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Harrison Cady, 1877-1970. Extremely prolific, he also painted fine art landscapes and worked for advertisers. The name Peter Rabbit, although already used by Beatrix Potter, was the name Thornton Burgess used for the rabbit stories he told his son, the boy would not let him use another name. For a time Peter called himself Peter Cottontail, and then that name was never used again until a 1949 pop hit recorded by Gene Autry resurrected it. Harrison Cady drew the Peter Rabbit strip for 28 years, then it was taken over by Vince Fago. While Ms. Potter does not seem to have objected to the use of the Peter Rabbit name, she for damn sure was not going to let Disney have him, and it was only recently that Sony defiled that wonderful creation with one of your more genuinely brain dead adaptions of a book like, ever. She should have sold Peter to Walt, whatever may happen Disney protects their characters from external idiots, preferring to ruin their source material the Magic Kingdom way. Ask the shade of Lloyd Alexander about The Black Cauldron and what a company that relies on schmaltz and phony American values can do to a great story.
The 1971 Rankin/Bass Here Comes Peter Cottontail, with Casey Kasem as Peter. This was adapted from a Thornton Burgess book, The Easter Bunny Who Overslept. When Rankin/Bass makes a bad movie, so what? That's like complaining about Ed Wood. But Disney has no excuse, ever, for what they do to other people's stories and their own. Oh, and they steal royalties, Gary Wolf had to go to court twice over Roger Rabbit, the Mouse told him it did not make any money. (RR made 330 million 1987 dollars, and that's just box office).
Harrison Cady was a fantastic artist and a great part of my childhood! I have watched the Rankin-Bass version of Peter Cottontail when I was a child. I recently watched it again-not the greatest movie-but still enjoyable.
ReplyDeleteI just heard of him yesterday, I don't even remember these books. He is a fantastic artist for sure.
ReplyDeleteAh yes, "Here Comes Peter Cottontail..." I remember seeing that once or twice as a kid. Say what you will about Rankin-Bass's productions, but they did come up with some pretty imaginative villains!
ReplyDeleteFoxy posted on a Rankin/Bass Red Baron production which I have never seen. At the time I thought such shows were cheap and poorly done, now that I know more about the economics of the animation scene I realize we are lucky that we had any cartoons to watch made after 1959.
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