hanna barbera

HannaBarbera.com has an awesome new broadband site called Saturday Morning Forever where you can watch classic episodes of Huckleberry Hound, Pixie and Dixie, Wacky Races, Touche Turtle, Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw, Yogi Bear and whatever new stuff they add each week. Right now I'm watching Huckleberry Hound try to slay a dragon. It's been ages since I've seen a Huckleberry Hound cartoon, and I had forgotten how much Daws Butler's slow, lingering drawl makes me crack up. It's one of those voices that makes everything sound funny, and the funny stuff sound even funnier. It looks like I've found yet another reason to sit at my computer all day.

I also recommend you check out the "Originals," which consist of classic clips with new dialogue dubbed in. Watch "Moby Dick Remixed," it's hysterical.

[via Pop Candy]

What's New Scooby-Doo? was an updated version of the classic Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? that stuck with the basic premise of the gang solving spooky mysteries, but with new gadgets and contemporary music to give everything a more modern feel. The only voice actors who remained from the original series were Casey Kasem as Shaggy and Frank Welker as Fred (who also took over the voice of Scooby-Doo after Don Messick passed away in 1997). All other characters were voiced by different people. The animation was done by Warner Bros, giving it a more fluid look than the Hanna-Barbera original. The first season of the cartoon, which ran for just under three years on the WB, will be released on DVD on February 20, 2007. Fans of the original series probably don't care too much about this modern version, but younger kids seem to like it. Besides, it's not like people my age aren't more familiar with the Ralph Bakshi version of Mighty Mouse than the original Terrytoons version. Things get updated for new generations, that's how this nutty industry works sometimes.

[via Toon Zone]

It's a fact: cartoon characters don't care for pants. Frankly, I don't trust any cartoon character that wears them. What exactly was the deal with Mickey's shorts and those big yellow buttons? Were they knobs that operated some secret radio he used to send messages to the enemy during World War II? And just look at the old Warner Brothers cartoons: the only folks who wore pants were all bad guys: Elmer Fudd, Yosemite Sam, Percy the Pants-Wearing Haberdasher -- okay, I made that last one up, but you get my point. Anyway, to honor those toons who choose not to cover their butts, Boomerang is launching "No Undies Mondays" starting on October 9th. Every Monday at 4 pm, an hour will be set aside to honor the Hanna-Barbera characters who let it all hang out. Yes, that pretty much describes every Hanna-Barbera character, but let's not overthink things, it's still a fun idea.

This is one of those "six degrees of Kevin Bacon" type things, but a close friend of mine actually attended college with the grandson of Joseph Barbera, one-half of the famous Hanna-Barbera team who were responsible for most of our childhood memories by creating charcters like Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear, and about fifty gajillion others. Google Video has a seven part interview with Mr. Barbera conducted by Leonard Maltin for the Archive of American Television. The entire interview clocks in at about four hours, and I've been watching little snippets here and there. It's interesting to watch, but I find it's much easier on my eyes if I just let the audio play and do things about the house as I listen to it. At any rate, if you're a fan I encourage you to check it out.

[via Cartoon Brew]

Since I loves me some old timey cartoons I thought these old opening day fliers for Kings Island in Cincinnati were pretty awesome. Yeah, they're just pamphlets, but they feature the Hanna-Barbera characters who apparently roamed the park when they weren't on television. The fliers are from 1972. Nowadays it's the characters of Nickelodeon who represent the park. I suppose that works, too.I don't tend to keep close tabs on amusement parks, but until now I was unaware that Hanna-Barbera was ever associated with a theme park. I guess one can learn new things everyday, sometimes decades after the fact.

[via Cartoon Brew]

On Friday, January 27 at 9 p.m., Cartoon Network will debut a brand new Tom and Jerry short, titled "The Karateguard." The short, directed by Joseph "I Thought He Was Dead" Barbera, will pit Jerry the Mouse against the tenacious Tom... well, it's a Tom and Jerry cartoon for crying out loud, they pretty much all follow the same basic plot. Tom and Jerry, like most cartoons from that era, were created as theatrical shorts to be shown before MGM films (much like Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies were shown before Warner Brothers films). Barbera created the cat and mouse duo sixty-five years ago with the late William Hanna.

[via Cartoon Brew]