Happy New Year 2025 from THE SIMPSONS 26 years ago.

 Sigh...... Still Couldn't resist, given what we went through in 2024.

"Won't this horrible year ever end?"

"We never lost a year before and I'll be damned if we're gonna lose one on my shift!"

*BANG BANG BANG*

*Glass breaks*

"10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4 ,3, 2, 1"

"HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!"

Everybody sings Auld Lang Syne

Except for those who work their asses off to file their taxes early to appease the Martinsburg Monster...

Which was really an IBM 360.... or what remains of the system before decades of hardware replacement.

By the way, these Simpsons screenshots are not from Disney+ but rather from my 2006 Season 9 DVD because I need my screenshots and Streaming always blocks captures.

As for taxes, I do file them early but not in the way Ned Flanders does. I have a guy I know from my Baptist Church who helps with my Tax Returns and sends them towards the Canadian Equivalent to Martinsburg's system.

Man, filing taxes sure have come a long way since 1998 according to the episode above. I just hope we don't have a firmware snafu like what happened in 2018.... otherwise I wouldn't want to hear the end of it.

Why am I recycling this post from last year?

Because I just want to snub 2024 and hope for a better 2025. 

That's what!!!

That and the fact that GTA VI will release in the fall of 2025 which has everybody hyped.

And yes, I plan to get this game for PS5 though I'll have to wait until 2026 before this game is release for PC.

I love to singa-Avery's everlasting Avian Genius 60s years before SOUTH PARK popularized it.

You know that joke from the South Park Pilot CARTMAN GETS AN ANAL PROBE,

where Cartman sings after he's been hit by an alien control beam?

Well, that bit was actually referencing an actual cartoon that was released a good 60 years before SOUTH PARK made it's debut on COMEDY CENTRAL on August 13 1997.

I present to you.....?????????

Alright then.....

"I LOVE TO SINGA"

was released on July 18 1936.

This is also a very important cartoon because not only was this one of the first, if not the very first, cartoons from Warner Bros. to fully utilize the full 3-Strip Technicolor process for color film but it's also animated by TEX AVERY.... or at least, his animation Unit.

Yes. That Tex Avery

The same man who was ANTI-DISNEY at Termite Terrace and learnt to follow Early Fleischer's and Paul Terry's Homework on making Funny Cartoons and making use of zaniness in order to retain the laughs.

His cartoons are known for their Sarcasm, irony, absurdist, irrelevant humor, rapid pacing, violent humor, and fourth walls.

But only a few of these are in I LOVE TO SINGA which is the main topic of this blogpost.

It all starts with a lovely render of a 3-STRIP TECHNICOLOR forest.

This was 1936, and although DISNEY beat all the other studios on the process for Cartoons by four years, it had been roughly a year and a half since Disney's exclusive contract to use the 3-Strip process expired, therefore allowing other studios to use the process without heavy fees.

I LOVE TO SINGA wasn't the first MERRIE MELODIES cartoon to use the process though. That honor went to FLOWERS FOR MADAME on November 20 1935.

It all starts with the OWL family awaiting their Children to hatch from their eggs.

But then suddenly...

So the father decides to test the egg's reflexes.

"Wait...."

"MAMA, that Egg doesn't sound right."

But then the eggs hatch....

Complete with the children having feathers,

Eyes Open, 

And fully clothed

Each of the children have their own talents to demonstrate.

This one favors Operatic Vocal Performances.

This one favors playing his VIOLIN

And this one favors playing his FLUTE.

But this one in the red Jacket....

"I love to singa, 

about the moon-a and the june-a and the spring-a

I love to Singa."

"And sky fortune....."

"STOP!!!!!"

His father Professor Fritz Owl is not having it.

As if the opening scene wasn't a tipoff earlier,

The Owl Family has a strict policy as insinuated by the sign below.

But the sheer fact that OWL JOLSON specializes in JAZZ is enough to drive FRITZ insane.

And cause MAMA OWL to faint

But Fritz has the hair-brained idea that he can teach his OWL JOLSON to sing like a true opera Owl.

So they go ahead with it.

To no success since OWL JOLSON just can't get rid of the JAZZ Bug in him

This causes Fritz to get so fed up.....

That he decides....

 to Disown his child.

"I HAVE NO SON!!!!!!!!"

Of course, MAMA OWL is concerned that Fritz OWL was too harsh on the kid.

Ever seen one of those stories where after the Father gets mad, it's either the mother who realizes the error or the father who realizes his error.

Right now, it's hard to tell whether FRITZ has remorse but at least it's not as exaggerated as it was in ROCKO's MODERN LIFE later in 1994.

But unlike most children who are abandoned by their fathers,

OWL JOLSON decides to make it big on his own instead of moping about his Disownment.

Culminating into this wonderful looking parallax scene below.

Before you have your say,

Keep in mind this short was released in 1936 so a year before THE OLD MILL by Disney.

But Warner Bros was using a multiplane Camera before DISNEY did.

It may not be as nice as the 3D Stereo-Optical-Tabletop Camera that Fleischer was using at that decade but the sheer fact the WB was using multiplane at all before Disney had their Camera for Snow White is a major achievement THROUGH & THROUGH.

But then suddenly, OWL JOLSON stops.

Something's caught his eye.

I'll have to stop there and encourage you to go to ARCHIVE.ORG to watch the full short since I don't want to spoil the rest.

But I will say that this Merrie Melodies Cartoon takes a lot of inspiration from the 1927 film THE JAZZ SINGER, also from Warner Bros.

That explains references to Parental Abandonment, Parental Preferences, and the name OWL JOLSON, which happens to be a parody of actor AL JOLSON.

But yeah, this is probably where Trey Parker and Matt Stone got the idea for this one scene where Cartman sings in this style after being under alien control.

Too bad the song wasn't used in the 1998 N64 game.

Instead, "I LOVE TO SINGA" 

was replaced with 

"WHEN I GET THAT FEELING, I GOTTA SING."

"I was kinda like Michael Jackson there."

Yes, that was an actual quote from the game.

Sorry for that Screenshot. I didn't get a proper one that I like so I just used an image from MOBYGAMES... which Ironically is from the PC Version instead of the N64 version.