Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Mickey Mouse, Mad Scientist...The Worm Turns (003)

 The Worm Turns...A Mickey Mouse Cartoon


SYNOPSIS: Mickey Mouse makes the food chain stand on its head, and makes a "Courage Builder" potion that makes the prey attack the predator!
ORIGINAL RELEASE: January 2nd, 1937
SUPERVISION: Ben Sharpsteen
STORY: Otto Englander
ANIMATION: Pete Burness, Chuck Couch, Al Eugster, and many other people I don't feel like listing
MUSICAL DIRECTION: Frank Churchill
STUDIO: Walt Disney Productions (producer), United Artists (distributor)

Pre-Show Remarks

We have approached the first Disney cartoon of the year...very unsure what to expect. I read somewhere that this cartoon was a test for the laboratory scene in Snow White. If the cartoon does suck, at least it'll look pretty.

(By the way, you keen-eyed readers might have noticed a slight update in the information chart. From here on out, this will be used in all future reviews. And yes, I know this review is rather...late. But life happens.)




In My Opinion...

Competent Cartoon, But Curious And Creepy
This is a very...interesting cartoon. The premise is fun, but the execution here could be a little better. I find it curious that the cartoon's title card features a worm and a bird, but neither are featured in the short proper. Mickey is a mouse, but there is another feral mouse in Mickey's(?) living room--they both look nothing alike. The music feels inappropriately circus-y in some scenes. There are quite a few nice looking shots, though--the very beginning with Mickey's lab, for example. And the animation is very wacky and fun--the screenshots don't do it justice.

Next time...Various Terrytoon animals go out to sail in Salty McGuire

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2 Comments:

At July 21, 2021 at 4:37 AM , Blogger David said...

"ANIMATION: Pete Burness, Chuck Couch, Al Eugster, and many other people I don't feel like listing."

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Other animators on this film included:

Ham Luske, Woolie Reitherman, and Bernie Wolf according to a partial draft posted on Hans Perk's blog (A. Film L.A.) . IMDB also lists Norm Ferguson, Hugh Fraser, Rollin Hamilton, and Larry Silverman as animators on The Worm Turns (acknowledging that IMDB is not always the most reliable source) . Combining the partial draft on Hans's blog with the IMDB listing , the animators on this film are:

Pete Burness
Chuck Couch
Al Eugster
Norman Ferguson
Hugh Fraser
Hamilton Luske
Wolfgang Reitherman
Bernard Wolf
Rollin Hamilton
Larry Silverman

I wonder about the listing for Rollin Hamilton. He was at Disney in the early days, but left to work for Harman & Ising. I was unaware that he may have returned to Disney in the late 1930's. Could be.

Larry Silverman is an animator I associate more with East Coast cartoon studios such as Terrytoons and Famous/Paramount. He ended up his career back on the West Coast working at Filmation.

 
At August 27, 2022 at 10:10 PM , Blogger Derek S. said...

David --
Thanks for the full list. It's interesting that Hamilton apparently worked on the film, though this could just be an example of IMDB being IMDB.

 

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