Handling Dialogue: Pete Burness

A problem that's existed ever since the mid-50s in animation is the abundance of 'talking heads'. This started coming in with Chuck Jones' "illustrated radio" shorts, but it really didn't take off until the advent of television with Hanna-Barbera's first shorts.

All cartoons, theatrical or otherwise, have relied on verbal humor and dialogue far too much ever since.

Back in the "good ol' days", masters like Pete Burness and others were able to make their talking scenes interesting, because they would add their own little tricks to them.

This is a scene from one of Friz Freleng's Tweety cartoons, I Taw a Putty Tat (1948). I believe this is Burness' first piece of animation for Warners, though he was uncredited. Watch Sylvester's head in this scene for Burness' trademark bouncy animation, along with the neat detail of Tweety's hat bouncing off his head as he jumps with joy, 'unaware' of Sylvester's intentions.

It's easy to tell when Pete or Emery is animating on a Freleng cartoon because it's usually the best looking animation in the short.

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I Taw a Putty Tat
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Burness, along with Emery Hawkins, were at the 'bottom' of the Warners pecking order, so they weren't tied down to one unit, and would often go without screen credit.

Here's Burness handling a classic exchange in Chuck Jones' Haredevil Hare (1948), another short he was uncredited on. This gag has been used countless times throughout animation history, but it was never as funny looking.

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Haredevil Hare
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Professor Small and Mr. Tall

For Halloween this week, here's a clip from one of my favorite Columbia cartoons, Professor Small and Mr. Tall (1943), directed by John Hubley and Paul Sommer. This one got a pretty harsh review in Maltin's book, and I can't really see why. That ghost is funny as hell!

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Professor Small and Mr. Tall
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The most eerie aspect of this clip is how the characters resemble something out of Chuck Jones' The Dover Boys (1942) (John McLeish even doing a voice), and both cartoons came out within a few months of each other. We know Jones was moonlighting with the UPA guys for Hell-Bent for Election (1944), but was he also doing some work on these Screen Gems shorts?

You can watch this great cartoon (minus the bit with the ghost as Hitler shooting himself... Hmm, guess they predicted the future...) at Pietro's great site.

Johnny's Power Emphasis

As mentioned in the previous blog entry, I feel what Gentilella did better than anyone was emphasizing power. The fight scenes he animated are some of the best animation from any New York studio in the 40s and 50s. Here are two scenes that I know he did from Pop-Pie Ala Mode (1945) and Wotta Knight (1947). Both are wonderfully timed, and show why I think his animation has more punch (pun intended) than any other animator's. (Thanks to Bob J. for identifications.)

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Pop-Pie Ala Mode
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Wotta Knight
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Musical Timing: Johnny Gent

To somewhat tie-in with Kevin's post on timing to music, here is a scene from Famous Studio's Moving Aweigh (1944). This was John Gentilella's first piece of animation at Famous... Only a genius could come up with a scene like this on their first day on the job!

This piece also showcases Gent's emphasis on power, an aspect I feel he was better than everybody at. I'll be talking about this in future posts this week.

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Moving Aweigh
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Good Ol' Fashioned Cartoon Plagiarism: Winner By a Hare

Today's edition of cartoon plagiarism (or "How did they not get sued?!") highlights Famous Studios' Winner by a Hare (1953).

You probably remember the old Harveytoons logo with a rabbit, reclining on the letters of the logo in a Bugs Bunny fashion, thinking "Wow, what a cheap knockoff!" Well, your guess was pretty much on the mark.

This was the first cartoon with Moe Hare (voiced by Jackson Beck I believe) and dopey sidekick Tommy Tortoise (voiced by Sid Raymond). While the likeness of Moe to Bugs is bad enough, the short knocks-off the successful (?) Bugs Bunny/Cecil Turtle trilogy from the 1940s. It seems to be going for the sadistic nature of Bob Clampett's entry, Tortoise Wins By a Hare (1943 - wow even ripping off the title), though failing with the usual "1-2-3" 1950s Famous gag structure.

This cartoon does feature some great animation by Marty Taras though, particularly towards the middle of the short where Moe uses his ears as propellor.

The one thing that's more disturbing than the ending of this cartoon, is that its head animator (the real director) is Myron Waldman, the guy responsible for giving us all those great Pudgy and Casper cartoons! This might be one of those cases where the writer had more creative input, in this case, Irv Spector (Famous' best storyman, in my opinion), since he seemed to have more insight on the Warner writing style, as his name is on Famous' best shorts of the 50s (Mice-Capades, Fido Beta Kappa, L'Amour the Merrier).

Moe and Tommy were in three more cartoons that weren't as much of Warner knock-offs, other than the characters' likeness. They were Rabbit Punch (1955), Sleuth But Sure (1956), and Mr. Money Gags (1957).

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Winner by a Hare
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Good Ol' Fashioned Cartoon Plagiarism: How to Relax

One of my favorite opening titles ever!

Welcome to the first installment of "Good Ol' Fashioned Cartoon Plagiarism"... or "How Did They Not Get Sued?!"

It's so much easier to take a successful, exisiting idea and put a face-lift on it... Which is exactly what the Terrytoon studio did when they gave the Heckle & Jeckle foil, Dimwit, his own short-lived series!

Jack Kinney's Goofy at the Disney studio was the victim of the pilfering... It's blatantly obvious what Terry was trying to immitate (David Gerstein also claims that it's such a knock-off, that the opening music tries to copy the Goofy theme!)

Of course, I severely doubt Kinney would have had Goofy... Um, well you'll have to wait and see! (Though the way things were going at Disney in 1954, I wouldn't be surprised.)

Without further ado, here is the Terry classic How to Relax (1954). There is some crazy Tyer action in the first 1/4 of this one!

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How to Relax
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The Legend of Rock-a-Bye Point

I think it's high time for a new animator breakdown, and I think everyone will enjoy this one. Mike Kazaleh broke this one down for me awhile ago.

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Legend of Rock-a-Bye Point - Breakdown
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