Thursday, July 05, 2007

Famous Studios Backgrounds-Robert Little

Here's some screen grabs of Robert Little's backgrounds from various cartoons. I know nothing about him, but his backgrounds in a lot of the Casper shorts make them worth watching. I love the backgrounds he did in the Little Lulu short "Cad and Caddy".

Little Audrey-"Song Of The Birds" (1949) Check out more screen shots here.




Little Audrey-"Tarts and Flowers" (1950)


Casper-"Too Boo Or Not to Boo" (1951)


Baby Huey-"One Quack Mind" (1951)


Casper-"Spunky Skunky" (1952)


Caper-"Boo Moon" (1954)


Little Audrey-"The Seapreme Court" (1954)


Herman and Katnip-"Rail Rodents" (1954)


Herman and Katnip-"Cat In The Act" (1957)


Casper-"Hooky Spooky" (1957)


Casper-"Ice Scream" (1957)


Noveltoon-"The Animal Fair" (1959)

9 comments:

Andy Latham said...

I love the backgrounds in "To Boo or Not To Boo". I like the dappled colour of the barn walls. Most cartoons today would have just flat-coloured them.
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Michael Sporn said...

One of my favorite treats in flying out to the Grim Natwick 100th birthday party was my meeting Bob Little there. I stood on the side and chatted with him for almost an hour. He was a really nice guy, and I've always had all the respect in the world for him.
Thanks for posting these images.

Kevin Langley said...

Did you happen to "talk shop" with him?

Michael said...

Thanks for posting these fabulous BGs, Kevin. Pure gold.
They remind me of why I chose to paint backgrounds. Character is nothing without context!

Michael said...

(obviously a different michael) :)

Kevin Langley said...

I'm glad you like them. I've got a couple of more Famous posts that I want to do. Then it's onto Fred Brunish once the Woody DVD comes out

Anonymous said...

This is the coolest thing ever. This is my grandfather. You never know what you'll find when you google a name. I've grown up with his work all my life and knew he was an important guy in the cartoon world, but to actually see others admire his work is heart warming. He passed when I was young, so I didn't get to know him all that well, but I'm glad his legacy lives on.

Dave Mackey said...

I know this is a two year old post but I must make mention that "The Animal Fair" was a compilation short and the backgrounds depicted are not necessarily by Robert Little. They could be the work of Robert Owen, Robert Connavale, Shane Miller, Tom Ford, Lloyd Hallock or Anton Loeb.

On those compilations, Little did do some of the intertitles. I also believe that Little was the house title card artist for Famous/Paramount, especially in the 1950's.

Kevin Langley said...

Thanks for the info Dave.