"Donald's Crime"

Here's a classic Donald short directed by Jack King. I know very little about Disney animators so I can't really point any one particular person's work. Check out the awesome backgrounds when Donald leaves Daisy's yard.

Uploaded by klangley

Animaland - "The House-Cat"

I'm still on a bit on an Animaland kick, so here's another cartoon from the series. "The House-Cat" was released in 1949 and like the rest of the series features some fantastic animation. Bob Egby was kind enough to leave in a link to a great article that he wrote of his time as the messenger at G-B Animation. It's a great read if your interested in the background behind these cartoons.

The House Cat

Uploaded by klangley

Animaland Model Sheets - "The Cuckoo"

Here's a few model sheets of the characters from "The Cuckoo", part of David Hand's Animaland series. This is definitely one of the better cartoons of the series. Thad posted it over a year ago on his blog, so go check it out if you've never seen it before. Sorry the not high resolution, they're taken from the model sheet gallery on the DVD.

Dimwit

Nothing special tonight just a Dimwit strip from a Heckle and Jeckle comic. It's signed "CR", anyone know if Connie Rasinski drew this page?

Bob McKimson - "One Meat Brawl"

Here's the only appearance of Grover Groundhog voiced by Stan Freberg. I've been watching McKimson shorts a lot lately and having just received the new Looney Tunes set as a gift, I was pleasantly surprised by the short McKimson feature on it.

One Meat Brawl

Uploaded by klangley

Merry Christmas

Here's a little Christmas gift for everyone, Tex Avery's "One Ham's Family". I can't recall the last time I saw this one on TV, even when they actually showed classics, so hopefully it's a nice treat for those who haven't seen it in a long time. Sorry the quality isn't that great. I had a bitch of a time encoding if for some reason. The Tom and Jerry pic is from an old cover of Rexall magazine. Happy Holidays!

One Ham's Family

Uploaded by klangley

David Hand - "Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus"

I'm quite fond of David Hand's Animaland series. While the characters and stories may not be very imaginative, I think they're technically wonderful cartoons. The backgrounds and animation alone make them worth watching, great music score too.

Ginger Nutt's Christmas Circus

Uploaded by klangley

Art Davis - "Odor Of The Day"

This is one of the very few Pepe Le Pew cartoons that I enjoy. Of course he's only really Pepe in that he's a skunk and stinky. Other than that he doesn't exhibit any of Pepe's personality traits. Thank god he's not trying to get laid in this one. That would've made for a pretty creepy cartoon. Oh, like Davis' other shorts there's some pretty cool camera angles and some of the gags are really well timed. Well, I think they are. Sorry for the lack of posts lately, for those who care, it's quite hectic around here during the holidays. So much to do. I'll be sure to post some Christmas themed cartoons over the next week.

Odor of the Day

Uploaded by klangley

Bob Clampett - "Horton Hatches TheEgg"

I love Bob Clampett's take on Dr. Suess' "Horton Hatches The Egg". He stays faithful to the original story and only adds to it whether through song (The Hut-Sut Song) or just funny gags.

Horton Hatches The Egg

Uploaded by klangley

Tex Avery - "Bad Luck Blackie"

It's been a while since I posted anything from Tex Avery so here's "Bad Luck Blackie" and some model sheets to go along with it. So many great gags in this one. And who doesn't love the dog's laugh? Enjoy.

Bad Luck Blackie

Uploaded by klangley

A Foolish Fable - "Dig That Dog"

I'm not terribly fond of a lot of the cartoons made by Lantz when he reopened the studio in 1950. I guess 1956 is probably my cut off point. Anything after that is of little interest to me. This cartoon was made in 1954, shortly before the arrival of Tex Avery and was written and directed by two of Tex's former co-workers at MGM, Ray Patterson and Grant Simmons. Some of the expressions and incidental character designs are very reminiscent of MGM characters. "Dig That Dog" was produced by Patterson and Simmons own studio Grantray-Lawrence for Lantz.

Dig That Dog

Uploaded by klangley

Preston Blair Swipes

I was reading a Speedy Rabbit comic, in fact it's the only issue of Speedy Rabbit and I noticed that the characters and some of the poses looked really familiar. It wasn't 'til I came to the Rudolf The Pup page that I realized that everything was swiped from Preston Blair's Animation 1 book. Which I thought was strange as the issue was drawn by Ben Brown, who if I'm not mistaken, drew the Richie Rich comics. Anyway, I thought it was amusing since I've spent so much time practicing from that book and that so many of the drawings in it pop up as small business logos or mascots for school teams. Here's some scans from the issue with the corresponding drawings from Blair's book.

Art Davis - "Holiday For Drumsticks"

Happy Thanksgiving all! I hope everyone enjoys the holiday. Let's all give thanks to Art Davis and company for making this great Daffy cartoon, "Holiday For Drumsticks". Is Phil DeGuard not one of the greatest background painters ever? I love his paintings on Davis' shorts.

Holiday For Drumsticks

Uploaded by klangley

Famous Studios - "The Voice Of The Turkey"

Here's a Thanksgiving themed cartoon, the 1950 short "The Voice Of The Turkey". I really love Famous Studios cartoons. I know a large percentage of them rely heavily on the same story formulas for each character but I've always loved the animation, the backgrounds, music and voice acting. The backgrounds in this short are really great and were painted by Tom Ford, one of my favorites from any studio.

Tom Ford's backgrounds

The Voice Of The Turkey

Uploaded by klangley

Shamus Culhane - "Jungle Jive"

Here's a clip from "Jungle Jive", directed by Shamus Culhane. I'm very fond of the Lantz Swing Symphonies series even though they're not loaded with a ton of gags. I particularly love the ones that Culhane made with Art Heinemann as his layout/color stylist. The simplified, flat colored backgrounds are unlike what was being done in most other cartoons at the time.

Jungle Jive-Shamus Culhane

Uploaded by klangley