CARTOON FEATURE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 31 May 1940, Page 9

CARTOON FEATURE

NO EMOTIONAL STARS TO CONTEND WITH.

At least in one respect, directors of animated cartoons occupy a bed of I roses as compared to the directors of human actors. That is in the matter of professional pride of actors. When a human star of pictures suddenly discovers that some subordinate player is stealing the picture, that star, with rare exceptions, doesn’t like it and generally does something about it. His prestige demands that he do something. But the director of the animated cartoon can blissfully go ahead and let a subordinate character steal as much of a picture as that character is capable of stealing. Such a situation arose during the making of Paramount’s “Gulliver’s Travels.” There are a number of “players” of major rank in the picture, Gulliver, the two kings, and the prince and the princess. But suddenly. Dave Fleischer, director of the picture, discovered that an unheralded little caricature was becoming the standout actor in the picture. This little chap is Gabby, the town crier. Fleischer didn’t have to chop Gabby’s role. Instead. he tossed him more and more responsibility. Gabby is a pompous little opportunist who tries to twist every situation to his own advantage. Naturally, he takes a lot of falls, but after each fall he bounces back unconcernedly and goes blithely ahead.'The producers are so confident that Gabby is a potential star that they are laying tentative plans to make a series built around the Lilliputian. There is precedence for their confidence.. Donald Duck originally was a bit player in Mickey Mouse cartoons, but today he has superseded even the redoubtable Mickey as a favourite on the screen. '