Terry Toons: Difference between revisions

 

{{quote|"[[Self-Deprecation|Disney is the Tiffany's in this business, and I am the Woolworth's.]]"|Paul Terry summing up Terrytoons in a nutshell. }}

 

 

Animation historians and modern animators (with occasional exceptions like Leonard Maltin and [[John Kricfalusi]]) 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 [[Hilarious in Hindsight]] because Paul Terry was considered the ''Dean of Animation'' in the 20's and 30's period of animation; even ''[[Walt Disney]]'' looked up to him and hoped to make cartoons as good and funny as his.

 

Now has a [[Terry Toons/Characters|Character Sheet.]]

 

* Farmer Alfalfa

* Gandy Goose and Sourpuss

* Dinky Duck

* Deputy Dawg

* Hector Heathcote

* Oil Can Harry

 

* [[Ambiguously Gay]]: Gandy Goose. This was even parodied in ''[[Mighty Mouse the New Adventures]]''.

* [[Animated Anthology]]: "Mighty Mouse Playhouse" is potentially the [[Trope Maker]] for [[Western Animation]] clip show re-airings of old cartoons.

* [[Deranged Animation]]: Any scene done by Jim Tyer, arguably Terry's top animator.

* [[Executive Meddling]]: A [[Tropes Are Not Bad|GOOD]] example of this trope--Paul Terry made only the barest effort put into his cartoons production values until the late 1930's, when Fox forced him to beef up the quality of his cartoons or get the axe.

* [[Limited Animation]]: One of the most prominent and early users of this.

* [[Long Runner]]: 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 1968, where they were finally forced to close up shop on account of theatrical cartoons becoming all but completely unprofitable by that point--only the [[Walter Lantz]] cartoon studio was able to outlast Terrytoons with their shorts, by four measly years. 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 [[Animated Anthology|recycling old theatrical cartoons for reairing on TV.]]

* [[Strictly Formula]]: 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.

** As Ralph Bakshi once quipped: "Why do you need another Terrytoons, with a cat chasing a mouse, in 1956?"

 

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[[Category:Terry Toons]]