Line #7 Creator/Terrytoons


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/197813_1020_A_4295.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:Serving up a fresh, tasty dish of hastily prepared Classic Cartoons!]]
3
4	->"Disney is the Tiffany's in this business, and I am the Woolworth's."
5	-->--'''Paul Terry''' summing up Terrytoons in a nutshell.
6
7	One of the more obscure yet prolific studios from UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, Terrytoons was an animation studio with a close relationship with [[Creator/TwentiethCenturyStudios 20th Century Fox]], who handled distribution of the cartoons throughout much of its history[[note]]20th and Creator/{{RKO Pictures}} were the only studios in Hollywood who did not have in-house cartoon departments, relying solely on the third-party Terrytoons and Creator/{{Disney}}, respectively, to fill the holes; the rights to the Terrytoons theatrical library are now owned by Creator/{{Paramount}} following the 2019 merger of previous owners Creator/{{CBS}} and Paramount parent [[Creator/ParamountGlobal Viacom]] while the Terrytoons television library remains under the oversight of CBS Studios[[/note]]. It was founded by former Creator/{{Van Beuren\|Studios}} employee Paul Terry. It produced classic cartoon serials such as WesternAnimation/MightyMouse and WesternAnimation/HeckleAndJeckle.
8
9	Animation historians and modern animators (with occasional exceptions like Creator/LeonardMaltin and Creator/JohnKricfalusi) are hostile towards this studio and its output, writing off these cartoons as cheaply produced garbage only worth a footnote in their books. This is HilariousInHindsight because Paul Terry was considered the ''Dean of Animation'' in the 20's and 30's period of animation; even ''Creator/WaltDisney'' looked up to him and hoped to make cartoons as good and funny as his. Also, thanks to an online resurgence of the cartoons, not only on [=YouTube=] but many classic animation blogs and websites, the cartoons are slowly gaining a loyal fan following, particularly among modern animators.
10
11	The animation was helter skelter, but it had its merits: from the beginning it was [[BuffySpeak cartoony]] and lively, and the cartoons had good pacing and crisp visual jokes. Creator/JimTyer and Carlo Vinci in particular made some creative, wild animation in these shorts, which helped contribute to their popularity back when they were popular.
12
13	Terry himself didn't care how these cartoons were drawn or animated as long as the animators met their quota (which they usually did). There were and are many, many cartoons from this studio, but most of them (even the good ones) haven't gotten much airtime since the end of UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation.
14
15	This was the debut studio of ''six'' major animation stars: [[UsefulNotes/NoteworthyDisneyStaff Bill Tytla, Art Babbitt and Norm Ferguson]] of Creator/{{Disney}} fame, Creator/FrankTashlin before he became a director on WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes, Joseph Barbera of ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerry'' and Creator/HannaBarbera fame before he went to Creator/{{MGM}}, and Creator/RalphBakshi, who joined the studio in [[UsefulNotes/TheDarkAgeOfAnimation its twilight years.]]
16
17	In 1999, there was an attempt to revive the Terrytoons characters at Creator/{{Nickelodeon}}--''WesternAnimation/{{Curbside}}'' was a pilot for a proposed animated series which parodied the talk-show genre starring WesternAnimation/HeckleAndJeckle as the hosts with Dinky Duck as co-host. Due to the fact that it has never seen the light of television, its evidence of existence can only be attributed in an animation highlight right [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0iSafDyjOI here]], but the finished project has been uploaded on Website/YouTube which can be viewed [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUJ29Ir-_No here]].
18
19	These cartoons were also a big influence on anime legend Creator/OsamuTezuka.
20
21	Now has a [[Characters/TerryToons Character Sheet]].
22	------------------------------
23	!!Series Made By This Studio:
24	[[index]]
25	* Farmer Alfalfa
26	* WesternAnimation/MightyMouse
27	* Gandy Goose and Sourpuss
28	* WesternAnimation/HeckleAndJeckle
29	* WesternAnimation/TomTerrific
30	* Dinky Duck
31	* Little Roquefort
32	* The Terry Bears
33	* ComicStrip/{{Nancy}} (1942-1943): The studio made two shorts based on the classic comic, "School Daze" and "Doing Their Bit".
34	* Luno the White Stallion (1963-65) (sometimes known as Luno the Soaring Stallion)
35	* Deputy Dawg
36	* WesternAnimation/HashimotoSan
37	* WesternAnimation/TheHectorHeathcoteShow
38	* WesternAnimation/SidneyTheElephant
39	* WesternAnimation/JamesHound
40	* Oil Can Harry
41	* Sad Cat
42	-----------------------------------
43	!!Notable Animated Shorts Made By This Studio
44	* "WesternAnimation/TheThreeBears" (1939)
45	* "WesternAnimation/AllOutForV" (1942) -- wartime propaganda, Oscar nominee
46	* "WesternAnimation/{{Flebus}}" (1957)
47	* "WesternAnimation/MyBoyJohnny" (1944) -- Oscar nominee
48	* "WesternAnimation/GypsyLife" (1945) -- Oscar nominee, the only Mighty Mouse cartoon ever nominated
49	* "WesternAnimation/SidneysFamilyTree" (1959) -- Oscar nominee
50	* "WesternAnimation/FooflesTrainRide" (1959)
51	[[/index]]
52	-----------------------------------
53	!!Tropes Related to This Studio:
54	* AmbiguouslyGay: Gandy Goose, mainly due to his giddy, childish personality and for hanging around with the cantankerous Sourpuss, even sharing the same bed bunk in several cartoons. This element of the duo was recognized enough to be parodied in ''WesternAnimation/MightyMouseTheNewAdventures''.
55	* AnimatedActor: Dinky Duck in "It's a Living", where he quits theatrical cartoons to star in TV commercials. It doesn't last.
56	* AnimatedAdaptation: In the early 1940's, the studio made two short cartoons based on the {{Nancy}} comic strip.
57	* AnimatedAnthology: "Mighty Mouse Playhouse" is potentially the TropeMaker for WesternAnimation clip show re-airings of old cartoons.
58	* AnimationBump: Despite the studio's infamously low budgets, tight production schedules and offhand direction, several animators nonetheless managed to produce surprisingly fluid and expressive work:
59	** '''Jim Tyer''': Formerly an animator and (uncredited) director for Creator/FamousStudios dismissed for the tonal incompatibility his work wielded relative to Famous' increasingly conservative and slow-paced output, Tyer arrived at Terrytoons circa 1947 and, due to the studio's more offhanded directing style, was largely left to his own resources. The ensuing creative freedom produced several sequences hailed as among the wildest of UsefulNotes/TheGoldenAgeOfAnimation, typically featuring characters moving in a rapid, furiously rubbery manner while routinely lurching OffModel as if unintentionally tearing their bodies apart, marking an oft-jarring shift from the more sluggishly routine animation of surrounding scenes.
60	** '''Carlo Vinci''': Later a prominent animator in the early days of Creator/HannaBarbera, Vinci, a mainstay at Terrytoons between the late 1930s and the mid-1950s, specialized in sequences featuring characters dancing, which are typically identifiable via their surprisingly solid three-dimensional character construction and expressive-yet-measured use of squash-and-stretch (a principle often bizarrely or inconsistently applied by many of the studio's other animators contemporaneously); Oil Can Harry forcibly waltzing with Pearl Pureheart in the WesternAnimation/MightyMouse short "A Fight to the Finish" is a notable example.
61	** '''Bill Tytla''': Among Disney's most acclaimed draftsmen and animators in the late 1930s, Tytla's brief soujourn at Terrytoons in the mid-1940s produced several of the studio's most fluid and visually-detailed scenes by a significant margin, most notably the titular feline's transformation in 1944's "Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll & Hyde Cat".
62	** In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f-D0IvxHxVI&list=UUx-rxWV1D8RxuHgexsrda1g "An Arrow Escape"]], there's an impressively staircase sequence, tightly animated in perspective.
63	** The Gene Deitch {{retool}} is perhaps the ultimate example. Suddenly, what were once the worst cartoons on the market became the most artistic and innovative. Sadly, once Deitch left, the studio once again sank into mediocrity.
64	* ArtEvolution: The studio initially stuck to a drawing and timing style similar to cartoons from the Silent Age of Animation, but by the mid to late 30's, the studio gradually began upgrading its animation (partially due to formal complaints from Fox). The ensuing result was a peculiar mix of west coast style animation drawing and movement and rough, staccato techniques held over from the Silent Age, with attempted three-dimensional character designs drawn in a crude, inconsistent way and frequently articulated via bizarre "twitching" (an attempt to utilize the squash-and-stretch techniques then recently-originated by Disney) and motion loops. This art style, effectively frozen in formaldehyde by approximately 1941, continued for over a decade until the Gene Deitch era, commencing in 1957, abruptly converted the house aesthetic into a heavily stylized, geometric form (abundant in abstract color palettes and flat forms) in tune with the then-hot artstyle employed by [[Creator/ColumbiaCartoons UPA]].
65	* AuthoritativeInPublicDocileInPrivate:
66	** John Doormat. In "Another Day, Another Doormat", it shows that he's a MeanBoss (if not a BadBoss and CorruptCorporateExecutive) at work, but to his wife he's an ExtremeDoormat as [[MeaningfulName his name suggest]].
67	** In "Dustcap Doormat", his neighbour is not better. He tries to teach him to be more assertive, [[{{Hypocrite}} only to reveal to be even bigger]] HenpeckedHusband than John. After that, John GrewASpine ([[BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor and the first target is neighbour]]).
68	* BigDamnHeroes: Their headlining star, WesternAnimation/MightyMouse, makes this his stock and trade.
69	** In "Carmen's Veranda", Gandy Goose, of all characters, pulls this!
70	* BoringButPractical: While Paul Terry's conservative approach to animation, harsh quotas and tendency to threat his studio as nothing more than a business has commonly been lambasted today, it did allow Terrytoons to achieve something even Disney failed to do: remain profitable and (until he sold the studio) never have any close brushes with bankruptcy.
71	* ButtMonkey: Dinky Duck in "It's a Living"; the poor duckling can't catch a break when he's at the butt of the many commercials jokes!
72	* DavyJones: "The First Flying Fish" short of the collection depicts a hammerhead shark and a sawfish working for the Davy Jones Building Corp., ostensibly owned by Davy Jones. The corporation's business model appears to be renovating sunken ships to rent out as apartments.
73	* ADayInTheLimelight: Dimwit Dog, antagonist to WesternAnimation/HeckleAndJeckle, starred in two cartoons of his own, "How to Relax" and "How to Keep Cool". Both of those were patterned after the Disney instructional shorts starring Goofy.
74	* DeadHorseTrope: The shorts would frequently parody melodramas of the day, a genre that is only remembered ''because'' of its many parodies.
75	* DependingOnTheArtist: The shorts fast production schedule and low budgets ironically allowed the animators much more leeway in getting their individual styles into the cartoons. Jim Tyer's scenes in particular are so distinct from the other animators that they can be spotted in a heartbeat.
76	* DerangedAnimation: Any scene done by Jim Tyer, arguably Terry's top animator. The other animators could do this as well, such as alternating director/animator Connie Rasinski, and their work tends to get mistaken for Tyer's own animation as a result.
77	* FakeOutOpening: "It's a Living", a CinemaScope Dinky Duck short, starts out as a typical Dinky Duck short with a chase scene (complete with standard theatrical cartoon ratio aspect), but then Dinky gets tired of working in these kind of cartoons and stops the film, leaving the theater in a huff to get a job on tv as the film as the film switches to CinemaScope. When his tv career doesn't turn out well for him, he runs back to the theater and resumes the film where it left off.
78	* GrassIsGreener: In "It's a Living", Dinky Duck gets tired of working in the same theatrical cartoons over and over, quits by jumping out of his cartoon and walks off to get a job working in TV commercials. He quickly finds out that it's not all that it's cracked up to he, so he quickly returns back to his theatrical cartoon career.
79	* HighOnCatnip: One oneshot short, "Catnip Capers", is about a cat who goes through a DisneyAcidSequence after sniffing some catnip.
80	* InformedFlaw: The titular tiger in "The Tiger King" is repeatedly referred to as silly for his aspirations, but his efforts and reactions all seemed pretty reasonable. After claiming a vacated throne, he was immediately mocked without being given a chance, leading to his outburst. He strove to give his son a good education and was respectful to the teachers, only for the devious cub to ''eat'' his classmates. The mother treated this as a minor misdeed and was nonchalant when the cub later attacked her husband's guests, while the "silly" tiger himself was horrified on both occasions and tried his best to contain the situation and discipline his son.
81	* LimitedAnimation: Their made for tv cartoons.
82	* LongRunner: Despite the low budgets, total reliance on formula, and rushed animation, the Terrytoons enjoyed a ''very'' long, healthy lifespan, lasting from 1929 all the way up to 1971, where they were finally forced to close up shop on account of theatrical cartoons becoming all but completely unprofitable by that point--only the Creator/WalterLantz and Creator/DePatieFrelengEnterprises was able to outlast Terrytoons with their shorts. And even that wasn't enough to kill them--the Terrytoons enjoyed an equally healthy lifespan on TV for decades, with Mighty Mouse Playhouse pioneering the concept of [[AnimatedAnthology recycling old theatrical cartoons for reairing on TV.]]
83	** Even by the standards of Terrytoons, Farmer Al Falfa had an especially long run; his first cartoon short was released in 1916, his last in 1954.
84	* MagicalIncantation: How Tim brings his toy Pegasus horse, Luno, to life in the ''Luno the White Stallion'' series.
85	---> '''Tim:''' O winged horse of marble white, take me on a magic flight!
86	* MeaningfulName: Mighty Mouse, who name matches his prowess, Heckle the Magpie, who is unmistakably a heckler (although it's not clear if the same applies to Jeckle the Magpie), and Sourpuss, a grumpy, cantankerous feline. Subverted with Gandy, whose name ironically contrasts his childish personality.
87	* {{Retool}}: After Paul Terry sold the studio to CBS they hired Gene Deitch to take over as the creative director. Deitch, who himself had very low opinion of Terry's outputs (described the studio's previous output as "the crassest of unadulterated crap"), proceeded to change everything, from getting rid of the old characters in favor of the new (removing the likes of ''Mighty Mouse'' and ''Heckle and Jeckle'' in favor of ''Clint Clobber'' and ''Sidney the Elephant''), changing the design style to a more contemporary UPA style, hiring new personnel (WITHOUT firing old ones, amazingly enough), and more. It's agreed that the cartoons produced during this era are genuinely good.
88	** It didn't last long. Bill Weiss took over the studio after Terry sold it to CBS, and he wasn't warm to the idea of Terrytoons becoming a renaissance animation house. It was said he wanted Deitch fired from day one, so after Deitch did leave, Weiss chose to fall back on the same old same old, only on TV budgets with spartan limited animation.
89	** After the studio shut its doors, Bill Weiss commissioned two pilots for CBS: ''Sally Sargent'' and ''The Ruby Eye Of The Monkey God,'' both farmed out to the Fred Calvert studio. Neither pilot sold, but the Calvert studio did animate two commercials with Mighty Mouse hawking Zestabs children's vitamins.
90	* RichSiblingPoorSibling: Sad Cat is forced to slave for his two mean brothers, Latimore and Fenimore.
91	* SceneryPorn: Terrytoons, surprisingly, have some of the most beautiful background art of all the Golden Age cartoons, with gorgeous composition, and beautiful rendering and color styling. Even their B&W films have slick, attractive looking backdrops, but the stunning backgrounds ''really'' become obvious once the studio started making color cartoons ("String Bean Jack", their first color cartoon in 1938, perfectly demonstrates this, with very atmospheric, rich backdrops, and amazing perspective work).
92	* ShoutOut: The name of the short "Busted Blossoms" is a reference to the D.W. Griffith film ''Film/BrokenBlossoms''.
93	* StockFootage: As early as their 1933 Robin Hood short, there is an [[AnimationBump impressively animated staircase moving in perspective]] that was reusued several times throughout the series, even popping up in at least one of the 1940's shorts.
94	* StrictlyFormula: Paul Terry was the kind of guy who liked to play it safe and cared little to nothing for innovation, with his shorts often relying on plots, jokes and formulas long after other cartoons had stopped using them. One short with Gandy and Sourpuss even had a plot very similar to "Mickey's Trailer," ''a full decade'' after that cartoon had been aired in theaters! Worse yet, he waited till 1938 to switch to color, and if it hadn't been for Fox forcing him to raise the quality of his cartoons in the late 30s and 40s, he would have stuck to making cartoons as simple as early 30s cartoons.
95	** As Creator/RalphBakshi once quipped: "Why do you need another Terrytoons, with a cat chasing a mouse, in 1956?"
96	* WartimeCartoon: The paring of Gandy Goose and Sourpuss came from a series of these, where the two were paired up as bunkmates in the Army
97	* WithFriendsLikeThese: The relationship between Gandy Goose and Sourpuss the Cat. Animator Creator/JohnKricfalusi claimed that their relationship was part of what inspired the relationship between WesternAnimation/RenAndStimpy.
98	* WormInAnApple: "Horsefly Opera" features a bug version of TheWildWest. An apple with a hole in it that's placed on wheels and drawn by horseflies functions as a stagecoach. A hold-up by a spider scares off the horseflies and out of the apple crawls a caterpillar as the sole occupant. The caterpillar is robbed, but gets the local police force to go after the spider.
99	* YankTheDogsChain: The Sad Cat cartoons directed by Creator/RalphBakshi - every time it looks like Sad Cat is going to get a happy ending, he ends up in a worse situation than before. Luckily, when Bashki left Terrytoons, this trope was averted.

Context Creator / Terrytoons