Clutch Cargo is an American animated television series produced by Cambria Productions and syndicated beginning on March 9, 1959. The series was notable for its very limited animation yet imaginative stories; it was a surprise hit at the time, and could be seen on 65 stations nationwide in 1960.
Video Clutch Cargo
Plot
The stories centered on adventurer Clutch Cargo, who was sent around the world on dangerous assignments. Accompanying him on the assignments were his young ward Spinner and his pet dachshund Paddlefoot. Live-action footage of an airplane was used as well, specifically that of a rare 1929 Bellanca C-27 Airbus; series creator Clark Haas was previously a jet pilot.
Episodes were produced and then serialized in five five-minute chapters each. The first four chapters naturally ended in cliffhangers, with the fifth chapter concluding the adventure. Haas explained the format of the show: "Each story is done in five five-minute segments so the stations can run one a day on weekdays, then recap the whole for a half-hour Saturday show. It's flexible and works very well."
Maps Clutch Cargo
Technique
Because of budgetary limitations and the pressure to create television animation within a tight time frame, the show was the first to use the "Syncro-Vox" optical printing system. Syncro-Vox was invented by Edwin Gillette, television cameraman and partner in Cambria Studios, as a means of superimposing real human mouths on the faces of animals for the popular "talking animal" commercials of the 1950s. Clutch Cargo employed the Syncro-Vox technique by superimposing live-action human lips over limited-motion animation or even motionless animation cels.
To further cut costs, Gillette and special-effects man Scotty Tomany supplemented Syncro-Vox with other time- and money-saving tricks. Haas explained, "We are not making animated cartoons. We are photographing 'motorized movement' and--the biggest trick of all--combining it with live action. This enables us to produce film at about one-fifth what it costs Hanna and Barbera. Footage that Disney does for $250,000 we do for $18,000."
Gillette and Tomany simulated action not by animation but in the real-time movement of either the camera or the cel itself. Other live-action shots were superimposed as a means of adding a certain degree of realism and to keep production costs down. For example, footage of real smoke was used for explosions.
Occasionally traditional animation was also employed in the series, notably in the episode The Lost Plateau, in which brief segments of animated dinosaurs stood out. The character Paddlefoot, with his scratching and comical movements, was singled out as the most common cause of "skyrocketing" animation costs at Cambria.
The musical soundtrack to Clutch Cargo was, in its own way, as limited, and yet as inventive within those limitations, as the animation. Jazz musician Paul Horn provided a score using bongos, a vibraphone, and a flute.
Legacy
The episode The Arctic Bird Giant was briefly showed in a scene from the 1994 film Pulp Fiction
In 1996, a live music venue named after the series, Clutch Cargo's, opened in Pontiac, Michigan.
In the April 18, 2011, strip of Retail, Marla's fiancé Scott suggests "Clutch Cargo" for the name of her new handbag business.
In 2013, Clutch Cargo was featured on truTV's World's Dumbest TV Shows, where it placed #19 on the show's countdown.
DVD releases
On March 22, 2005, BCI Eclipse released the entire Clutch Cargo series in two 3-DVD box sets. Each volume contains 26 5-part episodes, and extras including one episode of Cambria Studios' other two Syncro-Vox series, Space Angel and Captain Fathom.
Releases
Episode list
See also
- List of animated television series
References
Further reading
- "Don't believe your eyes! How 'Clutch Cargo' cuts corners as a television comic strip", TV Guide, December 24, 1960, pp. 28-29.
- Erickson, Hal. Syndicated Television; The First Forty Years, 1947-1987. p. 119. ISBN 0-7864-1198-8
- Terrace, Vincent. Encyclopedia of Television Series, Pilots and Specials, 1937-1973. New York, New York Zoetrope. 1986. pp. 96-97. ISBN 0-918432-69-3
- Jack and Jill magazine, Feb. 1961 issue, 6-page Clutch Cargo comic strip.
- Outré magazine #5.
External links
- Clutch Cargo on IMDb
- Clutch Cargo at toonopedia.com
- Clutch Cargo at TV.com
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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