtime mascot of The Walt Disney Company, Mickey is an Anthropomorphism, anthropomorphic mouse who typically wears red sho ...

's and

Donald Duck Donald Fauntleroy Duck is a cartoon character created by The Walt Disney Company. Donald is an anthropomorphic white duck with a yellow-orange bill, legs, and feet. He typically wears a sailor shirt and cap with a bow tie. Donald is known fo ...

's.

Legacy and preservation

In 1987, film producer-director-archivist Arnold Leibovit, a friend of George Pal, collected several Puppetoons and released them theatrically and to video as '' The Puppetoon Movie'' reintroducing them to contemporary audiences. A feature-length documentary on the life and films of George Pal followed. In 2020, ''The Puppetoon Movie Volume 2'' was released on Blu-ray and DVD, featuring 17 shorts not included on any of the ''Puppetoon Movie'' releases and ''The Ship of the Ether''. The Academy Film Archive preserved several of the Puppetoons in 2009, including ''Jasper and the Beanstalk'', ''John Henry and the Inky Poo'', and ''Rhythm In the Ranks''.

Filmography

European Shorts

1932 * Tale of the Gloomy King * Midnight 1934 * Radio Valve Revolution * The Ship of the Ether 1935 * The Magic Atlas * World's Greatest Show * In Lamp Light Land * Ali Baba and The Forty Thieves 1936 * Ether Symphony * Charlie's World Cruise * On Parade! 1937 * What Ho, She Bumps * The Reddingsbrigade (a.k.a. Rescue Brigade) * Philips Broadcast of 1938 1938 * South Seas Sweethearts * The Ballet of Red Radio Valves * Sky Pirates * How An Advertising Poster Came About 1939 * Aladdin and the Magic Lamp * The Sleeping Beauty * Love on the Range * Philips Cavalcade (a.k.a. Cavalcade of Music) * The Queen Was In The Parlour 1940 * Friend in Need * The Good Bear and The Bad Bear * The Old Woman Who Lived in A Shoe

American Shorts

1940 * Western Daze * Dipsy Gypsy 1941 * Hoola Boola * The Gay Knighties * Rhythm in the Ranks * The Sky Princess 1942 * Jasper and the Watermelons *

Mr. Strauss Takes a Walk ''Mister'', usually written in its contracted form ''Mr.'' or ''Mr'', is a commonly used English honorific for men without a higher honorific, or professional title, or any of various designations of office. The title 'Mr' derived from earlier ...

Jasper and the Haunted House ''Jasper and the Haunted House'' is a 1942 American animated short film in the '' Madcap Model'' series by George Pal. It is an early entry that features the popular yet controversial Paramount Puppetoons characters Jasper and his friend/nemesis Pr ...

1943 * Jasper and the Choo-Choo * Bravo, Mr. Strauss * The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins * Jasper's Music Lesson * The Truck That Flew * The Little Broadcast * Jasper Goes Fishing * Goodnight Rusty 1944 * Package for Jasper * A Hatful of Dreams * Say Ah, Jasper * Jasper Goes Hunting *

And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street ''And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street'' is Theodor Seuss Geisel's first Children's literature, children's book published under the pen name Dr. Seuss. First published by Vanguard Press in 1937, the story follows a boy named Marco, who ...

* Jasper's Paradise * Two-Gun Rusty 1945 * Jasper's Booby Traps * Hot Lips Jasper * Jasper Tell * Jasper's Minstrels * Jasper's Close Shave * Jasper and the Beanstalk * My Man Jasper 1946 * Jasper's Derby *

Jasper in a Jam ''Jasper in a Jam'' is a 1946 short film in the ''Puppetoons'' series produced and originated by George Pal. It starred the voice of singer Peggy Lee, and was directed by Duke Goldstone and released by Paramount Pictures. It is included in ''The P ...

* Olio for Jasper * Together in the Weather * John Henry and the Inky-Poo * Wilbur the Lion 1947 * Shoe Shine Jasper * Date with Duke (featuring

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was based ...

) - October 31, 1947 * Rhapsody in Wood (featuring

Woody Herman Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his dea ...

) * Tubby the Tuba * Romeow and Julicat (Shown in the film ''

Variety Girl ''Variety Girl'' is a 1947 American musical comedy film directed by George Marshall and starring Mary Hatcher, Olga San Juan, DeForest Kelley, Frank Ferguson, Glenn Tryon, Nella Walker, Torben Meyer, Jack Norton, and William Demarest. It was prod ...

'') 1948 * Sweet Pacific 1971 * The Tool Box (broadcast on ''

Curiosity Shop ''Curiosity Shop'' is an American children's educational television program produced by ABC. The show was executive produced by veteran Looney Tunes director/animator Chuck Jones, sponsored by the Kellogg's cereal company and created as a comme ...

'') - September 2, 1971

Australian shorts

1962 * Wambidgee

Cancelled Projects

* Casey Jones * Davy Crockett * Gulliver's Travels * Johnny Appleseed * Sinbad * Three Little Princes (login needed)

Sources

* *

References

External links

The George Pal Puppetoon site

at

Don Markstein's Toonopedia Don Markstein's Toonopedia (subtitled A Vast Repository of Toonological Knowledge) is an online encyclopedia of print cartoons, comic strips and animation, initiated February 13, 2001. Donald D. Markstein, the sole writer and editor of Toonopedi ...

Archived
from the original on August 24, 2016. * * {{Animation Animated film series American film series Short film series Film series introduced in 1932 Film series introduced in 1940 Puppet films 1930s stop-motion animated films 1940s stop-motion animated films