Apologies to Don Hertzfeldt

...But I couldn't help thinking of this watching all of those Post and Tang commercials.

Go ahead, unleash your twelve year-old self.

Round Five of Looneyness

I finally have the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Vol. 5, and of course, it's great! The restorations are absolutely beautiful, on both the Technicolor and black-and-white cartoons. I was particularly impressed with the restoration on a sub-par entry, "The Up-Standing Sitter" (really a Cinecolor release). I've posted some comparisons from an older transfer below.





Some random thoughts on the set otherwise...

- Irv Spence's scenes in "Little Red Walking Hood" may not be his best work, but it's probably my favorite animation of his.
- "Bacall to Arms" is the funniest animated mess ever done by the Warner studio.
- The Clampett Girl Chorus song in "Patient Porky" (horribly lame cartoon, by the way)... What in the hell are the lyrics? Why would they record a song when you can't hear it anyway???
- "I've Got to Sing a Torch Song" is not only incredibly unfunny, but it's also horribly drawn and animated as well (due to Freleng and McKimson's absence from it). The Merrie Melodies of the same season are just as bad. No more of these, please.

Scaredy Cat

Mike Kazaleh broke this one down for me over a year ago, and I haven't gotten around to using it until now.

"Scaredy Cat" is one of the many perfect cartoons Chuck Jones' unit turned out in the late 1940s and early 1950s, so there isn't much that can be said for it that hasn't been said already. For me, the best of these cartoons are the best cartoons, period.



Classes are really time-absorbing so this will be the last breakdown for quite a while. Happy Halloween!

No More Anonymous

Seeing as I am tired of having endless comments from a guy with a woodpecker fetish, anonymous comments are disallowed. If you need help registering for blogger to leave comments, let me know. Thanks.

Random Warner Art Beauty

There's a large book in the school library, Animation Art: The Early Years, by Jeff Lotman and Jonathan Smith, consisting of classic animation art. Much of it is devoted to cels of the Disney variety (and it's certainly not worth the price on Amazon), but here's a few Warner pieces I found interesting.


Hawley Pratt layout from "Racketeer Rabbit"


Hawley Pratt layout from "Stooge for a Mouse"


Bob McKimson scene from "What's Cookin' Doc?"


Bob McKimson scene from "Falling Hare"


Manny Gould scene from "Hare Ribbin'"

Original title art

Bob McKimson - Sock a Doodle Do

The Foghorn Leghorn shorts always had the funniest animated beatings, so here's a whole cartoon built around them. Great Scribner animation in this one.

Popeye Freaks Rejoice

Please visit Bob Jaques' new blog devoted to identifying the styles of various Popeye animators. Bob is an incredible animator in his own right and is responsible for the best animation in the first two seasons of The Ren & Stimpy Show ("Stimpy's Invention", "Sven Hoek").