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Cartoon Logic Episode 29: Tex Avery Screwball Classics Vol. 2 (Patreon)

Published:
2021-01-03 18:00:54
Imported:
2021-01

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We're back to one of our favorite topics to discuss the newest Tex Avery collection from Warner Archive! Despite some substandard presentation, the laughs come faster and furious in this volume as Avery finds perfection in his filmmaking style, thanks in no small part to animator Mike Lah and MVP Spike. Immortal works like Little Rural Riding Hood and Magical Maestro headline this volume, with Droopy in peak (and non-peak) form. Witness in real time as Tex literally snaps and falls back on softer, designy humor that foreshadows his retirement to the world of advertisement. You'd have to be a real screwball not to love this disc - or listen!

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Comments

Anonymous

...this is a surprise!!!

Anonymous

According to Canemaker’s book, Paper Dreams (pg. 119), Roy was laid off from Disney’s from 1948 to March 1951. No in depth discussion about all he did during that time, but his MGM foray was probably very brief.

Paul Christoforos

...wow! Fantastic! Great episode around, guys!! Keep up the great work! Get well sooner, Thad and Bob!! Hope you two get that vaccine. Paul Christoforos

Anonymous
>>50715195

And Roy was added to the MGM story staff September 29, 1949, according to VARIETY. (Thanks to Yowp for sharing that on his "Tralfaz" blog.) Might have been one of those Disney layoffs - they had mass cutbacks in staff in '46 and '48.

Anonymous

Another great podcast! A few comments and questions: - The last minute or so of Little Rural Riding Hood is some of the funniest stuff ever committed to film, especially the sound and music. The donkey sounds were an inspired choice, they are so primal. The MGM cartoons’ sound design is often every bit as good as WB’s. We know about Treg Brown, but how much is known about the sound designers at MGM? - I’ve never seen any of these on 35mm. Do they look this good on film? When pausing them, sometimes it doesn’t even look like film, it looks like the cel set up is sitting right in front of me. - Regarding the family-centric cartoons like One Cab’s Family and Homesteader Droopy – weren’t Avery’s own children born around this time? Some of these seem to have elements of autobiography to them. I always liked Droopy as the protective husband and father in Homesteader Droopy. For example, the determined way he says “Keep me covered Maw,” is something you wouldn’t expect from him and I find it endearing. Even the most sheepish and lethargic people can summon up the fortitude to protect their family. :-D

cartoonlogic
>>50765304

They're doing a bit of grain filtering on these transfers now. As I've noted, though, the clarity is obscene. The cel shadow in Hot Cross Bunny is almost like a third character.

Anonymous

Thanks so much for the lengthy episode dedicated to the Tex Avery Blu-ray! I'm so pessimistic about these releases that I was surprised (but relieved) the ethnic stereotype gags were left in. How did they address the matter on the Blu-Ray? Just to let you know, I learned what a shillelagh was on an episode of the Felix the Cat Trans Lux cartoon. In "The Leprechaun", a mob of the little green fellows give the Professor and Rock Bottom a ³shillelagh shellacking². I'm sure you'd both prefer for impressionable little kiddies to learn about it from an MGM theatrical short, but at least this cartoon had hilarious Jim Tyer frenetics to make it more palatable. And after Thad mentioned that Tex did the voice of the wolf character himself in those 2 Droopys, I can totally hear it when the cattle man laughs in "Homesteader Droopy".

cartoonlogic
>>50789114

They have the standard "these depictions were wrong then and wrong now" warning every time you pop in the disc.

Anonymous

Not gonna lie, probably my favorite episode yet. I just recently hopped onto the Tex at MGM train and am loving it. I love your unique and...er...sometimes interesting (for lack of a better term) takes on these things. I never thought about the chase at the beginning of Little Rural Riding Hood as foreplay, so now I'll never unsee that. As for the rest of the cartoons on the disc, I was seriously disappointed with a few of them, especially the "of Tomorrow" cartoons. It makes you wonder, though, why did Tex constantly reuse the spot gag idea if it never went well for him? Except for Cross Country Detours and maybe a few others, all of Tex's spot gag pictures are mediocre at best.

cartoonlogic
>>50842221

They were cheap pictures to do and didn't require much personal investment and allowed for him to spend more time on special projects (similar to Jones putting less time into Road Runners, although those were nowhere near the cheaters these were). For CAR OF TOMORROW he could do MAGICAL MAESTRO, for TV OF TOMORROW, he could do THREE LITTLE PUPS.

Anonymous

The “kissed a cow” line is a particular touchstone for me. In 1973 (I think), my father took me to see Abe Levitow speak at Reed College (I think). Levitow showed a bunch of classic cartoons—both ones he worked on and ones, such as LITTLE RURAL RIDING HOOD, that he didn’t. My father was so amused by “kissed a cow” that he seemed permanantly changed by the experience. I could watch LITTLE RURAL RIDING HOOD an infinite number of times, but I have to admit that in recent years I have come to favor RED HOT RIDING HOOD. I like the cartoonier, hammier version of Red and the fact that he she has a bigger role. RED HOT is less of a Swiss watch of cartoon humor, but it’s a richer experience overall. And maybe in the back of my mind I am bothered by RURAL’s reused animation. Also, with all the problems with this Blu-Ray, I feel like we need a guide to the best available versions of these cartoons. For now I am keeping both the new ones and the French DVDs I bought in Paris in 2003.

cartoonlogic
>>51539611

The French DVD set has DNR that puts this BD's to shame (the vandalism to LONESOME LENNY almost brought tears to my eyes), and also has about seven or eight edited cartoons (along with CABANA and PYGMY completely missing). The Beck/Feltenstein laserdisc set from 1993, despite being 480i and having two edited cartoons, remains an important historical document.