Petunia Natural Park

I just got to see this animated short on Cartoon Network's sister station, Boomerang the other night & wondered "why has this stuff become so lost and obscure?" Most of the Kaptain & The Kids shorts for M-G-M were mostly shot in black & white (a sure to be prejudice in most cases),and had humor that would be somewhat dated by today's standards. Pity. The Kaptain shorts were beautifully detailed & animated & had the same kind of frantic pacing that the Tom & Jerry shorts would have a few years later in the 1940's. Although most of them lack credits,it is known that Joseph Barbara directed some of them before his teaming with William Hannah for the T&J shorts. If there was any justice in life,this stuff would be available on DVD. My hats off to M-G-M studios for maintaining the high quality of the original 35mm prints of these shorts,and Boomerang for airing them (even though it is late a night).

In the 1910s, "The Katzenjammer Kids" was a very popular cartoon series in newspapers. In fact, it lasted for many decades. Oddly, however, in 1938, the owners of the series signed a deal with MGM to make Katzenjammer cartoons...though, inexplicably, they were re-titled "The Captain and the Kids". The cartoons apparently were a flop, as they only made 15 during a period of about a year and then the series made by the trio of Hanna-Barbera-Freleng was shelved.

As I watched "Petunia Natural Park", I was surprised because the film seemed almost nothing like the Katzenjammer/Captain and the Kids products. First, instead of just seeing the family and their antics, there is extensive narration and it's much more like a travelogue cartoon. In fact, in many scenes, you don't see either of the mischievous kids. Early in the cartoon you see four people in the family car....and near the end, they magically appear in the car with the four adults. But their antics are almost non-existent and the whole style is nothing like the comic strip (which mostly consisted of the bratty boys making the Captain's life miserable). After seeing this okay cartoon, I can see why the series never took off...it just wasn't Katzenjammery enough! However, I will give the film a few extra points for its excellent animation and beautiful backgrounds.

Petunia National Park (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The series must have been doing good because this The Captain and the Kids short was filmed in Technicolor. The Captain takes the family to the title place so that they can understand the nature. A few funny bits including the best gag being where the Captain tries to avoid feeding a bear.

Cleaning House (1938)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

First of eighteen animated shorts of MGM's The Captain and the Kids series. The mother has the kids and the Captain doing housework but the Cap decides to play sick. Not too many laughs but the animation is nice and there's a good trick ending. It's funny to know that MGM didn't think this series would last so they went cheap and made this first film in B&W.

Mama's New Hat (1939)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Final cartoon from The Captain and the Kids series and it's back in black and white. The boys buy mama a hat for mother's day but this makes a female horse jealous so she tries to steal the hat. This one here has a lot more action than the previous two films but they forgot to make the horse funny or charming.

The Captain and the Kids head over to Petunia Natural Park --- a burlesque of Yosemite -- in this mashup of cartoons and MGM's own TRAVELTALKS series of travelogues.

Friz Freleng , who had been lured over to Metro with promises of greater freedom than Leon Schlesinger gave him, hated working on this serues by all reports, and getting no credit for it. That didn't stop him from doing the workmanlike job that he could, timing out the gags and resulting in a a good cartoon with the color choices of a Sunday edition page.

It's MGM's The Captain and The Kids. The gang goes to Petunia Natural Park for vacation. It's early colored cartoon from some of the greatest animation pioneers. It's generally fun although the characters should be more differentiated and have more time to fill out their personalities. They aren't really individuals. The gags are mostly harmless fun. There is a broad charm to the material.