Pat Matthews - "Jungle Jive" Animation

This is a short clip of some of Pat Matthews' animation in the Shamus Culhane directed short "Jungle Jive". I love the way Matthews animates a character being surprised. A quick pop straight up with little to no inbetweening. There's a lot of that in his scenes from the Woody Woodpecker short "Banquet Busters".

UPA - "Pete Hothead"

I rather like this cartoon, though I can't seem to tell one animator from another. Pat Matthews along with Chuck Jones animator Phil Monroe.

Pete Hothead

Uploaded by klangley

Andy Panda - "Dog Tax Dodgers"

I've been on a bit of an Andy Panda kick lately, so here's another Dick Lundy directed cartoon. There's some great animation by Fred Moore and Pat Matthews in this one. I've posted clips of Moore's and Matthews' animation at half speed. Matthew's scene has some great subtle timing that I found to be really effective. When Wally Walrus starts to yell at him watch Andy's reaction. It's like Wally's words are hitting him right in the face. What an underrated animator. The more I watch the last of the Lantz cartoons before he closed the studio the more I wish that he was able to keep the studio going and retain some of the great talent he had started to accumulate. People like Matthews and LaVerne Harding really developed into strong animators over the years at Lantz. Matthews in particular developed a stand out style that really got watered down during some of the cartoons he worked on later at UPA. (Sorry if the quality of the slow motion videos is crappy.)

Fred Moore

Pat Matthews

UPA - "Hotsy Footsy"

Here's a good Mr. Magoo short, "Hotsy Footsy" released in October of 1952. There's some great designs and background by Paul Julian. This is the last Magoo short that Pat Matthews animated, or least received screen credit for. I believe he only animated on 3 more cartoons before leaving UPA. I'm not sure what scenes are his though I assume Magoo's little dance in the beginning is probably his animation. Not quite as good as the first half dozen or so Magoo cartoons but I thought it was a pretty funny short.

Hotsy Footsy

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UPA - "Fuddy Duddy Buddy"

Here's another early UPA short, the John Hubley directed "Fuddy Duddy Buddy". The opening scene of Magoo trying to convince Bottomley to play tennis is really well animated. I'm not sure but I think Pat Matthews animated the scene where the walrus charges the net during the game of tennis. I think the following shot of Magoo might also be Matthews but I'm not too sure. Of course, Paul Julian's backgrounds are great too.

Fuddy Duddy Buddy

Uploaded by klangley

Check out The Big Blog of Kid's Comics! for a comic adaptation of the cartoon drawn by Dan Gormley

UPA - "The Miner's Daughter"

I love the animation in this Bob Canon directed short. I'm still trying to pick out Pat Matthews animation. There's a great run cycle with the miner's daughter that is very similar to one Cannon animated in "Out-Foxed" when he worked under Tex Avery briefly.

UPA-The Miner's Daughter

Uploaded by klangley

A Little Info On Pat Matthews

I was lucky enough to have recently been contacted by the son of one of my absolute favorite animators Pat Matthews, who also happens to be Pat Matthews. Pat was gracious enough to share some background information about his father and his career. He was also kind enough to encourage me to share it with readers of this blog. Thanks Pat! He cleared up whether or not his father was actually the Abner Matthews that worked for the Fleischer's studio. Recently I caught the UPA short "The Miner's Daughter" on Animania and loved it. Pat Matthews animated on that one and I loved it. I can't believe I hadn't see it before. If anyone knows where to get a hold of a copy please email me. I'd love to see that one a few dozen times more. Here's what Pat had to share along with the "tribute" I made awhile back, "Robing Hoodlum" which Thad posted on his blog some time ago, and "Rooty Toot Toot". (Sorry for the lack of posts, I haven't had much time to post lately.)

Hello Kevin,

Thanks for the tribute. It's beautiful. My dad was actually named John Richard Matthews but he hated that name. He wanted to be called Pat. So when I was born that's what he named me. People at the studio always called me Pat Junior (he hated that too - I don't know why - I liked it).

My father is also on the imdb website and they've got it wrong. I don't know who Abner Matthews is but I'm sure he is somebody else. I don't believe my father ever worked for the Fleischer studio. He started out as in inbetweener at Walt Disney in 1938. He worked on Pinochio and has a credit at the end of the picture. Then the inbetweeners went on strike and he lost his job. He then went to Walter Lantz and became an animator. As you commented, Jimmy Culhane covered this area pretty well. Then he went to UPA.

At UPA he did do Rooty Toot Toot and also Telltale Heart, which I think are among the best cartoons ever made. My dad did not work on Gerald McBoing-boing.

There is an interesting story about how and why he left UPA. You also might find it interesting that my mother divorced dad in 1945 and married Frank Smith, another great animator, in 1949 (who DID animate Gerald McBoing-boing). I spent most of my early life with my mother and Frank but saw my father frequently.

Let me know if you are interested in more.

Hello Kevin,

First, about why he left UPA. Basically he got a better job. He was an animator at UPA and he wanted to be a director. UPA had a crowd of directors, all among the most brilliant in the business. Dad talked to a friend of his, Richard Tompkins (not sure of the spelling), who owned and operated RK Tompkins animation studio in Mexico City. Tompkins needed a director and hired dad. This happened in 53 or 54. Dad, who was fluent in Spanish, packed up and moved to Mexico City. He worked there until 56. I was 17 and on summer vacation from High School in 56 and went down to Mexico City to visit him. At the end of summer I flew back and he drove up to Hollywood. He got a job at Playhouse Pictures and stayed with them until, I think, around 59. I had joined the Coast Guard and was stationed in Alaska and didn't follow what the family was doing very well.

At RK Tompkins and at Playhouse Pictures, he worked on commercials, either for the movie theaters (in Mexico) or television (in Hollywood). Most everything he did after UPA was for TV.

Around 59 dad and my sister Carol, left for England. Didn't find any work there so they went to Spain. Didn't find any work there either. So they ended up in Melbourn Australia where dad was animation director for a TV studio.

I'll have to ask my sister about when they came back from Australia, but when he came back he went through a long period of disability. He had gradually lost control of his left side. His left arm was paralized and he walked with difficulty. He was right handed so he could still draw however.

In the middle 60s he went back to Mexico and married his fourth wife, Noemi. He was able to retire there in Ozumbia, a small town outside of Mexico City, receiving a Social Security Disability pension and a WW2 pension. He worked on and off from then to 1972 at the RK Tompkins studio. He was working on a Spanish language Seseme Street for Mexican television when he and Noemi were killed in an automobile accident as they drove in to the studio one morning. He was 56.

I don't think he had a favorite character but I know that he liked "The Telltale Heart" very very much. I don't know if he had a favorite studio. I know that he loved UPA and the studio in Mexico. He thought the Mexican artists were brilliant.

Pat Matthews

Uploaded by klangley

Robin Hoodlum

Uploaded by thadk

Rooty toot toot, John HUBLEY, 1952

Uploaded by shortanimatedworld

Pat Matthews Clip

It's reactions like the one in these screenshots and clip below that make Pat Matthews one of my favorite animators.

Pat Matthews-Buzz Buzzard

Uploaded by klangley

Pat Matthews

I've mentioned before how much I enjoy Pat Matthews animation so I decided to string a bunch of clips together. Matthews was great at musical scenes and really wild action, and of course all those women he animated. It's a shame Matthews doesn't seem to get more recognition as he truly deserves it. Shamus Culhane spoke highly, but only briefly of him is his book. Even in Walter Lantz's biography he only gets a passing mention. I found that surprising since Matthews was one of his top animators throughout the 40s. Thankfully Mark Mayerson and Thad Komorowski have given him the spotlight on their blogs with their animator IDs. Matthews went over to UPA after Lantz shutdown the studio in 1948, where he animated on such shorts as "Robin Hoodlum"and "Rooty Toot Toot". Some clips might be jump between Matthews and a different animator but for the most part it's all Matthews. Oh, and they're all clips from Lantz cartoons. At some point I'll try and put one together of his UPA stuff.

Pat Matthews

Uploaded by klangley