Saturday, August 18, 2007

Silent Cartoons: Dinky Doodle in "Peter Pan Handled" (1925)

Sorry for the lack of updates. I'm experiencing some technical problems with my computer, and I was unable to prepare any screenshots for the last five days. Things will soon get back to normal.

So, here's something for all the fans of silent cartoons. It's an early work by Walter Lantz, produced at The Bray Studios in New York. Dinky Doodle series, created and directed by Lantz lasted for two years (1925-26) and proved to be quite popular with the audience of that time. It's a combination of animation and live action, similar to Fleischer's "Out of the Inkwell" cartoons. The main characters are a boy named Dinky Doodle, his dog Weakheart, and Walter Lantz himself (with Harold Lloyd glasses) in the live-action role of a cartoonist and friend of the main characters.
Majority of Dinky Doodle cartoons is now considered as lost. A small number has survived, mostly in the form of good quality French theatrical prints. Here's one of them : "Peter Pan Handled", released on April 26, 1925.

Enjoy the screenshots from this very rare cartoon: