Here’s one of my favorite model sheets from one of my favorite cartoons, “What’s Buzzin’ Buzzard?” This one was one of Fred Quimby’s least favorite of Tex’s cartoons. Even after it was selected for preservation in the Library Of Congress. At least Tex had an easy way to gauge if he made a good cartoon or not. If Quimby hated it or didn’t think it was funny, it was good. Enjoy this wonderfully violent cartoon.
This is one of my all-time favorites, Milt Gross’ “Jitterbug Follies”. This is one of two cartoons he directed for MGM, the other being “Wanted: No Master”. Both were released in 1939, along with Milt himself as producer Fred Quimby felt that the cartoons weren’t of high enough quality for a studio like MGM. Quimby is not a man who was known for his sense of humor so he must’ve really hated this one, it’s funny from start to finish. It’s really well timed to music too.
Here’s the rest of the pics I promised from “Slap Happy Lion”. Each one is a really funny and cartoony drawing.
It’s been about a week since my last post so I figured I’d start up again with some pics from Tex Avery’s hilarious short “Slap Happy Lion”. This cartoon is packed with some really great and wild animation, definetly some of my favorite of all time. The model sheet was drawn by Irv Spence but I’m not sure who drew the different animation drawings. I’ve also uploaded the scene that corresponds with these animation drawings, sorry for the crappy quality though. Check back later this week for the rest of the stuff I scanned from “Slap Happy Lion”
I was going to do a post yesterday about one of my favorite Tom and Jerry cartoons “Zoot Cat” but I was too tired last night to stay up and upload a clip of Irv Spence’s dance scene. I went to check out Thad’s blog this morning and he beat me to it, even the same model sheet plus some others. This cartoon has some of my favorite animation from Irv Spence. Here’s some animation drawings plus a different scene by Irv Spence. Sorry for the copycat post Thad.
Pete Burness
Irv Spence
Pete Burness
Ken Muse
I was listening to “All Or Nothing At All” by the Harry James Orchestra featuring Frank Sinatra today and the first thing that came to mind was the “Frankie” scene, featuring the same song, from Tex Avery’s “Little ‘Tinker”. I love this cartoon, it’s great to see a bunch of Disneyesque bunnies swoon over ‘Tinker in his Frankie get-up in the same way Tex’s Wolf does over Red. I read that Tex sort of dismissed this one as a cutesy cartoon and it is a far cry from the cruelty of Screwy Squirrel but like all of Tex’s cartoons it’s loaded with great gags. Here’s some model sheets and screen caps of some of the beautiful backgrounds.
Updated 9-20
*It’s been brought to my attention that these are not the original boards, check Steve’s comments for an explanation. But the in-house MGM magazine cover is cool so I’m just going to leave the post up as a testament to my ignorance.*
Here’s some scans of the storyboard from Hanna-Barbera’s Oscar winning short “The Little Orphan”. These are a lot rougher drawings than a couple of the other storyboards I’ve seen reprinted but the story is all there.
Cartoon Research
What About Thad – Thad Komorowski