Okay, I'm in my early 50's. Not as old as some, but older than others. I can remember watching saturday morning cartoons that were mostly re-runs of those animated shorts that were once shown in theaters.
Included in this lot were Little Audrey, Baby Huey, Casper the Ghost, Heckle and Jeckle, and many others, not to mention my favorites, Popeye the Sailor and Betty Boop. These two were icons of their time, pre to post WWII. They were heroes. Because they were Matinee Idols, they were also aimed more at adults than they were children. How else could you explain Popeye's exploits against Japan and Germany, or Betty's provocative attire scantily placed over a curvaceous figure. In their time, they provided a great deal of inspiration to many.
One Saturday morning, as I was sitting in the living room floor with a huge bowl of Crispy Critters, I watched as Popeye and Betty floated through a fantastic dance routine in some tropical setting. She was wearing only a lei and a grass skirt as Popeye whisked her over the floor and across table tops of some Cabana-like setting. Their movements were so graceful, I'm sure that the animation was layered over footage of real dancers. (This is one of the two cartoons starring both of them, that I'm aware of. I've only been able to find record of the one where Popeye was introduced in a Betty cartoon. Which, I'm sure it was the 'prequel' to the one that I remember. Because Betty's attire was the same. I wish I could find this one.) I remember my mother coming into the living room, telling me to go eat at the table, and then discussing the adult nature of the cartoon with my dad. He remembered the cartoon from when he was stationed on board a Naval Destroyer during the war. Completely ignoring my mom's concern, he quickly dashed into the living room for a glance at Betty's lei.
Once apon a time, there were cartoons for adults that were just slightly rique. There was no need to go to the extremes of South Park, Drawn Together, or the like. (I'm not going to even include 'hentai' in this discussion. Hentai is off in a fringe catagory, at least in the American culture, that is basically outside the realm of decency.) But, the mild forms of erotica were accepted in these short films because of the target audience. If you were under the age of 21, not only were you a minor. although you might be going off to war, you were still considered a 'kid'. And, generally speaking, kids were regarded as being so innocent as to not be concerned with the frolics of Betty and Popeye. Animation was just coming into it's own, far from being mainstream and hugely experimental. The technology wasn't much newer than film making itself.
I think that it would be great to be able to build a library of the earlier animations that did more than entertain. I think that it would be valuable to us as a society to look at the nature of the animation, the political statements, the level of maturity, the outright candor in the reflection of who we were as we used this media as a voice.
Mostly, I'd like to see that episode of Popeye and Betty dancing on the table. That, more than anything, drove me to like spinach.
