Gabby (film series)
| Gabby | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Dave Fleischer |
| Story by | Joseph E. Stultz Dan Gordon Bob Wickersham Pinto Colvig Jack Ward Carl Meyer |
| Produced by | Max Fleischer |
| Starring | Pinto Colvig Jack Mercer Margie Hines |
| Music by | Sammy Timberg |
| Animation by |
|
Production company | |
| Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date | October 18, 1940 — August 15, 1941 |
Running time | 6–7 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Gabby is a Max Fleischer animated cartoon series distributed through Paramount Pictures. Gabby debuted as the town crier in the 1939 animated feature Gulliver’s Travels produced by Fleischer. Is a sequel spin-off series of the film, in which Gabby always causing trouble on Lilliput. Shortly afterward, Paramount and Fleischer gave Gabby his own Technicolor spinoff cartoon series, eight entries of which were produced in 1940 and 1941.[1] Gabby was voiced by Pinto Colvig, the voice of Walt Disney's Goofy, Pluto, and Grumpy and Sleepy from the 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
Jack Mercer (the voice of Popeye and King Little, Sneak, Snoop, Snitch, and Twinkle Toes in Gulliver’s Travels) was regularly cast alongside Colvig, as either a king, mayor, snitch, fish, castle worker, fire fighter, or sometimes even as Gabby's humming.
The Gabby cartoons proved to be critically and commercially unsuccessful with audiences, with most of the criticism being aimed at Gabby's grating voice, his unpleasant character and him being unfit for a main lead role. The negative reception of the shorts contributed to the closure of Fleisher Studios and the firing of Dave and Max Fleisher, which culminated with the box office failure of Mr. Bug Goes to Town and the high production costs of the Superman animated cartoons.
The cartoons were later sold to U.M. & M. TV Corporation in 1955, which later became part of National Telefilm Associates, which became Republic Pictures, and was then sold to Paramount's current parent ViacomCBS (now currently renamed and rebranded as Paramount Global) in 1999. Today, the Gabby cartoons are in the public domain. For official releases, the cartoons are currently syndicated on television by Trifecta Entertainment & Media (inherited from CBS Television Distribution and other companies), original distributor Paramount owns the theatrical rights, and Olive Films owns the DVD rights. However, most Gabby cartoons can be found in faded public domain television prints, usually featuring National Telefilm Associates openings.
Filmography
| # | Title | Date | Animation | Story | Musical arrangement |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | King for a Day | October 18, 1940 | Willard Bowsky James Davis |
Joseph E. Stultz | Sammy Timberg |
| 2 | The Constable | November 15, 1940 | Bill Nolan George Germanetti |
Dan Gordon | |
| 3 | All's Well | January 17, 1941 | David Tendlar William Nolan |
Bob Wickersham | |
| 4 | Two for the Zoo | February 21, 1941 | James Culhane Alfred Eugster |
Pinto Colvig | |
| 5 | Swing Cleaning | April 11, 1941 | Willard Bowsky Arnold Gillespie |
Bob Wickersham | |
| 6 | Fire Cheese | June 20, 1941 | Steve Muffati Joe Oriolo |
Jack Ward | |
| 7 | Gabby Goes Fishing | July 18, 1941 | Orestes Calpini Otto Feuer |
Carl Meyer | |
| 8 | It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day | August 15, 1941 | Orestes Calpini Irving Spector |
Bob Wickersham |
References
- ^ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 83. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
External links
- Gabby at Don Markstein's Toonopedia. Archived from the original on July 31, 2016.
- The short film Gabby Goes Fishing (1941) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
- The short film Gabby: Fire Cheese (1941) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
- The short film Gabby: All's Well (1941) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.
- The short film Swing Cleaning (1941) is available for free viewing and download at the Internet Archive.