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Classic Animated Shorts from Paramount

Raggedy Ann and Andy
March 11, 2017 - 7:30 pm
Billy Wilder Theater
In-person: 
ASIFA-Hollywood president Jerry Beck and executive director Frank Gladstone, head of preservation Scott MacQueen.

UCLA Film & Television Archive is pleased to present this selection of new and recent restorations of classic animated shorts distributed by Paramount Pictures, featuring the timeless work of Max and Dave Fleischer and stop-motion pioneer George Pal.

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood)

Dinah  (1932)


By the early 1930s, John, Herbert, Harry and Donald Mills, a.k.a. The Mills Brothers, had established themselves as one of the biggest acts on radio with their unique four-part harmonizing accentuated by their uncanny ability to imitate musical instruments with their voices.  They made their big screen debut in Paramount’s The Big Broadcast (1932) before being featured in three Fleischer Bros. “Screen Song” shorts, including this one, which invites you to follow the bouncing ball and sing along with their rollicking rendition of “Dinah.”  —Paul Malcolm

35mm, b/w, 7 min.  Director: Dave Fleischer.  Production: Paramount Publix Corp.  Distribution: Paramount Publix Corp.  Presented by: Max Fleischer.  With: The Mills Brothers.

Restored from a 35mm acetate print.  Laboratory services by Fotokem, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Inc., Simon Daniel Sound.  Special thanks to Paramount Pictures.

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by The Packard Humanities Institute

Honest Love and True  (1938)


Betty Boop, lost in the Klondike, found!  Honest Love and True is one of two Boops for which all the original elements were lost long before the cartoons were sold to television in the 1950s.  Betty is a Klondike saloon singer and as usual, the moustachioed proprietor tries to take her boop-oop-a-doop away, only to be foiled by a friendly member of the RCMP.  Sadly, we can't hear Betty's booping as the 16mm copy discovered in the Netherlands by animation historian Dave Gerstein lacks a soundtrack.  —Scott MacQueen

35mm, b/w, 7 min.  Director: Dave Fleischer.  Production: Paramount Pictures, Inc.  Distribution: Paramount Pictures, Inc. 

Restored from a 16mm mute print.  Laboratory services by The Stanford Theatre Film Laboratory.  Special thanks to: Eye Filmmuseum, Elif Rongen, Catherine Common, David Gerstein, Jerry Beck, Paramount Pictures.

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Educated Fish  (1937)


A rascally, truant fish who refuses to pay attention in class learns his lesson quick when he’s snapped up on a fisherman’s hook and barely escapes in one piece.  The Fleischer Bros.’ bouncing bonhomie on full display here helped earn them an Academy Award nomination for this charming short subject.  —Paul Malcolm

35mm, Technicolor, 8 min.  Director: Dave Fleischer.  A Max Fleischer Color Classic.  Production: Paramount Pictures Corp.  Distribution: Paramount Pictures Corp.  Presented by Adolph Zukor.  Animated by Myron Waldman and Hicks Lokey.  Music and Lyrics by Sammy Timberg and Bob Rothberg.

Restored from the 35mm nitrate successive exposure negative and the 35mm nitrate track negative by The Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Paramount Pictures.  Laboratory services by Cinetech, Deluxe Media Services, Chace Audio by Deluxe.

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and The AFI/NEA Film Preservation Grants Program

Rhythm in the Ranks  (1941)


A toy soldier is drummed out the of the service after a beautiful ice skater catches his eye on duty but when the Screwball army declares war, the soldier gets another chance at redemption—and romance.  Whimsical in tone and set to the syncopated sound of The Raymond Scott Quintette’s “The Toy Trumpet,” Rhythm in the Ranks earned George Pal, employing his Puppetoons stop-motion animation technique, his first Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject.  —Paul Malcolm

35mm, color, 10 min.  Director: George Pal.  Production: George Pal Productions, Inc.

Restored by The Academy Film Archive and UCLA Film & Television Archive in cooperation with Paramount Pictures from the 35mm nitrate original successive exposure picture negative and track negative.  Laboratory services by YCM Laboratories, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Inc.

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood)

A Cartoon Travesty of the Raven  (1942)


In the Fleischer Bros.’ animated take on Edgar Allen Poe’s The Raven, the titular bird still comes “rapping and a tapping” at the door but rather than a harbinger of inconsolable grief, he’s selling vacuum cleaners.  That is until the big bad wolf tempts him to rob the joint instead.  Add in the lord of the manor, a kilt-wearing Scottie dog, and things go off the literary rails pretty quickly as the anarchic fun ramps up.  —Paul Malcolm

35mm, color, 14 min.  Director: Dave Fleischer.  A Max Fleischer Cartoon.  Production: Paramount Pictures Corp.  Distribution: Paramount Pictures Corp.  Story: Carl Meyer, Pinto Colvig.  Musical Arrangement: Sammy Timberg.  

Restored from the 35mm nitrate successive exposure negative and the 35mm track negative.  Laboratory services by YCM Labs, Fotokem, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Inc., Simon Daniel Sound.  Special thanks to Paramount Pictures.

Restored by UCLA Film & Television Archive with funding provided by The International Animated Film Society (ASIFA-Hollywood)

Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy  (1940)


The homespun charm of Raggedy Ann and Andy, the beloved characters conceived by turn-of-the-century illustrator and author Johnny Gruelle, ably transposed to the big screen by Max and Dave Fleischer who spin a charming origin story for the iconic ragamuffins in this Technicolor fairy tale.  Brought to life in Glad Rags Doll Factory in the mythical Ragland, Ann and Andy are separated while on their way to the Castle of Names until the Camel with the Wrinkled Knees comes to the rescue. —Paul Malcolm

35mm, color, 18 min.  Director: Dave Fleischer.  Production: Paramount Pictures Corp.  Distribution: Paramount Pictures Corp.  Adapted from stories by Johnny Gruelle.  Story: William Turner, Worth Gruelle.  Musical Arrangement: Sammy Timberg.

Restored from the 35mm nitrate successive exposure negative and the 35mm track negative.  Laboratory services by YCM Labs, Fotokem, Audio Mechanics, DJ Audio, Inc., Simon Daniel Sound.  Special thanks to Paramount Pictures.

Watch the conversation with ASIFA-Hollywood president Jerry Beck and executive director Frank Gladstone, moderated by UCLA Film & Television Archive head of preservation Scott MacQueen:

Part of: 
2017 UCLA Festival of Preservation