News — AnimationTrails

Fitness v. Fatness (Part 7): “Pop” Go the Waistlines We again reach that transitional period when the theatrical cartoon was becoming a scarcer commodity, due to the closure of MGM, the abandonment of the regular release schedule of seven minute shorts at Disney, and the general shift of interest to television. In particular, however, Paramount Pictures (and subsequently, its television successors to its characters) continued to show an interest in promoting the story themes which have been highlighted in this series of articles, portraying both fitness gurus and fatness freaks with equal fairness. Popeye “pops” in four times today, accounting...

s. While time, however, is running out, the creative spark still continues to flow through several recent productions, bringing back classic characters in new powerful misadventures. To start things off on a highly positive note, we’ll first review a couple of episodes from Pink Panther and Pals, the most recent (and one of the best) revivals of the DePatie-Freleng franchise. While Panther is visibly modified into a junior adolescent form, his spirit and pantomme humor remain intact, and comic inventiveness continues to excel. This is also true of the revival of his stablemates, the Ant and the Aardvark, one of...