(I uploaded the cartoon again, so this is a repost.)
Bill Wray is one of my favorite artists. I love his background paintings in Ren and Stimpy, Samurai Jack and the many comic book covers he's done. Please do yourself a favor if you haven't already and check out his site
bigblownbaby.com. If you haven't read his comics of the same name track them down. They're hilarious. There's also a Hellboy Jr. trade out which is really funny. There's a Baby Huey spoof called "Huge Retarded Duck" that's sick and twisted. He has to be one the finest inkers I've ever seen. His dry brush technique is incredible. Enough ass kissing, let me get to this cartoon. This aired on Cartoon Network's What A Cartoon Show in 1999. I read in an interview that King Crab was to originally be a part of Cartoon Network's night time adult programming, what would later end up being Adult Swim. But the idea of an expensive original show scared them off. It's a shame, I really think this show had the potential to be a big hit. "I... I've never been comfortable... in the men's room." Hilarious stuff. I believe that Bill has had the rights to the character returned to him fairly recently so maybe there's a chance he'll sell it to a different network. Bill also has a blog where he posts his beautiful landscape paintings, check it out
here. There's a fantastic interview with art and a painting lesson in
Mike Manley's DRAW! magazine, issue 6. Pick it up if you can. The awesome Stephen DeStefano, who also King Crab with him is also interviewed.
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.
I love cartoons set strictly to music, so the Lantz Swing Symphonies series and Musical Miniatures are among my favorite cartoons to watch. Even if they're not loading with gags like a Tex Avery short. Here's Dick Lundy's "Kiddie Koncert" which is set to "Morning, Noon, and Night In Vienna".
I was rather surprised to see that in a relatively short time that the last Animaland short I posted reached a thousand views on Dailymotion. I don't know if it's because some other blog or site linked to or if it's that they're just not as well known and people are curious. Either way here's another one that I really enjoy. "The Ostrich", released in 1949, seems more "Lantz" like than even some of the other Animaland shorts. I don't know if it's the song, "Dont Hide Your Head In The Sand" or if it's the father ostrich's design that just make me think of mid forties Lantz cartoons directed by Shamus Culhane and Dick Lundy. I think they're great cartoons and recommend the DVD to anyone slightly interested in them. Here's a few model sheets to go along with the cartoon.
I'm a sucker for Pluto cartoons. There's always a great walk cycle or two in them. In this case there's a really great dance scene with Pluto. This one was nominated for an Academy Award in 1948.
Here's some more fine animation from David Hand's Animaland series and some model sheets to go along with it. Though I prefer my cartoons wilder than this, I love the solid craftsmanship in these cartoons. I can't even draw these characters right, let alone move them around. Anyone else think "Ginger Nutt" should be a porn star's name?
I'm a pretty big fan of most all the Famous Studios shorts I've seen, in spite of the shortcomings of a lot of them. Though during the first few years after the studio's formation they released some pretty damn good cartoons. The animation is really great in a lot them. The early Popeye and Little Lulu shorts being the best, IMO. "Klondike Casanova" has some great animation in it, courtesy of Johnny Gentilella. Popeye's voice was provided by Harry Foster Welch as Jack Mercer had been drafted by the Army.
