Terrytoons Treats

 How I love the Dean of Animation.

 Mighty Mouse, the defender of Sheep.

What is it about Terrytoons?

The cartoons were low budget for the time and hastily done, yet I still have an extreme fondness for them. There are many cartoons from the same that had obviously higher production values, but not all of them had such quirky lovable characters.

Strange Bedfellows

Mighty Mouse Pitch circa 1994?

Here is some presentation art from a pitch we did at Spumco in the mid 90s. I wanted to get Paramount to let me revive the Terrytoons characters. I would have shown some of this stuff earlier but it had all suffered water damage. But now, thanks to Alex, Jojo and Tommy, some of it has been restored through the magic of insufferable digital technology.

These guys here are "The Catnip Gang" who appeared in at least 2 of the original TT Mighty Mouse gang. I think that was drawn by Mike Fontanelli. Possibly inked by Shane Glines and I don't remember who colored it. Looks like water colors?...Hey I bet it was Rick Altergott! Famous creator of "Doofus".I added another character called "The Big Puss" (originally "The Big Pussy" but everyone talked me out of that). The Big Puss is the head of the crime syndicate in Catville. He is the Catnip Gang's boos and we never actually see all of him at once. Usually we just hear his gutteral grumbles from behind an imposing door in his office. Once in a while we will see just his face pressing against the frame of his open door. Jim Smith drew a hilarious storyboard about the Big Puss sending the Catnip gang on an impossible mission - to steal the shorts of Mighty Mouse. He figures that the shorts are magic and that is where Mighty Mouse gets his power from. I used this story idea later for "The Ripping Friends".

Richard Pursel had an especial fondness for these bedfellows and dubbed them "Gandy and Sourpuss: Wards Of The State". We wrote stories about them being on the dole and getting into tiffs with their unemployment officers and stuff.
Of course I included some of the characters we created for the Bakshi version of Mighty Mouse. Here's Petey Pate in his insane glory. In this story he steals all the eyebrows from the mice in mouseville and Mighty Mouse has to come save the day.
Here are his witless thugs who fear nothing - except insanity. The broken mind instills the fear of God in these poor crooked souls.
Here are my favorite characters from the Bakshi show.
These look like they also might be drawn by Mike Fontanelli.
I love the ignorant - and so did Rich. The original Deputy Dawg cartoons are pretty terrible, even for Terrytoons, but the characters are great.
Rich came up with a story about nearsighted Vincent Van Gofer marrying Deputy Dawg's pants. The set up was: Deputy, Musky and the gang are skinny dipping at the old swimming hole, when Vincent Van Gofer ambles up to the edge of the pond and sees Deputy's pants hanging over the branch of a tree. Through his blurry eyes he sees a beautiful apparition of female gofer loveliness and he whisks the pants away to the Sheriff's office for a quick wedding. Wedding bliss turns out to be less than he'd hoped for and the marriage soon sours. Meanwhile, Deputy Dawg has no pants and has to do his job while moving his hands back and forth really fast in front of himself to maintain the picture's family rating. That no-account egg-stealin' rascal, Musky takes advantage of the situation with zany-ass results.

I have lots more of this stuff if anyone else likes Terrytoons as much as I do.

Things I Wish I Had

If only they made these slippers in my size.

Mighty Mouse Fan Club Thrill Package

Look how much fun it was to be part of the Mighty Mouse Fan Club! You get a nifty "Sourpuss Hole activity" as just part of the fun.This is too much cool stuff. A kid would have a heart attack from this much joy.Before you play with all your Terrytoons treasures, here are the important rules you must follow.You better do exactly as we say, if you don't want Mighty Mouse himself to come and beat your ass.


You can walk faster in official Mighty Mouse shoes. What makes them Mighty Mouse shoes?There is a picture of him inside the shoe where only the wrinkly part of your foot will ever see it.

Pocket size Mighty Mouse comics are a thrill and a half.
Lots of wholesome punching in every issue.
A good dose of all-American strangling sets a good example for children as well.

No problem can not be resolved by a good sock in the kisser.

Bonus ROQUEFORT CADAVER

Most kids enjoy dead versions of their favorite cartoon characters.
Here is Little Roquefort in his casket.
He has a special nose.
Whoever is auctioning this toy knows instinctively that the perfectly preserved mummified label is its essential selling point.
Roquefort may have passed on, but his tapeworm still thrives.

Terrytoon Treats

It's funny to think that Terrytoons were considered the "cheap" cartoons back in the day.
These are mostly fully animated and chock full of cartoon goodness.

I could tell, even when I was a kid that they were produced kinda hastily but there was something unique and weird about them that you couldn't get in any other cartoons.


There was even a period of "quality" Terrytoons in the mid forties with higher production values.

In any case, even the most slapdash Terrytoons seem towering heights of creativity and skill compared to mainstream cartoons I see on TV today.

Here's a great one, full of crazy Jim Tyer animation:


http://www.moviegoods.com/search/search.asp?page=6&keywords=animation&Go2=%A0&sort_by_field=Movieyear:ASC

http://www.signatureillustration.org/illustration-blog/tag/mighty-mouse/

NEXT: IS IT POSSIBLE TO MAKE A BIG BUDGET ANIMATED MOVIE ENTIRELY FROM STOCK? It appears so...

That Wacky Jim Tyer

Did you ever read the Jim Tyer stories? They seem to be much weirder than the regular Terrytoons stories. Or any other comic book stories.

Someone told me he wrote them himself, which would explain things. They are full of non-sequiturs and cartoony jokes.

I wonder which cats are Canadian?
Look! A dead pup!

One cat gets so mad at Mighty Mouse, that he just grows into Ralph Bakshi in one panel, with no explanation. You can't beat that.
This is extremely kid-friendly stuff. No character arcs, no filler, just fun.Read the whole zany story here!
http://comicrazys.com/2009/05/11/mighty-mouse-the-alley-cats-convention-jim-tyer/