Cleaning House

If you've never seen a 'Captain & The Kids' animated short, this is probably one of the best in the series to start with (it was,in fact,the very first one that M-G-M produced). It was loosely based on the Katzenjammer Kids comic series that ran for years in the newspapers. They were very well detailed (drawn)& very well animated. The pacing was as frantic as any Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies animated short from that period. Alas,they were (mostly)filmed in black & white, resulting in them being largely ignored by time (most animated shorts at the time were filmed in various colour processes). The plot here concerns the household in their annual Spring cleaning frenzy,except for the Captain who decides to fake being sick to get out of it. This is spotted by the kids (Hans & Fritz)who take the place of the doctor,contacted by Mama, to put poor 'ol Captain thru the wringer (just to teach him a lesson). What follows is sheer chaos in this sadly overlooked laugh riot.

In October of 1937, with the completion of a new two-story building on the M-G-M lot, the company announced a new production division called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoon Studios to be housed in the new building at 10202 W. Washington Blvd, Culver City and, those who wished to talk to anybody at Metro's Cartoon Studio could dial (or have the operator do it)REpublic 0211, which meant R-E-0-2-0-1. On Octobert 14, the company announced the hiring of 31 key men, to go along with the other 200 employees that might be needed.

Head(s) of Production: Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising

General Manager: Fred Quimby

Directors: Robert Allen, William Hanna and Isadore Freleg (all three had formerly been with the Harman-Ising unit, while Freling had had experience with Charles Mintz, Walt Disney and Leon Schlesinger, according to the M-G-M publicity department.)

Production Supervisor: C. G. Maxwell (formerly with Disney and Harman-Ising)

Writers: Harry Hirschfield, "Pinto" Colvig, Ray Kelly (formerly with Van Beuren), Kin Platt (formerly with Disney), Henry Allen (from Harman-Ising), Joseph Barbera (from Terrytoons), Allen Freleng (from Schlesinger's shop.) In-Between-Department Head: Edmund Schultz (from Mintz and Universal) Painting and Inking Head: L. S. Gobel Music Department Head: Bert Lewis (six years with Disney) Camera Department Head: E. J. Moore Cameraman: Jack J. Stevens Character and Settings Design Head: Charles Thorsen Contract Animators: Ben Clopton, Sam Stimson, Gary Meyer, Bill Nolan, A. J. Zander, Richard Bickenbach, and Cecil Surry.

Sound Technician: F. McAlpin Finish Layouts: Willie Hopkins and Karl Karpe Other Layout: Ernest Nordli, Dan Gordon and George Gordon The first cartoon series under the new expansion program would be based on the syndicated newspaper feature, "The Captain and The Kids.

Not a bad line-up, even if some didn't stay very long, albeit some stayed for a lifetime.

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.

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.

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.

It's spring cleaning time. Mama is the only one actually cleaning. Everybody else is slacking off and fake-cleaning. Captain pretends to be sick. Mama calls the doctor but the kids intercept him. The stork does show up.

This is The Captain and the Kids cartoon. It's chaotic. The stork needs a better misunderstanding. The kids are brats. This should end with both Captain and the Kids doing the cleaning. Mama should be the one resting her feet. The Captain and the Kids are not the most beloved of characters. This is pretty good although they are still not my favorite characters.

For about a year, MGM's cartoon division made some Katzenjammer Kids shorts, though oddly they were renamed 'The Captain and the Kids' cartoons. They were fully licensed...though I have no idea why there was a name change.

I've seen a few of the only 15 Captain and the Kids shorts MGM made and some of them bear little semblance to the original cartoon series. This one, however, does capture some of this as the Captain is bedeviled by his bratty kids...though once again, it's mostly his fault. In this case, the Captain pretends to be sick to get out of doing chores...and the kids decide to teach him a lesson. So, they kidnap the doc...then they proceed to pretend that they are doctors! Then, they insist they need to operate!! What's next?

I liked this one very much and think if all the MGM shorts in the series had been like this one, they could have succeeded. Clever, similar to the source material and it sure holds up well today. Well worth seeing.