Gabby (film series)

Gabby
Title card
Directed byDave Fleischer
Story byJoseph E. Stultz
Dan Gordon
Bob Wickersham
Pinto Colvig
Jack Ward
Carl Meyer
Produced byMax Fleischer
StarringPinto Colvig
Jack Mercer
Margie Hines
Music bySammy Timberg
Animation by
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Running time
6 — 7 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish

Gabby is a series of animated short films produced by Fleischer Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It features the titular town crier in the 1939 animated feature Gulliver’s Travels produced by Fleischer, serving as a sequel spin-off series of the film.

History

Shortly after the release of Gulliver’s Travels, Paramount and Fleischer gave Gabby his own Technicolor spinoff cartoon series. Eight entries were produced in 1940 and 1941.[1] Gabby was voiced by Pinto Colvig, the voice of Walt Disney's Goofy, Pluto, and Grumpy and Sleepy from the 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Jack Mercer (the voice of Popeye and King Little, Sneak, Snoop, Snitch, and Twinkle Toes in Gulliver’s Travels) was regularly cast alongside Colvig, as either a king, mayor, snitch, fish, castle worker, fire fighter, or sometimes even as Gabby's humming.

The Gabby cartoons proved to be critically and commercially unsuccessful with audiences, with most of the criticism being aimed at Gabby's grating voice, his unpleasant character and him being unfit for a main lead role. The negative reception of the shorts contributed to the closure of Fleischer Studios and the firing of Dave and Max Fleischer, which culminated with the box office failure of Mr. Bug Goes to Town and the high production costs of the Superman animated cartoons.

The cartoons were later sold to U.M. & M. TV Corporation in 1955, which later became part of National Telefilm Associates, which became Republic Pictures, and was then sold to Paramount's current parent ViacomCBS (now currently renamed and rebranded as Paramount Global) in 1999. Today, the Gabby cartoons are in the public domain as they didn’t get renewed. For official releases, the cartoons are currently syndicated on television by Trifecta Entertainment & Media (inherited from CBS Television Distribution and other companies), original distributor Paramount owns the theatrical rights, and Olive Films owns the DVD rights. However, most Gabby cartoons can be found in faded public domain television prints, usually featuring the edited Television openings.

Filmography

All films are directed by Dave Fleischer.

# Title Release Date Film Animator Story Notes
1 King for a Day October 18, 1940 Willard Bowsky & James Davis Joseph E. Stultz First released cartoon
2 The Constable November 15, 1940 Still copyrighted. Bill Nolan & George Germanetti Dan Gordon
3 All's Well January 17, 1941 Dave Tendlar & Bill Nolan Bob Wickersham
4 Two for the Zoo February 21, 1941 James Culhane & Al Eugster Pinto Colvig
5 Swing Cleaning April 11, 1941 Willard Bowsky & Arnold Gillespie Bob Wickersham
6 Fire Cheese June 20, 1941 Steve Muffati & Joe Oriolo Jack Ward
7 Gabby Goes Fishing July 18, 1941 Orestes Calpini & Otto Feuer Carl Meyer
8 It's a Hap-Hap-Happy Day August 15, 1941 Orestes Calpini & Irving Spector Bob Wickersham

References

  1. ↑ Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. p. 83. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved June 6, 2020.
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