Fractured Fables (1967)

Fractured Fables is a series of American animated shorts created by Shamus Culhane and Ralph Bakshi, produced by Paramount Cartoon Studios, and distributed by Paramount Pictures. It is notable for being the last series produced by Paramount Cartoon Studios, as the studio would be closed down by Gulf+Western shortly after the series ended.

Filmography

 * "My Daddy, the Astronaut" (Culhane/Eugster; April 1967; released with mh:greatestmovies:2001: A Space Odyssey)
 * "The Stuck-Up Wolf" (Harriton/Eugster; September 1, 1967)
 * "The Stubborn Cowboy" (Harriton/Eugster; Oct 12, 1967; final short that was directed by both Shamus Culhane and Chuck Harriton)
 * "Mini-Squirts" (Bakshi/Crane; December 1, 1967; first short that was directed by Ralph Bakshi)
 * "The Fuz" (Bakshi/Crane; December 5, 1967)
 * "Mouse Trek" (Bakshi/Crane; December 31, 1967; final short that was directed by Ralph Bakshi as well as the last Famous Studios/Paramount Cartoon Studios short altogether)

Why It Rocks

 * 1) Just like Nudnik, it is one of the more decent Paramount Cartoon Studios series during the studio's dark age.
 * 2) The ideas of the cartoons (especially for Bakshi's shorts) are pretty interesting to see such as;
 * 3) * "My Daddy, the Astronaut"; A boy talks about astronaut (as his father).
 * 4) * "The Stuck-Up Wolf"; The story of “Red Robbin” Hood”.
 * 5) * "The Stubborn Cowboy"; A cowboy who won’t listen to advice, while interrupted by various commercials.
 * 6) * "The Fuz"; Super Basher and Bop rescue Poopsie from the “fuzz” that’s following her around.
 * 7) * "Mini-Squirts"; The typical life of a modern married couple, as enacted by little boy and little girl.
 * 8) * "Mouse Trek"; An Earth cat is abducted by alien cats who bring him to a planet terrorized by a "mouse" who's the giant.
 * 9) Wonderfully music scores by Winston Sharples (especially for Ralph Bakshi-directed shorts)
 * 10) The animation is subpar at best, but makes up for it with Al Eugster on board.
 * 11) * It got much better once Ralph Bakshi helped take the Fractured Fables in a different direction.
 * 12) "Mouse Trek" was a great way to end not only "Fractured Fables" series but the studio's catalog altogether after being open for a great 25 years.
 * 13) Bakshi's abstract character designs are a callback to his work on Possible Possum, Sad Cat and The Mighty Heroes (all three that came from Terrytoons).
 * 14) * Gil Miret's character designs are rendered the characters and their individual limbs, lets, heads and all that as separate pieces they could put together and manipulate underneath the camera.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) "Mini-Squirts" is the only bad episode in this series.
 * 2) The music scores by Winston Sharples (in Culhane's shorts), while okay, is pretty weak.
 * 3) Despite that Ralph Bakshi directed the shorts in this series, his shorts felt out-of-place compared to Culhane's shorts (that take place on children’s POV shorts that was drawn in child scrawl and narrated by a little boy).

Trivia

 * "My Daddy, the Astronaut" is the first Famous Studios/Paramount Cartoon Studios film to be shown at an animation festival.