Terrytoons

Terrytoons was a studio in New Rochelle, New York that produced animated cartoons for theatrical release from 1917 - 1971. Terrytoons was founded by Paul Terry and operated out of the "K" Building in downtown New Rochelle. The studio created many cartoon characters including Heckle and Jeckle, Mighty Mouse, Gandy Goose, Sourpuss, Dinky Duck and Luno. The "New Terrytoons" period of the late 1950s through early 1970s produced such characters as Hector Heathcote, Hashimoto and Deputy Dawg as well as The Mighty Heroes. Ralph Bakshi got his start as an animator, and eventually as a director, at Terrytoons. Terrytoons were originally released to theaters by 20th Century Fox. The Terrytoons library was later purchased by the CBS Corporation.

History

Before Terrytoons

Terry first worked for Bray Studios in 1916, where he created the Farmer Al Falfa series. He would then make a Farmer Al Falfa short for Edison Pictures, called "Farmer Al Falfa's Wayward Pup" (1917), and some later cartoons were made for Paramount Pictures.

Mighty Mouse

Mighty Mouse is an American animated anthropomorphic superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox. The character appeared first in 1942 (originally named Super Mouse) and subsequently in 80 theatrical films between 1942 and 1961. These films appeared on American television 1955 through 1967 Saturday mornings on the CBS television network. The character was twice revived, by Filmation Studios in 1979 and in 1987 by animation director Ralph Bakshi, who had worked at the Terrytoons studio during his early career.

Mighty Mouse has also appeared in comics and other media.

History

The character was originally conceived by Paul Terry. Created as a parody of Superman, he first appeared in 1942 in a theatrical animated short titled The Mouse of Tomorrow. Originally named Super Mouse, after seven films 1942-1943, he was renamed Mighty Mouse The Wreck of the Hesperus (1944), after Paul Terry learned that another character named "Super Mouse" was to be published by Marvel Comics.

Dinky Duck

Dinky Duck was a Terrytoons cartoon character who first appeared in the 1939 animated short The Orphan Duck. Unlike fellow Terrytoons characters Mighty Mouse and the magpie duo Heckle and Jeckle, Dinky never became popular, appearing in a total of only 14 cartoons between 1939 and 1957.

For most of his appearances, Dinky was a young duck who lived on a farm with other ducks, chickens and other typical farm animals. Sometimes he was an orphan who simply wanted a place to call home; on other occasions, he would perform some heroic deed and help restore calm to the barnyard when adult animals quarreled.

Dinky's final appearance was in It's a Living, a CinemaScope cartoon, in which he sheds his cute farmyard duck persona and instead takes on the role of a disgruntled animation actor who quits his cartoon character job to try his hand in television commercial acting.

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