TerryToons' Background Artwork III.

More original artwork from Paul Terry's animation Studio! This time I'll post backgrounds from several Terrytoons shorts produced in the 1940's, which didn't feature any of their major stars, like Mighty Mouse or Heckle and Jeckle in it.

But first, an incredibly rare behind-the scenes- look at the Terrytoon studio! Check out this amazing and sometimes hilarious classic color documentary from 1939 by Larry Silverman. It's titled 'Makin' Em Move' and shows you their entire production process, while working on their short 'Harvest Time' (which was released on February 9, 1940). The director shown in the documentary is Connie Rasinksi. It also features music director Phil Scheib, who created musical scores for every Terrytoons short. The segment that shows how they created their backgrounds starts at 07:26.

Below, two background paintings created for the short 'Shipyard Symphony', written by John Foster and directed by Eddie Donnelly. It was released on March 19, 1942.

Two backgrounds from 'Keep 'Em Growing', released on May 28, 1943. This wartime era short shows farm animals keeping up maintenance on the farm while men are off to war. Directed by Mannie Davis.

Here are nine backgrounds from 'Beanstalk Jack', directed by Eddie Donnelly and released on December 20, 1946. This short presents a little variation on the classic 'Jack and the Beanstalk' fairytale. Terrytoons already produced a different black and white short in 1933 titled 'Beanstalk Jack', which was directed by Frank Moser and distributed by Educational Pictures.

Below, a background from 'The Tortoise wins again', directed by Connie Rasinksi, theatrically released on August 30, 1946. In this short, two teams of rabbits and turtles race against each other on ice skates. 

Below, three backgrounds from 'The Snowman', directed by Connie Rasinksi and released on October 11, 1946. In this short a snowman who comes to life is threatened by a bear and rescued by the friendly North Wind. Not to be confused with Terrytoons' former short with the same title, 'The Snowman', an earlier black & white short directed by Mannie Davis and released on December 13, 1940.

Below are three backgrounds from 'The Wolf's Pardon' directed by Eddie Donnelly and written by John Foster. It was released on December 5, 1947. In this short the wolf is released from jail after ten years imprisonment only to discover that all other fairytale characters are now grown up. So Little Red Riding Hood isn't so little anymore and chases him for a change.

More TerryToons' Background Artwork.

As promised, another post on the amazing background artwork from the Terrytoon studio's, created for their theatrical animated shorts from the 1940's. Beside Mighty Mouse, they had several other funny characters that became pretty succesful, like the magpies 'Heckle and Jeckle' and 'Gandy Goose and Sourpuss'.

Paul Terry had been producing a series of theatrical animated shorts starring 'Farmer Al Falfa' since 1915. It was in the Mannie Davis directed short 'The Talking Magpies' in January 1946 that introduced Heckle and Jeckle. Between 1946 and 1966 the duo starred in 52 theatrical shorts. As with the 'Mighty Mouse' cartoons, these were all directed by either Connie rasinksi, Eddie Donnelly or Mannie Davis. In 1979 Lou scheimer's Filmation picked up the characters for their TV show 'The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle and Jeckle'. Again, production numbers as used around the studio, were provided on the artwork in the top left corner, the relevant scene numbers in the top right corner, above the pegholes.

Four backgrounds from Heckle and Jeckle short 'Cat Trouble', released on April 11, 1947:

Three backgrounds from the 'Heckle and Jeckle' short 'The Intruders', released on May 9, 1947:

Below a series of background artworks created for Terrytoons' Gandy Goose shorts. Between 1939 and 1955, the studio created at least fifty of these animations. Now, for those of you unaware of Gandy, first off here's some great original cover artwork with the funny fella by one of the Terrytoon studio members (Gandy was usually accompanied by 'Sourpuss', but he wasn't included in this gag):

Below are three backgrounds from Gandy's war time era short 'Camouflage' (written by John Foster and directed by Eddie Donnelly) which was released on August 27, 1943:

More war time era shorts! Here are three backgrounds from 'Mopping Up' from 1943:

Below two more backgrounds from 1943 short 'Scrap for Victory':

Below a background from 'The Last Roundup' The Beerbarrels are used in this scene by Hitler (portrayed as a pig) and Mussolini (portrayed as a monkey) to hide behind when Sourpuss and Gandy are shooting up their mountaintop castle:

Below two backgrounds from 'The Frog and the Princess', released on April 7,1944:

Three background from 'Gandy Goose in Ghost Town', released on September 22, 1944

Four backgrounds from 'Mexican Baseball' (directed by Mannie Davis) released on March 14, 1947:

Terrytoons' 'Mighty Mouse' background Artwork.

Today I'll post a series of original background artworks created by the New York based 'Terrytoon' studio's for their 'Mighty Mouse' theatrical animated shorts between 1942 and 1961. Paul Terry's studio also created animated shorts featuring 'Heckle and Jeckle' and 'Gandy Goose'. I'll do a seperate post on those next. Make sure to click any image to see it in full view.

Introduced as 'Super Mouse' by Paul Terry's animation studio's in 1942, there were exactly seven animated theatrical shorts before they decided to change the main character to 'Mighty Mouse', with the short 'The Wreck of the Hesperus' in 1944. Between 1942 and 1961 eighty theatrical shorts were produced by Terry's studio, which was sold to CBS in 1955, making it possible for them to air the animated shorts on Television. In 1945 the short 'Gypsy Life' was nominated for an Academy Award, but lost to MGM's Tom & Jerry in 'Quiet Please!' Production numbers for every short are mentioned in the top left corner of the artwork. The corresponding scene numbers for every background are mentioned in top right corners.

From 'Eliza on the Ice', June 16, 1944. Story by John Foster and directed by Connie Rasinski:

From 'The Green Line', July 7, 1944:

From 'Mighty Mouse Meets Jekyll And Hyde Cat', April 28, 1944:

Two backgrounds from 'At the Circus', November 17, 1944:

Two backgrounds from 'Mighty Mouse and the Pirates', January 12, 1945:

Three backgrounds from 'The Port of Missing Mice', Februari 2, 1945:

From 'The Wicked Wolf', March 8 1946:

Four backgrounds from 'The Jailbreak', September 20, 1946. In this short directed by Eddie Donnelly, 'Bad Bill Bunion' escapes from Alcatraz and Mighty Mouse is the only one who can capture him again:

Three backgrounds from 'The Crackpot King', November 15, 1946:

From 'Aladdin's Lamp', March 28, 1947:

From 'The First Snow', October 10, 1947:

Three backgrounds from 'A Fight to the Finish', November 14, 1947:

Below, two backgrounds from 'Swiss Cheese Family Robinson', released on December 19. 1947. In this short, directed by Mannie Davis, a family of mice float at sea on a raft of cheese that grows smaller each day as they eat it to survive. Mighty Mouse saves them after they land on a remote island that appears to be inhabited by cats who want to enjoy them as a feast. The second background is from the final scenes, when the island has become a successful tourist spot. It included a ride-along with rotating ponies, moving roller coaster cars and a moving ferris wheel (you can see the base on the background right).

From 'The Witch's Cat', July 15, 1948: