UPA: The Jolly Frolics Collection
Contents of the DVD set from the TCM Vault Collection.
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38 titles
- DirectorJohn HubleyStarsWilliam CottrellArthur O'ConnellJames O'RearA slight role reversal for the Fox and Crow in this one, as the Crow was usually the smart one who ended up with the winning hand. Fox is Robin Hoodlum and the Crow is the Sheriff pursuing R. Hoodlum and his merry band. He escapes one trap after another until he is lured into an archery contest at the Palace---everybody plays the Palace sooner or later---and caught. He escapes, through the efforts of his faithful followers, and they kidnap the Sheriff and the King to act as their servants.
- DirectorJohn HubleyStarsJohn T. SmithUPA had just taken over the cartoon production for Columbia and their influence shows vividly on this Fox-and-Crow entry that lets the slapstick be a result of a 'human-nature' story. The Fox and Crow have a band-act in a nightclub, but the Fox walks out on his partner when he gets the position of a symphony-orchestra conductor. The Fox becomes famous while his old partner is on skid row, cold and hungry. One night, the Crow appears backstage at the concert Hall and hands a magician's wand to the Fox as he goes onstage. Using the wand as a baton, everything that can go wrong goes wrong for the snooty maestro, and the audience begins to boo. Crow then makes his stage entry and saves the day with his one-man band routine.
- DirectorJohn HubleyStarsJim BackusJerry HausnerAt the Hodge Podge Lodge, crotchety, near-sighted Mister Magoo takes a banjo-playing bear to be his nephew Waldo.
- DirectorJohn HubleyStarsTony BarrettDaws ButlerJack MatherThe Fox and the Crow compete to bring the king of Spain a jug filled at the mystical Fountain of Youth.
- DirectorRobert CannonJohn HubleyStarsJim BackusBill ScottHarry StantonMining for gold with her father, Clementine is smitten with a snobby Harvard boy who comes prospecting across the river.
- DirectorArt BabbittJohn HubleyStarsStan FrebergMarian RichmanAlways beaten to the punch by their modernized competition, an ice man and his daughter discover that their horse Jack is a talented dancer with a past career in showbiz.
- DirectorArt BabbittJohn HubleyStarsJim BackusThe people of Blunder City, Nebraska, gather to honor Wilbur Shucks, the shoeshine boy who first discovered popcorn.
- DirectorArt BabbittJohn HubleyStarsJerry HausnerMarian RichmanFive-year-old Patsy has competition for her father's attention from the family's new baby daughter. Her attempts to win her father's praise receive instead a rebuke. The father slips on a roller-skate, knocking himself unconscious. In a dream sequence, he realizes he has been ignoring his oldest child. He awakens and takers her in his arms, but Baby, now the jealous one, kicks up a fuss.
- DirectorRobert CannonJohn HubleyStarsMarvin MillerThe story of a little boy who would only talk in sound effects. With story by Dr. Seuss (and Bill Scott of Rocky and Bullwinkle fame) this cartoon won the Oscar for best short subject (animated) for 1950.
- DirectorRobert CannonJohn HubleyStarsMarvin MillerMarian RichmanBill ScottGeorgie, a young Scottish lad, befriends a baby dragon and takes it home as a pet and companion. Complications arise, however, when the dragon begins growing rapidly.
- DirectorRobert CannonJohn HubleyStarsMarvin MillerMarian RichmanUncle George is showing Little Johnny, his nephew, the pair of boxing gloves he claims enabled him, when he was the janitor at a training-gym, to beat up the bullying prizefighting champion. Little Johnny scoffs at the tale until the 'wonder gloves' gives him a spanking.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsMarvin Miller
- DirectorJohn HubleyStarsBill LeeThurl RavenscroftAnnette WarrenThe musical tale of a murder trial by a jealous lover.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsMarvin MillerMarian RichmanMartha WentworthLittle Willie's large imagination turns his family-home in the suburbs into the old Wild WEst when he puts on his cowboy suit, guns, holsters and hat, and goes out to play with his friend Archie.(No, this is not Archie Andrews.) The two boys have some desperate adventures, until Willie's mom calls him in to take his afternoon nap.
- DirectorPete BurnessStarsJerry HausnerJim BackusMarian RichmanThis UPA cartoon introduces a new character, Pete Hothead, a feisty little man with a violent temper. Pete Hothead was featured in only one other cartoon. In this one he receives a parrot from a store rather than the radio he ordered. In his attempts to exchange the parrot for a radio, he cause much havoc, disruptions and chaos in the store. He finally gets his radio, but then decides he'd rather have a television set.
- DirectorRobert CannonJohn HubleyStarsGladys HollandIn an old house in Paris that was covered in vines, lived twelve little girls in two straight lines.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsJohn T. SmithMarian RichmanOllie loves to play the tuba but his playing upsets all the people in town. He goes to the country and disrupts the milking habits of the cows. He finally takes a boat and practices at sea in order not to disturb anyone. His tuba-playing saves a ship from going on the rocks and he becomes a town hero.
- DirectorTed ParmeleeStarsHans ConriedGladys HollandAn adaptation of the famous tale about an emperor without clothes.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsMarvin MillerMarian RichmanThrough drawings, an illustrator tells his dog the story of a boy named Christopher Crumpet. Christopher can at will change himself from a little boy into a chicken. He threatens to do so if his father, Marvin, won't buy him a rocket ship. Marvin doesn't want a chicken for a son, so he does whatever he can to appease Christopher. But time after time as Marvin fails to come through with the real new rocket ship that Christopher wants, Christopher turns himself into a chicken. Bilgewater, Marvin's co-worker, upon seeing Christopher change himself from a boy to a chicken, thinks he can take advantage of the situation. But Marvin does whatever he possibly can to thwart Bilgewater's plans if only because he wants a human boy as a son instead of a chicken. The illustrator has a specific reason for telling his dog Christopher's story.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsMarvin MillerGerald McBoing Boing, a little boy who can't talk but can imitate any sound, is working as a one-man sound effects department for a radio station. When a scheduled symphony orchestra does not show up, Gerald replaces them. He is doing fine until he mixes up the score with the sound effects script, and creates an original symphony. He is fired, but the critics hail his work as that of a genius.
- DirectorWilliam T. HurtzStarsJohn BrownColleen CollinsA henpecked husband sees a unicorn outside his window--or does he?
- DirectorTed ParmeleeStarsJames MasonJack MatherA madman tells his tale of murder, and how a strange beating sound haunted him afterward.
- DirectorWilliam T. HurtzStarsJerry HausnerMarvin MillerMarian RichmanJohn Smith is a fugitive on the run, all because of the suppressive childhood inflicted on him by his mother. When he was two years old she had tricked him into exchanging his crib for a bed and later, she brought home a baby brother when he was expecting a sister. John has had enough and is running away from home but has to stop at the curb as his mother won't let 6-year-old John cross the street.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsMarvin MillerMarian RichmanDance teacher Miss Placement is dismayed to learn that the head of the School of Ballet where she teaches has entered her beginners class in a contest just three weeks away. But she manages to get them ready and they are a huge success. The school owner is so pleased that he enters all of the school's 1400 students in a contest where they have to learn "Swan Lake" in just two weeks.
- DirectorTed ParmeleeStarsJack MatherColleen CollinsBill ScottSort of a cartoon version of "All About Eve" or people-using-people themes. It opens with a man singing the title song, accompanied by a pianist, a trumpeter and a trombonist. A flashback to the story of Fifi who leaves Waldo for Alonzo, and then leaves Alonzo for the circus owner. Back in the present it is shown that all three men are the musicians and they are almost run down by a limousine, occupied by Fifi, now a stage star.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsMarvin MillerThe Fudgets are like many families. George Fudget is the household breadwinner. His wife Irene takes his money, pays the bills, puts the remainder into their savings account, and sometimes takes a dollar here and there for her "cookie jar" savings so that she can on occasion buy those little extras for herself, her weakness being hats. George doesn't know about that cookie jar, so he chastises her every time she buys a hat. Sometimes their budget may go up, such as when George gets a new higher paying job. And sometimes they need to spend more than their budget, such as when something unexpectedly breaks and needs to be replaced. They just hope that they can weather any proverbial rainy days, for which they may or may not have enough in their savings.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsMarvin MillerMarian RichmanGerald is taken to see Professor Joyce, Teacher of Voice.
- DirectorAbe LissStarsHarold PearyDanny Richards Jr.Edith TerryA boy becomes the head of his household by changing sizes with his father.
- DirectorTed ParmeleeStarsJerry HausnerJim BackusMary Jane CroftPete Hothead decides to buy a new car to replace his old beat-up jalopy. Meanwhile, his wife has won a new car on a television quiz show that is the same make and model as the car Pete purchases from a car-dealer. Pete arrives home and sees the car his wife won and mistakes it for the one he ordered from the dealer, but it is a different color. He drives it back to the showroom for a replacement, and that begins the first of many problems he is to encounter.
- DirectorPaul JulianStarsAnne WhitfieldPatricia EdwardsGil HermanA little girl wants to know where babies come from. When she learns that they come from the hospital, she decides to go get one for herself.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsMarvin MillerMarian RichmanChristopher Crumpet has an imaginary elephant for a playmate. Christopher's father begins to see the elephant. Mr. Crumpet reveals this to his co-worker, Mr. Bilgewater, who quickly plays office politics by telling their boss that Mr. Crumpet is crazy. The boss has recently awarded Crumpet a junior partnership, which Bilgewater thought he had deserved. The boss visits the Crumpet home, and finds that Crumper does indeed see his son's imaginary playmate. But instead of taking the junior partnership away from Crumpet, he makes him a full partner. The boss himself has an imaginary hyena.
- DirectorOsmond EvansStarsMarvin MillerProfessor Duton Lang is an obese scientist who has made many great discoveries. When he finally weights 497 pounds he develops a compound which permits him to eat as much as he wants and still lose weight. He gets down to 150 pounds in weight but is still the same body-size as when he weighed nearly 500 pounds. Eventually, he becomes a minus-weight and floats off into outer space.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsMarvin MillerMarian RichmanWhile meeting a new friend, Gerald is abducted by aliens and whisked to the planet Moo. The king of Moo mistakenly thinks that all Earthlings - like Gerald - speak only in sound effects, and he attempts to converse with Gerald. Hoping to lure Earth tourism to his planet, the king brings the boy back to Earth in the hope of establishing good relations, but Earth diplomats are puzzled by the king's unusual language.
- DirectorRobert CannonStarsEugene BollayMilton Muffet is confessed poor pedestrian. He's addicted to "the most awful, habit-forming vice" man falls prey to, jaywalking.
- DirectorFred CrippenLew Keller"Trees and Jamaica Daddy" was the first of a UPA series (short-lived) that featured two different subjects (plot, characters) running about 3.5 minutes each, on a seven-minute reel. The first one here was titled "Trees," featuring a little girl named Hattie giving her version of the birds, the bees and trees. The second one on the reel was called "Jamaica Daddy," about the animated Hamilton Ham and his band, who tell all about, in music and the usual UPA animation style, Jamaica Daddy, and his family tree in calypso fashion. "Ham-and-Hattie" were not a team, and did not appear together in this cartoon.
- DirectorFred CrippenLew KellerThe second of UPA's split-reel cartoons in which there were two unrelated segments---one with Hattie and one with Ham---of 3.5 minutes each. The first one---Sailing" has young Hattie sailing her boat in a fountain and is quite dismayed when a frog sinks it. She brightens up when a friendly policeman restores it for her. The second unrelated segment---"The Village Band"--- features Hamilton Ham in the story of a village band that goes unappreciated by the populace until it is needed to greet a distinguished dignitary.
- DirectorFred CrippenLew KellerStarsHarold PearyThe first-half story of this two-story cartoon finds "Hattie" greeting the coming of "Spring" with an earful of music and an eyeful of romance between her two dolls; the second one has Hamilton Ham & His World Players presenting the tale of a Japanese woodcutter who wants to be an Imperial Soldier. The regular soldiers laugh at his banner...but it is his banner that makes the bandits laugh, and be easily captured.
- DirectorFred CrippenLew KellerStarsHarold PearyA "Ham & Hattie" cartoon which means two different cartoons splitting the seven minutes of running time. "Picnics are Fun" finds Hattie taking her two dolls for a picnic in the 'Country"---the roof of her apartment building where the trees, flowers and greenery grow only in her fertile imagination; the second offering, "Dino's Serenade", has Ham & His World Players doing a sketch about a strolling musician, the girl he loves and the villain who steals her away.