Krazy Kat appeared in animated shorts as early as 1916. During the heyday of silent animation, George Herriman's whimsical comic-strip cat debuted in a series of cartoons produced by William Randolph Hearst. Hearst produced the shorts under the Hearst-Vitagraph News Pictorial and later the International Film Service (IFS). The Hearst Krazys were loose adaptations of the comic strip. The stories usually revolved around Krazy, Ignatz Mouse and occasionally Offissa Bull Pupp. The series ended in August 1917, and two years later, the Bray-Goldwyn Pictograph Company began production on a second run. Unlike the Hearst Krazys, the Bray shorts were more loyal to Herriman's style in both story and design. Once the Bray series ended in 1921, no Krazy Kat cartoons were produced until three years later.

In 1925, animation pioneer William "Bill" Nolan, sought to launch an independent cartoon series of his own. Nolan established a name for himself in the animation industry for inventing the panorama background and developing the "rubber-hose" style of animation. Previously a guest animator at the Pat Sullivan Studios, Nolan also streamlined Felix the Cat, making him more round and less angular. Eventually, he acquired the rights to George Herriman's "Krazy Kat" comic strip. While Hearst and Bray both made attempts at mimicking Herriman's stylized comics, Nolan decided to take a different path. He believed that the name of Krazy Kat would be enough to please audience members. Although his design remained consistent to Herriman's, Nolan's Krazy was now a male cat whose personality directly reflected Felix the Cat; whereas Herriman's cat had indefinite gender in both the comic strip and earlier films.

Comparing Nolan's Krazy films with the Felix shorts, one can spot striking, if not obvious, similarities. In "Searching for Santa" (1925), for example, Krazy's master, a little boy who bares an uncanny resemblance to Felix's human counterpart, Willie Brown, asks the feline to find Santa Claus. The cat then embarks on the journey, in a Felix-like attempt to find the answer to Willie Brown's homework question in "Felix Finds Out" (1924). In "Bokays and Brickbatz" (1925), Krazy wages war against mice, a premise very similar to that of "Felix Turns the Tide" (1922). The gags and effects bear a close resemblance to the Felix cartoons as well. For instance, in one scene Krazy detaches his tail and uses it as a baseball bat to fend off flying bullets. In another, we witness the battle at its height, during which explosion effects are provided by pouring white salt on a black card under the animation camera. Such effects were devised by Otto Messmer for the Felix shorts and were still in use there in 1925.

Nolan intended to produce the series under an animators' corporation called Associated Animators, but when the group collapsed, Nolan turned to Margaret J. Winkler. One of the most prominent figures in the distribution of animated shorts during the 1920s, Winkler was first "discovered" by Pat Sullivan. Sullivan met Winkler at the office of Harry Warner, seeking distribution for his Felix shorts. When Sullivan showed her examples of his Felix films, she quickly became interested. Warner, however, was not and rejected Sullivan's offer. Sullivan then persuaded Winkler to become a distributor and to start with the Felix series. Winkler's other ventures included distributing work from both Walt Disney and the Fleischer studio, the latter of which was a former Warner contractor. Given the track record that Winkler possessed by 1925, Nolan surely believed that Winkler would give his Krazy Kat series the push it needed.

Harrison-Gould's Krazy Kat in THE STORK EXCHANGE (1927). Click to enlarge.

Winkler contracted distribution of Nolan's series and production commenced. However, it soon became apparent that Winkler's husband, Charles B. Mintz, was slowly taking control of Krazy-related business decisions. In 1925, it was Mintz who managed to secure a contract with Film Booking Offices (FBO) for the release of the shorts. Less pleasantly however, Mintz also demanded a say in creative matters – a condition that Nolan was not prepared to tolerate. Soon, Nolan chose to leave Krazy behind and commence work on another independent project – a series of satirical cartoons called Newslaffs. With Nolan's departure, Mintz took full control of Krazy. He quickly replaced Nolan with two apprentice animators, Manny Gould and Ben Harrison. Next, Mintz broke away from FBO and obtained a better deal with Paramount-Lasky.

Harrison and Gould continued to make Krazy Kat in the same vein that Nolan had done – that is, they made the character more like Felix the Cat. However, the atmosphere in the studio changed since Nolan's departure. While Nolan encouraged his animators to do virtually anything they wanted, Harrison and Gould ran the studio on strict rule. Non-business discussion was prohibited. According to Isadore Klein, who worked briefly at the studio in 1928: "the Krazy Kat series we were grinding out was being made for $900 a picture. So the animation department was obliged to bat out animation footage at breakneck speed." Harrison and Gould also moved the studio to new quarters. "While the first quarters had been too dark and we worked with lights on all day, these new rooms were too bright," Shamus Culhane recalled in his book Talking Animals and Other People. "The sun bounced off the cels most of the day. When we asked for shades, we were brusquely told to put newspapers in the windows. We did, and these makeshift shades yellowed and cracked, then hung in tatters, acquiring a patina of dust, symbols of the penny-pinching management." In terms of animation and design, the Harrison-Gould Krazys of the silent era seem to closely resemble the early Fleischer sound cartoons of 1930. This is probably due to the fact that many future Fleischer staffers worked at the studio during this time.

Krazy is pursued by an irritable brave in RATSKIN (1929). Click to enlarge.

In early 1928, Charles Mintz outmaneuvered Walt Disney by stealing the rights to Disney's then-famous creation, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. In November of that year, Walt Disney got his revenge. Payback came in the form of "Steamboat Willie", the first successful cartoon with synchronized sound. At first, the reaction towards the addition of sound was relatively passive. As Culhane recalls, "Harrison and Gould steadfastly deprecated the use of sound as a passing fancy." However, this attitude quickly changed. Mintz needed to catch-up to Disney and the addition of sound to the Krazy Kat series was needed desperately. After he failed to renew his contract with Paramount, Mintz searched for a new distributor. In late 1929, he closed a deal with Columbia Pictures – a deal that, for better or worse, involved the production of sound cartoons. This new group of Krazys would begin with "Ratskin", released in August, just a month after the final Paramount short, "Sleepy Holler".

In "Ratskin", Krazy is a Thanksgiving hunter who goes out in search of turkey. He shoots what he believes are a turkey's tail feathers, but discovers that it's really the headdress of an irritable Indian. Krazy manages to slip out of the situation with the help of a musical musket. Overall, the short is basically like any preceding Krazy entry, save for the addition of a soundtrack, but at the same time features a handful of clever and innovative gags that keep the short entertaining. The title was supposedly a spoof on the western, "Redskin" released the same year. Rosario Bourdon provided the musical score for "Ratskin" and several other early Mintz sound cartoons. He would later be replaced by former New York piano player, Joe De Nat.

Krazy sings with a chorus of farm animals in FARM RELIEF (1929). Click to enlarge.

1929 also saw the addition of California animators Friz Freleng and Ben Clopton to the staff. "Friz was little, and Clopton was big and tall," Art Davis remembered. "The first thing I thought of was 'Mutt and Jeff.'" However, Davis's impression changed quickly. "I was intrigued by the way Friz did his animation. I realized West Coast animators were way ahead of us East Coast guys in technique and style." Shamus Culhane was also impressed with Freleng and Clopton's new style: "For a time, it looked as if the quality of the pictures would improve. Freleng, especially was a far better animator than anyone else at the studio."

Not surprisingly, the quality of the films did begin to change. "Farm Relief", the fifth Krazy Kat cartoon with sound exhibits a strong Freleng influence in story, gags, and animation. In the short, a blind pig sneaks on to Krazy's farm, opens a bar, and soon all of the barnyard animals become intoxicated with alcohol. A horse jumps in and out of his skin while a lamb turns into a ferocious lion. Krazy too ends up drunk joins a cow, goat and hen in singing "Down by the Old Mill Stream". At the end of the number, Krazy, joyfully goes to milk a cow but ends up attempting to milk a horse! Angrily, the horse tosses the cat out of his stable and throws the milk bucket at him! The short is perhaps one of the best and funniest of the Mintz Krazys and is the first to display a full range of grays.

Freleng's experience at the Mintz studio was not necessarily pleasant. "We were stuck in a dirty old building on 46th Street," recalled Freleng years later. The newspaper-window-shades of Culhane's memoirs were also still in use: "We covered the windows with newspaper to keep the sun out, and we used old boxes for tables. It was rough." Harry Love, Freleng's assistant at the Mintz studio remembered the day he first came to the studio. Freleng asked Manny Gould where the exposure sheets were kept. When Gould told him there were none, Freleng left. "We thought he was gone for good," Love recalls, "but here comes Friz through the door an hour later carrying all he could from a stationery store, including bookkeeping paper, which he improvised as exposure sheets." Freleng eventually departed, though his influence would stay with the studio for years to come. He considered his stint at the studio as stopgap work before working with Hugh Harman and Rudolph Ising on a new series of cartoons featuring a character named Bosko.

In January 1930, Disney signed a distribution contract with Columbia as well. Mintz acted quickly to avoid becoming the less favored cartoon studio by moving a large portion of his staff to California including Harrison, Gould, Harry Love, Allen Rose, Jack Carr, Art Davis, production manager Jimmy Bronis, and musical director, Joe De Nat ("He dumped the rest of us," commented Culhane). Another step in competing with Disney was to redesign Krazy Kat. Under orders from Mintz, Harrison and Gould, Krazy changed from a Felix clone to a feline duplicate of Mickey Mouse. The cat's anatomy became rounder, his voice squeakier, and he acquired look-alike girlfriend to boot.

The bull market is depicted in LAMBS WILL GAMBOL (1930). Click to enlarge.

This is not to dismiss the Mintz Krazys as insignificant. A great number of the shorts are actually quite enjoyable when reviewed today. Early entries such as "Swiss Movement" and "The Bandmaster" – the latter of which has Krazy impersonating famous bandleader John Phillip Sousa – demonstrate a good balance of lively music and rhythmic character movement. "Broadway Malady" lampoons the conditions of New York's underground subways. Perhaps the best Krazy shorts are those dealing with politics. The cat spoofed the Wall Street stock market crash of October, 1929 ("Lambs Will Gambol"), the Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 ("Disarmament Conference"), and most vividly, the height of the Great Depression in 1932 ("Prosperity Blues"). Other shorts such as "The Apache Kid", "Taken for a Ride", and "The Crystal Gazebo" are surreal adventures that demonstrate the influence of the former Fleischer staffers working at Mintz at the time. Another interesting entry, "The Stork Market" is a remake of "The Sork Exchange", an early Winkler release from 1927. The However, the one weakness that affected even the best of these cartoons is Krazy's lack of identifiable character traits. Krazy was a nonentity whose personality changed constantly to suit a particular gag.

Nonentity or not, Krazy seemed to be successful enough to stave off Mintz's concerns regarding Disney competition. Mintz wanted to expand operations further. So in 1930, he locked a deal with RKO Radio Pictures. He lured away two key Fleischer animators, Dick Huemer and Sid Marcus, who had worked at Mintz's New York Krazy Kat operation before joining the Fleischer staff, to create a new series. Together, the ex-Fleischerites created Toby the Pup, whose mannerisms, personality, and design called to mind Fitz the Dog and Bimbo. The first Toby short, "The Museum" (1930) captured the energy and elasticity of Huemer and Marcus's early Fleischer endeavors and was well-received by the contemporary media. "In conception and timing, 'The Museum' clicks," raved the May 1930 edition of Motion Picture News. "Go for this and tell the mob you've got it. It's there. For any bill." Despite the series' success, it concluded after only twelve films; most likely because of RKO's ties with the Van Beuren studio. However, by the time the series ended, Mintz was already negotiating with Columbia for backing on a second cartoon series featuring a small boy named Scrappy.

Toby the Pup in THE MUSEUM (1930). Click to enlarge.

Scrappy was devised by Dick Huemer, who wanted to create something different from the traditional Mickey Mouse knockoffs of the time. Aside from Scrappy himself, other characters in the series including his dog, Yippy, little brother Oopie (initially Vontzy), and his girlfriend, Margie. Huemer constructed the series in an abstract view; the backgrounds were designed as if seen at an arresting angle. He designed the characters in an unusual manner; they all had an enormous heads and a small bodies – sometimes the head was so huge that it dwarfed the character's torso. Huemer also gave his characters something that was essentially absent from other cartoon stars of the 1930s – they all had solid, well-defined personalities.

"Yelp Wanted", the first Scrappy cartoon, involved the boy trying to help out his faithful dog Yippy who appeared to be sick. In the end, it turned out that Yippy was really pregnant, giving birth to an entire army of dogs. Thanks to a combination of Scrappy's childish behavior and rubbery animation, the short was not only unique, but it was also a big success. Scrappy became a merchandising icon very quickly.

Scrappy in YELP WANTED (1931). Click to enlarge.

Scrappy cartoons did have their flaws. Although the shorts came off as highly imaginative, they occasionally wandered away from the basic plot. One reason for this was that the films were divided into three sections by Huemer, Sid Marcus, and animator Art Davis, before the days of story boards. Nevertheless, the gags, animation, and peppy music in the films still held strong. For instance, in "Minding the Baby", Scrappy tries to put Oopie to bed, but fails due to constant and increasingly outrageous disruptions. Scrappy finally just gives up and leaps into the crib to take a nap himself!

In 1933, Mintz attempted to reduce employees' salaries. Outraged, Huemer left the studio and headed for Disney, whose offer he had turned down three years earlier. Without Huemer, the series fell completely into the hands of Marcus and Davis. The two continued to develop the series and to make Scrappy a more conventional cartoon boy. The series began to make some important advancements, including a gradual improvement in animation and background designs. These changes occurred because of a wave of fresh talent that hit the Mintz studio at that time. Al Eugster, Preston Blair, Irv Spence, Bob Wickersham, and especially Emery Hawkins enjoyed their time at the studio, mainly because Marcus and Davis encouraged them to do virtually anything they wanted in the shorts – the same sort of laissez-faire attitude taken during the heyday of the Lantz studio. Manny Gould and Ben Harrison, who pioneered the opposite approach on the Krazy Kat series, led a turnaround that began to push the Scrappy series even further.

Despite the fact that Krazy Kat had achieved some recognition and Scrappy had been making successful strides, Mintz felt it was not enough. He wanted color cartoons; so in 1934, Marcus, Davis, Harrison, and Gould decided to focus on Mintz's pushing. Soon, the first Color Rhapsody, "Holiday Land" hit theaters and became a success. "Holiday Land" not only captured audiences with the addition of color, but also featured Scrappy, the pinnacle of Mintz's success.

At first the Rhapsodies were filmed in the two-color process, but eventually they moved to Technicolor, thus beginning to resemble Disney's Silly Symphonies. Was Symphony similarity that important their success? It is hard to know. A less successful Mintz endeavor occurred in 1935 when the staff started an effort to bring Billy DeBeck's "Barney Google" to the screen. The series flopped after only four films.

THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL (1937). Click to enlarge.

1936 saw the release of "Li'l Ainjil", the only Mintz Krazy Kat that was an accurate adaptation of the original Herriman comic strip. Animator I. Klein, who previously worked at the studio for a short time when it was still located in New York, served as the inspiration for the short. He showed Mintz the media's displeasure with the fact that his Krazy series was not staying true to the Herriman work. Mintz was impressed with the young animator and gave his blessing for such a short to be produced. However, this small achievement did not prove to be greatly successful, so production resumed on making Krazy more and more of a Mickey Mouse clone. Klein would leave shortly after for Disney.

A year later in 1937, "The Little Match Girl", an exceptional Color Rhapsody made its first appearance in theaters. Based on the famous Hans Christian Anderson story, the short was directed by Sid Marcus and Art Davis. It focused on a poor little girl who tried to sell matches only to get tossed around by crowds of people. She resided in an alley and there she dreamt of a wonderful life for which she wished; a life full of good food, dolls and other toys. This vision was shaken by the girl's death, being taken up to heaven by the angel Gabriel – the conclusion to a very touching and heartrending film. This proved to be the greatest accomplishment not only of Mintz's staff, but of Mintz himself. Even though the film received an Academy Award nomination, it was still not the kind of promotion it clearly deserved – in the bigger picture, the film was barely recognized.

One of the better Iwerks Rhapsodies – MIDNIGHT FROLICS (1938). Click to enlarge.

Mintz production continued throughout the late 1930's. Both Krazy Kat and Scrappy were reassigned to Allen Rose. Rose's efforts on both series proved to be unsuccessful. The Scrappys and Krazy Kats of the late 1930s faired from average to mediocre. By 1937, Mintz began to farm out many of his Color Rhapsodies to the small Ub Iwerks studio. The Iwerks cartoons faired well, but nothing extremely new or exciting came out of these efforts. Some of Iwerks Rhapsodies, were, in fact, more like the Silly Symphonies than those being produced at Mintz's own studio! "Skeleton Frolic" (1937) is reminiscent of the first Silly Symphony as is "Skeleton Dance", a short on which Iwerks had labored. There were exceptions. "Midnight Frolics" (1938) was a solid Iwerks entry with its wonderfully wacky rubber-hose animation and Mel Blanc vocal characterizations.

Even as Iwerks succeeded, the in-house Rhapsodies became hit-and-miss shorts. "By the late 1930s, many Color Rhapsodies were comparably odd, as if stitched together from half-finished ideas," Michael Barrier notes in his book, Hollywood Cartoons "They were exceptionally ugly cartoons, too, often drawn in a tight, crabbed style." In November 1939, the high budgets that were spent on the Rhapsodies caught up with Mintz. He became indebted to Columbia and eventually lost his studio to them. Furthermore, Mintz's health also deteriorated drastically and he finally passed away on January 4, 1940. He was forty-four years old.