Post 811 - Images from the 1927 "Novelization" of Keaton's "The General"

The "novelizatoin" is pretty dreadful, but some of the images in it aren't in general circulation, to the best of my observation.  So here they all are - (no copyright, all PD images at this point)

 

Post 810 - 1999: First Animated Gif for Internet Use

Trials and tribulations - in pharmacy, in the 1990s, in using a DOS animation software, and using a mouse to draw - and the 400x300 resolution was a real challenge for file size uploads!

...but there you go!...

Back when independent pharmacies had a fighting chance! 

Post 809 - Eddie Cantor's "Whoopee" (1930) - Comparison of VHS release to DVD restoration

 

 

With its blackface scenes and extraordinarily contrived humor (despite some great songs), Cantor's first sound film, in all its glorious two-strip Technicolor, has not aged all that well since its 1930 release.  

However, some team, uncredited, took it upon themselves to do a masterful restoration of the film, somehow coaxing shades of blue out of the turquoise limits of the original.  Above are a couple of frame comparisons - first from the 1980s VHS, and then from the 2025 DVD reissue.

It's worth a viewing, if for nothing more than the songs and the very fine musical accompaniment by George Olsen "and his Music."  But the scene where Cantor, joyfully unrestrained in his Jewish heritage, hides in an oven and comes out of the ensuing explosion in blackface, in light of what Germany was doing just a few years later... yeah, that was a cringe moment.

You can track down the DVD on Amazon or Movies Unlimited, or download/view it on the Internet Archives:   https://archive.org/details/whoopee-1930 

One final frame to show that they pulled or pushed, but squeezed out the color blue in a two-strip color process:

"Am I blue?"

 

 

 

Post 808 - At a Storyboard Level at this point - "Nero Divergent"

 

(c) MMXXVI (2026) Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary

 

Post 807 - Colorizing the Past - Pharmacy Failures #5 - Preparations A Through G and Potato, USP

 From the Animating Apothecary Archives

(c) MMXXVI (2026) Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary
 

Post 806 - Concept design for Scherzoo - Sfumato #4 (In production)

 (c) MMXXVI (2026) Jim Middleton, The Animating Apothecary

Post 805 - The Collection of ASIFA International Animation Day Posters, because...well they've got to be SOMEWHERE!

 

Post 804 - Getting Ready for Fall Festivals - Stickers for ASIFA Central!