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My various social media feeds have been full of people watching and genuinely enjoying Steamboat Willie for the first time ever, because they hadn't thought to watch it until it was in the news.

Something about that appeals to me. Going public domain revitalizes older media and adds new flair, kind of like adding fresh compost to an old garden bed. It makes it fertile ground again, and now anyone can grow anything they want!

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Something a little different: Playing through a fascinating, difficult, and bizarre Cuphead ripoff based around the newly-public domain "Steamboat Willie", and numerous characters from other already-public domain cartoons. See how many (badly traced) elements from different PD classics YOU can spot! Molly Moo Cow, anyone?

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Hi! I hope you're well. I have around 450 cartoon VHS tapes -- mostly the Goodtimes/UAV/etc public domain type -- that I'm looking to get rid of. What's the best thing to do with them?

If you're able to post them somewhere for sale, that would be great for a lot of people. I can't promise you'll make a fortune off of them, but people will be glad they're out there, considering how fewer and fewer have turned up in the thrift stores over the last several years. Goodness knows I'd love to see what you've got (via a list or what have you). Let us know what you decide!

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It's my 11 year anniversary on Tumblr 🥳 Perhaps I should post more things. I did get a handful of tapes last year, and my Kid Video / Hep Cat series is one I was promising scans of for ages. Watch this space....

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Hi, i'm from Guatemala , recently I found some funtoon cartoon vhs in my house. I was very curious and saw your tembler account. Of course they are in spanish. Let me know if you're intresting and will send you some pies

I would love to see any pics you have: front, back, label, it's all welcome! Thank you for checking out the page!

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I can't believe that this post is from over 10 years ago! At any rate, I decided to finally purchase the second set of eight "Classics" tapes seen above, and hope to post some decent scans of everything once I get around to it. Let's say, within the next several months...just because when I start posting scans again, there will be a lot of them (perhaps everything in my collection that I hadn't gotten around to yet...certainly the Hep Cat / Kid Video tapes)!

SERIES SPOTLIGHT #1: UAV’s Cartoon Classics

Two years into its existence, United American Video put out an eight-tape “gold medal” series, likely (and I’m guessing here) to tie in with that year’s Summer Olympics. While many PD-based titles seemed to play fast and loose with their cartoon selection, these titles ensured that the character on the front cover would be featured in all of the cartoons on the tape. (Exceptions to this rule would be Woody, Foghorn, etc, who each had only one PD cartoon to their name, hence their sharing the cover with other characters.)

An interesting addition to this set is the Donald Duck tape. Apparently, this was the original “Volume 5” in 1988. I had originally guessed that when the Disney cartoons were discovered to no longer be public domain, the 1989 version of this set replaced Donald and Mickey with Porky Pig. (The tapes in my collection are mostly 1989 issues, but I have copies of the Bugs Bunny tape from ‘88 and '89, which had helped me to reach this conclusion.) However, while the Donald/Mickey box is copyrighted 1988, the label says 1989! *shrug*

Also in 1989, a second set of “UAV Cartoon Classics” was released, with the roman numeral “II” next to the now-silver medal. The box art was mostly blue, and the artwork was much improved. While the gold set is easy to find on Ebay, the silver-medal tapes are a little more difficult. The known titles in this set are #1: Daffy Duck(*), #2: Felix the Cat, #3: Popeye, #4: Baby Huey, #5: Bugs Bunny, #6: Fat Albert(*), #7: SUperman(**) and #8: The Three Stooges.

(* = found on Amazon, 5/25 and 5/29.) (** = found on Ebay, 11/26.)

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Oh hey, long time no see. Just wanted to confirm that I still retain my fascination with how public domain film was marketed in the VHS era. Thankfully, I'm not alone in that interest, as Ben from "Oddity Archive" has now done a video on how silent film was presented to home viewers, and with what music (sometimes random, sometimes original, often mismatched). Charlie Chaplin, Nosferatu, Metropolis, and more Chaplin! Absolutely worth a watch.

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Well, well, look what we have here! A new purchase, perhaps? (The story continues after all...)

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Phelous is back (not that he went away, really) and giving Goodtimes Home Video the what-for, this time highlighting a compilation tape of previously-reviewed Disney rip-offs, as well as some (da da da daaaa!) public domain cartoons. Can’t wait to watch!

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Hep Cat Headaches: A Collector’s Story, Part 3

Nearly ten years ago, I began this Tumblr as a reevaluation of the public domain based tapes in my VHS archives. This brought with it a lot of nostalgia and discovery, but more importantly, a chance to complete a collection: The United American Video / Hep Cat / Kid Video series. Several years ago, I hit a snag when I was unable to successfully secure (on ebay, thrift stores, or elsewhere) the 3rd and 26th tapes in what had turned out to be a 29-tape set (the actual first tape--basically labelled #0--being a Mickey Mouse volume, which I amazingly discovered at a nearby thrift store). Those shortcomings, a busy life, and a divorce, shifted a lot of my attention away from this Tumblr page. Nonetheless, I never stopped looking. Around two years ago, I finally found Tape 3 (Mighty Mouse), but still had only ever seen the 26th tape--a.k.a. Porky Pig Vol. 3--one time, during a long-ago auction I failed to win for merely not realizing I wasn’t signed into Ebay properly while attempting a last-second bid.

That all changed two days ago when, during a once-in-a-blue-moon Ebay VHS search, it showed up as a Buy It Now auction (along with Vol. 1 and 2). Enthused, I snapped it up, then re-purchased a couple of volumes I’d only had “Walmart $1.00″ versions of, finally completing a collection that had started during the long-gone days of Woolworth’s, McCrory’s, Ames, and Kay-Bee.

Closure at last! But the story doesn’t end there.... Remember those Canadian versions with unique artwork that I’d found a few volumes for? Here’s what I learned from reading an entry on the PD Video Wiki: “Embury Communications was founded in 1988, and released 30-minute compilations of classic cartoons, never releasing any feature-length films. Embury's tapes were sold in stores, but could also be purchased at a discounted price through their Kid Video Club. All Embury tapes contained a membership card which could be mailed in to join the club. The Kid Video series contained at least 32 tapes, followed by a 6-hour compilation which used only the Embury brand. In the United States, Embury's tapes were released by Hep Cat Entertainment, later a division of United American Video. The Hep Cat tapes were numbered in a different order, and at least three Embury tapes were never made available by Hep Cat.” Of these 32 tapes (or at least 20) that are said to exist, I have found images of twelve, most of which have the same artwork as the U.S. counterparts, but some of which have unique art. Of the unique Canadian covers, I have four (Elmer Fudd Vol. 1, Jack Frost, Tubby the Tuba, and a Bugs Bunny one I just found), and have seen at least one other (an Elmer Fudd Vol. 2 one that I can’t buy because the site auctioning it off only ships to Canada). I also found the cover for the six-hour Embury tape (which is not part of the regular series), which suggests that a unique Porky Pig cover also exists.

Does this mean I’m going to pursue every Canadian version, or Canadian-unique cover? Not necessarily, but if I stumble upon one every once in a while, it would be nice. After all, my focus was on the American U.A.V. tapes, which were the real goal, no matter what. (It’s worth mentioning that the Canadian Embury art seems to have only spilled over into the first 20 U.S. tapes, with the last 9 U.S. tapes being different artwork that has, from what I can tell, never appeared on a cassette in Canada.)

There is also the Australian(?) nine-tape series from South Pacific Video, which appears to be ripping off seven of the original covers, while adding two serviceable (but lesser quality) illustrations of their own (Bugs Bunny and Casper). I have only found pics for one of these tapes (Porky Pig), but the back cover shows the (likely) rest of the series. Because of that, I don’t think I’ll be losing sleep over not having the South Pacific ones in my possession.

In the end, despite these Canadian and Australian variations, I have finally finished my real search, which was to get all of the U.S. “Hep Cat” titles, which I believe I finally have. Anything else from there will just be icing on the cake, though I’d love to at least see all the Canadian Embury boxes, and welcome any unique covers that trickle their way into my possession. Thanks for taking this journey with me! It has renewed my interest in these tapes (though not necessarily in purchasing more of them), and I hope to share individual cover scans from the Hep Cat series (and beyond) in the near future.

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UPLIFTING UPDATE: After an eight-year search, I finally found the last tape I’d been looking for: “Porky Pig Vol. 3″ (I finally found the “Mighty Mouse” one maybe two years ago). After 30 years, my American UAV Hep Cat / Kid Video VHS collection is FINALLY COMPLETE! There is still an Elmer Fudd cover (of Elmer pointing a gun into a rabbit hole) that is exclusive to Canada’s Embury line of these tapes... but that is for another day. Time permitting, I may finally update this blog with a more detailed update, and scans for every tape (as promised) when I get the chance. Till then, thanks for sticking around and letting me share the good news with you! It feels so good to have closure.

SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT: It’s been a long time, but I’m still looking for the missing Mighty Mouse and Porky Pig volumes from my Kid Video / Hep Cat collection on UAV (in America), as well as any Canadian “Kid Video” volumes that you don’t see here. (The US collection also has a Micky Mouse volume, which I already have, but isn’t shown above.) I have been trying to collect all of these for two decades, and would be very grateful for your assistance. If you know where I can find the rest of these, please let me know, and thanks in advance!

Stay tuned tomorrow for a quick intro to my month-long Superstar Cartoon Video tribute.…

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I've been searching for hours with no luck trying to find a cartoon that I'm 99% sure was on an old PD VHS I had as a kid in the 80s. Maybe you can tell me what it was. All I remember is a mopey king on his throne singing a song with the line "no I ain't the man I used to was" and then other singers repeating "no, he ain't the man he used to was." I'd be delighted if you can identify. Thanks.

No problem! The short you’re looking for is “Old Mother Hubbard”, a 1935 ComiColor cartoon that has appeared on quite a few old PD tapes, sometimes featuring on the front cover (New Age / Alpha Video comes to mind). I also remember it appearing in edited form on an episode of “Pee Wee’s Playhouse”. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uWdgHsGzpk

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And a happy 80th birthday, too!

Happy 75th birthday, Bugs Bunny!

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Disney going around buying everything is definitely terrible, but there totally needs to be more awareness that the biggest damage Disney has done to the American media landscape happened twenty years ago, and ended up warping a whole generation’s notion of how media is fundamentally supposed to work in the process.

Basically, you can’t “renew” a copyright in order to extend it. “Copyright renewal” used to be a thing, but the purpose of doing so was to prevent the copyright from expiring early, not to extend it beyond the normal statutory limit – and in any event, all that was abolished decades ago, and everybody’s copyrights now last for the full term without the need for renewals.

When most people think of copyright “renewal”, they’re really thinking of copyright extension, which is some legislative fuckery that happened back in the 1990s, and is 100% Disney’s fault.

In a nutshell, Disney didn’t want Mickey Mouse entering the public domain, but there was no formal mechanism for preventing it, and obviously they couldn’t have a legal exception made just for Mickey Mouse; even if they’d bribed enough lawmakers to make it happen, that sort of blatant legislative favouritism would have caused a big hairy scandal.

So what they did instead was lobby for a global copyright extension, applying to all works that were still under copyright at the time – and they succeeded. The Copyright Extension Act of 1998 – sometimes known as the Mickey Mouse Protection Act, because they weren’t fooling anybody! – tacked an extra twenty years onto the term of all outstanding copyrights, ensuring that Mickey Mouse would be safe until at least 2024.

So here’s the trick: what happened to all the works that would have entered the public domain in 1999? Well, they’d now enter the public domain in 2019 – effectively “freezing” the public domain America for the next two decades. Thanks to Disney’s lobbying, there was a twenty-year span in which no works at all entered the public domain in the United States, apart from the tiny handful that were explicitly released to the public domain by a living author.

If you’re American and under the age of 30, last year is probably the first year in your memory that new works entered the public domain; if you’re under 20, it was the first year in your lifetime that new works entered the public domain. There’s an entire generation of Americans who grew up with a static public domain, thinking that was a normal state of affairs.

Like, I’m not saying that’s 100% responsible for American popular culture being in the condition it’s in, but it’s undeniably a pretty big contributing factor!

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It’s a comedy classic. We got paid to talk over it. So we did. Yes, we gone and went and riffed THE DOVER BOYS AT PIMENTO UNIVERSITY. Hooo doggies!

Now with Closed Captions!