Sidney the Elephant

Sidney the Elephant (also known as Sick, Sick, Sidney or Silly Sidney) is a series of shorts produced at Terrytoons, created and supervised by Gene Deitch (first two shorts), and the all-color, theatrical spin-off of Tom Terrific!. The series started off with a sick elephant who wants to play or have a family because he's lonely. Later entries involve him going on adventures with Stanley the Lion and Cleo the Giraffe. The shorts were released from 1958 to 1963.

He was the first Terrytoons character to get a nomination for his second film, Sidney's Family Tree (1958). Unfortunately, it lost to "Knighty Knight Bugs" (a Looney Tunes short directed by Friz Freleng). Although he didn't have cameos in future Terrytoons media, Sidney was later parodied as Sappy Stanley in the Tiny Toon Adventures episode, "Who Bopped Bugs Bunny?" Like all shorts of the Terrytoons package, his series can easily be found on YouTube and InternetArchive.

Why it Rocks

 * 1) Sidney is a bumbling and childish, yet lonesome elephant who wants to play with someone to keep him company.
 * 2) * The most famous example would be searching for a family, because his parents joined a circus and left him alone.
 * 3) Good voice talents from Lionel G. Wilson (voice actor of Tom Terrific) and Dayton Allen (voice actor of Deputy Dawg).
 * 4) Stanley (a lion) and Cleo (a giraffe) are perfect voices of reason for the elephant in later entries.
 * 5) The animation in the first two shorts are subpar at best, at least under the supervision of Gene Deitch. Jim Tyer still does a good job when animating Sidney.
 * 6) Funny moments, such as Sidney spending time with his adoptive father and the vultures getting crushed by a round boulder when they attempt to crush Sidney during a game of hide and seek.
 * 7) Great writing, especially from the talents of Eli Bauer and Larz Bourne in the second short.
 * 8) Good jungle music scores by Philip A. Scheib.
 * 9) His second short, Sidney's Family Tree (1958), is much better received than the first. This short is the reason why he got an Oscar nomination for Best Short Subject.
 * 10) Despite how dull the animation became over time, the series managed to continue until its closure in 1963.
 * 11) Sidney the Elephant and his friends were popular enough to star in the New Terrytoons comic books, alongside Deputy Dawg and Hector Heathcote.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The first short, "Sick, Sick Sidney" (1958), was not that well received by audiences. Sidney was originally a neurotic elephant, who was afraid of jungle noises.
 * 2) * Same as "Meat, Drink & Be Merry" and "Tree Spree".
 * 3) After Bill Weiss took control of Terrytoons and switching Technicolor to Deluxe-color, the writing and animation started to have a downgrade in quality.
 * 4) Sidney's voice actor (Dayton Allen) in later entries is nowhere near as good as the original Lionel G. Wilson. Neither is Dee Bradley Baker in the 1999 pilot, Curbside.

Trivia

 * Alongside Tom Terrific, he is one of the most popular characters to come out of the Gene Deitch era. He was one of the few characters to ever make an appearance in a failed pilot under the name of Curbside.