{"id":116851,"date":"2025-03-07T03:02:11","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T03:02:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/animation\/pepper-the-pup-in-toodle-oo-o-1931\/"},"modified":"2025-03-07T03:02:11","modified_gmt":"2025-03-07T03:02:11","slug":"pepper-the-pup-in-toodle-oo-o-1931","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=116851","title":{"rendered":"Pepper the Pup in \u201cToodle-oo-o\u201d (1931) |"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Novelty stop motion shorts from the 30s are some of the most fun things you come across while collecting films \u2013 and how the three sound shorts with the Kinex films-styled characters came to be will probably always be less-than-clear.<\/p>\n

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First \u2014 some Thunderbean news<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Next week is Spring Break at the school I teach at, and I\u2019m still hoping to take a trip that involves gathering a lot of films and scanning them in upstate New York. There\u2019s a good amount of films all ready to go already\u2013 now all I need is a mechanical fix on my faithful ol\u2019 Ford Escape. Harder than it sounds. We\u2019re trying to get the next four or five special discs out late this month, along with Mid Century Modern 3<\/em> if it comes back from replication in time. We\u2019ve also just finished putting together a 2-disc special set with two and a half hours of animated trailers, and a whopping 6 hours of Live Action ones. It\u2019s at the Thunderbean Shop<\/a> for a limited time.<\/p>\n

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\"\"\u201cPepper the Pup\u201d In Toodle-oo-o<\/em> is one of the oddities produced by John Burton and other members of the former \u2018Kinex\u2019 studios, who produced silent \u2018show at home\u2019 shorts for Kodak\u2019s Cinegraph 16mm and 8mm libraries. It\u2019s an interesting and ambitious little film, only topped a handful of years later by Hector the Pup<\/em> (1935).<\/p>\n

Back in 2015 we wrote about Horse Laffs<\/em> (1934)<\/a> the one John Burton short that has surfaced in color.<\/p>\n

Since we\u2019re left to speculate what happened after the small Kinex Studio folded in 1930, it seems pretty clear that John Burton, one of the principals of the company and perhaps the main animator through a lot of the Kinex shorts, went on to try and sell a series of stop motion shorts. He did have some success in having the independent distributor Screen Attractions pick up at least three: \u201cPepper the Pup\u201d in Toodle-oo-o<\/em> (1931), Horse Laffs<\/em> (1934) and Hector the Pup<\/em> (1935). It\u2019s safe to assume they didn\u2019t lead to a bigger deal in turns of funding. Stewart McKissick, my co-producer on the Stop Motion Marvels set, did a wonderful job with liner notes on that set\u2014 but, even with some clues and research, we were never able to uncover the reasons John Burton\u2019s small studio folded. Other members of the Kinex Studio went on to work on the classic feature King Kong<\/em> along with other effects in features as well as shorts, including some for the 1939 World\u2019s Fair.<\/p>\n

\"\"Toodle-oo-o<\/em> is pretty fun. The stop motion character animation looks right at home in its 1930s design sensibilities. Burton has adapted and improved a lot of things between the silent Kinex shorts and this film. The character designs, sets and animation qualities are all at a much higher level. The later Hector the Pup<\/em> (35) is another huge leap in quality. One wonders if there were additional films that never were distributed, or if Burton redid a lot of animation along the way on both these films. The musical score in top notch (by Carl Stalling, under the pseudonym Arch B. Fritz.)<\/p>\n

The technical aspects of the film are overall pretty good, but you can still see reflections of the glass used on pan shots (I\u2019m guessing these shots were done with the puppets laying on the glass rather than upright). There are some wires visible here and there that Burton used to hold up puppets at times- and they\u2019re scratched out in a few shots. So many other tricks are very well done throughout.<\/p>\n

I find these few shorts fascinating and hope someday more information will surface on them, but as of now, it seems like the Stop Motion Marvels booklet is the only source of gathered information.<\/p>\n

Of course, after Hector the Pup<\/em>, Burton would take a job at Warner Brothers, eventually working his way to the top of the company. One wonders if he ever had any screenings of his early work there!<\/p>\n

Have a good week all!<\/p>\n