It’s a short one this week and I scramble to finish several project here. More on that soon.

I was honestly surprised that I never posted this short before — but then again, maybe it would have been better to not post it now either!!

First, in Thunderbean land:

On Saturday, along with film historian John Monahan, I’m doing our annual classic cartoon festival show at the Redford Theatre in Redford, Michigan. I love doing this show since it gives me a chance to screen some of the prints I’ve near seen on the big screen, along with restorations of some of the things we’ve been doing. It’s at 2pm only on Saturday. So, if you’re not too far away come see cartoons on the big screen! About half the show is vintage 35mm Technicolor prints! CLICK HERE for details and tickets.

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And — this week’s cartoon—er, sort of:

Dolly Doings (1917) is one of the ‘Motoy’ series, featuring animated children’s dolls moving courtesy of stop motion animation. A title card informs us that dolls come to life daily, for just one moment. The various dolls are introduced Some are pretty standard, others more kewpie-esque and cartoony dolls.

This little film is more interesting than actually good. The doll animation is pretty uninspired, and I think something is lost in the humor department over the last 108 years or so. Looking at what was being produced around the same time, it’s definitely not in the best category. It looks like around 16 were made in the series. It would be interesting to see some of the others as well. One Mary and Gretel, seems to be around online.

This short is part of the Technicolor Dreams and Black and White Nightmares blu-ray set… and I think it falls closer to the nightmare catagory. It actually short of reminds me of ‘Street of Crocodiles’ short from the Brother’s Quay:

Have a good week everyone!