Petunia Natural Park

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.

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).

One of the few Captain cartoons done in color, this was a parody of the travelogue shorts popular at the time. The narration is a large part of the success of this short. Funny, pointed and often sarcastic and/or irreverent, the narration is the funniest aspect of this particular cartoon, part of a series MGM did based on the comic strip featuring Der Captain and the Kids. The Captain is his typical bumbling, ill-mannered self, of course. Well worth watching. Recommended.

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.

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.