Movies - Little Audrey

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	Movies - Little Audrey

Little Audrey is a fictional character, appearing in Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios cartoons from 1947 to 1959. She is considered a variation of the better-known Little Lulu, devised after Paramount failed to renew the licence on Marjorie Henderson Buell's comic strip character. Despite some superficial similarities between the two characters, Famous animators were at pains to design Audrey in contrast to Lulu, adopting an entirely different color scheme and employing the stylistic conventions common to Famous Studios' later forties repertoir, as opposed to Buell's individualistic rendering of Little Lulu.

She appeared in Santa's Surprise in 1947, which she did not star in. She also appeared in a Popeye cartoon, Olive Oyl For President, released in early 1948. The first official Little Audrey cartoon was Butterscotch and Soda released in June 1948.

Childlike fantasy played an important role in Audrey's early cartoons, which often used dream sequences as the basis of the storylines. In this way, Audrey could ride the clouds with Mother Goose (Goofy Goofy Gander), savor the delights of Candyland (Tarts and Flowers), or face an underwater tribuneral of outraged catfish (The Seapreme Court). Slapstick humor crept into the series with the release of Surf Bored, which pitted the precocious little girl against a hulking but ultimately brainless life guard. A total of sixteen animated shorts were produced for theatrical release, several of which were re-packaged for television in the early sixties. Audrey was never as successful as Famous' best known creation, Casper the Friendly Ghost, but the character is known to have had its greatest success in printed form.

Audrey was first published in comic book form by St John's Publishing from 1948 to 1951. The St John version is considered the most faithful adaption of the screen character, incorporating both the basic design and the fanciful elements of the original. The series met with moderate success on the newstand, running for approximately twenty-four issues until the title was licenced by Harvey Comics in 1952. Harvey later acquired property rights for Audrey and several other Famous characters (including Casper the Friendly Ghost, Baby Huey
, and Herman and Katnip
) in 1958. The company also continued to promote the characters on-screen under the Harveytoons logo.

The early Little Audrey cartoons were sold to television distributor U.M.&M. T.V. Corp. in 1956. Only two Little Audrey cartoons were syndicated with U.M.&M. titles. Tarts and Flowers appeared with the usual refilmed U.M.&M. titles (red title cards with yellow lettering). The Lost Dream appeared with a different U.M.&M. shield in place of the Paramount spinning star opening. The original titles stayed intact, with the U.M.&M. T.V. Corporation copyright replacing the Paramount byline.

National Telefilm Associates completed the refilming of the titles to the other Little Audrey cartoons that were sold to U.M.&M. Most public domain prints contain either U.M.&M. or NTA titles. Some prints of Little Audrey cartoons survive with their Paramount "spinning star" openings intact.

Initially, Harvey's comic-strip version closely followed its animated template, but the character was redesigned during the mid-fifties to conform more closely to the company's in-house style. The general storyline was simultaneous overhauled to provide Audrey with supporting characters such as Melvin (her ugly, prank-playing arch-rival) and Timmy (one of the first racially integrated characters to appear in children's comics). Domestic comedy gradually took over the script as Audrey was shown in conflict with parents, teachers and numerous other authority caricatures that drifted in and out of the strip. By 1960, Audrey was Harvey's top-selling female character, outselling both Little Dot and Wendy the Good Little Witch. Contemporaries such as St John's Little Eva or Archie's Li'l Jinx lagged behind in both production and sales.

During her most successful period, Audrey starred in at least four of her own titles and was a back-up feature in Richie Rich, Casper, and Dot. The character lasted until 1976, when an industry-wide distribution slump brought an end to most of Harvey's line (and caused the mass-extinction of children's comics in general). Since that time, the character has undergone several revivals and made scattered television and video appearances, most notably in The Richie Rich Show (1996) and Baby Huey's Great Easter Adventure (1998).

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Little Audrey ]

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Movies - Little Audrey

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