UPA jolly frolics

United Productions of America was started when a number of animators left Disney Studio during the 1941 strike. The dispute was over salaries, but the animators used it as an excuse to move away from Disney's highly realistic style of illustration. They wanted to express themselves and viewed animation as having significant untapped potential. Thus began the Jolly Frolics.

It's pretty obvious when viewing a UPA cartoon, that the focus is on art direction and not plot. They don't have the same wet-your-pants hilarity of a Looney Toons cartoon, but they're so stylish and crazy that it doesn't really matter. Almost all of them leave you scratching your head and saying "well, that was weird". It was hard to narrow down the cells, but here's a smattering:

The wonderful folks at TCM have put together a collection of Jolly Frolics, which is how we've been so lucky to see them. Here's a peek: