Drawn and Quartered's Belated Christmas Spectacular -- Episode #3: The Captain's Christmas (Salty Dogs and Katzenjammer Kids)

Director(s): Friz Freleng

Summary: Here’s a refreshing change of pace: a Friz Freleng cartoon not made for Warner Bros. You see, there was a time in the history of Termite Terrace where Friz Freleng thought that it would be best if he took his talents elsewhere, so he went to MGM to do animated shorts. It, sadly, didn’t work out the way it did with Tex Avery, so Freleng was back at Warner Bros as quickly as he left (the 1940 WB short, “You Oughta Be in Pictures” is a fictionalized take on it).

Anyway, in this, the last Captain and the Kids cartoon of 1938, the patriarch of the family (and titular Captain) gets robbed of his Santa costume and sleigh during his yearly tradition of playing Santa Claus to entertain his wife (Mama) and children (Hans and Fritz) by a degenerate sailor named John Silver and his nameless henchmen. While John does do a good job of playing Santa, he soon goes too far and ruins Christmas for the kids, prompting his peg-legged conscience to scold him and tell him to make things right.

Fun Facts: 

• This and the next cartoon, “Petunia National Park,” are the only Captain and the Kids cartoons that were done in Technicolor, rather than black and white.
• The title is kind of a misnomer, as The Captain only appears at the beginning of the cartoon, and he doesn’t do anything to stop or help John Silver redeem himself after ruining Christmas for the kids.
• This is the only Captain and the Kids short where Billy Bletcher (who did do voice work on Warner Bros. shorts. You’ve probably heard him as the voice of Papa Bear on the Dysfunctional Bear Family shorts, or Colonel Shuffle on “Mississippi Hare” and “Dog Gone South” and is the original voice of Pegleg Pete in the Mickey Mouse shorts over at Disney, among other roles) voices John Silver instead of Mel Blanc. John Silver’s singing voice in this short was provided by Charles Bennett.

The Channel(s): Cartoon Network and Boomerang (ToonHeads)

Part(s) Edited: In the rare time I saw this on television (this was one of those shorts I saw a lot on VHS tape as a child. It never occured to me that this would air on television, even during that small December window when Cartoon Network would pepper their programming with Christmas-themed animation) back in the early-to-mid 2000s (I want to say 2004, but I’m so sure it was 2003), the scene of one of the kids (the blond one) playing with a sad, shuffling black man wind-up toy and John Silver making it dance faster by shooting at its feet (causing it to run, despite being attached to the wind-up box) was cut. For continuity reasons (I think, and sincerely hope), the earlier scene of John Silver playing a toy piano with his pegleg and shooting his pistol twice was cut.

What Grinds My Gears About the Edit(s): Not much. All the years of watching it uncut on videotape, I almost didn’t notice that there was an edit done until I noticed the jump in audio (audio jumps and alterations [i.e., redubs and muting] almost always give away visual edits), and that was on the second viewing.

Video Comparison: 

Availability Uncut: It’s been on physical home media since 1983. First, it was on volume one of the MGM Cartoon Magic VHS. Eight years later, it was on the Tom & Jerry’s The Night Before Christmas VHS (that’s the one I had as a kid). Seventeen years after that (2008), it would appear as a special feature on the final volume (volume six) of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection DVD set (it’s on the second disc, featuring World War II-era cartoons and some post-war shorts that are considered propaganda, such as the three Sloan Foundation shorts directed by Friz Freleng that combine cartoon antics with lessons about the American economy and business). Four years after that (2012), it was released on the second volume of the Looney Tunes Platinum Collection (Blu-ray only. The DVD version just has Warner Bros cartoons with no special features or third disc).

Is/Was It on Streaming or Digital Download: Not as of this writing. The only MGM cartoons I’ve seen on streaming and/or digital download are the Tom and Jerry shorts and, of course, most of Tex Avery’s oeuvre. Anything that’s not it (including Harmon and Ising’s work after leaving Termite Terrace) hasn’t been released, as far as I know.

 

‘Til next time, stay Looney and be Merrie.