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Post by snsurone on Jan 29, 2018 22:09:12 GMT
Tex created some of the funniest cartoon shorts in movie history.
Starting out in WB (he directed the first official Bugs Bunny toon, "A Wild Hare" in 1940), he really thrived when he moved to MGM.
Sadly, his career faltered when the major studios closed their animation departments, and he ended up doing "grunge work" for Hanna-Barbera.
His last creation was "Kwicky Koala", a series of very mediocre cartoons.
My own Avery favorites are "Who Killed Who?" and "Cellbound" (his last for MGM).
I also love his series "The (Something) of Tomorrow".
It's a pity that Boomerang no longer airs his cartoons, as well as many other great WB and MGM nimated shorts.
I fear that the network may be on its last legs and might be totally eliminated in the near future.
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Jan 30, 2018 1:49:59 GMT
I have a book on him--he wanted to direct live comedy and watched Keystone cops being filmed or something.
Rockabye Bear
Wags to Riches
Cockadoodle Dog
Symphony in Slang
Magical Maestro
Billy Boy
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Post by koskiewicz on Jan 30, 2018 17:52:23 GMT
...I own a collection of his best toons. His "Little Hot Riding Hood" was banned from TV for awhile...
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Post by teleadm on Jan 30, 2018 18:13:16 GMT
I love Droopy!  Northwest Hounded Police 1946  Tex Avery (1908 - 1980)  Bill Thompson (1913 - 1971), the voice of Droopy. |
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Post by snsurone on Jan 30, 2018 23:45:57 GMT
...I own a collection of his best toons. His "Little Hot Riding Hood" was banned from TV for awhile... The title was "Red Hot Riding Hood". IMHO, "Swing Shift Cinderella" was better. |
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Post by Captain Spencer on Jan 31, 2018 19:50:46 GMT
I remember watching Tex Avery cartoons when I was a kid. They were absolutely hilarious!
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Post by Primemovermithrax Pejorative on Jan 31, 2018 22:22:16 GMT
When I saw Rockabye Bear one afternoon I busted a gut laughing.
So many hilarious clever gags.
The Spike dog has a dynamite stick placed in his mouth while he is tied to a table so he stretches his tongue a mile long and it blows up on a hill-his tongue feebly rolls back into his mouth and before going back inside, slaps him.
LOLOL
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Feb 1, 2018 0:01:28 GMT
Always more of a fan of the Jones/McKimson/Frehling era of Wb animation than the Tex Avery/Bob Clampett era. Avery's work was good, the animation was great but, just as my personal taste, I'll take the post WWII WB stuff. You do have to tip your hat to the man who made Daffy Duck.
And I wasn't the biggest fan of Droopy, but Avery created a character named Screwy Squirrel who just killed me. Screwy Squirrel had no moral compass at all. He just rained of that dogs parade. And he broke the 4th wall, which always amused me. Only four shorts though. Sad. SS would have given Itchy & Scratchy a run for their money.
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Post by Richard Kimble on Feb 1, 2018 10:18:57 GMT
Sorry I'm late. Been meaning to post in this thread, but never gotten around to it.
I consider Tex Avery to be one of the greatest comic filmmakers who ever lived. But since he worked in shorts, specifically cartoon shorts, he's been a long time getting his due. As S.J. Perelman pointed out, critics prefer the big and bloated "epics" to works done in miniature.
It's too bad he was never able to move into live-action the way Frank Tashlin did. This was in fact Avery's goal -- while at MGM he often would often entertain co-workers by improvising various gags and situations for the studio's leading clown, Red Skelton. But office improv was as far as it ever went. he never made the actual transition.
Avery's career is somewhat ironic in that he produced his best work at staid MGM rather than wacky Termite Terrace at wild and woolly Warners. At least he had a post-Warners cartoon career. Bob Clampett did little in animation after WB (though his early TV puppet series Beany and Cecil has a well-deserved cult following). Fortunately Avery didn't get permanently sidetracked into the gimmicky Speaking Of Animals shorts he tried to make $ with, and was able to rebound into the MGM cartoon unit.
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Post by Richard Kimble on Feb 1, 2018 10:24:13 GMT
I never cared much for Droopy myself, but he was a character with "kid appeal". Children like cute and cuddly. There is also a theory that children prefer round objects to angular ones. Still some of the Droopies are classics, especially those that feature the Wolf (who I don't believe was ever given a name). In these cartoons, like The Road Runner, the heavy is the comic focal point and gets the most screen time, but the cute one is the "star". At least two, maybe three, of the Screwy Squirrel cartoons (there were five) are masterpieces. But the last one, Lonesome Lenny (doing the Of Mice & Men shtick that Avery was unfortunately so fond of) shows a marked drop off in quality. The SS shorts were not popular, and Avery simply gave up on the character rather than try to tone him down, as had been done with Daffy Duck. Still, to paraphrase Leonard Maltin, "It's hard not to have some affection for a character who, after we heard a crashing BOOM in a darkened cave, lights a match and says, 'Sure was a funny gag folks. Too bad you couldn't see it!'"    Screwy is about to illustrate for us just what he thinks of cute and cuddly cartoon characters:  |
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Post by Richard Kimble on Feb 1, 2018 10:42:22 GMT
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Post by snsurone on Feb 1, 2018 19:50:04 GMT
Always more of a fan of the Jones/McKimson/Frehling era of Wb animation than the Tex Avery/Bob Clampett era. Avery's work was good, the animation was great but, just as my personal taste, I'll take the post WWII WB stuff. You do have to tip your hat to the man who made Daffy Duck. And I wasn't the biggest fan of Droopy, but Avery created a character named Screwy Squirrel who just killed me. Screwy Squirrel had no moral compass at all. He just rained of that dogs parade. And he broke the 4th wall, which always amused me. Only four shorts though. Sad. SS would have given Itchy & Scratchy a run for their money. From what I read, Avery inherited the Screwy Squirrel character; he was created just before Avery signed on with MGM. That same source also said that Avery hated the character, which is the reason he only made four shorts, literally killing him off in the last one, "Lonesome Lenny". I, too, liked the wolf, especially in the "Red" cartoons, where he really lived up to his name! |
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Feb 1, 2018 20:10:35 GMT
Always more of a fan of the Jones/McKimson/Frehling era of Wb animation than the Tex Avery/Bob Clampett era. Avery's work was good, the animation was great but, just as my personal taste, I'll take the post WWII WB stuff. You do have to tip your hat to the man who made Daffy Duck. And I wasn't the biggest fan of Droopy, but Avery created a character named Screwy Squirrel who just killed me. Screwy Squirrel had no moral compass at all. He just rained of that dogs parade. And he broke the 4th wall, which always amused me. Only four shorts though. Sad. SS would have given Itchy & Scratchy a run for their money. From what I read, Avery inherited the Screwy Squirrel character; he was created just before Avery signed on with MGM. That same source also said that Avery hated the character, which is the reason he only made four shorts, literally killing him off in the last one, "Lonesome Lenny". I, too, liked the wolf, especially in the "Red" cartoons, where he really lived up to his name! Wikipedia, Big Cartoon Database and Toonpedia all list Avery as Screwy Squirrel's creator. Never read Tex's book or any book about that era at MGM. I always figured that Screwy didn't work because he came in the wrong era. People have enough violence in the newsreels. It was a lot for WWII and the immediate aftermath. The great popularity of nice "guy" Mickey Mouse. Bugs got to be a more "Regular Joe", as seen in the Turtle v. Hare shorts et al. Screwy's level of mayhem was just to much for audiences. Like I said, he had no moral compass. There were too many breathing beings with that same problem. That's my take on it anyway... Where does one go to purchase 500 yards of Phony Squirrel Tail? Bet that wasn't even in the Acme catalogue. |
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Post by snsurone on Feb 1, 2018 21:56:52 GMT
Always more of a fan of the Jones/McKimson/Frehling era of Wb animation than the Tex Avery/Bob Clampett era. Avery's work was good, the animation was great but, just as my personal taste, I'll take the post WWII WB stuff. You do have to tip your hat to the man who made Daffy Duck. And I wasn't the biggest fan of Droopy, but Avery created a character named Screwy Squirrel who just killed me. Screwy Squirrel had no moral compass at all. He just rained of that dogs parade. And he broke the 4th wall, which always amused me. Only four shorts though. Sad. SS would have given Itchy & Scratchy a run for their money. I guess it's good that you prefer the Jones/ McKimson/ Frelig cartoons, because that's all that's being shown on Boomerang nowadays. Yes, they air some classics ("Duck Amuck" "Rabbit of Seville"), but IMHO, most of them are "dregs", made in the final years of Termite Terrace (WB closed its animation department in 1963). They were cheaply made (due to budget cuts), and the scripts were third-rate. I especially hated how Daffy was treated: he was turned into a humorless villain, especially when teamed with Speedy Gonzales.
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Post by TheGoodMan19 on Feb 2, 2018 0:06:04 GMT
Always more of a fan of the Jones/McKimson/Frehling era of Wb animation than the Tex Avery/Bob Clampett era. Avery's work was good, the animation was great but, just as my personal taste, I'll take the post WWII WB stuff. You do have to tip your hat to the man who made Daffy Duck. And I wasn't the biggest fan of Droopy, but Avery created a character named Screwy Squirrel who just killed me. Screwy Squirrel had no moral compass at all. He just rained of that dogs parade. And he broke the 4th wall, which always amused me. Only four shorts though. Sad. SS would have given Itchy & Scratchy a run for their money. I guess it's good that you prefer the Jones/ McKimson/ Frelig cartoons, because that's all that's being shown on Boomerang nowadays. Yes, they air some classics "Duck Amuck" "Rabbit of Seville"), but IMHO, most of them are "dregs", made in the final years of Termite Terrace (WB closed its animation department in 1963). They were cheaply made (due to budget cuts), and the scripts were third-rate. I especially hated how Daffy was treated: he was turned into a humorless villain, especially when teamed with Speedy Gonzales. There was such a small window for WB classic shorts. From about 1948 to roughly 1957. There were tons of good ones before that. But there's a steady to rapid decline in the late 50's. The backgrounds were done by 6 year old kids, the music went from boring to downright irritating and the characters changed. Some blame the decline on the departure of Chuck Jones but he was making crap by the 60's. Nothing will make me turn off a cartoon faster than seeing this.  Those damned DePatie/Freling garbage. |
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Post by petrolino on Feb 2, 2018 21:29:21 GMT
...I own a collection of his best toons. His "Little Hot Riding Hood" was banned from TV for awhile...  |
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Post by snsurone on Feb 5, 2018 16:49:38 GMT
I guess it's good that you prefer the Jones/ McKimson/ Frelig cartoons, because that's all that's being shown on Boomerang nowadays. Yes, they air some classics "Duck Amuck" "Rabbit of Seville"), but IMHO, most of them are "dregs", made in the final years of Termite Terrace (WB closed its animation department in 1963). They were cheaply made (due to budget cuts), and the scripts were third-rate. I especially hated how Daffy was treated: he was turned into a humorless villain, especially when teamed with Speedy Gonzales. There was such a small window for WB classic shorts. From about 1948 to roughly 1957. There were tons of good ones before that. But there's a steady to rapid decline in the late 50's. The backgrounds were done by 6 year old kids, the music went from boring to downright irritating and the characters changed. Some blame the decline on the departure of Chuck Jones but he was making crap by the 60's. Nothing will make me turn off a cartoon faster than seeing this. Those damned DePatie/Freling garbage. I fully agree. DePatie/Freleg made some of the worst WB cartoons. Their Road Runner/Coyote shorts were barely tolerable, but others, especially "Corn on the Cop", are totally unwatchable. In its final years, WB adopted the cheap style of limited animation from Hanna-Barbera, with totally forgettable new characters, such as Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse. In recent years, WB has pretty much revived its cartoon department with computer animation, which I find excellent. It was mostly used on straight-to-DVD movies starring Scooby Doo and a new series with Astro-Boy, which, sadly, didn't last long. Nowadays, animated films are CGI, which I hate.
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Post by soullimbo on Feb 7, 2018 0:45:33 GMT
Rockabye Bear is one of the best, I first saw it in the mid 80s and I pulled a muscle from laughing so hard.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2018 1:48:46 GMT
I love Tex Avery cartoons! It really is a shame Boomerang doesn't air them anymore. Everybody has posted great stuff so far. One of my favorites I never hear talked about is a Merrie Melodies cartoon called Hamatuer Night. I crack up every time I watch it.
Here it is:
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Post by Deleted on Feb 7, 2018 1:56:36 GMT
I never cared much for Droopy myself, but he was a character with "kid appeal". Children like cute and cuddly. There is also a theory that children prefer round objects to angular ones. Still some of the Droopies are classics, especially those that feature the Wolf (who I don't believe was ever given a name). In these cartoons, like The Road Runner, the heavy is the comic focal point and gets the most screen time, but the cute one is the "star". At least two, maybe three, of the Screwy Squirrel cartoons (there were five) are masterpieces. But the last one, Lonesome Lenny (doing the Of Mice & Men shtick that Avery was unfortunately so fond of) shows a marked drop off in quality. The SS shorts were not popular, and Avery simply gave up on the character rather than try to tone him down, as had been done with Daffy Duck. Still, to paraphrase Leonard Maltin, "It's hard not to have some affection for a character who, after we heard a crashing BOOM in a darkened cave, lights a match and says, 'Sure was a funny gag folks. Too bad you couldn't see it!'" Screwy is about to illustrate for us just what he thinks of cute and cuddly cartoon characters:Screwy is one of my favorite Golden Age characters and he definitely deserves more attention. I have to disagree with you on Lonesome Lenny though. That is one of my favorites. The part at the end where Lenny sticks his hand through the hole to knock on Screwy's door gets me every time. |
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