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Jon Cooke mentioned to me that I should have an ‘Irv Spence week’, so why not?

These two clips show that Spence was usually the one to animate the highlight of Tex Avery’s 1930s films. Even the much-hated ‘nice mice’ ones! The second clip isn’t all of Spence’s work, but the bit with the drunk parrot father most definitley is. (”No, Maw, it was Catalina!”)

“A Sunbonnet Blue” (1937)

“I Wanna Be a Sailor” (1937)

One of the best things about all of Tex Avery’s cartoons is that you can tune into them at any random point, even without seeing the cartoon beforehand, and you know exactly what’s going on. When they aren’t spotgags, they are always about conflict. Avery’s handling of it is sublime and should be emulated by every filmmaker as much as possible.

This scene from “Little Red Walking Hood” (1937) also shows how Irv Spence’s animation can make any cartoon 100 times funnier… Not that this one needs any help!

I believe one of the silhouettes is Avery himself, if I remember correctly. This ending gag was reused in Avery’s 1945 MGM short “Wild & Woolfy”. The reuse with an even raunchier spin on it proves that all of these gags came from the mind of Avery himself, regardless of what others tell you.

This post owes much thanks again to Mark Mayerson, who provided me with the draft to this short.

Interestingly enough, I find “The Coo Coo Bird” (1947) to be one of the weakest of the Dick Lundy films of the late 40s at Lantz. Like “Solid Ivory” from the same year, this cartoon doesn’t really call much for the characteristic traits of Woody Woodpecker, but more so Donald Duck. So the gags tend to fall flat here due to being unsuitable for Woody. “The Mad Hatter” (1948) tends to fall into the same category, but Woody’s sexual desire behind his actions in that film allow for a more believeable situation for that particular character.

There is some fantastic animation by Grim Natwick in this film though. Even though he left the Fleischers more than a decade before this, there is a look to his work that screams that it belongs in the Betty Boop and early Popeye films. Quite amazing.

“The Coo Coo Bird” (1947)

- Fade in to Woody pushing his bed : Verne Harding (shots of the lamp and the radiator hanging from shade are by Sid Pillet)

- Close-up of Woody to floating back to bed : Grim Natwick (shot of clock ticking and Woody’s take are by Casey Onaitis)

- The coo-coo bird coo-cooing to Woody going to the table : Les Kline

- Woody making a bed out of the table to getting thrown by it : Hal Mason

- Woody running back to the table to getting slammed by it : Kline

- “I’ve gotta get some sleep!” to landing in the bush : Natwick

- Quails throwing Woody out into the open : Harding

- Woody chased by the dogs to the ‘Woody-dog tableau’ : Natwick

- Quails doing Woody’s laugh : Harding

This is one of my favorite Tom & Jerry shorts. It might be because of its sadistic and violent nature. It might be because both character’s asses gets more abuse in this short than about a few dozen cartoons put together.

It might be because of this great piece…

“Hey… What’s cookin’?”
“You are… STUPID…”
>Haw-haw-haw<

Tom mistaking this for innuendo is priceless. And the bit with him putting the moves on Toots is great too.

Ray Patterson gets more footage than usual to do in this film which makes it all the better. I believe his is the only animation that doesn’t get a huge boost from Scott Bradley’s fantastic scores.

“The Mouse Comes to Dinner” (1945)

- Fade-in to “Boy that’s a beautiful table” : Pete Burness
- “Sure hope nothin’ happens to it before the company gets here” to Jerry burning his ass on the spoon : Ken Muse
- Jerry melting the butter to Tom grabbing Toots : Irv Spence
- ‘Wolf pacifier’ to Tom lighting match on Jerry’s ass : Ken Muse
- Jerry picking up pie to Tom getting cherry pie in face : Ray Patterson
- Jerry running off to Tom getting poked in ass with wine bottle : Burness
- Tom getting hit with pastry to Tom going through ceiling : Patterson
- Toots and Jerry running away to iris out : Muse

I should also add that I was actually able to rip this one from the official Tom & Jerry DVD collection. Amazingly this wasn’t redubbed or edited, so it was ‘useable’.

Haven’t seen one of these in awhile, have you?

I think by now you all should know what DVNR looks like (in case you’ve forgotten click here and here). So I’ll just be posting some more examples of how DVNR has been destroying the Golden Age of animation.

COMEDY LEGENDS: ABBOT & COSTELLO:
“HERE COME THE CO-EDS” (VHS)

“Chew Chew Baby” (1945)

LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION

“Boobs in the Woods” (1950)

“Canary Row” (1950)

LOONEY TUNES GOLDEN COLLECTION VOL. 2

“The Big Snooze” (1946)

TOM & JERRY SPOTLIGHT COLLECTION

“Kitty Foiled” (1948)

PETER PAN: SPECIAL EDITION
Yes, Disney used it too. It’s nowhere near as severe as the shorts, but this movie has been mutilated color-wise ever since it came to home video. DVNR just adds insult to injury.

So what can we do about it? Luckily there are people who care at the studios, whether you think so or not. George Feltenstein at Warner Home Video (and in charge of the Golden Collections) despises DVNR as much as I do, and beginning with Vol. 3, there has been minimal DVNR on the sets (it still showed up on “The Last Hungry Cat” and “The Bear That Wasn’t” though).

“Falling Hare” was one of the first pre-1948 titles remastered for DVD. Luckily they caught this one and were able to restore it properly. The left is what you have on your DVD. The right is what you would’ve gotten.

This has been a public service announcement.

HEY, GRANDMAAAA!!! I brought a little bunny rabbit for ya! TA HAVE!!!

Time for a breakdown of one of my all-time favorite cartoons. I seriously question your sense of humor if you don’t find this one funny.

Mike Kazaleh broke this one down too!

A defining page from one of Gil Turner’s Wolf stories.
Appeared in WALT DISNEY’S COMICS & STORIES #85 (Oct. 1947).