Bopin' Hood (1961) Online

When the King of Squaresville outlaws all music more progressive than his own scratchy violin, it's up to Bopin' Hood and His Sherwood Trio to save the day in this ambitious but annoying Modern Madcap cartoon from Famous Studios.

The budgets had tightened up at Famous Studios between inflation and the vanishing of cartoon programs at the movies -- I began going to movies with my parents about this time and never saw a "selected short subject". Because of this, the cartoons were only partially animated and a deliberately simple and childish style of art was in use. Eventually the people who were coming into the industry would learn to use these effectively, as the people at UPA already had. However, the creative people at Famous had begun in the 1930s under the Fleischer Brothers and clearly missed the good old days when every cartoon was crammed full of gags. Although the featured bebop music was good, anyone who thought that it would appeal to the kiddies in 1961 had not noticed much outside the studio in twenty years.