ThadBlog

Here’s Jaime Weinman’s tribute video to director Frank Tashlin’s favorite part of the female anatomy. Though quite a lot of other parts are on display here. Compiled from seven or eight of his movies.

OK, before this becomes known as the “Bob Clampett’s a Hack” blog, here’s a breakdown of one of the many Clampett-directed cartoons I really do love. Special thanks to Mark Mayerson for sending over the animator’s draft.

John K. did two posts that do a good job of summing up what makes this cartoon work so well, and it is quite insightful, if you’re a free enough thinker to ignore the “Clampett is the center of the LT/MM universe” bias.

As you can see in my video, there’s still a lot of animators who worked on these cartoons that we know nothing about. Rev Chaney was never given screen credit on any Warner cartoon (probably due to low-footage counts). What other cartoons did he work on? How long was he at Schlesinger’s?

Sid Sutherland is something of a mystery for me too. I don’t know much about him or his style, other than he was part of the original “Termite Terrace” unit (along with Avery, Clampett, Jones, and Virgil Ross).

One of my favorite aspects of the direction of A Tale of Two Kitties is how the cartoon takes place at four different times of the day: morning, mid-afternoon, sunset, and night. They really did a beautiful job restoring this one!

February 26th, 2008 marks the centennial anniversary of the birth of Fred “Tex” Avery.

I don’t think it’s any kind of an exaggeration to say that Avery was probably the most influential of all the animated filmmakers in the comedy genre. While Disney was frequently refining his studio’s craft, they got bland awfully quick in terms of humor. Avery brought forth a hybrid of sophisticated drawing and the kinds of edgy gags and story structures that make animated cartoons fun.

Animation historian Milt Gray recently wrote an article on what he felt Bob Clampett’s contributions to the Warner Bros. cartoon style were. (John K. has posted some of it, and may post the rest.) Milt claims in his piece that Clampett was more responsible than Avery was for giving the Warner cartoons their anarchic uniqueness.

But let the cartoons speak for themselves. Here are the kinds of cartoons Avery was contributing to at Lantz in the early 1930s…

… Meanwhile, here’s the kind of cartoon Clampett and Chuck Jones were contributing to around the same time at Schlesinger’s.

Here’s Avery’s arrival at Schlesinger’s, with those crazy boys Bob and Chuck animating… (Jones animated Porky’s happy dances… Clampett does the Scottish terrier, and the scene at the end with Porky finally handing the bomb over.)

So, sorry, it was Avery (and very shortly after, Tashlin) who got the ball rolling in the Warner cartoon universe. By the time Clampett became a director, the idea that Looney Tunes were going to be wild and crazy was established.

You need to look at Avery’s work at Schlesinger’s in a certain context, like the level of acting Disney was achieving in the mid-1930s, to realize how important it was. Yes, Jones, Clampett, Tashlin, and Freleng had higher peaks than Avery did at Warners, but the kinds of things Avery was doing just weren’t being done elsewhere at the time.

I don’t think I have to wax on any further, because by now we’ve come to that inarguable pinnacle of the 7-minute art form, the MGM Tex Avery cartoon. I think they’re the finest examples of what Manny Farber called “termite art” (art that’s created out of unedifying and “popular” materials as opposed to self-important “white elephant art”) animation has to offer. Enjoy. And thanks for everything, Tex.

Not much today, just one of my favorite Barks stories from Walt Disney’s Comics & Stories #65 (1945). Doesn’t he draw the funniest parrots ever? That line, “A blasted KODIAK BEAR!” makes me laugh out loud every time.

Popeye the Sailor: Vol. 2 (1938-1940) will be released June 17th, 2008.

Featured are some of the greatest entries in the Fleischer Popeye series, including I Yam Love Sick, It’s the Natural Thing to Do, Hello-How Am I?, Popeye Meets William Tell (Shamus Culhane’s only Popeye cartoon), and my personal favorite, Goonland.

Extras include commentaries (including the much-needed Bob Jaques, who noticed how freakishly tall Olive is on the cover.. “If she were standing straight up, she would dwarf Popeye.”) and several ‘Popumentaries’.

(Thanks, Greg Method)

The Famous Studios Popeye cartoons were fairly strong when they started out, but after the war, they got pretty crummy pretty quickly. So it might be safe to say that How Green is My Spinach (1950) is the last really great Popeye cartoon.

The idea is pretty unique, and self-aware, which is not a trait common in the Popeye series. John Gentilella did some incredible work on this picture, namely Bluto’s soliloquy at the beginning, and all of the footage in the supermarket.

Check out that amazing punch Gent did at the end! Every drawing of the split Popeye’s are uniquely dynamic. How did Gent accomplish something like that?!

FYI - Yes that is Tom Ewell (The Seven Year Itch, The Girl Can’t Help It) in the audience at the end.