"The Mouse On 57th Street" Backgrounds

I was rewacthing Chuck Jones' "The Mouse On 57th Street" recently and was drawn (no pun intended) to the backgrounds. Great use of perspective, particularly for the scenes that focused on the mouse. Lots of upshots emphasizing how big the city is compared to our little drunken mouse friend. Layouts were done by Owen Fitzgerald and Maurice Noble and painted by Phil DeGuard. I assume Fitzgerald mostly did character layout. A few poses throughout the short reminded me of his posing in his Bob Hope comics. Though I have nothing docmenting that as a fact. I find this to be one of the more enjoyable of Jones' later Warner Bros. shorts.

    

Daffy Dilly "It's shocking"

One of my favorite things about hand drawn animation is the crazy frames in between key poses or drawings done to create an effect. Things like smears, mulitples and whatever the hell you call what Jim Tyer is doing most of the time. A great example is Daffy getting electrocuted by his own hand buzzer in Chuck Jones' underrated short, "Daffy Dilly". If I recall correctly, the scene was animated by Lloyd Vaughan, or was it Phil Monroe? I'm sure someone with a keener eye can say for sure who drew the scene. Anyway, enjoy those crazy frames.

"The Draft Horse" Model Sheet

Seeing Yowp's post on Chuck Jones' "The Daft Horse" reminded me that I had scanned the model sheet from that cartoon. So here ya go.

"I Say, I Say... Son!"

I was finally able to get around to reading Robert McKimson Jr.'s biography of his father, Robert McKimson and uncles Tom and Chuck who all spent time as animators at Warner Bros. Though the text largely focuses on Bob McKimson, for those like me that know next to nothing about Tom or Chuck it is very informative. Starting with Bob and Tom's beginnings as assistant animators at Walt Disney Studios to their stops at Romer Grey Pictures, Harman-Ising Productions and eventually all three of them working together at Warner Bros.

The foreword was written by John Kricfalusi, of Ren and Stimpy fame, is filled with his usual enthusiasm for Bob McKimson's animation and directorial work. If you've read John's blog regularly you'll probably know there's no bigger champion of McKimson than him. The introduction is delivered by Darrel Van Citters and highlights Bob's importance to the Warner Bros. cartoons look and characters.

The book as whole mostly highlights Bob's career as and an animator and director but considering the impact the man had on probably the greatest cartoons studio ever I don't see that as a bad thing. Bob was a superior draftsman and also animated at a fast pace. Tom's work with Western Publishing gets it's own chapter, which is loaded with illustrations. Starting with his time as a freelancer to his ascension to role of art director for all the comic book lines. Chuck also started working with Western Publishing after the Warner Bros. studio closed down.

I mentioned the illustrations, and this book is loaded from cover to cover. All three McKimson's are well represented with artwork. There's loads of model sheets, layouts, animation drawings and comic book art. A lot of which I haven't seen reprinted anywhere else. I haven't had time to soak it all up, but this is definitely one of the best animation related books out there. A must for Warner Bros. fans!

Colonel Shuffle Model Sheet

Here's the Colonel Shuffle model sheet from the classic Chuck Jones short "Mississppi Hare".

"Little Orphan Airedale" Model Sheet

I found this model sheet on my hard drive, don't know if I scanned it from a book or found it online somewhere. At first I wasn't sure what Charlie Dog cartoon it was from, I should have recognized the Porky Pig pose from the beginning of "Little Orphan Airedale". I noticed that Dave Mackey's site didn't have the production number listed for the cartoon and that this model sheet had it. "The Foxy Duckling" was production number 1031 and "Airedale", production number 1032 was released two months later. I'm sure this info is probably known to the hardcore animation geeks but I hadn't come across it anywhere. Dave's site is where I usually go for that type of info so I was suprised the number wasn't there as I assumed this model sheet has been published somewhere before.

Randomness

Just a couple of random things. A couple of those cool background paintings from the opening of the Mighty Mouse Cartoon "Stop, Look, and Listen". Plus a clip from "The Scarlet Pumpernickel" where (out of boredom) I sped up Sylvester's voice to match Daffy's and slowed down Daffy's to match Sylvester's.

Scarlett Pumpernickel-voice reversal

Uploaded by klangley

Chuck Jones - "Rocket-bye Baby"

This 1956 Chuck Jones cartoon has some great layouts by Ernest Nordli.

1956-08-04 - Rocket-bye Baby

Uploaded by klangley

Chuck Jones - "Scent-Imental Over You"

I realized I rarely post anything by Chuck Jones. What's up with that? Though I don't find all the Pepe Le Pew shorts to be that great I enjoy "Scent-Imental Over You" mostly for the design of the scrawny little thing below.

Scent-Imental Over You

Uploaded by klangley

Chuck Jones - "Often An Orphan"

This Jones short will be on Volume 6 of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection. I love Charlie Dog, he's hilariously irritating, like Gilbert Gottfried.

Often An Orphan

Uploaded by klangley

Art Davis - "The Rattled Rooster"

This Art Davis short may be a little weak on gags but the animation and the rooster character design help redeem it. Great stuff.

The Rattled Rooster

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Yosemite Sam Model Sheets

It's been awhile since I've posted any model sheets and I was going through some folders and found these tucked away. I forgot I scanned these. The first model sheet of Yosemite Sam is really appealing, especially when compared to the one on the bottom. I also uploaded Sam's first appearance, the Freleng short "Hare Trigger". This is one of my favorite Freleng shorts.

Hare Trigger

Uploaded by klangley

You may have noticed my blog has been a little less active than usual. That's because I've been busy with this little guy. Say hi to Liam Avery Langley. Sorry, I had to play proud papa for a moment.

A. Flea - "An Itch In Time" and "A Horsefly Fleas"

Here's the two cartoons starring Bob Clampett's A. Flea, "An Itch In Time" and "A Horsefly Fleas". Clampett directed the far superior "An Itch In Time", while Bob McKimson directed "A Horsefly Fleas".

An Itch In Time

Uploaded by klangley

A Horsefly Fleas

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Chuck Jones - "Case Of The Missing Hare"

I forgot I posted this on Dailymotion the other day. Does anyone know if Art Heinemann was still part of Jones' unit when this short was made? The color styling seems very similar to his other work with Jones and even with Shamus Culhane at Lantz. If not his influence is rather obvious.

Case of the Missing Hare

Uploaded by klangley

Scribner Story Sketches

I haven't had much time to post lately because I was in the process of moving. Now that we're all settled in over here maybe I can pay this blog a little more attention. Here's three scans of Rob Scribner's story sketches from "Coal Black And The Sebben Dwarfes". These just so happen to coincide with one of my favorite scenes that Scribner animated.