ThadBlog

There’s been a flood of Disney animator’s drafts lately, and myths regarding a lot of Golden Age animators have been clearing up. It is great to know though, that Ward Kimball did an awful lot of excellent animation on both the shorts and movies.

Here’s his animation from “Mother Goose Goes Hollywood” (’38), one of the few attempts Disney did at a real Warner-style cartoon for many years. It seems like all the animators were having fun with this short, but Kimball’s animation stands out as the most slick and beautifully cartoony.

Go buy the new Silly Symphonies set if you haven’t yet… It’s worth it for this one alone!

What happened to the good ol’ days when a cartoon could abandon its plot to break out in song and become a spot-gag picture?

Here’s one with a hit song from Walter Lantz in 1941… “Racial imagery” to follow.

Am I the only one who thinks that this Frank Tashlin short is one of the most brilliant cartoons ever made?

“A Tale of Two Kitties” gets all the attention for being another excellent cartoon (and the first appearance of Tweety), but this one is just as funny and has some great animation in its own right. There’s lots of examples of Tashlin’s “sophisticated exaggeration”, like the cat slamming into the wall or his paw.

I absolutely love the staging of the Art Davis (?) scene of the cat flipping [Rat]stello in the air towards the end. A really unique and underrated cartoon from the Golden Age of animation.

I don’t think anyone should go the holiday season without viewing this short. It’s sort of startling how well-defined Bill and Joe had the characters in only their third starring cartoon.

Here’s one of my favorite chase scenes from “Springtime for Thomas” (1946). This is beautifully timed and hilariously animated by Irv Spence (the last two shots in this clip are Ed Barge’s). It’s funny how I was struck stupid when I found out later in life that these Tom & Jerry cartoons were high-budget films… You’d think Bill and Joe would make guys like Spence adhere to a modelsheet or layout! But all the animators on the Tom & Jerry films had their own style, yet they don’t look disjointed, but very slick. That’s definitley a sure sign of great directors.

Hope you enjoy this one. Scott Bradley’s music works great with this scene too.

I’m sure everyone’s heard the terrible news that Joe Barbera has passed away.

I think my favorite memory of Joe was reading how kids would go up to him with pictures they drew of Tom & Jerry, Huck, Yogi, and Fred for him to sign… Sometimes they brought Bugs. In a world where a lot of “animators” would flip out if you brought them a competitor’s product for them to sign, it takes a real man to just let it go.

Some day I might go on in great detail on why I love the Tom & Jerry series so much, but for right now a few clips over the next few days will do.

It’s probably no surprise that Ray Patterson is one of my favorite animators, but I don’t think his animation would be as great without Bill and Joe’s direction. (Actually, that’s true - his animation at Columbia in the early 40s and on Lundy’s MGM shorts is great, but his best work was on the Tom & Jerrys.)

Here’s a clip from one of my very favorite Tom & Jerry shorts. Moments like this separate good from great animation.