Hugh Harmon ~ Rudolph Ising

[rainingviolets21]

Harmon - Ising, to me, are the Tiffany of all cartoons, the quality of the drawings and the story boards are so well done, they rival or surpass anything Disney has done. It isn't enough to have quality, well drawn art, you must have a good story and a likeable character or the cartoon will

not work, case in point the MGM cartoons with Barney Bear--these are extremely well drawn, but the character of Barney Bear is so lethargic it defeats the purpose, I have most of the Harmon ~ Ising copied except for the Christmas one...

[Factotum]

While it is true that Harmon and Ising produced many grand cartoons, easily surpassing Disney efforts in the "Beautiful" genre, they tend to be on the dull side. They are so similar in material, often they seem like similar Columbia efforts with a fabulously increased budget.

Another thing about Mr. Harmon and Mr. Ising, they loved repitition. How many of theirs repeated this story?: Tiny (toys, trade marks, characters from magazines, etc.) get together at midnight in a closed (shoproom, library, kitchen,) party hearty until a (spider, villian, ape) siezes the feminine lead, and is chased down by the whole lot, utilising wildly impromptu attack weapons along the way, until she's free again. I say that more than not, the H-I cartoons become nearly generic.

[MikeBSG]

Once, I saw a Harmon-Ising cartoon based on "The Blue Danube." It was beautiful and it took me utterly by surprise. However, most of the rest of the H-I cartoons I've seen have never recaptured that magic.

 

My children liked one H-I cartoon, in which a little elf runs around saying "Time for Spring." It had some dramatic artwork, but, as has previously been mentioned, the storytelling was a bit weak.