Clutch Cargo

Time heals wounds. Maybe that is why I gave this cartoon such a high rating. Correct me if I'm wrong, but doesn't Clutch Cargo look like Leslie Nielson, Officer Dribble of NAKED GUN? CLUTCH CARGO aired early in the morning in Buffalo, NY on WGR (channel 2) back in the early 1960s. Being less than 5-minutes, an episode could fit almost anywhere there was a moment of dead air, not that it was that much of an improvement. But seriously now, these episodes were fun to watch. Each episode was very short and the animators were very clever in masking the lack of animation by using bushes or any other obstacle to hide the lack of movement in their legs as they walked. It was a unique blend of incredibly good artwork combined with incredibly bad animation. What really set this cartoon apart from the rest was the real live acting moving lips which were super-imposed on the cartoon characters' faces. This was a really neat novelty at the time.

"An oxymoron. An animation of still pictures, with human lips" --not really, it's actually cognitive dissonance: two conflicting cognitive inputs can't be resolved...like Clutch Cargo's lips. Conan O'Brien must have been haunted by these images from his childhood. It would explain a lot about his sense of humor. It's amazing the stuff that was foisted on Baby Boomers like Clutch Cargo, Gumby and Davey and Goliath. It makes you wonder if the KGB hadn't infiltrated TV and come up with a way to warp our young minds. People think that video games and CG cartoons are bad today just imagine how these low-tech attempts at entertainment warped us...did I mention the Thunderbirds are GO!

Created by Charles Haas (for Cambria Productions) - "Clutch Cargo" (1959-1960) was a limited animation cartoon adventure story that I found to be entertaining mainly from a nostalgic perspective on things.

Using the novelty of Syncro-Vox (superimposing real human mouths onto the faces of the cartoon characters) - Clutch Cargo was an international globetrotter (on dangerous missions) who brought along with him his ward, Spinner and his pet dachshund, Paddlefoot.

All-in-all - I thought that this vintage cartoon was at least worth a view.

A very strange cartoon. It was an action cartoon with still pictures. Moving human lips were superimposed on the still pictures for the dialogue. It was rather creepy, but we all tried to copy the way Clutch talked.

If you like Jonny Quest, Exotica music, old "Still Animation" like those 1966 Marvel cartoons and weird animation techniques, you really gonna enjoy this rather obscure curiosity.