ThadBlog

Cleaning up the crap around my room, I realized I had a few more animator drafts from Mark Mayerson I hadn’t used. So here’s a breakdown based on one of them!

This is a great Woody Woodpecker short by Dick Lundy. Ed Love’s animation is the highlight for me, mainly because of the amazing timing with the olives and pimentos gag. Pat Matthews’ ending gag is a scream too.

Interestingly, this short seems to be divided into segments by animators, which is unusual for a Lantz short.

- Woody sitting on the steps to buying the beans : Ed Love
- Woody planting the beans to the giant snoring : Les Kline
- Woody climbing onto the giant to getting smacked by the dream girl : Pat Matthews
- Woody pulling out the giant’s tongue to kicking him in the nose : Verne Harding
- Ducking into the olives to bashing out the giant’s teeth : Love
- Woody laughing to throwing the banana peel : Harding
- Giant slipping to him inside the chimney : Love
- Giant shooting up into the air to the castle crashing to Earth : Sid Pillet
- Woody ringing the bell to iris out : Matthews

I posted a little bit of history behind David Hand and the Animaland series previously.

Apparently, only nine survive, due to an incredible find by a private collector, and they were made available on home video. Unfortunately, the one I showcased last month, “Ginger Nutt’s Christmas Circus”, and the one I’m about to now, are the only ones I can recommend. The rest are very boring and slow-moving. I would be very interested in seeing the other ten that are supposedly lost forever though.

This short, “The Cuckoo” (1948), is a bizarre and dark one. I wish more like it were made! It reminds me of a cross between “Pink Elephants on Parade” from Dumbo and the darker scenes from Pinocchio. Like “Circus”, it is beautifully animated with wonderful layouts and designs. The title song will be stuck in your head this weekend.

Amid Amidi has called the animation community’s attention to two media tidbits that are guilty of every fallacy possible in terms of what good animation is.

“Kids’ mobile faces give animated ‘Monster’ its meaning”
James Lipton on “Scanner Darkly” (via Shannon Tindle)

Let’s take a look at the primitive work that animators did without the aid of advanced technology, therefore being “inferior acting”.

I know who wins by a mile in my book… Let’s hope that the people who come up with those brilliant insights will use their money, in the future, towards something to better the world, rather than whatever they’re smoking.

Lots of people hate the pot-bellied, huge-jowl, lard-ass designs used in McKimson’s late 40s shorts. I know I’m not one of them.

Personally, I think more people would like them if gags like this one were used, where the fat is used for a laugh. Reminds me of something Clampett would do, which is ironic, since I believe it was Manny Gould who animated this scene.

Emery Hawkins was the ultimate rebel animator.

By that I mean, he was able to animate in his own style, his own way, no matter who he worked for. People are always saying how it was a tragedy that Rod Scribner was toned down severely by Bob McKimson when he returned to the Warner studio. But Hawkins not only was able to keep his own great style under McKimson’s direction, but even Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng (he makes the other animators look weak by comparison, IMO)!

But the best example of his non-conformity was being able to keep his own style at the biggest tight-ass of all… Disney!

When I was half-watching one of the Disney shorts videos years ago, scenes like the ones below, from “Donald’s Dream Voice” (1948), totally took me by surprise. One look at them and I knew who animated the scene. To my pleasure, looking at the credits again, I was right.

These are of course the strongest, best-looking scenes in the whole cartoon.

You guys should know your Tom & Jerry animators by now… But just in case, here’s a refresher on your memory!

Many interesting things about this cartoon… I believe (I say that because I’m uncertain that it was used before) it’s the original of a premise that would be used countless times by Tom & Jerry and other studios again… But of course, this one is the best of them!

Also interesting is that Pete Burness handles a large portion of this cartoon, which is unusual, because his animation looks weak compared to the other animators. Ken Muse doesn’t show up until near the end.

- Fade in to Jerry walking happily down the street : Ray Patterson
- Tom surprising Jerry, Jerry skidding : Pete Burness
- Tom placing Jerry in sandwich, begins to carve : Patterson
- Jerry whistles to Tom trying to sock Jerry with pipe : Burness
- Tom chasing Jerry with pipe to kissing Jerry : Patterson
- Tom placing Jerry in stroller to Jerry walking down the street : Burness
- Tom getting gumballs, dunking one in paste : Irv Spence
- Jerry stopping : Burness
- Tom chewing on gumball to chasing Jerry : Spence
- Jerry trying to whistle again : Patterson
- Tom smashing into anvil, turning into endtable : Spence
- Jerry getting stuck in fence to iris out : Ken Muse