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tymime · 27 days

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Public Domain cartoon characters from the Golden Age of Animation (and beyond)

Revised and expanded version of this post: https://tymime.tumblr.com/post/648495121557585920/instead-of-whining-about-mickey-mouse-not-falling

While Mickey entering the public domain is exciting and all, I do think a lot of people are overlooking the many other animated characters that are available to use in their creative works. This list isn't entirely exhaustive, but it does highlight some of the most interesting and/or appealing characters, as well as ones that have the potential to be so.

Koko the Clown

One of the oldest cartoon stars from the Fleischer studio, almost all of Koko's silent-era cartoons are PD, and have been for quite some time. A handful of his appearances alongside Betty Boop are also PD.

Oswald the Lucky Rabbit

Oswald's PD status has been greatly overshadowed by his fellow Disney star Mickey, but I believe that he deserves more recognition. All of the shorts produced by the Disney studio are PD as of this year, and let's face it, those are the only ones most people care about. Pegleg Pete's bear design is also PD.

Keep in mind that the blue shorts that Oswald wears in Epic Mickey and elsewhere are likely copyrighted, so I recommend steering clear of that.

I'm also not entirely sure you can use the name "Ortensia" for his cat girlfriend, since that name first appeared in Epic Mickey also. She was called "Kitty" back in the day, among other things.

All of Van Beuren Studio's cartoons

The Van Beuren Studio was active during the rubberhose era, and their cartoons, especially the earlier ones, are like a cruder, possibly even more bizarre cousin to Fleischer and Disney. They went bust in the late 1930s, and no one renewed the copyright later on, so the entirety of their output is PD.

Their most notable characters include Tom and Jerry, a pair of average Joes who always get into strange adventures. They shouldn't be confused with MGM's Tom and Jerry, and in fact they were called Dick and Larry when their shorts were rereleased for the home-movie market in the 1940s.

Also notable is Waffles and Don, who are basically just animal versions of Tom and Jerry. You might consider these two as a better alternative, just to avoid confusion.

There's also Cubby Bear, a pretty blatant Mickey Mouse clone, but unique enough that I don't think anybody’s going to confuse the two nowadays.

In the previous post, I mentioned a rumor that Disney threatened legal action over the character, but I can't find the source for that now. I may have been thinking of Milton Mouse, who was so extremely similar to Mickey that they actually did sue the studo for copyright infringement. So maybe don't try selling any Milton merchandise...

Finally, there's Molly Moo-Cow, who appeared in several Rainbow Parade cartoons in the mid-to-late 1930s. Molly is arguably not the most interesting character, but I have a fondness for her since we grew up with one of her shorts on a VHS tape.

Toby the Pup

Another very obscure character, about half of his cartoons are lost media. The little that does survive is hard to find online, but I think his design has appeal.

Dr. XXX

Disney's The Mad Doctor was never renewed for reasons unknown, though some speculate that the studio thought that the cartoon was too scary and decided to let it go. Fortunately for us, that means that this iconic character is now in the people's hands.

Goopy Geer

Goopy appeared in the three Merrie Melodies cartoons alongside his unnamed girlfriend. Despite his name and appearance being similar to Disney's Goofy, he actually made his debut about a month before (Goofy was named Dippy Dawg at the time anyway, so it was undoubtedly a coincidence).

Claude Hopper

Claude appeared in a single Looney Tunes cartoon in 1943 called Hop and Go, alongside a pair of Scottish rabbits who antagonize him. The cartoon ends with a very unfortunate depiction of Tokyo being blown up (World War II was still going on at the time), so it's no surprise that Warner Bros. decided not to renew this one. Despite that, he has a very appealing design (imo), so I think he has potential. (Also, he's voiced by Pinto Colvig, the original voice of Goofy!)

Private Snafu and Mr. Hook

Snafu and Hook were created for the US government, so according to the law are automatically public domain. The shorts were made to be shown to members of the US army and navy respectively, in order to teach them valuable lessons for fighting in WWII, but are nevertheless hilarious cartoons- animated by the Looney Tunes team with scripts by Ted Geisel- aka Dr. Seuss!

The Dover Boys

Also of note are the ComiColor cartoons from the Iwerks studio, Rainbow Parade from Van Beuren, and most of the Color Classics by Fleischer. These don't have any especially memorable characters in them, but I thought I ought to mention them.

Yes, Tom, Dick and Larry, Dora Standpipe and the villainous Dan Backslide are all public domain. A bunch of YouTube Poops were created after this fact was discovered by the internet a few years ago.

How Warner Bros. could ever let this one get away I'll never know. Their loss is our gain, I suppose.

Caveats and other concerns

Krazy Kat

Felix the Cat

All of the strips up to 1928 are definitely fair game. According to the Public Domain Superheroes wiki however, the entirety of the strip's run is PD. I'm not sure if it that's true, but the Fantagraphics collections don't credit any newspaper syndicate, so it seems likely. (Apparently the copyright status of newspaper comics are a whole can of worms on its own...)

At any rate, the strip's cast was pretty well set in stone by 1928, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. A large number of animated shorts starring Krazy are also PD, but those were pretty much in name only.

Flip the Frog

Felix was pretty much the first cartoon superstar, and almost all of his Golden Age appearances are PD now. Keep in mind that this does not include elements from the 1950s cartoon like his magic bag, or from The Twisted Tales of Felix, as amazing as that series is.

The character's name and appeance are still trademarked by NBC Universal however, so you might be able to use him in a minor role, but not much else.

I'm uncertain about this one. According to most sources Flip is PD, but according to the Thunderbean Blu-ray collection he's copyrighted by the Film Preservation Archives, whatever that means. Additionally, Flip himself is supposedly trademarked by Leslie Iwerks, Ub Iwerks’ granddaughter, though no one seems to be able to confirm that. I don't know how the trademark hasn't lapsed yet, considering that Flip hasn't appeared on any official merchandise or anything in decades.

Bosko and Honey

I believe there's nothing stopping anyone from using Bosko's classic design (later appearances at MGM and in Tiny Toons are still copyrighted), but the character himself is a bit problematic, considering that it's all but stated outright that he's a blackface caricature. Use with caution.

Foxy and Roxy

Noveltoons

Like Goopy Geer, Foxy appeared in three Merrie Melodies cartoons. Roxy's name originates from an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures however, so keep that in mind. Though I'm not sure what else you would call her (or if Warner Bros. would even care). Supposedly her original name was "Fluffy", but I can't find a source for this.

Like Bosko and Honey, later appearances in Tiny Toons are still copyrighted.

Noveltoons was a series produced by Famous Studios, the successor to the Fleischer studio. The characters include Baby Huey, Herman the mouse, Blackie the sheep, Little Audrey, and of course, Casper the Friendly Ghost. Only a small handful of the shorts are PD though, and Casper is trademarked, so one's options are limited.

Ginger Nutt (and rest of the Animaland cast)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964)

This one I'm not entirely sure about either, but Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus has long been a staple of grey-market tapes and DVDs, so I'm just going to assume all of the Animaland cartoons are also PD. Considering that the series wasn't very sucessful, and is very obscure nowadays, it seems pretty likely.

If anyone has any insight on this, let me know.

Calvin and the Colonel

Now here's an interesting case. An all-time classic Christmas special, and yet large parts of it are PD because they accidentally put the wrong date on the copyright notice. Instead of the Roman numerals MCMLXIV (1964), it reads MCLXIV (1164), and according to the law at the time, that meant that the film immediately went into public domain.

Of course, Rudolph himself is still copyrighted, and will be until 2035 when the original book falls into the public domain. Even then he's likely to still be trademarked. Not to mention the songs featured in the '64 film will be copyrighted for a long time afterward.

Still, this means that anyone is free to use all the other characters, including Hermey, Yukon Cornelius, King Moonracer, Clarice, and all the Misfit Toys. It's a wonder no one seems to have taken advantage of this. And of course Santa and his reindeer have been PD for ages, especially Santa since he comes from folklore- and you can't copyright folklore.

This cartoon is based on and stars a lot of the same voice cast as the old-time radio show Amos and Andy, which, while not overtly racist, featured white actors pretending to be black. The cartoon obviously has animals instead, but still, tread carefully. Someone is bound to point out the characters' history.

Hoppity Hooper

Another one I'm not sure about. The Public Domain Superheroes wiki has characters from this show among its articles, but I wasn't able to confirm if it really was PD. It was created by Jay Ward, the same studio who made Rocky & Bullwinkle and George of the Jungle, but was also a huge flop for some reason, so that may be the reason why they let the copyright expire. Again, I'm not sure, but no one seems to care that the entire series is on YouTube, so who knows?

...Well, there you have it. Lots of obscure and forgotten toons waiting to be rediscovered and reused! If anyone has any more info or corrections, leave me a comment. I'd love some clarification on some of these.

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gameraboy2 · 2 years

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Censored (1944)

#my gif #private snafu #censored #gif #gifs #vintage #gifset #animation #cartoons #film #movie #1944 #1940s

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cinnamonrollsledge · 3 months

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HBO's The Pacific (2010) in Black & White:

Rami Malek as Merriell 'Snafu' Shelton

#the pacific in bw #the pacific #snafu shelton #merriell shelton #hbo war #private snafu #hbo the pacific #mine #caps from kissthemgoodbye.net #rami malek #mine: bw edit

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dailylooneys · 10 months

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Happy 80th Birthday to Private Snafu!

Snafu.......Situation Normal All........All Fouled Up!

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A series of World War 2-themed animated short films screened for young military men. They were mainly instructional, educational films, but still contained that same irreverent, slapstick comedy style of humor of the Looney Tunes & Merrie Melodies, thanks to the contributions of the boys of Termite Terrace: Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, Friz Freleng and Frank Tashlin, and voice legend Mel Blanc.

The intention these cartoons had on the military audiences was that, the titular character, Private Snafu was an incompetent soldier that was meant to illustrate, in more straightforward way, what NOT to do (true to his name that is), with practically each short ending with Snafu getting blown.

Imagine how different it could've been if Disney had done these instead of Warner Bros., as that was the United States Army’s first choice. But that didn't happen as Leon Schlesinger would bid lower than Disney.

These shorts, of course, generally remained obscure in the minds of the mainstream audiences (until recently that is) as they never were intended to be shown in public theaters. As Martha Sigall, a staff of the ink-and-paint department at Leon Schlesinger Studios, stated these Private Snafu cartoons were top secret. They wore ID badges, did fingerprints, got FBI approval and were given ten cels rather than the usual thirty cels, to prevent them from knowing about the stories.

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Therefore, it was never made for a general audiences of kids and adults as the publicly released Looney Tunes shorts were, especially considering it’s content; mild swearing (i.e., damn, hell) and fanservice displayed all over these cartoons that couldn't have been possible in the days of the Hays Code (it's especially surprising to note that Ted Geisel, AKA Dr. Seuss, of all people, was the main writer for THESE!!! Wowie!!!!).

Fun fact: (one of the shorts titled “Censored” was shown on Cartoon Network’s trivia show Toonheads late at night with half of the scene featuring a topless Sally Lou cut out!)

And, naturally, because this was a WWII-themed series, featured a good deal of derogatory depictions/imagery of Japanese/Germans and Nazis (which will not be shown here).

It's interesting to see not only how strongly connected Private Snafu is to the Looney Tunes, considering, not only the same style of humor, but the two cameo appearances of Bugs Bunny (Gas and Three Brothers), which could make Snafu himself a Looney Tune.

This is especially considering his early bird cameo in Chuck Jones’s The Draft Horse.

Later on, Private Snafu would not only be done by Warner Bros., but also by it’s competitors, like MGM, UPA, Harman-Ising and Disney.

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Two shorts were left unproduced. One of them was originally going to be directed by none other Tex Avery at MGM. Too bad that didn’t happen!!

Though the Private Snafu series maybe a time capsule of World War 2, as oppose to being as timeless as the classic Looney Tunes cartoons are, they still serve as a fascinating historical art, a look at what our world was going through, and still included a lot of the trademark style of humor seen in the Warner Bros. cartoons that still kept it entertaining enough.

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usnatarchives · 2 years

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HAPPY BIRTHDAY BUGS! By Miriam Kleiman, with a shoutout to #1 Bugs fan Jason

What’s up, Doc? Bugs Bunny debuted #OTD 1940 in the Warner Bros. cartoon A Wild Hare. That "Wascally Wabbit" went on to sell war bonds (see above), and serve as a Marine in World War II! NARA GIF from “Bond Rally, 1941.” In "Uncle Sam Speaks," NARA ID 1632603. (Image of Bugs Bunny copyrighted by Warner Bros.)

Bugs Bunny: Proud MARINE!

At the end of this 1943 short Bugs wears a USMC uniform. In response, the Marines made him an honorary private. He continued to rise through the ranks and is the only cartoon character to hold the rank of honorary Marine Master Sergeant!

From Marine Corps records, undated, from collection labeled "General – Insignias, Emblems, Patches, Seals." NARA IDs 74239994 and 74239883.

More Looney Tunes/WWII connections! "Private Snafu" in RUMORS, a WW2 training film, part of a series directed by Chuck Jones and other Hollywood animators. The voice of Private Snafu was performed by Mel Blanc!

See related Tumblr post to learn the surprising connection to Dr. Seuss! NARA ID 35828. NARA Gif here.

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Consolidated B-24 Liberator -- "Bugs Buggy." (USAF #58230AC) August 1945, NARA ID 204992017.

Mel and Estelle Blanc with President Reagan at the White House, 3/30/1984. Reagan Library, NARA ID 75853283.

#bugs #bugs bunny #warnerbrothers #warner bros #mel blanc #looney tunes #cartoons #animation #happy birthday #otd #wascally wabbit #chuck jones #reagan #reagan library #dr. seuss #private snafu #cartoon history

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ducktracy · 2 years

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sharp musical timing in Friz Freleng’s SNAFU short Pay Day. these shorts are able to get away with more, both comedically and artistically; establishing patterns through symmetrical staging/set-ups, visual metaphors and repetition that may seem out of place in the main WB cartoons

#i thought i had this here but did not #private snafu #pay day #freleng #vid

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sexycartoonbabes · 4 months

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My 10 Favorite Waifus of 2023

10. April Stewart (The Funky Phantom)

9. Betty Cooper (Archie)

8. Ms. Physics (Dexter's Lab)

7. Offended redhead from Family Guy

6. Shampoo from Ranma ½

5. Bikini blonde from Simpsons' CC Lemon commercial

4. Michiko Minamoto (AKA Shizuka Minamoto) (Doraemon)

3. Miss Machiko from Maicchingu Machiko-sensei

2. Miss X (Abou Ben Boogie)

Penny caricature from Family Guy

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newspdm · 1 year

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Cartoon: Real American Zero - The Adventures of Private Snafu, 1944

Private Snafu is the title character of a series of black-and-white American instructional adult animated shorts, ironic and humorous in tone, that were produced between 1943 and 1945 during World War II. The films were designed to instruct service personnel about security, proper sanitation habits, booby traps and other military subjects, and to improve troop morale. Primarily, they demonstrate…

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#1944 #Chuck Jones #Mel Blanc #Private Snafu

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incorrectlooneytunesquotes · 2 years

Conversation

Technical Fairy First Class: I'm Technical Fairy Foist Class.

Pvt. Snafu: But what are you doing in my drink?

Daffy: The backstroke.

#technical fairy first class #private snafu #daffy duck #source: it's a very merry muppet christmas movie

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gilition · 2 days

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Great drawings by Rod Scribner from "Traps"

#rod scribner #Private Snafu #Looney Tunes

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lovelyhamster · 3 months

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Just hilarious... Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike (1944) watch for free

#looney tunes #cartoons #old cartoons #classic cartoons #retroflix #private snafu

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marvelousmovies · 1 year

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Private Snafu vs. Malaria Mike (1944)

#youtube #WWII #WW2 #world war ii #war #Snafu #private snafu #1940s #Film #Classic tv

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dailydoseofweb · 3 months

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Dear Journal,

I returned to Juniper today. Clever woman! Her solution to the bells was a braided red string bracelet with small bells woven throughout. It also had some kind of charm on it as well. She told me that it was called a “Lei Ting curse charm, don’t look at me like that David. Curse is in the name because it wards them off.” Some of her aunts back in Vietnam use them for the same reason she is kindly giving one to me.

Paranormal Investigation log #14:

Still no sign of my boys and I am growing restless. It has been a full day and I have seen no note nor any evidence of such on our “anomaly”. I asked Juniper and Tabitha for advice regarding my missing boys and they mentioned a number, given to them from Grant for emergency use.

Does my mounting anxiety and increasingly frantic mindset count as an emergency??

Tabitha told me to “Go home, kid. Get whatever you think you’re dealing with under control. Don’t want your boys coming back to danger now?”

She is entirely correct.

The mirror worked. The garlic did not seem to as a deterrent. In fact, our “anomaly” sought me out this morning trying to find it. Said, “Somethin’ smells good and looks like it’s you, Dictionary.”

The garlic was quickly confiscated. Or rather quickly turned over because I wanted to avoid having our “anomaly” searching my pockets. The man could be part octopus when it comes to those wandering hands. I do not even want to know what godforsaken thing he could use that garlic for.

Perhaps another letter is in order.

Potential abilities:

Thievery: this still stands

Glamor/ or another appearance changing ability

Cloaking: perhaps that is how no one knows where my boys are?

Allure: this is tentative. Could explain his boys possibly.

Material displacement

Induced paranoia

Lurking

Chaotic nature

Dark vision

Apparition/teleportation

Ubiquitous.

#band of brothers #david kenyon webster #(webster you sure are a dweeb)#(Private Dick Web is on the case!)#(Snafu: is that garlic? Lew needed some of that.)

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newspdm · 9 months

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Cartoon: The Outpost with Private Snafu, 1944

Outpost is an animated short film, directed by Chuck Jones and first released in August, 1944. It is part of the Private Snafu series. As in all the Snafu films, the voice of Private Snafu is performed by Mel Blanc. This is considered a transitional film in the series, with Snafu successfully able to complete a mission despite his discomfort and being unaware of the importance of the…