Terrytoons

Terrytoons was an animation studio founded by Paul Terry (February 19, 1887–October 25, 1971). The studio, located in New Rochelle, New York, United States, operated from 1928 to 1968. Its most popular characters included Mighty Mouse, Gandy Goose, Dinky Duck, Deputy Dawg, Luno and Heckle and Jeckle; these cartoons and all of its others were released to theatres under the studio's solitary Terrytoons banner by 20th Century Fox.

History

Before Terrytoons

Terry first worked for Bray Studios in 1916, where he created the Farmer Al Falfa series. He then would then make a Farmer Al Falfa short for Edison Pictures, called "Farmer Al Falfa's Wayward Pup" (1917), and some later cartoons were made for Paramount Pictures.

Circa 1921, Terry founded the Fables animation studio, named for its Aesop's Film Fables series, in conjuction with Amadee J. Van Beuren. Fables churned out a Fable cartoon every week for eight years in the 1920s. In 1928, Van Bueren, anxious to compete with the new phenomenon of talking pictures, urged Terry to start producing actual sound films, instead of post-synchronizing the cartoons. Terry refused, and Van Bueren fired him. Almost immediately, Terry and much of his staff started up the Terrytoons studio.

During the 1940s and early 1950s

Through much of its history, the studio was considered one of the lowest quality houses in the field to the point where Paul Terry noted, "Disney is the Tiffany's in this business, and I am the Woolworth's." To that end, it had the lowest budgets and it was among the slowest to adapt to new technologies such as sound (in about 1930) and Technicolor (in 1942), while its graphic style remained remarkably static for decades. This conservative attitude was aggravated by its inflexible release schedule which Paul Terry took pride for providing a new cartoon every other week, regardless of the cost to the quality of the films.

Despite these practices, Terrytoons was nominated four times for the Academy Award for Animated Short Film: All out for V in 1942, My Boy, Johnny in 1944, Mighty Mouse in Gypsy Life in 1945, and Sidney's Family Tree in 1958.

Changing hands

The studio was sold outright by the retiring Paul Terry to CBS in 1955; 20th Century Fox continued to distribute the studio's releases. The following year, CBS put it under the management of UPA alumnus Gene Deitch, who had to work with even lower budgets. Deitch's most notable works at the studio were the Tom Terrific cartoon segments for the Captain Kangaroo television show. He also introduced a number of new characters, such as Sick Sick Sidney, John Doormat, and Clint Clobber. Deitch brought much creativity and life to the Terrytoons cartoons, but because he was the new man at the studio, he wasn't entirely welcome. An internal battle was fought by studio stalwarts and unfortunately, Deitch was forced out.

After Deitch was fired in 1958, Bill Weiss took control of the studio. Under his supervision, Heckle and Jeckle and Mighty Mouse went back into production. In addition, the studio began producing the Deputy Dawg series for television in 1960.

The most notable talent at Terrytoons in the 1960s was animator/director/producer Ralph Bakshi, who got his start with Terrytoons in the 1950s and later helmed the Mighty Heroes series. Bakshi would later go on to direct "Mighty Mouse: The New Adventures" in 1987.

Post-history

After the departure of Bakshi after 1966, the studio basically petered out and finally closed in 1968; however, the film library was still regularly rereleased to theatres by 20th Century Fox. Fortunately for the studio, its existing cartoon library saw a long life in TV reruns. The Terrytoons cartoons (especially Mighty Mouse and Deputy Dawg) were syndicated to many local TV markets, and they were a staple of after-school and Saturday morning cartoon shows for over three decades, from the 1950s through the 1980s, until the television rights to the library were acquired by USA Network in 1989 and has hardly been used since.

In the 1970s, the CBS Films properties were spun off to create Viacom, which itself re-merged with CBS in 1999. Fox, meanwhile, held the worldwide theatrical rights to Terrytoons until Viacom merged with Paramount Pictures in 1994. Today, with Viacom once again split from CBS, Paramount Pictures (still a Viacom division) handles the theatrical and home entertainment distribution of the classic Terrytoons library, while CBS Paramount Television (having split from Viacom) holds television distribution, even though the Terrytoons cartoons have not been seen since it was withdrawn from television syndication in the 1980s.

In the late 70's, Filmation Studios licensed the rights in order to make a new Mighty Mouse series. Later in 1987, Ralph Bakshi produced The New Adventures which lasted for two seasons. Bakshi and John Kricfalusi inspired the staff to try and get as much Jim Tyer style drawing in the show. Tyer, a stand out Terry animator of the original cartoons, with an absolutely weird and unique way of animating the Terrytoon Characters, became a strong influence on the artists of the Bakshi series. In 2002, the Terrytoons characters returned to television in an original commercial for cheese. A brand-new feature-length animated film featuring Terrytoons is now in development by Paramount and sister cable network Nickelodeon.

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