Here’s another simple Thunderbean Thursday for this week, written between packing for a trip to the Lightbox Expo, an animation conference in Pasadena. The school is sponsoring the trip, and it will be nice to see a lot of friends and Alumni from CCS while I’m there. I’ll also be looking over some films while on the trip that will be on some of the upcoming sets. If you’re there too and see me say hi!

In Thunderbean News:
The “Halloween Cartoon Party” special set is on its way to everyone now, and we’ve listed the Holiday one— this year titled “Cartoon Christmas Present”. The pre-order is at the Thunderbean Shop for a few weeks. Thanks to everyone for supporting all these things through the years.

After the whirlwind that is the next handful of days, I’m looking forward to sitting down and reviewing/updating the Felix the Cat digital scan archive here- and adding the additional films we’ve scanned in the last handful of years. Right now, it’s the largest gathering of 35mm elements on Felix, and they really deserve to be seen.

Onto this week’s cartoon: Midnight (1930)

This entry in the Aesop’s Fables series is a little lesser seen than some of the other titles. Any cartoon with this many cats in it deserves at least a listen since you’re likely to really funny meows on the soundtrack. While it isn’t an outstanding cartoon, it’s still fun. My favorite shot may very well be the cats on a fence in shadow, dancing in unison with a single female kitty also in silhouette in the window. Before too long there’s a massive cat and dog brawl that’s right at some with the silent Aesop’s cartoons. A pretty average cartoon for this period— but the one real oddity is a strangely designed Jewish stereotype dog in the picture, who appears as double in his first shot. It’s perhaps the strangest design of any character I’ve seen in a Van Beuren Cartoon- and that’s really saying something.

The print didn’t have a great time tracking on the scanner over this last weekend, so this scan in a bit of a bumpy ride to watch. Still, I hope you enjoy it!

Have a good week everyone!