The Rabbit Hole

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“I got my short comings and my flaws. I ain’t better than nobody else. But the shootings that’s going on, man, I don’t care what hood you’re from, man, or where you at, man. You know I love you, man. Put the guns down, man. That ain’t what it is.” – George Floyd

George Floyd moved to Minnesota for a fresh start — an opportunity to better himself and to be a better father.

And while so many now know the Houston native by his full name, those who knew him best called him Floyd.

He worked security at a restaurant where he developed a reputation as someone who had your back and was there for you when you were down.

“Knowing my brother is to love my brother,” Philonise Floyd, George’s brother, said Tuesday.

“He’s a gentle giant, he don’t hurt anybody.”

Read the remainder of the article here: https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.cnn.com/cnn/2020/05/27/us/george-floyd-trnd/index.html

A Riot is the Language of the Unheard

Martin Luther King, Jr.

I know I’m a little late, but I wanted to post this in tribute and memory of George Floyd. This never should have happened
again. We should be way passed this as a country. Instead it seems we continually make the same mistakes over and over again. When will this country ever learn? I hope that together we learn to make this a better place in which to live for ALL of us and for our children and that justice will be served.

Killer Mike Speech

One Time’s Got Not Case

Sir Mix-a-Lot (1992)

Hurricane

Bob Dylan (1976)

April 29, 1992 (Miami)

Sublime (1996)

Fuck tha Police

N.W.A. (1988)

George Floyd Memorial

RIP George. This never should have happened…again. Your death will not be in vain.

“And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen.” – Matthew 6:5-6

“I can’t breathe!” – George Floyd (May 25, 2020)

My heart goes out to the family of George Floyd. I’m so sorry this happened. I hope in some way our country learns from this horrific act of cold-blooded murder.

Star Spangled Banner

Jimi Hendrix (1969)

To support the Official George Floyd Memorial Fund click this link: https://www.gofundme.com/f/georgefloyd

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Killer Mike (2012)

The hyper-political R.A.P. Music track gets a hyper-political animated video.

Atlanta rapper Michael Santiago Render, known professionally as Killer Mike, released his sixth album this month. It’s called R.A.P. Music. The album’s title isn’t about hip-hop, per se, but refers to an acronym tweeted by another Georgian, a critic named Maurice Garland, two years ago. “He just put it up randomly: ‘Rap music is supposed to be Rebellious African People,’ ” Killer Mike told Morning Edition. “I said, ‘Yo, i’m naming my next album that.’ “

“First of all, all humanity is from Africa, and i think we’ve been trained to put color on it. But, in terms of the black people who were directly descended from Africa and brought here a few hundred years ago, that voice began in the fields as wailing, which turned into gospel. Gospel got secular and turned into blues, and blues got faster and became rock ‘n’ roll and became funk and became soul and R&B. What’s more American than young people speaking their mind over things they had to create over pots and pans and electronically because music was taken out of schools? What’s more American than making something out of nothing? What’s more gospel than rap music?”

Read the remainder of the NPR article here: https://www.npr.org/2012/06/19/155308252/killer-mike-on-ronald-reagan-and-raising-daughters

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Jan Ć vankmajer (1964)

The Last Trick of Mr. Schwarcewallde and Mr. Edgar is a 1964 Czechoslovak animated short film by Jan Ć vankmajer. It was Ć vankmajer’s first film.

Two magicians, Mr. Schwarzwald and Mr. Edgar, try to outdo each other in performing elaborate magic tricks, leading to a violent ending.

During the title sequence, the cast and crew are seen backstage preparing for their performance. The play depicts two mime-like magicians (who are portrayed by both costumed actors and Kuroko style puppets) named Mr. Edgar and Mr. Schwarzwald, trying to outdo each other by performing various stage tricks for the pleasure of an unseen audience. After each act, the two performers congratulate each other with a handshake. However, as tensions rise, the handshakes become less friendly and even violent. For his first trick, Edgar skins a fish by placing it inside his papier mache head; Schwarzwald one ups him by making a dog puppet perform various tricks on a tightrope; Edgar in turn grows several arms and begins playing various instruments simultaneously; Schwarzwald imitates this trick by growing several heads and juggling them; and Edgar causes several chairs to come alive and perform tricks at the crack of a whip. For the magicians’ last trick, Edgar and Schwarzwald make themselves disappear by tearing each other to pieces.

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Friz Freleng & Tex Avery (1935)

https://hobomooncartoons.com/2020/06/01/i-havent-got-a-hat/

I Haven’t Got a Hat is a 1935 animated short film, directed by Friz Freleng for Leon Schlesinger Productions as part of Merrie Melodies series. Released on March 2, 1935, the short is notable for featuring the first appearance of several Warner Bros. cartoon characters, most notably future cartoon star Porky Pig. It was also one of the earliest Technicolor Merrie Melodies, and was produced using Technicolor’s two-strip process (red and green) instead of its more expensive three-strip process.

Porky Pig is an animated character in the Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of cartoons. He was the first character created by the studio to draw audiences based on his star power, and the animators created many critically acclaimed shorts featuring the character. Even after he was supplanted by later characters, Porky continued to be popular with moviegoers and, more importantly, the Warners directors, who recast him in numerous everyman and sidekick roles.

He is known for his signature line at the end of many shorts, “Th-th-th-that’s all folks!” And he is the oldest continuing Looney Tunes character.

Porky’s most distinctive trait is a severe stutter, for which he sometimes compensates by replacing his words; for example, “What’s going on?” might become “What’s guh-guh-guh-guh—…what’s happening?” Porky’s age varied widely in the series; originally conceived as an innocent seven-year-old piglet, Porky was more frequently cast as an adult, often being cast as the competent straight man in the series in later years. In the ending of many Looney Tunes cartoons, Porky Pig bursts through a bass drum head, and his attempt to close the show with “The End” becomes “Th-Th-The, Th-Th-The, Th-Th… That’s all, folks!” Porky Pig would appear in 153 cartoons in the Golden age of American animation.

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Hugh Harman & Rudolf Ising (1929)


Schlesinger hired Hugh Harman and Rudolf Ising to produce their first series of cartoons. Bosko was the first major Looney Tunes lead character, debuting in the short Bosko, The Talk-Ink Kid in 1929. The first Looney Tunes short was Sinkin’ in the Bathtub, which was released in 1930.

In 1928, when Walt Disney lost control of his Oswald The Lucky Rabbit cartoon series, producer George Winkler hired away several of Disney’s animators to continue producing the Oswald cartoons for Universal Studios. These animators included Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, Isadore “Friz” Freleng, Carman “Max” Maxwell, Norm Blackburn, Paul Smith, and Rollin “Ham” Hamilton. Universal later chose to produce the Oswald series using its own in-house animators headed by Walter Lantz, which left Winkler’s animators out of work. The unemployed animators decided to produce their own cartoons and made Bosko, The Talk-Ink Kid as a demonstration to show to distributors. Rudolf Ising appeared on-screen as himself in the short and Carman Maxwell performed the voice of Bosko. Harman and Ising shopped for a distributor, but were turned down by both Paramount Pictures and Universal. Leon Schlesinger, head of Pacific Title & Art Studio took an interest in Bosko and used his connections with Warner Bros. to get a distribution deal for a cartoon series that Harman and Ising later named Looney Tunes, a play on the name of Walt Disney’s Silly Symphony series.

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Chuck Jones (1955)

One Froggy Evening is a 1955 American Technicolor animated musical short film written by Michael Maltese and directed by Chuck Jones, with musical direction by Milt Franklyn. The short, partly inspired by a 1944 Cary Grant film entitled Once Upon a Time involving a dancing caterpillar in a small box, marks the debut of Michigan J. Frog. This popular short contained a wide variety of musical entertainment, with songs ranging from “Hello! Ma Baby” and “I’m Just Wild About Harry”, two Tin Pan Alley classics, to “Largo al Factotum”, Figaro’s aria from the opera Il Barbiere di Siviglia. The short was released on December 31 (New Year’s Eve), 1955 as part of Warner Bros.’ Merrie Melodies series of cartoons.

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg, in the PBS Chuck Jones biographical documentary Extremes & Inbetweens: A Life in Animation, called One Froggy Evening “the Citizen Kane of animated shorts”. In 1994, it was voted No.  5 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. In 2003, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant”, and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

It Hopped One Night: A Look at “One Froggy Evening”

A Behind-the-Scenes look at the making of the classic Looney Tunes cartoon One Froggy Evening.

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Jay Oliva (2016)

Bruce Wayne is missing. Alfred covers for him while Nightwing and Robin patrol Gotham City in his stead. And a new player, Batwoman, investigates Batman’s disappearance.

Batman: Bad Blood is a 2016 direct-to-video animated superhero film which is part of the DC Universe Animated Original Movies and DC Animated Movie Universe. It serves as a sequel to the 2015 film Batman vs. Robin. While not a direct adaptation of a particular storyline, it derived from Grant Morrison’s run on Batman, who is known for his nonlinear narratives and countercultural leanings, primarily the Leviathan story arcs. Leviathan is a fictional criminal organization in DC Comics, later revealed to be a schism of the League of Assassins under the leadership of Talia al Ghul, the daughter of Ra’s al Ghul.

Jay Oliva is a storyboard artist, film producer, and animated film director working at Lex and Otis Animation Studio and is known for his work in the DC Universe Animated Original Movies, primarily Batman: the Dark Knight Returns.

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Fleischer Studios (1932)

Boop-Oop-a-Doop is an animated short film created by Fleischer Studios on January 16, 1932 as part of the Talkartoon series.

“Don’t Take My Boop–Oop-A-Doop Away” is a song, written by Sammy Timberg. It was first recorded for the short film Musical Justice (1931), with vocals by Mae Questel. It was then used in the 1932 Betty Boop Talkartoons cartoon Boop-Oop-a-Doop. The chorus follows as:

You can feed me bread and water,

Or a great big bale of hay,

But don’t take my boop-oop-a-doop away!

You can say my voice is awful,

Or my songs are too risqué.

Oh, but don’t take my boop-oop-a-doop away!

The word “boop-oop-a-doop” is considered nonsensical, but it can have a risquĂ© meaning. For example, in the Boop-Oop-a-Doop cartoon, it is thought that the word is used as a substitute for “virginity”.

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Loren Bouchard (2020)

Central Park is an animated musical comedy from Emmy Award-winner Loren Bouchard, creator of Bob’s Burgers, that follows the exploits of a family living in the world’s most famous park. The series voice cast includes Josh Gad, Leslie Odom, Jr., Kristen Bell, Kathryn Hahn, Tituss Burgess, Daveed Diggs, and Stanley Tucci.

Loren Bouchard is an American animator, writer, producer, television director, and composer. He is the creator of several animated TV shows such as Bob’s Burgers and Lucy, the Daughter of the Devil. He is also the co-creator of Home Movies with Brendon Small.

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Ryan Kramer (2020)

Wile E. Coyote tries to outsmart Road Runner with his painting skills.

Ryan Kramer is known for his work on Uncle Grandpa, Ben 10, and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. He enjoys making comics, raising kids, meditation, fitness, philosophy, and breakfast burritos. You can find him on Twitter @ToonholeRyan.

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David Gemmill (2020)

Cement Mason Porky Pig has his work cut out for him when he encounters a mischievous Daffy Duck.

David Gemmill is a writer, storyboard artist, and song writer who’s worked on episodes of Teen Titans Go! He created the song Crystals for Teen Titans Go! To the Movies and Straight Buggin’ for the Season 4 episode TV Knight 2. He was also one of the storyboard artists for Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.

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Ryan Kramer (2020)

When Bugs Bunny wants to take a ride on the roller coaster, Yosemite Sam, the carnie, claims no rabbits are allowed, so Bugs tries to get on anyway.

Ryan Kramer is known for his work on Uncle Grandpa, Ben 10, and Kung Fu Panda: Legends of Awesomeness. He enjoys making comics, raising kids, meditation, fitness, philosophy, and breakfast burritos. You can find him on Twitter @ToonholeRyan.

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Fleischer Studios (1932)

In these trying times only one can bring the nation together: Betty Boop for President.

Betty Boop for President is a 1932 Fleischer Studios animated short film starring Betty Boop. It was released by Paramount Pictures on November 4, 1932, four days before that year’s presidential election day.

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Hobo Moon (2020)

I’ve been on the road the last week enjoying the wilderness before the tourists start mucking it all up again so I haven’t been able to post anything in a little bit. This is one of the drawings I did on the road. I hope you enjoy this and the new Looney Tunes Cartoons episode I posted. Thanks for watching HMC!

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Kenny Pittenger & David Gemmill (2020)

Please enjoy this 11-minute episode from the new series “Looney Tunes Cartoons” which features three brand new shorts starring Tweety and Sylvester in Boo! Appetweet, Bugs and Elmer in Plunger, and Daffy Duck in Bubble Dum.

Starring the cherished Looney Tunes characters. Looney Tunes Cartoons echoes the high production value and process of the original Looney Tunes theatrical shorts with a cartoonist-driven approach to storytelling. Marquee Looney Tunes characters will be featured in their classic pairings in simple, gag-driven and visually vibrant stories. The new series from Warner Bros. Animation is comprised of animated shorts that vary in length and includes adapted storylines for today’s audience.

Looney Tunes Cartoons is an American animated web television series developed by Peter Browngardt and produced by Warner Bros. Animation, based on the characters from Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. The series made its worldwide debut at the Annecy International Animated Film Festival on June 10, 2019, and will premiere on HBO Max on May 27, 2020.

On June 11, 2018, Warner Bros. Animation announced that a new series, which would “consist of 1,000 minutes spread across 1–6 minute shorts”, would be released in 2019 and that it would feature “the brand’s marquee characters voiced by their current voice actors in simple gag-driven and visually vibrant stories”. The style of the series is to be reminiscent to those of Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson, Bob Clampett and others. President of Warner Bros. Animation, Sam Register (creator of Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi), along with Peter Browngardt (the creator of Secret Mountain Fort Awesome and Uncle Grandpa), serve as executive producers for the series.

The series will bring all of the Looney Tunes characters together under one roof, including marquee characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Sylvester Cat, Tweety Bird, Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Wile E. Coyote, Road Runner, Taz, Foghorn Leghorn, Beaky Buzzard, and PepĂ© Le Pew. Who else might show up? You’ll have to watch to find out.

Kenny Pittenger is known for his work on SpongeBob SquarePants and David Gemmill is known for his work on Teen Titans Go!

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Fleischer Studios (1933)

Snow-White, also known as Betty Boop in Snow-White, is a film in the Betty Boop series from Max Fleischer’s Fleischer Studios directed in 1933. Dave Fleischer was credited as director, although virtually all the animation was done by Roland Crandall. Crandall received the opportunity to make Snow-White on his own as a reward for his several years of devotion to the Fleischer studio, and the resulting film is considered both his masterwork and an important milestone of The Golden Age of American Animation. Snow-White took Crandall six months to complete.

The plot, such as it is, is really more a framework to display a series of gags, musical selections, and animation. Critics have cited the film as having some of the most imaginative animation and background drawings from the Fleischer Studios artists. Mae Questel performs the voices of Betty Boop and the Olive Oyl-ish Queen, and Cab Calloway is the voice of Koko the Clown, singing St. James Infirmary Blues. Koko’s dancing during the “St. James” number is rotoscoped from footage of Cab Calloway.

The film was deemed “culturally significant” by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry in 1994. The same year, it was voted #19 of the 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field. The film is now in the public domain.

History of Fleischer Studios

Fleischer Studios was an American corporation which originated as an animation studio located at 1600 Broadway, New York City, New York. It was founded in 1921 as Inkwell Studios by brothers Ma Fleischer and Dave Fleischer who ran the pioneering company from its inception until Paramount Pictures, the studio’s parent company and the distributor of its films, acquired ownership. In its prime, Fleischer Studios was a premier producer of animated cartoons for theaters, with Walt Disney Productions becoming its chief competitor in the 1930s.

Fleischer Studios is notable for Koko the Clown, Betty Boop, Bimbo, Popeye the Sailor, and Superman. Unlike other studios, whose characters were anthropomorphic animals, the Fleischers’ most successful characters were humans (With the exception of Bimbo in the 1930s.). The cartoons of the Fleischer Studio were very different from the Disney product, both in concept and in execution. As a result, the Fleischer cartoons were rough rather than refined, commercial rather than consciously artistic. But in their unique way, their artistry was expressed through a culmination of the arts and sciences. This approach focused on surrealism, dark humor, adult psychological elements, and sexuality, and the environments were grittier and urban, often set in squalid surroundings, reflecting the Depression as well as German Expressionism.

The Fleischer Studio was built on Max Fleischer’s novelty film series, Out of the Inkwell (1919-1927). The “novelty” was based largely on the results of the rotoscope, invented by Fleischer to produce realistic animation. The first Out of the Inkwell films were produced through The Bray Studio, and featured Fleischer’s first character, “The Clown,” which became known as Ko-Ko the Clown in 1924.

In 1921, The Bray Studio ran afoul with legal issues, having contracted for more films than it could deliver to its distributor, The Goldwyn Company. The Fleischer Brothers left and began their own studio with Dave as Director and Production Supervisor, and Max as Producer. In 1924, Veteran Animator, Dick Huemer came to The Inkwell Studio and redesigned “The Clown” for more efficient animation. Huemer’s new design and experience as an Animator moved them away from their dependency on The Rotoscope for fluid animation. In addition to defining the clown, Huemer established the Fleischer style with its distinctive thick and thin ink lines. In addition, Huemer created Ko-Ko’s companion, Fitz the Dog, who would evolve into Bimbo in 1930.

Throughout the 1920s, Fleischer was one of the leading producers of animation with clever moments and numerous innovations including the “Rotograph”, an early “Aerial Image” photographic process for compositing animation with live action backgrounds. Other innovations included Ko-Ko Song Car-Tunes and sing-along shorts featuring the famous bouncing ball, a precursor to Karaoke.