When I was a kid, way back in the Thirties, “shorts” were all the rage. Names such as Alfalfa, Spanky, Buckwheat, Pete the Pup, Miss Crabtree and Wheezer were even better known than, say, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. After all, that famous tap-dancing duo made only a handful of movies, while the aforementioned crew known as Our Gang made 221 comedies over a period of 22 years.

And they weren’t made just for kids. For those were the days when the idea of kids copying grown-ups was considered kinda cute. And copy them they most certainly did. One of the best examples was the Our Gang Follies of 1938: a story in four episodes about the freckle-faced eight-year-old star who wants to make the switch from crooner in Porky’s backyard to singing in The Barber of Seville. Told to come back 20 years later for an audition, Alfalfa does so (not looking a minute older) and flops.

By now young Porky, also physically untouched by time, has opened a swanky nightclub on Broadway and decides to give his old buddy a big break and hire him as his top crooner.

Nothing has changed in 20 years, except for the venue, and the coiffeurs and costumes of the kids. Tacky hand-me-downs are transformed into the height of nightclubbing sophistication with chic make-up, high-class hairdos, minks, top hats and diamonds. And of course the kids act like grown-ups, from the dignified chauffeurs to the hat-check cuties, to the dazzling Ziegfeld girls responsible for the floor show.

Believe me, that’s entertainment. Why they don’t rerelease these ten-minute masterpieces I don’t know. They are far preferable to the wall-to-wall screen advertising we’re forced to sit through before the feature these days.

But maybe things are about to change. Yesterday, while waiting impatiently for an afternoon with The Other Boleyn Girl, eyes all but glazing over, there popped up on to the screen an unfamiliar logo reading “Future Shorts”. There followed a mini-movie (hand-drawn and animated) entitled Lev Gets His Stuff Done. A study in procrastination, it shows a simple soul living in a minimalist world who, despite good intentions, never actually manages to get his stuff done, or even started. Amusing stuff, with “The End” popping up on the screen all too soon, barely a minute or so after the front titles, I guess. Nevertheless, guffaws from the score or so of matinee viewers echoed around the barn-like auditorium.

For some reason, this new cartoon put me in mind of another childhood favourite, Felix the Cat, possibly because of the minimalist approach. Superfluous details are left to the imagination. If you don’t see it, you don’t miss it. Felix, little more than an animated black blot, kept on walking for almost half a century, until Disney showed him up as being a little threadbare.

But I still love Felix Goes to Hollywood (1923), where the endearing silhouette with the silent laugh like a shiver meets a host of fellow stars such as Charlie Chaplin, Ben Turpin and Tom Mix, all in cartoon form. And how about the dozens of shorts the illustrious Chaplin, Turpin and Mix, and scores like them, made in their own right? Forgotten genius.

But now a new generation of comics is about to appear on our screen, at least from this month to June. Centrally distributing from London, Future Shorts devotes itself to making sure that the best short films are seen on the big screens and at music festivals the world over. Besides Lev failing to get his stuff done, another mini-short is Neighbour, directed by Eric Lynne, about a rather unusual invitation to a house party. Neighbour is a really witty shaggy dog story – which reminds me, I nearly forgot Rin Tin Tin, a real doggy hero if ever there was one, jumping 12ft fences, saving Warner Brothers from bankruptcy in the Thirties and still a star on YouTube.

But why stop there? The riches of the past are to be had on DVD in abundance, but it seems unlikely they will return to the cinema, especially because advertising funds all those empty seats.

Still, while Future Shorts is only a start, at least it’s a foot in the door. And who knows – maybe Neighbour’s P.J. Byrne and Eric Normington will become the new Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy.

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