ThadBlog

Amid Amidi just wrote in passing that Paul Julian was Warners’ greatest background painter, and I have to strongly agree. I didn’t feel like making montages out of them, but here’s some BGs of his from Friz Freleng’s “Mouse Mazurka”.

And here’s the hilariously brilliant cartoon, another entry in Freleng’s ‘musical’ series. Gerry Chiniquy animated the great opening and closing dances. It’s really funny ‘limited’ movement, as it doesn’t use squash and stretch as much as other animators (or in this case, directors) would use, but it’s still pretty wild stuff.

Scheduled for release on December 11th are two more collections we should all be adding to our classical animation home video libraries, Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and The Chronological Donald Vol. 3.

The Oswald cartoons featured on this set have long been considered lost and have previously only existed scattered in pieces amongst collectors. Thanks in part to the research of David Gerstein and Pietro Shakarian, a nice collection of these historic films has been pieced together. I believe this set will contain thirteen Oswalds, and a few of them are even taken from decent studio negatives. The animation in many of these is even wilder than in the shorts found on the recent Woody Woodpecker set. This collection is a must for anyone who wants to see some of the earliest work of luminaries like Friz Freleng, Rudy Ising, and Hugh Harman.

I cannot say I am too fond of the Donald Duck cartoons featured on the third collection, which are all of the films with the character released from 1947-1950. While Jack King had some clever staging in a few of his films (his short, “Donald’s Dilemma”, is possibly the best short on this set), few of them are funny. Jack Hannah’s tend to be even worse, with inane stories, artless animation, and obnoxious characters like Chip an’ Dale, Spike the Bee, and the Bootle Beetle. This set does feature animation by the likes of Emery Hawkins, Art Babbitt, and Bob Carlson, so it’s at least worth a look for that.

Despite its mediocrity, I thought I’d post this 1955 Famous Studios cartoon seeing as Marty Taras directed this one (and animated much of it). It’s notable for having a fairly gross title too, and for the hilarious “Featuring” card, where they tried to sell off the characters here as new ’stars’.

Here’s another excellent Shamus Culhane Lantz cartoon breakdown, courtesy of Mark Mayerson. This may be the perfect Woody Woodpecker cartoon, gaining many points for its strong story and characterization (this short was the first appearance of Wally Walrus, and the Swedish accent is a stroke of genius) and a lacking of sloppy animation that was typical of early 40s Lantz.

Dick Lundy seems to have a cartoony style in his Lantz animation, which I find surprising, considering he just came from Disney’s, and that his own films are revered for their slickness. Emery Hawkins’ scenes show his usual sense of action phrasing and great subtlety, with Woody shaking involuntarily as Wally pounds on the table. Don Williams’ animation of Wally walking into the tent is absolutely hilarious. Verne Harding’s scene of Woody appearing in Wally’s trunks is also a very well-timed piece.

Bob Camp has a blog now and has been displaying his own artwork as well as art by Jack Davis and other favorites. Bob is an amazing draftsman and I recommend checking his work out.

Larry Tremblay has posted the incredibly unfunny Lantz cartoon “Fair Today”, one I hadn’t seen before, and identifies most of the animators. It’s good evidence of why the studio needed someone like Shamus Culhane to put some integrity into the place.

Phil Rynda shares a comic book story drawn by Rod Scribner featuring a non-Warner roadrunner.

Claude Cat is one of my favorite Chuck Jones characters. Even when he is mean-spirited asshole (rather than the funnier neurotic persona), like in “Mouse Warming”, he is still an interesting character. This one always stood out to me (besides for being hilarious) because of the beautiful design for the teenage boy mouse. My other favorite Jones short for character design alone is “Much Ado About Nutting”.