"A Cartoonist's Nightmare" (1935, Looney Tune)
In this rarely-seen black and white cartoon, Jack King experiments with Beans, a cat who appeared in a handful of cartoons over the 2 years span of 1935 and 1936. Beans was the leader of an "Our gang" inspired posse of young characters introduced in Freleng's "I Haven't Got A Hat". Jack King, Friz Freleng, and Tex Avery each directed these shorts, which were originally envisioned as a longer-running series than they ended up. Beans' occasional costar, Porky Pig, ended up eclipsing Beans completely. King certainly tried, though, as seen through this under appreciated and clever little film involving a cartoonist staying up too late animating a Beans cartoon and having a nightmare. The villains (most of whom are reused from earlier one-shot Merrie Melodies) in his cartoon kidnap him and torture him for a while, then throw him into a deep pit in the floor. Beans comes to the rescue with some shoes that have a mind of their own. The cartoonist eventually wakes up, and rewards the cat on his drawing board by drawing a huge ice cream feast for him to eat.
