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Cartoon Logic Episode 26: Art Davis (Patreon)

Published:
2020-09-26 21:32:12
Imported:
2021-01

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We have returned! (And you patrons gets it a day early! We are going to post the show here from now on, sometimes early if we can manage, so we can collect all your comments in one place.)

Warner cartoon legend Art Davis served as an animator in the '40s and '50s and had an exceptionally memorable three-year run directing the studio's D-unit in the late '40s, gifting us with unique takes on the entire cast of characters.

We talk about Davis' history in the golden age, starting as an errand boy on Mutt and Jeff, becoming the first ever assistant/inbetweener, his many years working on the strange Columbia cartoons, his suspicions of a certain studio's antisemitism, his feelings about his fellow Warner directors, and just what makes his contributions to Looney Tunes history so fun.

Our breakdown this month is of Davis' Two Gophers from Texas, a classic WB tale of contrasts with the genial Goofy Gophers against a contemptible conceited dog who hinges on utter derangement. So have a listen - no, no, I insist!



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Comments

Anonymous

Two words: FUCK YEAH! Not only am I excited to hear your thoughts on Art, of course, but I’m excited to hear if you agree with me that Art animated on this cartoon. I think he did the gophers dancing on the piano at the end.

Anonymous

A recent discovery I found - Davis tried to apply to Disney's AGAIN in March '42, but they had no spot for him. We can all agree going to WB was the right call.

Anonymous

Man I would have loved to have bought a pack of smokes from Art Davis' liquor store... Maybe WB kept bringing back the Goofy Gophers to compete with Chip and Dale, as far as the fate of other characters they used goes I recall reading somewhere that audiences really hated Jones' Three Bears cartoons, which is unfortunate but at least we were spared a DePatie-Freleng interpreatation lol

Anonymous

You skipped over THE Best Moment of TWO GOPHERS FROM TEXAS: Dog, disguised as Baby, covering up his arsenal and scolding, "GOO!"

Anonymous

Also, please swear more.

Dylan Carbonell

"The Golden Age was in the 1980s!" That's the funniest shit I've ever heard in my life!

John Veitch

I think it was Izzy Ellis who animated Daffy switching the glasses in Nasty Quacks?

Anonymous

The one guy I interviewed who worked with him was Bill Scott, who felt strongly that Art Davis did not enjoy directing or heading his own production unit at all. Got the impression that Art was much happier working as a head animator. No doubt Milt Gray, Mike Barrier and Greg Ford could elaborate. That said, I love the WB cartoons from this crew and especially Emery Hawkins' animation.

Anonymous

Apparently, the WB studio at the time considered Bacall To Arms Davis’ first film as a director (June 1945 Warner Club News), despite that it was largely Clampett’s film. In an interview conducted by Paul Anderson, Davis specifically attributed himself not getting hired and the anti-semitism to Ben Sharpsteen. Can this be corroborated? Great discussion on the last if the zany WB directors. Glad to see that there’s more information about him available.

Anonymous

Additionally, Milt Gray said that Big Snooze WAS unfinished - quoted from a Facebook comment (ask fellow Chase Pritchard for the source, he just sent me a screenshot): “The Big Snooze WAS unfinished. Clampett wrote the cartoon and began directing it, but left the studio in mid production and the cartoon was finished by another director, Art Davis. Art Davis told me in an interview that he just didn’t understand Clampett’s humor, so he finished what he had to and just through (sic) out everything else that Clampett did. That’s how Friz Freleng got Clampett’s Tweetie Pie. Anyway, I’m sure that Clampett directed the nightmare part of The Big Snooze, with the opening and closing of the cartoon left unfinished. Basically the same thing with Bacall to Arms. Clampett never saw the finished cartoon until decades later - - I was with him when he saw it, and he commented that some things were done very differently than he would have done them. (I didn’t think to ask him for specific details, so if you ask me, I don’t know.)”

cartoonlogic
>>44892688

I'm familiar with that comment and in that interview Davis said he only did a little work on THE BIG SNOOZE, and BACALL TO ARMS was the one that was mostly unfinished. Can't say I agree with the assessment - the economical reuse/cycles at the head and tail to maintain the bigger chunk of the budget for the high points is a total Clampett trademark.

cartoonlogic
>>44840607

Davis cited Sharpsteen's alleged antisemitism in an interview with Mike Barrier, too, but didn't say he was the reason he was never hired: ""he wasn't Jewish, and he resented Jews because everyone thought he was."

Anonymous

Arthur Davis is one of my favorite WB directors. “Two Gophers From Texas” is one of those easily overlooked pictures, until you sit and actually watch it again. Fans of modern cartoons would enjoy the crazy posing and expressions, I think. Although here they’re fun to look at versus being ugly for the sake of ugly or in the hope of becoming an internet meme.

Anonymous

I can't watch any of the HBO max restorations officially but I've seen some through other means and they are indeed fantastic (despite the opening titles). When I first saw Hop, Skip and a Chump as a kid I thought it was in sepia-tone because the colour was so bad. Another revelation was Bugsy and Mugsy, which has amazing design and colour courtesy of Hawley Pratt and Boris Gorelick that couldn't be fully appreciated before. Although the focus of the podcast has been more on animators than designers, I think you could do an episode on Pratt, his work was consistently amazing even into the Pink Panther years, Friz haters be damned. More on topic with this podcast, it's kinda interesting to compare the slight difference between Quackodile Tears and the other cartoons done by Freleng's unit at the time, bearing in mind that it's the same animators but following Art Davis' character layouts and not Pratt's.

Anonymous

More Sure Shot!!!