You often have to be in Van Beuren mood to really enjoy a Van Beuren cartoon – but some of the best are as much fun to watch as any cartoon. Gypped in Egypt (1930) is one of my favorites of the early sound era, and I bet if you’re a Van Beuren fan it’s one of your favorites too.
First— some quick Thunderbean news:
I’m hoping over the weekend to get out to New York to scan some films; there’s a pretty big stack that has grown here over many months, and there’s a bunch of special sets (and some official ones too) that will have all their needed films scanned in this next big session. With any luck, the planets will align. For a short time, we’ve listed the special sets that are getting finished at the Thunderbean shop for anyone that missed them- and plan on sending this batch in April, along with Mid Century Modern, Volume 3 as it comes back from replication.
And— today’s cartoon!
Gypped in Egypt deserves its spot as a favorite of early 30s animation. The short-lived Waffles and Don, precursors to Van Beuren’s Tom and Jerry characters, spend the majority of the film in a Pyramid that is, for some reason, full of skeletons. I have a feeling the studio wanted any excuse to feel the screen with skeletons, honestly.
The film starts with Waffles and Don in a Hammock underneath their trotting camel. The stop for water, and in the process of trying to stop the camel from greedily drinking, they kill it by punching it in the face. A giant sphinx statue slides up, saying angrily “You. Killed. Him!”, thrusting them into a surreal sequence, including running camels and falling down a tunnel. The rest of the film consists of various run-ins with skeletons, with Don calmly standing with Waffles loses his mind. The film ends with the duo running from a stature with swirling eyes chasing them toward the camera.
The best of the Van Beuren’s approach the surrealness of the Fleischer cartoons, and while never as slick in presentation, they’re fully enjoyable. There is no need for explanation for any of the events that happen, and there’s something so fun about the chaos throughout this short as each new unexplainable thing happens. The animation and character poses are primitive in many ways, but the exuberance of the action is one of the most enjoyable touches. I really like the little dance to the water at the beginning of the film, and Don playing piano with an emotionless skeleton, who then loses its head, is especially strange. Don’s mouth, off to the side in a smirk through most of the picture, is one of my favorite things in the film.
Over these years, we’ve scanned and cleaned up a lot of stuff. Sometimes we spend a lot of time finding the absolute best on a particular film, and other times we’ve stayed with the best we could find at a particular time. Van Beuren’s Gypped in Egypt (1930) is one of those films that, if I had my druthers, I’d go back and try to find a better print— although I think the print was ok. It’s from the Thunderbean Aesop’s Fables, volume 1 Blu-ray.
