Inbetweener
Posted:
Jan 17, 2012, 4:42 PM
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Limited Animation in the MGM cartoons
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Ummm, the Gene Deitch shorts actually don't really count because they were entirely made at a animation studio in Cchezvolkia produced by Willam Synder's Rembrandt Films, the Chuck Jones Sib Tower 12 cartoons also don't count either.
Anyway on to the Limited Animation, actually this will more be a post about the transition of the degrading of the animation in the MGM shorts, first of all enitrely Television is the first thing that immediately comes to mind, secondly, of course, UPA comes to mind as well, when Tex Avery came back after a short 1950 sabbitical in 1952, his shorts began to utlilize UPA-inspired everything, backgrounds, color stylings, character designs and all, due to the services of Ed Benedict and later that only took a long while to get into the Tom and Jerry cartoons (because Hanna and Barbera seemed to have a strong dislike for the "UPA crap" and one of them went so far as to say "Nobody likes Mister Magoo"), which the animation had already stiffened up at that point and had already begun to look extremely wobbly (one word sums up that screams the layouts), see Proffesor Tom from 1948 for that, and obviosly even the title cards began to show that as well, right down to the lettering and that actually exactly mirrored that of the H-B television title cards, Third was CinemaScope: Well actually thick outlines (in the exact same way that which also exactly mirrored H-B's television output) had been used pretty much earlier, see the Tom and Jerry cartoon Mice Follies for this and also Puppy Tale, and later that was adopted to good use in the Cinemascope stuff for everything to entirely read not on that wide CinemaScope screen but to television screens at the time, and also with that exact changover, Fred Quimby leaves to retire, gives everything to Bill and Joe, Tex Avery had already left the studio for good in 1953, and then we have Michael Lah take his place as director, the animation (while the Droopy Leperachaun short still had some semi-funny reaction takes which were animated by Carlo Vinci) was beginning to get even more worse than it already was, untill it came to the point were it had begun to look extremely choppy, bizzarely limited (lots of unnesscary holds inbetween) and really wobbly (Robin Hoodwinked only one measly cartoon sums it all up), it's sure the fault of Television that animation became like that, i'm aware, but this was actually one of the damages struck by UPA on how stylized animation (even for the Television stuff) should be like, and most of the studios sure bought that and it caused a blow we've never really recovered from.
This is apparently all i could really say for right now, instead lets hear your posts to carry on this thread, cheers.
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Everything the Light Touches Is Our Kingdom.
ROAR!, Confound it, Kiddies, Don't miss my Cartoon Show! - King Leonardo.
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Directing Animator
Posted:
Jan 18, 2012, 3:17 AM
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Re: Limited Animation in the MGM cartoons
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First of all, there were only a handful of Tex Avery cartoons that utilized UPA-like stylization: "Dixieland Droopy", "Field and Scream", "Billy Boy", "The Farm of Tomorrow" and "Cellbound". Those are the titles I can think of off the top of my head. The rest of Avery's output at MGM, right up to the time he left for good, used the more traditional layouts, backgrounds, and character designs.
In the case of "Billy Boy" there's one gag that doesn't work; because it is highly dependent on the lush, more realistic settings of Avery's earlier cartoons. Namely, the gag in which Billy proceeds to eat the background and lower-half of the Southern Wolf's body by literally ripping it off the screen.
I disagree with your assessment that the MGM cartoons of the late 50's had limited animation. The animation is certainly more fluid when compared with Hanna-Barbera's TV output from 1959.
It's true that the motion of the characters became a bit more stiff and that when CinemaScope was employed the character designs were handicapped by thicker ink-lines.
But it was the same at other studios, as well. Look at Friz Freleng's "Knighty-Knight Bugs" at Warner Bros... when Bugs tries to elude Sam, he doesn't so much run as hop across the screen. Walter Lantz was always looking at the "bottom line" when producing his cartoons; especially during the last years of his studio. The animation started going downhill, I think, after 1953.
The animation studios had to employ cost-cutting measures in order to survive during the 50's and 60's ... but I don't think TV was the sole factor in all of this.
Animated shorts. I believe, had been in peril of being discontinued even in the late 1930's; when TV was still in its infancy and when movie exhibitors were wanting to run more double-features and ultimately dispense with short-subjects of any kind.
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"I'd like to cover you with furs and automobiles!"
(This post was edited by zavkram on Jan 18, 2012, 3:19 AM)
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Inbetweener
Posted:
Jan 18, 2012, 5:00 PM
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Re: Limited Animation in the MGM cartoons
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Well, Zavkram, about the limited animation thingy, well this was originally a reply for a thread (from 2008) that had pretty much the same title as this one, but i thought it wasn't a really a good idea to confuse the other posters by making a reply comment to a nearly 4 years old thread, it was a rule in the GAC forums to not bump into 2 or more years old threads which is laden enough to chronically confuse the users.
and it was defiantly not limited in the exact sense as H-B's television output from 1959 onward or some of Jay Ward's regular stuff (not the Gamma stuff, but the actual Dudley Do Right cartoons, Crusader Rabbit and the commercials) and i wasn't exactly comparing it , BUT, there were precursors to things that were extremely common in H-B's Television work, for example, remember what Ray said about the Tom and Jerry cartoons from 1956-1957 and what i said about Robin Hoodwink, there were clearly dangers ahead that screamed the limited television animation in Hanna Barbera's television work such as Ruff and Reddy and in the case of Timid Tabby (the scene where Tom and his cousin finally get even with Jerry) even something like Scooby Doo, you know what i mean, and i defiantly have no problem whatsoever with disgrees, everyone's entilted to their own opinions, no execptions!
and answering your Tex Avery UPA question when he came back the second time after a Bill Watterson like sabbatical, there were also The Three Little Pups, The Flea Circus (the backgrounds, even the character designs themselves are pretty angular and even it's clear Ed Benedict was involved or was it actually Tex Avery himself that did the character designs in this cartoon) Deputy Droopy and of course the First Bad Man (which also tells us the television work ahead, the art direction for that cartoon was later adopted into the Flintstones, even the backgrounds say it).
And as for the Three Little Pups, it's actually clear they were using thick outlines even in the exact same thick bold line style as the Hanna Barbera TV output long before CinemaScope was implemented, and Tex Avery, shortly before his sabbatical, was already experimenting with UPA styled designs in Symphony in Slang, just to give a few points.
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Everything the Light Touches Is Our Kingdom.
ROAR!, Confound it, Kiddies, Don't miss my Cartoon Show! - King Leonardo.
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