ub iwerk's chick artist pt 2

cont'd from last post....
mary's other known appearance was in Insutin' the Sultan. an obvious copy/remake of Coo Coo,the Arabian-styled short has the same plotline as the flip cartoon except the ending:willie and mary are about to have their victory kiss,but the ex-sultan's harem girls jump on willie and cover him in lip prints. also willie's cartoons seem to have slight irony in them:willie tells his friend goofy (not the dis.char.)"..and was my face red!" the joke is often hard since it's a b&w short,but the teacher catches him,puts a dunce cap on him and puts him back to work.as it ends,we get iris out on goofy laughing. the cartoon is an intrersting iwerks specimen,as the hero+maid+villan conflict is set in a different country.

Chapter 2:Fashion
Grim's special sense of design made him a must-get on the animator's rooster.he was signifigant
in clothing of his characters.as i pointed out min part 1 of the post,he was quentisential in the making of FiFi and Mary.the dresses of the period were styled the way the dressmaker,tailors,etc
wanted them.one example is how dolls were styled after little girls.this was noticed especially in
th Van Beuren Aesop's Fable cartoon A Toy Town Tale.(yes,i know we're talking about grim here
but this is important too!)the said short starts out in a toy store on a snowy night(take a hint!)so
after a toy cop is pushed into a glue pot,the festivies begin.we get down to the real story when a
group of soldiers pass a doll's house and the lead soldier stops to woo the said occupan-ess.a lot
of Fleischer-like gags follow:the doll's face does all sorts of affection sign:her lips and eyes form
hearts,she winks at the soldier flirtatiously and her pupils turn into little versions of his head.the
olden-time toY G.I joe takes his new-found beau over to a piano,where they perform a hit classic
Oh,you Beautiful doll.(again,take a hint!)all the while during their Woofest,a oddish looking jack
-in-the-box keeps disturbing them.after the song,the soldier tries and succsessfuly,gets the gal to
do the old-bench-act.then they make out.all the while,the doll's bow growing bigger and her feet
twitching.unfortunatly,our so-called hero turns out to be a coward when an elephant attacks him
and his troop.the other toys hiss-and-boo him,but his gal kisses him for his non-bravery.a monkey(sadly,not our friendly george-like variety.)attacks the girl and hero/coward makes a run
for it.a sheperd doll saves her and they dance happily.the jack-in-the-box claps in admaration for their relationship but the toy cop comes back and clobbers him with his billy club.a fair one,
but today's print is out of shape:the doll's voice can hardly be heard!

To be continued....