The Raven (1942) Online

This was another cartoon I found on Uncle John's Crazy Town blog. This was a Max Fleischer Color Classic that ran for two reels which is approximately 14 minutes instead of the usual six. Very loosely based on the Edgar Allan Poe poem, the title character is a reformed criminal who now sells vacuums. His old friend, the fox, convinces him go to a castle in which a Scottie inhabits. What follows is some highly amusing gags concerning the fox's attempt to rob the safe while the raven demonstrates disastrously how his vacuum works though something equally funny redeems the raven and the vacuum at the end. Oh, and the rhyming lines and accompanying classical, as well as some big band, music also works here. If there's one big quibble, it's that I wished the version I watched hadn't looked so faded as the colors really looked washed out. Otherwise, I recommend The Raven as this was one of the last shorts made by Max and Dave Fleischer before Paramount forced them out of their studio, renamed it Famous, and then moved the building and the remaining crew back to New York from Miami.

This is one in a series of longer color cartoons, averaging 18 minutes each, that Fleischer supervised starting with three Popeyes, one of which was an Academy Award winner. The Raven doesn't have as many of the fun sight gags to anchor it as a classic, nor does it use extensive 3D animation which set much of their earlier work above the rest but it is definitely Fleischer from a sense of perspective. The story involves a Raven as a door to door vacuum salesman, trying to stay on the right path, when he is convinced by his old friend the Fox to gain entrance to the castle of the Scottie Dog. Lots of stereotypes around the Scots being thrifty (they get in when the fox drops a coin outside the threshold and we hear a great deal of tearing downstairs, frantic running and door bolts thrown and the Scottie Dog, master of the house,immediately sniffing out the stray coin). As the Raven demonstrates the cleaner, the Fox breaks into the Scots banks, discovered one after another, getting smaller and smaller. The Scottie doesn't cotton to the vacuum until the Raven plays it like a bagpipe, after which the Raven and Scottie dance a jump tune(it was the early 40s). The exhausted vaccum rests over a floor grate,sucks up some Scottish whiskey and begins to unravel rugs and tear around the castle, including sucking up a radio and the gold the fox has uncovered. By sticking the fox in the back with its handle and a crime drama broadcast out of the radio inside the vacuum, he flees into the arms of real cops chasing another case. The Scottie pays for the cleaner in gratitude of it saving his money and everyone is happy. Lots of jokes about how thrifty the cleaner is and how much money it will $save$ - little dollar bills lighting up the Scottie dogs eyes. However, despite a few nice perspectives and some great backdrops, it didn't have the charm of the Popeyes or the inventiveness of the Superman cartoons series. Matter of fact, this was the last extended length cartoon the Fleischers would release theatrically, concentrating full time on the Superman series, where their inventive stories and action would find many long life fans. M:>