An alternate history of animated films
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This showed up in my in box today.
Love to see a Star Trek Animated Series with this style look.
1960
1960
Warner Brothers releases The Sneetches and Other Stories, a compilation film of four short stories written by Dr. Seuss and hosted by Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Despite the good critical reviews (in particular, the titular Sneetches segment is praised for being a satire on the rampant racism and classism going on at the time), Seuss had a huge feud with director Chuck Jones during production. Seuss wanted every character featured to be created by him, but Jones wanted Bugs and Daffy to host the segments to remind the audience they were watching a Warner Brothers film. This feud results in Seuss leaving Warner Brothers to live an independent life as a children's book author, leaving Chuck Jones to finish the film himself. Chuck Jones then announces his first film in over a decade without Seuss's involvement: an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.
In the same year, WB releases The Bugs Bunny Show, an anthology television series of old shorts with new animated linking sequences. Meanwhile, Disney releases its first original animated series: Uncle Scrooge, adapted from the Carl Barks comics of the same name, and starring Dallas McKennon as the titular rich duck, along with Clarence Nash reprising his role as Donald and his triplet nephews.
Warner Brothers releases The Sneetches and Other Stories, a compilation film of four short stories written by Dr. Seuss and hosted by Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck. Despite the good critical reviews (in particular, the titular Sneetches segment is praised for being a satire on the rampant racism and classism going on at the time), Seuss had a huge feud with director Chuck Jones during production. Seuss wanted every character featured to be created by him, but Jones wanted Bugs and Daffy to host the segments to remind the audience they were watching a Warner Brothers film. This feud results in Seuss leaving Warner Brothers to live an independent life as a children's book author, leaving Chuck Jones to finish the film himself. Chuck Jones then announces his first film in over a decade without Seuss's involvement: an adaptation of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book.
In the same year, WB releases The Bugs Bunny Show, an anthology television series of old shorts with new animated linking sequences. Meanwhile, Disney releases its first original animated series: Uncle Scrooge, adapted from the Carl Barks comics of the same name, and starring Dallas McKennon as the titular rich duck, along with Clarence Nash reprising his role as Donald and his triplet nephews.
Warner Brother never felt the need to have other Cartoons hosted by Bug and Daffy.
They just let the work stand on it own.
Chuck Jones would not have worried about people knowing they were watching a Warner Brother Cartoon. He would have worried about making the best cartoon he could.
I just can't see the film mixing the classic characters and the Dr Suess Characters.
Well, remember that this film is opening the same year as The Bugs Bunny Show, so having the segments hosted by Bugs and Daffy would help promote that show. And it was common in these days for anthology films to be hosted by classic characters, so that's another reason why I made the decision.
Also, remember that the Seuss stories that are films ITTL were movies first.
Warner Brothers producing the Jungle Book instead of Disney? That should be interesting. I think Chuck Jones can do it; he did an animated version of Rikki Tikki Tavi by Rudyard Kipling. Speaking of which, do we still get Rikki Tikki ITTL?
With that Uncle Scrooge cartoon being made now, will this butterfly away Ducktales or any of the other Disney Afternoon entries of the 1980s & 1990s (Chip'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Talespin, etc)?
With that Uncle Scrooge cartoon being made now, will this butterfly away Ducktales or any of the other Disney Afternoon entries of the 1980s & 1990s (Chip'n Dale Rescue Rangers, Talespin, etc)?
IOTL, he also did an adaptation of The White Seal and Mowgli's Brother's. I could see Chuck Jones ITTL having Rikki-Tikki-Tavi and The White Seal as shorts in front of The Jungle Book and The Second Jungle Book respectively.
I could see Uncle Scrooge being rebooted a few decades later. Talespin will definitely be butterflied away, since The Jungle Book will be made by Warner Brothers instead of Disney.
Talespin was originally pitched as a spinoff for Launchpad McQuack so it could still happen, but if they go that route no Darkwing Duck I'm afraid
Launchpad wasn't created until the eighties IOTL, and he was meant to be a replacement for Donald since the higher-ups didn't want him as one of the main characters. Launchpad has been butterflied away ITTL.
It's also worth noting that since Disney hasn't gained as much prominence ITTL, that probably means the animation age ghetto isn't as strong, and therefore the TV shows from Hanna-Barbera and whatnot are probably a bit more mature than IOTL. (And by mature, I mean topics that children don't understand, not a whole bunch of sex, swearing, and violence. That kind of thing won't come until the Hayes Code is lifted, though hopefully that kind of animation won't be as common, since there isn't as much of a stigma to subvert.)
Next up is Disney's 101 Dalmatians and Walter Lantz's Peter Rabbit.
101 Dalmatians won't be too different, though I'm thinking of casting Tallulah Bankhead as Cruella instead of Betty Lou Gerson, because it's obvious the character was modeled off of Bankhead and celebrity voice acting is more common ITTL.
Peter Rabbit will be an adaptation of three Beatrix Potter stories: The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, and The Tale of Mr. Tod. Here is the voice cast I'm picturing:
Peter Rabbit (young): Kurt Russell
Peter's mother: Grace Stafford
Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail: June Foray
Mr. McGregor: Hans Conried
Benjamin Bunny (young): Dick Beals
Mrs. McGregor: Verna Felton
McGregor's cat: June Foray
Benjamin's father: J. Pat O'Malley
Peter Rabbit (adult): Mickey Rooney
Benjamin Bunny (adult): Sam Edwards
Tommy Brock: Terry-Thomas
Mr. Tod: Sebastian Cabot
101 Dalmatians won't be too different, though I'm thinking of casting Tallulah Bankhead as Cruella instead of Betty Lou Gerson, because it's obvious the character was modeled off of Bankhead and celebrity voice acting is more common ITTL.
Peter Rabbit will be an adaptation of three Beatrix Potter stories: The Tale of Peter Rabbit, The Tale of Benjamin Bunny, and The Tale of Mr. Tod. Here is the voice cast I'm picturing:
Peter Rabbit (young): Kurt Russell
Peter's mother: Grace Stafford
Flopsy, Mopsy, and Cottontail: June Foray
Mr. McGregor: Hans Conried
Benjamin Bunny (young): Dick Beals
Mrs. McGregor: Verna Felton
McGregor's cat: June Foray
Benjamin's father: J. Pat O'Malley
Peter Rabbit (adult): Mickey Rooney
Benjamin Bunny (adult): Sam Edwards
Tommy Brock: Terry-Thomas
Mr. Tod: Sebastian Cabot
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Kurt Russell would be my first choice for the voice of a American Version of Tintin.
1961
1961
Disney releases 101 Dalmatians, which is different from previous Disney films for abandoning the traditional ink and paint process of animation, instead using a xerox machine to copy drawings directly onto cels, resulting in a scratchier appearance than the previous Disney films. In this case, the new style is an advantage, making it easier to animate many dogs with many spots, and ultimately making films cheaper and faster to make. The company announces that all announced future films will be animated this way. The film itself gets great critical reception, with many critics calling it the best film since Snow White.
Universal releases Walter Lantz's Peter Rabbit, which decent critical reviews, but is only modestly successful. Upon seeing this new xerox process for 101 Dalmatians, Lantz decides to take advantage of this for his future films.
Disney releases 101 Dalmatians, which is different from previous Disney films for abandoning the traditional ink and paint process of animation, instead using a xerox machine to copy drawings directly onto cels, resulting in a scratchier appearance than the previous Disney films. In this case, the new style is an advantage, making it easier to animate many dogs with many spots, and ultimately making films cheaper and faster to make. The company announces that all announced future films will be animated this way. The film itself gets great critical reception, with many critics calling it the best film since Snow White.
Universal releases Walter Lantz's Peter Rabbit, which decent critical reviews, but is only modestly successful. Upon seeing this new xerox process for 101 Dalmatians, Lantz decides to take advantage of this for his future films.
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In addition to your suggestions of Karloff as Gandalf and Vincent Price, I previously suggested James Coburn, Yul Brenner, Leonard Nimoy, and Orson Well, you can always goes with Peter Cushing or Christopher Lee. Peter Lorie as Grima Wormtoungue in Two Towers seem obvious.
Gene Deitch? Does that mean we'll get stylized animation like Deitch's work at Terrytoons or his Tom & Jerry cartoons? Or will the art be more realistic like OTL's film by Bakshi? Any rotoscoping like Bakshi's version?