Favorite/Least Favorite WB Directors and Artists.

Hmmm, don't know where to begin.....

The top is on the top (the winner) and bottom is on the botton (the loser)

For Directors i'm going to top (least) and bottom (best)

Directors- First Rate:

1. Fred "Tex" Avery: An important contributor formerly an important stalwart from my hero mentor Walter Lantz, he originated Daffy Duck and chronically showcasing his work from 1936 to 1940 is a must for fans of Tex's work..... he later directed at MGM and created Screwy Squirrel (another great screwball character) and the sad sack winner Droopy there.

2. Robert Clampett (B&W and later color works): His B&W films are interesting and convincing, Wise Quacks is the pinnacle, the Bob Clampett art in it (and John Carey and Izzy Ellis stuff) echoes a lot of Duckman and it's really a lot more MODERN than today's stuff, later after assuming Avery's chair and top animators like Virgil Ross and Rod Scribner, The Corny Concerto is very POST modern and up to date with RIGHT NOW (but the contemporary is ONLY within this writing), it's cool, cool stuff.

3. Chuck Jones: Well, well, what can i say, his penciling and stenciling is first rate and even the roughing is VERY clean , but his design work and execution works to a whole lot of possibility, he's also nice too, and i had a pleasure of learning a lot from him too, especially mathmatecial, one at a time, problem solving and the like and all.... which explains how angular and geometric (Bruce Timm Joker syling) his art is, but how naturally organic, natural and perspectivelly advanced and cartoony his work really is!.

4. Arthur Davis: Oh, as an animator he was cool, but as a director he was sure really something, although his layouts and his animation in his own films is somewhat conservative (he had Don Smith and Cornett Wood doing his layouts), he had great writers like Lloyd Turner and William Scott (both of whom later blasted the Warner spirit into the Jay Ward input), and had great animators like Bill Melendez, Emery Hawkins, Cal Dalton, Don Williams and plus unit stalwarts John Carey and Izzy Ellis.

Artie made great Daffy Duck cartoons and kept him zany and gave him the Woody Woodpecker Screwball spirit by streamling him to be even more flexible and wacky, but still having the Termite Terrace method of keeping it detailed and professional, and did and nailed Bugs Bunny great on the first try with a long short like Bowery Bugs, unfortunately he was only given one Bugs Bunny and he was stuck doing Cinecolor releases for the entirely of his director period, then the worst came, his unit was abandoned in 1948 and he became an animator for Freleng, which isn't bad though, but Friz is very TOUGH to work for and his apporach (NOT BAD at all still) is even more conservative.......

5 (winner): Frank Tashlin: he is way too underrated, he had three stays at the studio, but his third one is less argurably better remembered, and direction is genius, his designs and animation are VERY cool and he shows he is also a very TRUE artist as well, and shockingly (though you may disagree) he is the absolute TOPS of all the directors, the stylization to cartoony characters is really REALLY realistic and awesome too, and plus his Sally Lou in the Censored Private Snafu cartoon and the rest of the ladies in HIS cartoons is just 100% PURE EYE CANDY (the shading and lighting and overall detail is ALL PROPER and just RIGHT!), i can see why he upgraded after his stay at the studio, this is A REAL Artist we are dealing with and he became a REAL matured director and a full fledged filmmaker too.

Directors - Second Rate:

1. Ben Haradaway - Cal Dalton: After Freleng left in 1937, Frank Tashlin in his second stay took his chair when he left, and Hardaway and Dalton (with Cal Howard on the first two films) took Tashlin's former chair (originally the Jack King unit) and began to make uninspired boring films, Hardway though does deserve a mention for more or less originating Bugs Bunny (Bob Givens later redesigned him to his current look and Hardaway's nickname was BUGS' after all, not so disputed now, is it Toonopedia.).

And a few of the films are actually laid out pretty nicely, Bars and Stripes Forever is one and i like how begining in 1938, every director had a Layout Man and a BG man of their own, no more Background and Layout department, and the layout artist for Hardaway-Dalton was Griff Jay and the BG artist was Art Loomer, although things would change when Freleng returned and took over the Hardaway-Dalton unit, resulting in Ben Hardaway going to Lantz and Cal Dalton being shifted to Robert Clampett's unit.

2. Friz Freleng: A long time important driving force, he first directed in 1933 and he then left in 1937 for MGM only to come back in 1939, his original unit had Bob McKimson, Ken Harris, Phil Monroe among them all, then when he left, Frank Tashlin took his chair in his second stay and then after Tashlin left, Chuck Jones assumed it for good, thus when Freleng returned he had to take over from Hardaway and Dalton and his animators then on were Gil Turner, Herman Cohen, Dick Bickenbach and Gerry Chiniquy.

Freleng interestengly did not fully click in until 1944 when he grabbed Mike Maltese and Virgil Ross out of Clampett's unit, and he nailed Bugs' personality on the first try, even though it took time for the drawing to be on model with the other units handling the character and by 1947 had become the sole director of Tweety and was very verstaile in the 50s before the temporary shutdown, but he started detorating when Hawley Pratt began to do blocky UPA style layouts and his best writers and animators mostly jumped ship......but Hawley Pratt became a director and a mighty fine one in the DFE era.

3. Norman McCabe: he's fairly underrated, he did some weak radio impersonation cartoons and all, but he showed signs of improvement begining in 42-43 with The Ducktators and Hop and Go.

4. Robert McKimson (winner).....

i'll edit later.