Rocky Memories Update

Now with 34 interviews, Rocky Memories been progressively get better. Remember that this is a book of memories with June. For more interviews I am planning to interview Eric Goldberg. I am trying to get in contact with Nancy Cartwright and Bill  Farmer. I also plan to interview Mark Evanier again as he tells great stories.

The Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 17--The Unproduced Sequel

In 1945, Chuck was going to make a sequel to The Dover Boys. He didn't though. There is art from this unmade short below. They remodeled the characters. They kind of look like Jay Ward Characters. Dora's rich father would have been introduced and shown. Ben Backslide looks like Hitler. This is the final part in my monthly series.

The Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 16---Animaniacs

The Dover Boys made two cameos in Animaniacs here is a clip of both.

Afterlife of the Dover Boys Part 15--The Dover Boys Chucktalk

Here is the CTN TV's Chuck Talk on the Dover Boys and with the Dover Boys. The panel consists of Craig Kausen (Chuck Jones' grandson), Chuck's daughter linda, and 3 of the Dover Boys (Jeff DeGrandis, Chris Bailey, and Kelly Asbury)


https://tv.creativetalentnetwork.com/chuck-talk-a-discussion-on-inspiration-with-the-dover-boys#

Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 14--Chuck Jones's Dover Boys

Chuck Jones was a true legend. Chuck trained and mentored a group of young animators which he called The Dover Boys. The group Consisted of Chris Bailey, Rob Minkoff,  Kelly Asbury, and Jeff DeGrandis. 


Chuck's Daughter Linda and The Dover Boys

Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 13--Other Anecdotes

Here are a few more Dover Boys anecdotes and fun facts.

• It had one of the largest voice casts in the Warner Bros Cartoons including Mel Blanc, Bea Benaderet, Marjorie Tarlton, John McLeish, Tedd Pierce, and The Sportsmen Quartet.
• A piece of the cartoon was shown on Agent Carter as part of a subliminal messaging tool of The Black Widow Program.
• It was #49 in Jerry Beck's Book: The 50 Greatest Cartoons

• The volleyball team was, according to Chuck's autobiography, called The Indomitable Team from Pimento University.
• I believe that this is really just Chuck's animation unit.
• The team consisted of Phil Monroe, Ben Washam, Abe Levitow, Richard Thompson, and Ken Harris.

Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 12--Space Jam

The Dover Boys made a cameo as an audience member in Space Jam.

Cameo

Model Art for Dan Backslide and Tom, Dick, And Larry. Dan Backslide had a model sheet but didn't appear in Space Jam.

Afterlife of the Dover Boys Part 11---Lobby Cards

Lobby Cards.

Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 10--Limited Edition Art

Here is some limited edition art of the Dover Boys.

Credits:

The Chuck Jones Gallery

Carol Erickson

Afterlife of the Dover Boys part 9--Futurama

In the Futurama episode Less of a Hero, The Dover Boys were shown in the opening title scene.

Afterlife of the The Dover Boys part 8---Fans, Fanart, and Merchandise

Here are a few things that fans have done to either impress other fans or just to pay tribute. There is also the only collectible I could find. Also at the top is a group cosplaying as The Dover Boys and Dan Backslide.

A nice peace of art.

Because the short is in the public domain, it was bootlegged on this VHS tape.

Afterlife of the The Dover Boys part 7---All About the Animation (thanks to Mark Kausler)

I would have described the animation in this short but Mark Kausler tells it better. Here is some moments of the smear and important iconic peaces of The Dover Boys.


Mark Says:


"The Dover Boys is fundamentally a parody of 1890s melodrama. Nearly every cartoon studio, and even some live action, found this a rich source of material ripe for mockery. Chuck Jones took this kind of story to the next level by employing John MacLeish (sp?) to do the narration in his very dry fashion, and to use Horatio Alger type broad characters such as Tom, Dick and Larry, to be the heroes. Dan Backslide and Dora Standpipe fill out the cast as the villain and the heroine. Bobe Cannon experimented notably in this cartoon by using "stretch" inbetweens to fill in the gaps between extremes of an action, such as when Dan Backslide works on his jalopy with tire irons by stretching across a wide expanse of scenery to get his tools and quickly change a tire on his car. The fight sequence with Dora Standpipe walloping Backslide and tossing him out of the shot is handled with stretch inbetweens as well. A weakness in animation is that extremely fast motion of a character running, for instance can have a great deal of strobe, resulting in double images on the screen.Bobe Cannon and later, Manny Gould and Don Williams under Art Davis at Warners, developed stretch inbetweens or good drybrush blur effects into a new visual language. They looked great on a movie screen, and nearly eliminated the strobe layering that was a problem in older animation. The way the stretches looked on screen had a bold, graphic design which eventually led to UPA and more stylized characters and backgrounds. That's what makes The Dover Boys a curiosity, the extremely old-fashioned story, pared with the modern, super stylized look of the characters in action that Bobe Cannon drew. That makes The Dover Boys a real breakthrough in design and the approach toward animated motion on screen. "

Here are a few scences of smear art.

Photo of Bobo Cannon

Afterlife of the The Dover Boys part 6---I'll Steal it, No One Will Ever Know!

One year after The Dover Boys, Columbia made a short entitled The Rocky Road to Ruin. This short is extremely similar to The Dover Boys. The damsel in distress looks sort of like Dora. Handsome Harry looks remarkably similar to Tom. The villian's name is Snievley Whiplash. The name is sounds remarkably similar to Snidley Whiplash but he looks exactually like Dan Backslide. John McLeish wrote the story. McLeish was also the narrator in The Dover Boys a yearlier so he clearly was aware of it.



He looks remarkably similar to Dan Backslide.

Here is Tom- I mean Handsome Harry and the heroine. 

Afterlife of the Dover Boys Part 5---Other Dover Boys (No Relation)

The Dover Boys isn't a common name. There are many other names of things called The Dover Boys. Note: This has  absolutely no connection to The Dover Boys. I don't think anyways.


Here is a comic book featuring the adventures of The Dover Boys!

Afterlife of The Dover Boys part 4--The History of This Short

         The Dover Boys is a classic short. The Dover Boys was an experimental film, which pioneered the use of limited animation. It used smear drawings from each position. Chuck Jones directed the short. The story was by Ted Pierce who also voiced Tom. This was a parody of the books Jones read as a kid. Chuck Jones was an avid reader and his father made sure he read a lot. This was a parody of The Rover Boys as well as homage to other books such as Tom Sawyer. The animators included Phil DeLara, Rudy Larriva, Ken Harris, Robert Cannon, and Ben Washam.


           According to Tom Sito, this short was Chuck Jones and Ted Pierce's joking about two popular trends in the 1940s. Young men's adventure fiction and the nostalgia wave for the Gay Nineties. In World War II, people yearned for when life was simpler and more polite which was the case in The Dover Boys. 

      This cartoon was the first modern cartoon, which pioneered limited animation. It is a clear that this short probably influenced the UPA-style. In fact, Chuck Jones directed the first UPA short. That isn't even the major UPA connection though. Another animator on this cartoon is Robert Cannon. Cannon would later become most known for his work at UPA. He is one of the major studios of UPA. He directed all the Gerald Mcboing-Boing shorts, as well as the TV show. He also directed Madeline and several Magoo cartoons. 

       John McGrew did the backgrounds on this cartoon. You can read an interview with him here. Mcgrew did the backgrounds for many of Chuck's early cartoons. This short had a much larger cast then most Warner Bros Cartoons. Ted Pierce voices Tom. John McLeish voices the narrator. Mel Blanc voices Dan Backslide. According to Tom Sito, Dan Backslide was a caricature of Ted Pierce. Marjorie Tarlton voices various characters and Bea Benadaret was the voice of Dora.

       Leon Schlesinger wasn't a fan. Neither were Warner executives. They weren't a fan of the extensive use of limited animation. The executives were going to fire Jones and were in the process of doing so because of his previous shorts, which extensively used Disney-like characters and stories. They couldn't find a better replacement so they kept him around.

Special Thanks to: 


Jerry Beck

Tom Sito

Mark Kausler

The Afterlife of The Dover Boys Part 3--DVD Commentary

Commentary with Michael Barrier

The Afterlife of the Dover Boys----The Dover Boys (The Original Short)

The Dover Boys in Pop Culture part 1

The Dover Boys is one of the most recognizable Chuck Jones cartoons. It helped define limited animation. 90+ animators came together to animate this short. Here it is. I think it looks really good. Not as good as the original but is still a great tribute. This is my next series for this september. I will also be doing monthly top 15s.