Jasper and the Haunted House
Jasper and the Haunted House | |
---|---|
Directed by | George Pal (uncredited) |
Story by | George Pal |
Produced by | George Pal |
Animation by | Stop-motion artist: Ray Harryhausen (uncredited) |
Color process | Technicolor |
Distributed by | Paramount Pictures |
Release date | October 23, 1942 |
Running time | 7 minutes |
Language | English |
Jasper and the Haunted House is a 1942 American animated short film in the Madcap Model series by George Pal.[1] It is an early entry that features the popular yet controversial Paramount Puppetoons characters Jasper and his friend/nemesis Professor Scarecrow and Blackbird.
Plot
The original Paramount opening titles feature vocals singing the preparation of the pie and the credits displayed as part of the pie's ingredients.[2]
Jasper walks with a
The next scene begins as Jasper arrives at the (obviously) haunted house. He enters and yells for the Deacon, but instead the door slams shut and locks behind him. Trapped and frightened, Jasper walks forward into the room (with a gag where his shadow walks back), and Professor Scarecrow and Blackbird scare Jasper into leaving the pie on a table by the staircase; Jasper then hides in an old piano. It seems as if the plan worked, but when Professor Scarecrow gets in an argument with Blackbird about sharing the pie, the pie itself is taken by a ghost. Professor Scarecrow then accuses Blackbird of taking the pie, but the argument ends when they find that it was a ghost who took it. Frightened, Professor Scarecrow and Blackbird hide in the piano with Jasper after the pie is eaten and the invisible ghost tosses back the pan ("There ya' are, boys. Get you a refund on the tin.") The ghost walks across to the piano and gets ready to play it. ("Nothin' like a little music after dinner", says the ghost.) The three characters whisper that they cannot see him, and there's a swing boogie-woogie piece played
Jasper, afraid he will get in trouble, asks "What am I gonna tell my mammy about that pie?" Professor Scarecrow gives Jasper the empty pie pan as a way to prove that the pie was delivered. Jasper, furious, begins hitting the pie pan on their heads. The camera zooms out with a controversial advertisement for a fake brand of pie that says "Next Time Try Spook's[5] Gooseberry Pie". Jasper drops the pan onto the ground revealing the Paramount Pictures print logo of the time on it.
Later releases
Jasper and the Haunted House has not been seen on TV for many years because it was deemed racist.
The film has also fallen into the public domain as NTA failed to renew the copyrights on the film, except possibly underlying music rights issues with Famous Music, as well as the eventual Arnold Leibovit's later trademarking of Puppetoons.
Because of this, Jasper and the Haunted House found its way to numerous public domain video collections.
References
- ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.
- ^ Article title [dead link]
- ^ DataBase, The Big Cartoon. "Jasper And The Haunted House (Paramount Pictures)". Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDB). Archived from the original on July 22, 2012.
- ^ "Jasper and the Haunted House". 23 October 1942 – via www.imdb.com.
- ^ Spook
- ISSN 0015-1386.
- S2CID 191315418.
External links
- Jasper and the Haunted House at bcdb
- Jasper and the Haunted House at IMDb
- Jasper and the Haunted House video at Like Television