bml84 I remember seeing this back in the Early-Mid 80's during a Holiday weekday on STV. Obviously the station realised too late that this was not your typical Kiddy Fodder as it was never shown again (a minor miracle for anyone who knows STV). I'm not surprised.It was Soooo depressing. Suicide-Unrequited Love-Sleaze-Despair. Fun viewing for all the Family. Has to be said though that it did stick in my mind, though maybe not for the right reasons.An odd curiosity that was very out of place for its time. Can't believe it was made in the 70's.Probably traumatised more kids than Bambis' Mother.

FCWilson14 Shinbone Alley is not like every other animated film. It brings a unique approach to animation. It is almost like viewing an animated jazz opera in some respects. The characters are well defined and quite good, and some of the backgrounds are almost works of art on the New York scene. It is true that some very small children might not understand it, but a vast majority of people who view the film will find aspects of it that they will love; like the George Herriman sequence when archy declares war on humans. Carol Channing is wonderful as mehitabel, especially when she sings Shakespeare. Eddie Bracken is great as archy. This is the type of film that can be viewed again and again, and you find something new and interesting each time you see it. It was definitely a style setter in 2D animation, and should be applauded for its unconventional approach. Throughout the years, there have been a handful of animated films that could truly be called one-off, style setting, animation treasures -- Fantasia, Yellow Submarine, Toy Story, for example. I feel that Shinbone Alley easily fits into this select group of animated films.

FinartsFilm Marquis wrote a daily column on "archy and mehitabel" for the New York Post in the nineteen-twenties, as a defence against the bottle and a job as a sports reporter.I read the Penguin collection of his "a and m" stories in the fifties,as an animator at the Disney studio. I tried to get the studio interested, but they were not ready for the earthy humor, and the scandalous goings on of mehitabel. Later when I had started up my own studio, Fine Arts Films,I saw the Broadway production,with Eartha Kitt,which was brilliant.I had met Carol Channing,(who I saw as mehitabel,--perfect gravel voice),and she agreed to do it.With that start,I could not fail.I found a sympathetic ear of a friend,Preston(Sandy) Fleet,who was willing to invest in the production of SHINBONE ALLEY by my studio,Fine Arts Films.By 1969,we had a talented group of storymen,designers and artists,some ex Disney and Warners.Joe Darion and George Kleinsinger,(who had done the stage musical version),did the final script and music.Eddie Bracken and Alan Reed came aboard,and that was it,except we found John Carradine,a great actor,was willing to play the part of that old roue' actor-cat, Tyrone.T.Tattersall.We stuck faithfully to Marquis,and a stunning sequence,"archy declares war", in the middle of the film,we animated in George Herriman's cartoon style,(he illustrated Marquis' poems),creating a world that Marquis lived in. Our film "SHINBONE ALLEY" has been honored as one of the all-time great animated movies by The Museum of the Moving Image in New York,as well as winning the Golden Phoenix Grand Prize at the Atlanta Film Festival of 1971.

brucebox As a child, I saw some TV filler on the making of this film and waited for it to come to town. Months later it surfaced at a local theater as a one weekend only kiddie feature. Naturally I went, and endured hours of blue & bleak imagery, a depressing story, and the voice of Carol Channing. I remember kids in the theater crying because it depressed them so. The whole experience was a childhood trauma I tried to forget. For god's sake, the cartoon opens with a guy's suicide!Years later I'd described this forgotten film to friends, but not even hardcore toon heads knew about it. However, I did learn that the songs came from an early 60's Broadway flop of the same name which featured Eartha Kitt in the Carol Channing role, and that was based on an earlier series of "humorous" stories from the 1930's.I managed to track down a copy of this film and give it another look from an adult's perspective. Man, no wonder we kids of the 70's are so messed up! This film really is possessed of a dark dreary depressing vision. I can't see how it resembles Yellow Submarine. Yes, it has a trippy pallet, but it's one bad trip. If anything, it's thick black lines and cross-hatched shading resemble TV's "School House Rock", and even more so those terrible "Time For Timer" bits that ABC subjected us to.I'll cut the film some slack, because I know it was not aimed at kids, and thus suffered the same fate that `Watership Down' and `Twice Upon A Time' would later know. Namely, that all feature animation gets marked as kiddie fare regardless of content. Not only do the creators suffer, but the kids suffer more. Speaking as a former kid, I must tell you to spare your kids and yourselves this animated curiosity.