Clutch Cargo

I remember watching this show as a kid on WGN's Garfield Goose and Friends with Frazier Thomas. It was very different from anything else that was done at the time. I know compared with the animation of today it seems cheap and tawdry but now I watch these shows with the same fondness of watching old Andy Griffith Show reruns. The live action lips set against animated cells and other ways they had of reducing the need of actual animation were sometimes fascinating in their simplicity. If you saw these as a kid you will like them now. If not they may not be right for you. I totally enjoy watching these shows now as much as I did then.

Created by Charles Haas (for Cambria Productions) - "Clutch Cargo" (1959-1960) was a limited animation cartoon adventure story that I found to be entertaining mainly from a nostalgic perspective on things.

Using the novelty of Syncro-Vox (superimposing real human mouths onto the faces of the cartoon characters) - Clutch Cargo was an international globetrotter (on dangerous missions) who brought along with him his ward, Spinner and his pet dachshund, Paddlefoot.

All-in-all - I thought that this vintage cartoon was at least worth a view.

If you enjoy classic TV and films, like I do, you should check this out. Famed for its "Synchro-vox", the actors were recorded while doing the voice work, then their mouths were superimposed over the still pictures.

Though it may seem awful, it's actually quite fun. Unlike many shows of today, which are done with computers, every frame of Clutch Cargo was hand drawn and hand coloured. There's no bad language or violence really, and it'd be safe to show this to pretty much all of the family. If you've got kids, you should definitely show them this, they'll love it.

A very strange cartoon. It was an action cartoon with still pictures. Moving human lips were superimposed on the still pictures for the dialogue. It was rather creepy, but we all tried to copy the way Clutch talked.

About forty years ago when I was a child in a Los Angeles suburb I recall seeing this odd cartoon, so different from the others where things moved. The creators seem to have had this process where they could put images of actors lips moving in the faces of the characters. Kinda' neat and kinda' not. After being exposed to the work of Disney, Lantz and others, this dialogue heavy, action off-stage with sound effects cartoon didn't seem so hot. Novel, though. Compare to others of the period. Almost anything on the idiot box could hold the attention of a little child. Some that came later were worse. Margaret Kerry was the voice of Paddlefoot? Well, whattaya know!