Sunday, June 08, 2008

Tex Avery - "Ventriloquist Cat"

Another Tex Avery classic animated by Michael Lah, Walt Clinton and Grant Simmons. Grant Simmons' Spike is hilarious. They're are without a doubt my favorite unit out of all the animators and directors from any of the studios that were making theatrical shorts.



5 comments:

Ricardo Cantoral said...

This is OT but what did you think about the cinemascope versions of this and other Avery shorts ? I thought the color choices for the backrounds were great but for the characters not so much. Oh and congrats to your recent bundle of joy.

Kevin Langley said...

I'd have to agree with you there. I love the color choices for the backgrounds. Though I don't think they actually work well for the cartoons. Maybe it's because I have the original versions burned in my head. I don't remember the last time I watched "Cat's Meow" or "Millionaire Droopy".

Don Driscoll was a good background painter. He worked in the Hanna-Barbera unit on Tom and Jerry too. I'm surprised he didn't make the jump over to H-B when they started up. Most of the MGM guys seemed to.

Ricardo Cantoral said...

"Most of the MGM guys seemed to."

Yes you can tell just by looking at Tex Avery's work that the crew who worked on those shorts went to H-B.

Anonymous said...

BTW that Clarence Nash/"Donald Duck" like voice is done by "Harry Lang" (modified post to complete sentence.

wbhist said...

I actually saw the "Cat's Meow" remake in a movie theatre in the early 1990's during a retrospective of Warner Bros. cartoons as well as certain individuals (such as Tex Avery) who worked there. It was the first time I actually saw that.