User:ChrisTheCat73/sandbox/Famous Studios (1955-1967)

Due to immense budget cuts in 1955 due to the rise of television, Famous Studios was downsized and assumed fully by Paramount, who renamed the cartoon studio as Paramount Cartoon Studios. While most of the Famous Studios output from 1942 to 1955 received mixed-to-positive reception, the shorts from 1955 until the closure of the cartoon studio in 1967 received critical backlash from animation buffs, critics, and audiences alike, owing to Paramount's takeover on Famous Studios and layoffs and budget cuts bought throughout.

This article will be talking about the shorts from "Lil' Audrey Riding Hood" up to "Mouse Trek".

Why This Era Sucks

 * 1) To start off, during October 1956, Paramount bought Famous Studios, forcing Seymour Kneitel to layoff over 20 staff members from the animation studio, including Izzy Sparber and Dave Tendlar. The impact as a result was massive, leading to numerous problems listed below.
 * 2) Extremely awful animation quality that is heavily resemblant of television cartoons at that time, and is a severe downgrade from other cartoons at the time (even comparing to the Gene Deitch era of Tom and Jerry, the Format Films and early Warner Bros.-Seven Arts cartoons of Looney Tunes, and the late cartoons of Woody Woodpecker). While it doesn't look bad for the early cartoons of 1955-57, by 1959, the animation has hit the lowest.
 * 3) The title card sequences were changed to be more simplified and has ugly typography, particularly with the Noveltoons intro used in 1964-65.
 * 4) Awfully weak writing that doesn't stay true to the original cartoons, especially in the Modern Madcap series.
 * 5) Extremely slow pacing for most of the shorts, making the jokes fall flat or drag out for too long.
 * 6) Simplistic, angular, and rigid character designs, which also all now suffer thick outlines. Herman, Katnip, Little Audrey, Moe Hare, and Tommy Tortoise got impacted by this the most.
 * 7) As with most of the Famous Studio shorts from the previous years, most of the gags remain to be predictable and overused, while also rather violent and realistic.
 * 8) Most of the new characters introduced in this era comes off as bland, annoying, or rips off traits of other characters from more popular studios. By 1959, due to Paramount selling their better-known characters such as Casper and Little Audrey to Harvey Comics, almost all of the characters are one-offs, giving them no room for character development.
 * 9) Many of the shorts in this era rips off previous Famous Studios cartoons or even material from other studios:
 * 10) * "T.V. Fuddlehead" is a ripoff of the 1957 Terrytoon cartoon "Topsy TV".
 * 11) * "From Dime to Dime" is a ripoff of the 1957 Moe Hare and Tommy Tortoise cartoon "Mr. Money Gags", which is also a rehash of the 1956 Bugs Bunny cartoon "Barbary Coast Bunny".
 * 12) * "The Mighty Termite" is a ripoff of the 1948 Porky Pig cartoon "The Pest That Came to Dinner".
 * 13) * "Turtle Scoop" is a ripoff of the 1955 Snapper cartoon "News Hound".
 * 14) * "In the Nicotine" is a ripoff of the 1954 Buzzy the Crow cartoon "No Ifs, Ands, or Butts".
 * 15) * "The Inquisit Visit" is a ripoff of the 1960 Bugs Bunny/Daffy Duck/Elmer Fudd cartoon "Person to Bunny".
 * 16) * "Homer on the Range" is a rehash of the 1961 Tom and Jerry cartoon "Tall in the Trap".
 * 17) * "The Sheepish Wolf" is a ripoff of the Sam Sheepdog and Ralph Wolf shorts of Looney Tunes.
 * 18) Many of the final cartoons starring the classic crew relied heavily on recycling stock footage from older cartoons, making the footage not blend well with the new style.
 * 19) By 1959, Paramount ended up selling all of the earlier 1950-58 cartoons to Harvey Comics, disallowing them from using the main cast (such as Casper, Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey, Baby Huey, and Moe Hare and Tommy Tortoise) after that year. To replace the characters, several ripoffs were made, most notably Goodie the Gremlin, who is a ripoff of Casper, Skit and Skat, who are ripoffs of Herman and Katnip, and Mortimer Tortoise and the Hare, who are ripoffs of Tommy Tortoise and Moe Hare.
 * 20) * While Paramount would later attempt to sell their 1958-62 cartoons to Harvey Comics again, this flopped miserably, as they were rarely shown in syndication at the time until The Harveytoons Show.
 * 21) After 1958, budget cuts were also made towards the coloring process, resorting to cheaper alternatives. While not necessarily a bad thing, most of the cartoons in this era suffers from dull, dark, or washed-out colors.
 * 22) Overuse of Native American stereotyping in these cartoons, to the point where it isn't funny and comes out as tasteless. In comparison, most other theatrical cartoons of the time either didn't use these stereotypes or used it at a minimum.
 * 23) Many of the characters who were retired in this era such as Popeye, Casper, Herman and Katnip, and Baby Huey ended their Golden Age careers on sour notes.
 * 24) Due of Paramount's new owners, Gulf+Western started the process to shut down the studio in Winter 1968, which shut down in December 31, 1969, in the day of the release of the studio's last short and Fractured Fables finale, "Mouse Trek", Paramount didn't have an animation studio of its own again for years until 2011, when they founded Paramount Animation, despite almost their movies (with the exception of the SpongeBob film sequels) received mixed-to-negative reception.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Passable music from Winston Sharples, especially in "Mr. Money Gags". Likewise, many of the title tunes still remain catchy, such as the one used for Noveltoons and Modern Madcaps during this era.
 * 2) The cartoons would slightly better themselves when Howard Post took over direction of the studio following Seymour Kneitel's passing, although this improvement is rather small. However, the cartoons would have more creative plots and slightly less predictable gags.
 * 3) There are still a decent amount of good shorts, especially early in this era. They include:
 * 4) * "Lil' Audrey Riding Hood" (which started this era on a high note)
 * 5) * "Kitty Cornered"
 * 6) * "Sleuth but Sure"
 * 7) * "Swab the Duck"
 * 8) * "Pest Pupil"
 * 9) * "Mr. Money Gags" (which ended Moe Hare's and Tommy Tortoise's careers on high notes)
 * 10) * "L'Amour the Merrier"
 * 11) * "La Petite Parade"