Scrappy Filmography, Now With Scrappy Cartoons

I don’t mean to brag, but Scrappyland—which will celebrate its 17th birthday later this month—has been around so long that YouTube didn’t quite exist yet when it launched. Back then, Scrappy’s cartoons were surprisingly hard to come by: In an introductory article, I even compared him to the famously missing Judge Crater. For years, all I had myself were a couple of gazillionth-generation VHS tapes given to me by Friend of Scrappy Kip Williams.

Now YouTube has become the most comprehensive archive of old cartoons we have. Nearly every Scrappy cartoon has made its way there. That being the case, it felt like it made sense to embed them here on Scrappyland.

Rather than creating a new section of the site, I decided to stick the cartoons into an existing one: Our online version of the Scrappy filmography that originally appeared in Animania #20 and #21 in 1981. Written by Paul Etcheverry and Will Friedwald, it was a pioneering work of Scrapology at the time. More than 40 years later, it’s still the most comprehensive look at Scrappy’s cinematic oeuvre. In 1981, the idea that you could read it and watch Scrappy cartoons right inside the article would have blown my mind. Maybe it still does.

A few notes on the filmography: Paul and Will didn’t manage to screen every Scrappy cartoon as part of their 1981 research, and so some still don’t have descriptions/critiques. Cartoon #64 in their listing, The Scary Crows, features a blond kid whom the 1981 description says is Scrappy; he appears in a few other cartoons and was dubbed “Sparky” by Jerry Beck in this century. Until someone else creates a Sparkyland site, I’m leaving The Scary Crows in the filmography as it originally appeared.

While adding in the YouTube cartoons, I discovered that Paul and Will’s roster was missing one short that’s unquestionably a Scrappy, though not exactly a career highlight: 1940’s Fish Follies. With Paul’s permission, I’ve added it to the filmography.

Another Scrappy film has come to light since 1981: The promo for his puppet theater, which includes some bizarre animation along with live action of Edith Fellows—and which was preserved by UCLA through Jerry’s generosity. Since it’s not quite a Scrappy cartoon, I will present it to you here rather than trying to backfill it into the filmography.

As rich in Scrappy as YouTube has become, two cartoons are unavailable there: The Chinatown Mystery and Stepping Stones (both 1932). Neither was included in the 1950s Scrappy TV package, which gave us most of the prints on YouTube. They aren’t lost films, thank heavens—just not in readily-available circulation. No complaining, please: The fact that there are only a couple of Scrappy cartoons you can’t watch instantly for free is pretty astounding.

Now, on with the show.