ThadBlog

Sorry for the low-quality, but this clip is the best I can do.

Over at Mike Sporn’s blog, there’s a bit of an argument I’m having with him over Jim Tyer. Personally, I think it’s ridiculous saying he was influenced by UPA. Tyer’s style was completely original and rooted in classical animation which is easily proven just by looking at a single frame of his work.

For the record though, Tyer did indeed jump at the opportunity to do work in the UPA style when Gene Deitch came to Terrytoons. He saw it as something new and exciting. Connie Rasinski, by comparison, was fuming mad about the changes, but took a professional attitude about it and did the work anyway.

Anyway, here’s some hilarious Tyer animation from Bill Tytla’s Popeye cartoon for Famous, “Service with a Guile” (great title, huh?). There’s similar animation by Tyer in “Shape Ahoy” and “Royal Floor Flusher”. Does this count as distortion?

When Western Publishing realized they had no official model sheets for the Disney characters, they called on Carl Barks to draw three of the ducks. Sez Barks…

[I] never could follow the model sheets anyway. I was asked to do a model sheet of Donald and Uncle Scrooge… This model was to be the Barks duck. Well, I couldn’t even keep my ducks consistent with that sheet.

Barks drew these three in 1950 (during his Golden Age), and I photocopied them out of the Carl Barks Library (Set 8, Volume 3) for quick reference (and so I wouldn’t get pencil or eraser smudges on the book). Sorry for the crookedness, it was the best I could get.

I think my favorite description of a person ever was what Milt Gray told me Carl Barks was: “The closest thing to a real-live Santa Claus you could find.”

One of my favorite Tex Avery shorts is an underrated gem called “Out-Foxed” (1949). I love the over-confident English fox in this one (does anyone know who did the voice?) Mike Kazaleh was great and sent over an animation breakdown for this short. I think Bobe Cannon does the best animation in this cartoon, as the timing and posing is superior to the other animators (though I love Grant Simmons’ work here too).

This Mighty Mouse cartoon from 1953 would be a rather subpar entry for me, had it not contained my favorite pieces of Jim Tyer animation ever (at 3:13 and at 5:40). This short looks like Tyer may have done the layouts for a lot of the other animators too.

I hiked over to Target (I don’t own a car and I hate Wal-Mart) to pick up the new Droopy set. It really is close to being perfect, but I have to point out that this set has some of the worst DVNR I’ve ever seen. The violated shorts are “Wags to Riches”, “Daredevil Droopy”, “Droopy’s Good Deed”, and “Three Little Pups”.

It’s so bad on these cartoons that it not only effects the wonderful wild takes Tex Avery was known for, but even subtle walks or head gestures!

This is my favorite one… Nothing going on but a deadpan walk…

And this mutilated version of “Three Little Pups” finally answers the question… Does DVNR effect live-action?

Nope… But is sure screws up great animation.

BTW, when I purchased the set, the cashier excitedly said how Droopy was her favorite cartoon character… Not sure if she was thinking of the right character, but it’s nice to see non-aficionado appreciation.

I’m not a huge Fred Moore fan, but I thought those of you who are would like to see the only time his girl designs/animation showed up in a non-Disney cartoon. It’s Dick Lundy’s “The Mad Hatter”, a decent Woody Woodpecker cartoon from 1948. You’ll see lots of slick cartoons like this on DVD in July.