Heckle & Jeckle's Best

THe pair that partially inspired Hawkeye & Trapper John, were never better or more imaginative than this great cartoon. It is refreshing for the characters to relize they are not subject to the laws of physics. I always liked the fact, that H&J almost always failed to get away with things in the end. I wish someone would show these classics again.

"Power of Thought" is one of the best cartoons ever made. It's extremely imaginative, and (by TerryToon standards) it's very well animated, with some interesting photographic effects as Jeckle changes size and he morphs into various objects including a small dog and a one-man (one-magpie?) band. This cartoon reminds me of H.G. Wells's classic story "The Man Who Could Work Miracles". It also reminds me of Bob Clampett's last Warner Brothers cartoon, "The Big Snooze", but without Clampett's extreme vulgarity.
"Power of Thought" has a low-key opening scene. The two magpies are just sitting around in their bachelor flat, pondering the mysteries of the universe. Suddenly Jeckle (the magpie with an English accent) has an epiphany: "We're cartoon characters! We ought to take advantage of the situation!" In several scenes, Jeckle demonstrates to Heckle his amazing ability to change into various objects and perform impossible feats ... which are possible BECAUSE he's a cartoon character.
Now Heckle (the magpie from Brooklyn) catches on that HE can do the impossible too. The two friends team up to bend the laws of reality. Inevitably, they attract the attention of a police officer (a cartoon bulldog in a Keystone Cop uniform) who tries to arrest them. But it's impossible for a humble constable to arrest two omnipotent magpies ... until the bulldog cop realizes that HE's a cartoon character too, and he can bend the laws of reality just as far as Heckle & Jeckle can. It's nice to see a cartoon in which the police triumph over the troublemakers, especially with some funny sight gags.
My only quibble about this cartoon is that it's not quite funny enough for its audacious premise. There's one long scene in which Heckle & Jeckle perform a synchronized swimming routine in an impossible bathtub that keeps growing longer and longer to accommodate their swim. (It breaks through the outer wall of their residence and keeps growing ... if this were the Hanna-Barbera universe, I guess the bathtub would keep coming back into Fred Flintstone's living room and passing the same window over and over.) During this bathtub routine, the TerryToon folks seem more interested in showing off their animation techniques and their music scoring rather than advancing the story or getting a laugh.
But I wish that more cartoons were as imaginative as this one. I give "Power of Thought" a top score of 10.