My good friend David Gerstein and I often imitate this particular cartoon when we think about the early sound years – and since this was part of the show this week in New York, I thought it would be fun to share it.

But first — the doings of Thunder and Bean:

As mentioned above, I went out to New York to see Jerry Beck’s shows of restored cartoons, and was happy to have been able to co-host the second show, curated by Jerry and myself. It was great to see some old friends as well as meet some folks I’ve known online here and around the internet. Both shows were sell-outs, and it was wonderful to see people enjoying the films on the big screen. The Film Forum has both excellent picture and sound, and the tracks from a lot of the things we’re working on sounded especially good on their great sound system.

I’m just getting back from the trip, and took an extra day to scan a bunch of things. Some of the films we just did are Mini-Toons made for Coca Cola – all in 35mm Super Cinecolor. I’ve never seen any of these particular spots – and looking forward to sharing them when we’re ready to! More on this soon.

After I recover from all the driving on this trip(!) Im excited to get several things completely finished that are ahead of hare’s breath away from being final. Rainbow Parades volume 2 is one of those.

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And now — onto our cartoon!

Romeeow (1930) feels the most like an older Felix than the other sound releases that were made specifically for sound release. It’s clever and funny, and the simple execution of gags keeps each new additional gag a surprise until it happens. It’s also well animated throughout. Even though it was made to work with sound, it’s pretty clear that the studio had no idea how to change the production methodology to best utilize music and sound. The track is almost an afterthought, and other than enjoying the strangeness of Felix’s little chirping meows, there’s not much there that makes the film better in any way.

Still, this is one of my favorites of the series. It was really fun seeing an audience enjoy the short on Monday. This is scanned from the original camera negative — one of the very few that exists on the original Felix the Cat shorts. We haven’t cleaned up this short as of yet, but at some point we will. One of the coolest things about seeing the camera neg is that you can see the pencil line work underneath the inking very clearly in some shots. Funny enough, this same short has shown up in other 35mm prints, but note that this print is full silent frame since it’s the camera neg.

One of these days David Gerstein and myself will return to the Felix project along with other collaborators most likely – but definitely after our whole plate is a little less busy. Have a good week all!