Wednesday, October 07, 2009

Michael Lah

Here's a reel I put together of Michael Lah's animation for Tex Avery at MGM. Lah is one of my absolute favorite animators. Funny as hell in most every scene he animated.


15 comments:

WIL BRANCA said...

Great reel, Kevin!

So like... does that guy draw on a Cintique directly into Flash, or what?

hahaha

Chris Signore said...

A fantastic reel for, frankly, a fantastic animator. I just adore Lah's crazy running cycles! :D

Josh 'Hat' Lieberman said...

This is awesome man
Lah is my favorite animator of all time. The scene he animated in Droopy's Good Deed where spike swallows the cigar and salutes, is one of my favorite pieces of animation ever. It is pretty similar to the clip you posted from Good Deed, but theres something bout that salute that cracks me up.

I had a question, do you know if the stuff he did for Tom and Jerry was done after his time on the avery unit? Or during? Did he go back and forth?
And how did that stuff work back in the day, in terms of animators jumping units? Was it the animators choice? Directors? Or did some crews just need help?

dwestburg said...

I never realized he animated so many classic bits of animation for MGM. Thanks for posting.

Kevin Langley said...

Josh, if i remember correctly Bill Hanna wrote in his biography that they would loan guys to Tex's unit and vice versa depending on the work at the time.

Josh 'Hat' Lieberman said...

Hey Kevin

Thanks man. Lookin forward to more posts on Avery's unit.

David Sloss said...

That is fantastic! Thanks so much for posting this! I there anyway you could post the original quicktime .mov file for downloading--the quality on dailymotion makes it hard to see what is going on and impossible to step through.

Eric Noble said...

Fantastic reel. Michael Lah was a great animator. He gave the characters lots of personality, but also made them hilarious. Thanks for posting it. Are we going to see more reels of Tex Avery's animators.

Yowp said...

It's sad watching this and then thinking of the crude stuff he did for TV.

I'm looking forward to your Clinton reel. I just did a short piece on him on the blog. I really like his design work.

Yowp

Koen De Koninck said...

great video of a legendary animator! Keep 'em coming!

Ricardo Cantoral said...

Slightly OT Kevin but last night I watched The Westerner with Gary Cooper and Walter Brennan as "Judge" Roy Bean. If the cinematic incarnation of Bean was anything like the genuine article, and from what I read he might be, then I understand Tex Avery's Grandma calling him "no good skunk". I am sure you knew this but Avery was a descendent of Bean.

J. J. Hunsecker said...

Kevin,

I hope you do more of these. They are a real education! Hopefully, you'll get to all the MGM animators eventually.

Kasey said...

Probaly my favorite of the three (though I wish it could've been four. Too bad Bobe Cannon left after only two or three shorts).
My own personal favorite animation crew has got to be Friz Freleng's crew from 1955-61 (Ross, Davis and Chiniquy).

Toon Spaz said...

hahaha, sick post man. Lah is the shiznit. added your site to my links!

Ryan Khatam said...

AWESOME reel man! Perfect ending with Droopy. The scene with the possum hand puppet was AMAZING.