#tom mckimson

[artoflooneytunes]

Illustrations for a Little Golden Book, 1940s.

[acmeoop]

Looney Stand-Off

[dailylooneys]

My brother Tom [McKimson] made the original character sketches on Sylvester, for Bob Clampett. It was shortly after that Clampett left the studio, and so did my brother. Friz took over the character; he also took over Tweety at that time, too. Today, why, he's the creator of both of them, if you can believe him.

Robert McKimson, interviewed by animation historian Michael Barrier

[ducktracy]

i bought and am currently waiting this book to get here because a) i need more warmly illustrative Tom McKimson drawings in my life. this is so pretty. and b) i am so baffled that Porky does not think bears are real that i need to see where the rest of this story goes

[sean-gaffney]

What's Left of the Looney Tunes?

So you’re a Looney Tunes fan, and you’re waiting with baited breath (Greetings, Bait!) for the cartoon list for the next Collector’s Choice Blu-Ray.  And as you wait to see if they add that 1953 Friz Freleng or 1958 Robert McKimson cartoon, you must be thinking:  Surely they’ve released every single cartoon at SOME point since the 1980s, right?  Well, except for the really racist ones.  Right?

Nah.  There’s 129 Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies that have never been officially released, restored or unrestored, on home video at all.  And, to be honest, most of them are unlikely to be on the Collector’s Choice sets.  Let’s take a look at the last bastions against having all 1000 LT/MM cartoons available.

Bosko.  Now, there are a few Bosko cartoons available.  There’s 38 Bosko cartoons from 1930-1933, not counting the weird ones like the Talk-ink Kid pilot or whatever Bosko and Honey was.  Of those, 11 have been released officially.  This leaves 27 in limbo.  This is a shame, there are some really good Bosko cartoons.

Buddy.  Even worse, to be honest.  23 Buddy cartoons were made, 5 have had some official release.  That leaves 18.  Now, there’s a reason for that.  They’re awful.  (Also, two of those 18, Buddy of the Apes and Buddy in Africa, also fall under one of the later categories we’ll get to.)

Seven B&W Merrie Melodies.  Two of these, Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land and Goin’ to Heaven on a Mule, are basically banned for content.  Those Were Wonderful Days, Why Do I Dream Those Dreams, The Girl at the Ironing Board, The Miller’s Daughter, and Rhythm in the Bow, are simply not available, possibly as they’re dull.  However, they have been restored.  (As has HtTfHL.)

Seven B&W Looney Tunes.  Mostly the same as above.  The Daffy Duckaroo and Tokio Jokio are banned for content, though we may see Duckaroo someday (Native American caricatures have traditionally been less banned than Black and Asian caricatures).  Saps in Chaps also has some Native American gags, I think.  As for The Fire Alarm, Joe Glow the Firefly, Gopher Goofy and Nutty News, they’ve been restored but never released.

The rest of the “Censored 11”, of which Hittin’ the Trail for Hallelujah Land was the first.  As most cartoon fans know, this is not a catch all of all racist WB cartoons, it’s just the ones that were owned by Associated Artists productions.  So yeah, Sunday Go to Meetin’ Time, Clean Pastures, Uncle Tom’s Bungalow, Jungle Jitters, The Isle of Pingo Pongo, All This and Rabbit Stew (a Bugs Bunny cartoon), Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs, Tin Pan Alley Cats, Angel Puss and Goldilocks and the Jivin’ Bears.  They’ve all been restored.

The dog cartoons.  There are a bunch of one-shots that have no regular characters but all involve dogs, and (likely as they don’t have a “star” and aren’t really great) they’ve never come out.  Pappy’s Puppy, Mixed Master, A Waggily Tale, Dog Tales.  All but Pappy’s Puppy are restored.

Miscellaneous “banned for content” cartoons.  Which is Witch (a Bugs Bunny cartoon), Tom Tom Tomcat (a Tweety and Sylvester cartoon), and two REALLY late cartoons, Hocus Pocus Pow Wow and Injun Trouble.  None of these have been restored.

Random missing 50s stuff.  A Bone for a Bone (Goofy Gophers), Sock a Doodle Doo (Foghorn Leghorn), Easy Peckin’s, Quack Shot (Daffy Duck and Elmer Fudd), Trick or Tweet (Tweety).

60s stuff that’s still actually Warner Brothers.  There’s about 10 or 12 early 60s cartoons that just aren’t very good, and that’s why they’re not out.  They’ve all been restored except Unnatural History and What’s My Lion, which are two of the worst LT/MM shorts that ever came out – not for content, they’re simply pathetically unfunny.

All the post-64 stuff.  There’s a pile, I won’t break them down one by one.  Mostly Daffy/Speedy cartoons, the nadir of both characters.  A few of the Roadrunner cartoons that weren’t stuffed onto that one DVD a while back.  They’re here as no one wants to watch them.

The post-67 stuff, aka the nightmare years.  Cool Cat, Merlin the Magic Mouse, Bunny and Claude… those.  (Though actually, both Bunny and Claude shorts HAVE been released.)  They’re here for the same reason – unpopularity.

Note this doesn’t even get into the cartoons which were fine to release in the 1980s on VHS but *aren’t* fine to release now (all the Merrie Melodies that weren’t banned but have racial stereotypes, such as the Inki cartoons, a huge number of cowboy and Indian cartoons, and Bugs Bunny’s unfortunate wartime cartoon).  Or all the stuff that’s restored and out on Max, but has never hit a DVD or Blu-Ray (half of the 30s Merrie Melodies).  Or the stuff that’s unrestored, not on Max and has never hit a DVD or Blu-Ray (the other half of the 1930s Merrie Melodies).  Or Holiday for Drumsticks, what’s up with that?

In any case, when they announce the cartoons for the 4th set in a week or so, you can look at this list and see if it has any of those.

[charliecanchill]

A quick sketch of Donald and Daffy. I've been watching a LOT of old Looney Tunes shorts recently, which has caused me to also check out some old Disney shorts as well, even Tex Avery stuff I haven't seen before with the extremely fast paced Droopy series, also going back to re-watch Tom and Jerry. I really enjoy a lot of work by Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Robert McKimson and Frank Tashlin. Lighthouse Keeping is my favorite Donald short btw

[termiteterraceclub]

Termite Terrace Club - June 5th

1937 - Uncle Tom’s Bungalow - Dir. Tex Avery

1943 - Yankee Doodle Daffy - Dir. Friz Freleng

1954 - Little Boy Boo - Dir. Robert McKimson

TV

2023 - Bugs Bunny Builders Season 1: “Sea School” / “Underwater Star”

[ptbf2002]

My Top 30 Favorite Characters

#30 Charlie Brown (Peanuts)

#29 Tom Cat (Tom And Jerry)

#28 Jerry Mouse (Tom And Jerry)

#27 Bugs Bunny (Looney Tunes)

#26 Daffy Duck (Looney Tunes)

#25 Porky Pig (Looney Tunes)

#24 Woody Woodpecker

#23 Shaun The Sheep

#22 Danger Mouse

#21 Audrey Smith (Harvey Street Kids/Harvey Girls Forever!)

#20 Dot (Harvey Street Kids/Harvey Girls Forever!)

#19 Lotta (Harvey Street Kids/Harvey Girls Forever!)

#18 Stan Marsh (South Park)

#17 Kyle Broflovski (South Park)

#16 Kenny McCormick (South Park)

#15 Homer Simpson (The Simpsons)

#14 Bart Simpson (The Simpsons)

#13 Billie (Magiki)

#12 Oggy (Oggy And The Cockroaches)

#11 Minion (Despicable Me/Minions)

#10 Sonic The Hedgehog

#9 The Boyfriend (Friday Night Funkin)

#8 The Girlfriend (Friday Night Funkin)

#7 Yumi Yoshimura (Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi)

#6 Ami Onuki (Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi)

#5 Hilda

#4 Lincoln Loud (The Loud House)

#3 Pucca

#2 Mickey Mouse

And #1 Spongebob Squarepants

Original Template: https://www.deviantart.com/jcp-johncarlo/art/Top-30-Favorite-Characters-Template-683808451

Peanuts Animated Specials Belongs To Charles M. Schulz, Lee Mendelson, Bill Melendez, Bill Melendez Productions, Lee Mendelson Film Productions, Andrews McMeel Syndication, Andrews McMeel Universal, Inc. United Feature Syndicate, Inc. United Media Productions, The E. W. Scripps Company, Charles M. Schulz Creative Associates, WildBrain Studios, Peanuts Worldwide, LLC, WildBrain Ltd. Apple TV+ And Apple Inc.

Tom and Jerry Belongs To William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Rembrandt Films, Sib Tower 12, Inc. MGM Animation/Visual Arts, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Cartoon Studio, Harman-Ising Productions, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. MGM Holdings, Inc. Amazon MGM Studios, Amazon.com, Inc. Turner Entertainment Company, Turner Broadcasting System, Inc. Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. Warner Bros. Animation Inc. Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution Warner Bros. Television Studios, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. WarnerMedia And Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

Looney Tunes Belongs To Leon Schlesinger, Hugh Harman, Rudolf Ising, Harman-Ising Productions, Leon Schlesinger Productions, Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, Format Productions, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation, The Vitaphone Corporation, Vitagraph Company of America, Turner Entertainment Company, Warner Bros. Animation Inc. Kids' WB! The WB, The WB Television Network, Inc. Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC. Tribune Media Company, Nexstar Media Group, Inc. Cartoon Network, Boomerang, The Cartoon Network, Inc. Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, Warner Bros. Television Studios, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. WarnerMedia, And Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

Bugs Bunny Belongs To Ben Hardaway, Cal Dalton, Charles Thorson, Tex Avery, Chuck Jones, Bob Givens, Robert McKimson, Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc. DePatie–Freleng Enterprises, Format Productions, Warner Bros.-Seven Arts Animation, The Vitaphone Corporation, Vitagraph Company of America, Turner Entertainment Company, Warner Bros. Animation Inc. Kids' WB! The WB, The WB Television Network, Inc. Tribune Broadcasting Company, LLC. Tribune Media Company, Nexstar Media Group, Inc. Cartoon Network, Boomerang, The Cartoon Network, Inc. Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution, Warner Bros. Television Studios, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. WarnerMedia, And Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

Woody Woodpecker Belongs To Walter Lantz, Ben Hardaway, Walter Lantz Productions, Universal Cartoon Studios, Universal Animation Studios LLC, Universal Television LLC, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC, NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, NBCUniversal Media Group, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, And Comcast Corporation

Shaun The Sheep Belongs To Nick Park, Bob Baker, Aardman Animations Limited, WDR Media Group GmbH, Westdeutscher Rundfunk Köln, ARD, Netflix, Inc. ABC Kids (Australia), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) Disney Channel, Disney Branded Television Disney General Entertainment Content, Disney Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, CBBC, CBeebies, BBC One, BBC Two, BBC Television, BBC Worldwide Ltd. BBC Studios Ltd. And British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Danger Mouse Belongs To Brian Cosgrove, Mark Hall, Wang Film Productions Co., Ltd. Cosgrove Hall Films, Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick Entertainment, Ltd. Boat Rocker Media Inc. Thames Television, Pearson Television, FremantleMedia, Fremantle Limited, ITV 1, ITV Studios Global Distribution, ITV Studios Limited, And ITV plc

Danger Mouse (2015 TV series) Belongs To Brian Cosgrove, Mark Hall, Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick Entertainment, CHF Entertainment, FremantleMedia Kids & Family Entertainment, Fremantle Limited, Boulder Media Limited, Boat Rocker Media Inc. CBBC Production, Windmill Lane Studios, CBBC, BBC Television, BBC Worldwide Ltd. BBC Studios Ltd. And British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)

Harvey Street Kids/Harvey Girls Forever! Belongs To Alfred Harvey, Emily Brundige, Dave Enterprises, Digital Emation, Inc. NE4U, Inc. The Harvey Entertainment Company, Classic Media, LLC, DreamWorks Classics, DreamWorks Animation Television, DreamWorks Animation LLC, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC, NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, NBCUniversal Media Group, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, Comcast Corporation And Netflix Inc.

South Park Belongs To Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Bardel Entertainment, Inc. Titmouse Canada Animation Inc. Titmouse, Inc. Celluloid Studios, Braniff Productions, Parker-Stone Productions, South Park Studios, MTV Entertainment Studios, Comedy Central, Comedy Partners, MTV Entertainment Group, Paramount+, Paramount Global Content Distribution, Paramount International Networks, Paramount Domestic Media Networks, Paramount Media Networks, Inc. Paramount Streaming And Paramount Global

The Simpsons Belongs To Matt Groening, Anivision, DR Movie, Film Roman, LLC Hanho Heung-Up Company, Klasky-Csupo, Inc. Rough Draft Korea Co., Ltd. Toon Boom Animation, Toonzone Entertainment, Wild Horse Animation Group, Gracie Films, 20th Television Animation, 20th Television, Disney Television Studios, Disney General Entertainment Content, Disney Entertainment, FOX Broadcasting Company, FOX Entertainment, FOX Corporation, And The Walt Disney Company

Magiki Belongs To Eryk Casemiro, Cyril Deydier, Pegbar Animation, Animasia Studio, Rainbow S.P.A. Paramount Media Networks, Inc. Paramount Global, DeAgostini Publishing Italy S.P.A. DeAgostini Editore S.P.A. DeAKids, DeA Junior, DeAgostini S.P.A. DeAPlaneta Kids And Family, DeAPlaneta Entertainment, Télé Images Productions, Zodiak Kids Studios France, Banijay S.A. Ketchup TV, KidsMe S.R.L. Gulli, TiJi, Metropole Télévision S.A. Groupe M6, Frisbee, Switchover Media, Discovery Italia S.R.L. Discovery Networks Italia, Discovery Networks EMEA, Discovery Networks International, Discovery, Inc. And Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

Oggy and the Cockroaches Belongs To Jean-Yves Raimbaud, Big Star Enterprise, Armada TMT, Digital Emation, Inc. Neon Pumpkin, DongWoo Animation Co. Ltd. Gaumont Multimedia, The Gaumont Film Company, Xilam Animation, France 3, France Télévisions S.A. CANAL+ Family, CANAL+ S.A. Groupe CANAL+ S.A. Vivendi SE, Gulli, Canal J, Metropole Télévision S.A. And Groupe M6

Despicable Me Belongs To Sergio Pablos, Cinco Paul, Ken Daurio, Illumination, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC, NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, NBCUniversal Media Group, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, And Comcast Corporation

Minions Belongs To Brian Lynch, Illumination, Universal Pictures, Universal City Studios LLC, NBCUniversal Film and Entertainment, NBCUniversal Syndication Studios, NBCUniversal Television and Streaming, NBCUniversal Media Group, NBCUniversal Media, LLC, And Comcast Corporation

Hi Hi Puffy Ami Yumi Belongs To Sam Register, Renegade Animation, Cartoon Network Studios, Cartoon Network, The Cartoon Network, Inc. Warner Bros. Discovery Networks, Warner Bros. Domestic Television Distribution Warner Bros. Television Studios, Warner Bros. Television Group, Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. WarnerMedia, And Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc.

Hilda Belongs To Luke Pearson, Mercury Filmworks, Atomic Cartoons Inc. Thunderbird Entertainment Group Inc. Nobrow Press, Flying Eye Books, Silvergate Media Limited, Sony Pictures Television Kids, Sony Pictures Television Studios, Sony Pictures Television Inc. Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Sony Entertainment, Inc. Sony Corporation of America, Sony Group Corporation, And Netflix, Inc.

The Loud House Belongs To Chris Savino, Jam Filled Entertainment, Boat Rocker Media Inc. Nickelodeon Animation Studios, Nickelodeon Productions, Nickelodeon, Nicktoons, Nickelodeon Group, Paramount Global Content Distribution, Paramount International Networks, Paramount Domestic Media Networks, Paramount Media Networks, Inc. Viacom International Inc. And Paramount Global

Pucca (TV Series) (2006-2008) Belongs To Boo Kyoung Kim, Calvin Kim, VOOZ Co., Ltd. Studio B Productions, Inc. DHX Media Vancouver, WildBrain Studios, DHX Media, Ltd. WildBrain Ltd. MBC TV (South Korean TV channel), Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation, Toon Disney, Jetix, Jetix Europe N.V. Disney Branded Television, Disney–ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution, Disney General Entertainment Content, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, Disney Entertainment, Disney Enterprises, Inc. And The Walt Disney Company

Pucca: Love Recipe (2018) Belongs To Boo Kyoung Kim, Calvin Kim, VOOZ Co., Ltd. DeAPlaneta Kids And Family, DeAPlaneta Entertainment, Planeta Corporación, S.R.L. BAZOOKA Studio, Tooniverse, CJ ENM Entertainment Division, CJ ENM Co., Ltd. CJ Corporation, MBC TV (South Korean TV channel), Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC), Discovery Kids (Latin American TV channel), Discovery Latin America, Discovery Networks International, Discovery, Inc. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. Disney Channel Japan, The Walt Disney Company (Japan) Ltd. Disney Channel (Southeast Asia), Disney Networks Group Asia Pacific, The Walt Disney Company (Southeast Asia) Pte. Ltd. Disney Branded Television, Disney–ABC Home Entertainment and Television Distribution, Disney General Entertainment Content, Disney Media and Entertainment Distribution, Disney Entertainment, The Walt Disney Company, Amazon Prime Video, Amazon.com, Inc. And Netflix, Inc.

Pucca Belongs To Boo Kyoung Kim, Calvin Kim, VOOZ Co., Ltd. King Features Syndicate, Inc. Hearst Communications, Inc. CJ ENM Entertainment Division, CJ ENM Co., Ltd. And CJ Corporation

Mickey Mouse (film series) Belongs To Walt Disney, Ub Iwerks, Floyd Gottfredson, Celebrity Productions, RKO Radio Pictures Inc. Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. Sony Pictures Releasing, Sony Pictures Entertainment Motion Picture Group, Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. Sony Entertainment, Inc. Sony Corporation of America, Sony Group Corporation, United Artists Corporation, United Artists Releasing, LLC, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. MGM Holdings, Inc. Amazon MGM Studios, Amazon.com, Inc. Walt Disney Studio, Walt Disney Productions, Walt Disney Feature Animation, Walt Disney Animation Studios, Walt Disney Pictures, The Walt Disney Studios, Buena Vista Pictures Distribution, Inc. Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, Disney Entertainment, Disney Enterprises, Inc. And The Walt Disney Company

[ducklooney]

Duckvember - Horny Duck and Corny Duck

Like last year, this year I will participate in Duckvember, so I drew two drawings related to two topics.

First Horny theme I drew Daffy Duck in a Zoot Suit as he was very exciting there in a classic 1946 short called “Book Revue”. Certainly under the direction of the brilliant Robert Bob Clampett as well as animators Robert McKimson and Rod Scribner. By the way, this is the scene when Daffy sings Cucaracha and Morning in the Carolina. Yes, this is where the meme called “Literally me” came from, so there was a competition between Daffy and Tom Cat from Tom and Jerry as a scene from Jojo’s Bizzare Adventure. Definitely one of the best Daffy Duck shows in my opinion. Yes, behind Daffy is the Looney Tunes logo as if I took inspiration from the video or mobile game World of Mayhem. You can watch part of it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DdnEXzMQzJk

Another Corny related topic I drew the scene of the unconscious Donald Duck from the classic short “Trick or Treat”. I don’t think that Donald is anything corny, but in that Halloween classic short he behaved like an absolute jerk to his nephews and to the witch Hazel that the witch took revenge on him. Finally Donald slammed the door and candy came out. Of course, in the end, Donald got hit on the head by the witch’s broom. Yes, he also drew witch Hazel and Donald’s nieces, Huey, Dewey and Louie taking candy. By the way, Trick or Treat was shown in 1952 under the direction of Jack Hannah, and based on that classic short, Carl Barks will also write a comic. I certainly love both versions. See this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSkXw1bk_NE&t=1s

I hope you like these drawings and there will be more Duckvember surprises.

I'm reposting this because Tumblr isn't loading my tags on my previous post.

[michaelallanleonard]

Tom McKimson, 1948

[looneyhoneybunny]

Honey Bunny art drawn by Tom McKimson

[dweemeister]

Saludos Amigos (1942)

In the wake of the Disney animators’ strike and the end of the studio’s Golden Age with Bambi (1942), Disney’s industry rivals and the upstart United Productions of America (UPA) stood to benefit from the terminations to come. After seizing control of Fleischer Studios from Max and Dave Fleischer, Paramount set up Famous Studios – against the Fleischers’ sensibilities, Famous Studios doubled down on appealing to children while continuing the Popeye the Sailor and Superman short film series. But Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) and Warner Bros., though neither were making animated features, had most to gain from Disney’s misfortune. MGM would pool its resources into self-referential, highly suggestive short films that could never exist under the Disney banner. The works of William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Fred Quimby, and especially Tex Avery flourished. Under MGM, Barney Bear, Droopy, and Tom and Jerry became part of the American animated canon.

Elsewhere in Burbank, Leon Schlesinger Productions, partnered with Warner Bros., became Disney’s crosstown antithesis. Schlesinger, as arrogant a person as Disney was socially awkward to his employees, harbored no illusions that Merrie Melodies and Looney Tunes could ever compete with the sheer artistry of Disney’s Golden Age features and its Silly Symphonies. Fostering the talents of Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng, Tex Avery (before his defection to MGM), Bob Clampett, and Robert McKimson, Warner Bros. – in a studio as ratty as Disney’s was pristine – operated anarchically. In this culture spawned a style that leans into anything that might make an audience laugh. No matter how outrageous a proposed story’s premise or behavior, Schlesinger would not be one to say “no”*. Take the characteristics of Mickey Mouse and friends and maximize them. As a result, you have the wiseassery of Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck, the situational ineptness of Porky Pig and Wile E. Coyote, and the dimwittedness of Elmer Fudd. Warners’ films had a disorderly, unrestrained (and sometimes callous) energy that Disney’s animators were on record of being envious towards.‡

Disney’s animators wanted to channel some of this mania into their next two films: Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros (1944). Both films are the result of Walt Disney’s 1941 goodwill trip to Brazil, Argentina, Chile, and Peru, organized by the United States Department of State. The United States was concerned that South American nations might sympathize, if not outright ally with, the Axis. Thus, the federal government offered loan guarantees to Disney’s financially struggling studio if Walt would partake on the tour. Walt agreed, with an ulterior motive – he could leave his brother Roy and studio counsel Gunther Lessing to handle the post-strike wave of layoffs. With Norman Ferguson, Wilfred Jackson, Jack Kinney, Hamilton Luske, and Bill Roberts as supervising directors, Saludos Amigos is the first of the Disney “package films”, and the result of vastly conflicting interests. It is an inconsistent film, its comedy overshadowed by the Looney Tunes series, and the first non-masterpiece Disney animated feature after five inspiring triumphs.

Saludos Amigos is barely a feature film, clocking in at forty-two minutes (the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the American Film Institute, and the British Film Institute all define a feature as a film longer than forty minutes). As such, the movie is essentially a selection of four glorified, narratively unrelated short films. Also included is behind-the-scenes footage of Walt Disney’s entourage (“El Grupo”; including Walt, Lee Blair, Mary Blair, Norman Ferguson, and Frank Thomas) to transition between segments. In order, the segments are: “Lake Titicaca” (Peru), “Pedro” (Chile), “El Gaucho Goofy” (Argentina), and “Aquarela do Brasil” (Brazil).

Beginning with “Lake Titicaca” – named after the eponymous lake on the Peruvian-Bolivian border – the film opens with a Donald Duck short. In the years just before Mickey’s appearance as the sorcerer’s apprentice in Fantasia (1940), Donald Duck had briefly overtaken Mickey Mouse in popularity. After the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the studio enlisted Donald Duck to be the center of its World War II propaganda – it would be hard to imagine Mickey Mouse going to war. Donald’s appearance in “Lake Titicaca” is a rare non-propaganda outing for the barely understandable duck. It just so happens to also be a lazy Donald Duck short. The best Donald Duck shorts exploit his infamous temper – gradually. Instead, Donald is subjected to what amounts to a travelogue where his tourist’s mentality occasionally endangers him. Though it may not be the prototypical Donald Duck piece, the segment adds nothing to his characterization. The narrator reveals brief, exotifying factoids that could not have played well to a presumably Latin American audience – something that colors the rest of this film.

Next up is Peru’s Andean neighbor, Chile. “Pedro” follows the daring of the anthropomorphic mail airplane of the same name and packs in a lot of storytelling in just several minutes. Pedro, the child of Papá Plane and Mamá Plane (wait, some will say – planes don’t grow as they age!), is tasked to deliver the mail across the Andes when Papá comes down with a cold. Why doesn’t Mamá Plane fly the mail? “High oil pressure” – but knowing the boys’ club that was the Disney studios of this era, that probably isn’t the real reason. Pedro must brave the turbulence as he ascends over the Andes, and especially as he nears Aconcagua. At 22,837 feet (almost 7,000 meters), Aconcagua is the tallest mountain outside Asia – and with a mountain of that size, it invariably creates its own unpredictable weather.

Flight in the 1940s was still a relatively risky proposition, and “Pedro” captures this during the stormiest sequences that define its closing minutes. As the most inspired moment not associated with “Aquarela do Brasil”, these moments are made possible due to the special effects honed in during previous Disney animated features and a crashing sound mix that sells the danger that Pedro faces. To its credit, this second chapter of Saludos Amigos feels the most like a potential feature film that went unrealized. “Pedro” does not suffer as much from exotified elements in comparison to other segments in Saludos Amigos. But nevertheless, it inspired Chilean cartoonist René Ríos Boettiger (“Pepo”) to create the character Condorito, a comic strip condor whose adventures are read widely across Latin America.

In Argentina, we find “El Gaucho Goofy”. This third part adopts the tone and style of the How to… series (1944’s How to Play Football, 1950’s How to Ride a Horse) featuring Goofy. It might as well be entitled “How to Be a Gaucho”. The omnipresent narrator imparts culturally specific terms and Gaucho equipment that spontaneously appear for Goofy to react to. As always, the narrator is moving too fast for poor Goofy, who can barely keep up. This is hilariously subverted in the scene where Goofy is pursuing a rhea (a distant relative of the ostrich) while on horseback. A fast rewind occurs, and the scene is played back in slow-motion. But it is obvious that the scene has been re-animated in slow-motion and the narrator has also recorded his lines to fit the hilarity on-screen. This is a hysterical touch and a rare (and effective) instance of a mid-century Disney movie breaking out metatextual jokes. “El Gaucho Goofy” also boasts Argentinian artistic input – illustrator/painter Florencio Molina Campos served as consultant for this segment, The Three Caballeros, and Fun and Fancy Free (1947). Campos’ style (muted colors and an emphasis on the Pampas’ skyward horizon) and preferred subject material (life on the Argentinian Pampas for Gauchos and their families) are apparent across “El Gaucho Goofy”. The segment undoubtedly benefits from his influence.

Moving north, the film ends with “Aquarela do Brasil” (“Watercolor of Brazil”). The segment is framed by an extended cover of the song of the same name composed by Ary Barroso and sung by Aloysio Oliveira – the song was popular in Brazil at the time, but Saludos Amigos vaulted the composition to international fame . Easily the most abstract of the four Saludos Amigos chapters, it also adopts a conceit later replicated in Chuck Jones’ Duck Amuck (1953) in which the background, foregrounds, and characters are painted by an artist’s brush onto a previously blank canvas. “Aquarela do Brasil” features Donald, but also marks the debut of the cigar-smoking, samba-dancing parrot, José Carioca. José (pronounced with a hard “J” in Portuguese) is Donald’s fun-loving foil dressed in malandro attire, but this clash of personalities will not be as apparent until The Three Caballeros. Following the interruption of José’s introduction, the film resumes with its splashy, colorful, romanticized abstractions of what life in Rio de Janeiro is like. It is the better and more aesthetically interesting Donald Duck short film when compared to “Lake Titicaca”, if mostly because José Carioca is a scene-stealer.

If the transitions between the descriptions of the four segments in this review feels abrupt, that is because there is little to no transition between the four segments of Saludos Amigos. Each segment is a hard reset after the last, and the supervising directors make no attempt to establish any linkages between them. It results in pacing issues that make “Pedro” – the most narrative-dependent of the four – feel much longer than it is.

When released in the United States, Saludos Amigos surprised American viewers. For many, the film upended their preconceptions of Latin America as a dour, unfashionable, and backwards place. Americans – rarely regarded as being worldly people – who saw Saludos Amigos more positively viewed their southerly neighbors. For Latin American audiences, interest in American culture, already deeply immersed in Hollywood movies, solidified. But for the Latin American governments in power during World War II and after, Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros’ intended aims had a muted effect – especially in Argentina, which waffled between the Allies and Axis due to its historic rivalry with Great Britain and its sympathies to Nazi Germany.

With a muted reception, Saludos Amigos begins the package era of films within the Walt Disney animated canon. For the next few years, Walt Disney and his animators would be making mostly propaganda short films for the United States government. These propaganda works helped stabilize the studio’s finances, if nothing more, and reflected Walt’s increasing political conservatism. His turn to the Republican Party for the remainder of his life was not due to long-held political convictions, but the outsize influence of studio counsel (and hardline anti-communist) Gunther Lessing on Walt’s political opinions. Walt Disney’s artistic soul would rarely surface over the next few decades, following the bitter disappointment of how the later Golden Age animated features were treated by audiences and critics. In the meantime, the Walt Disney Studios in Burbank kept their focus on fulfilling government requests for propaganda pieces, and now resembled more of an industrial factory than the happy, extended artistic family Walt had once sought.

My rating: 5/10

^ Based on my personal imdb rating. Half-points are always rounded down. My interpretation of that ratings system can be found in the “Ratings system” page on my blog (as of July 1, 2020, tumblr is not permitting certain posts with links to appear on tag pages, so I cannot provide the URL).

For more of my reviews tagged “My Movie Odyssey”, check out the tag of the same name on my blog.

* Even Schlesinger’s successor, Edward Selzer (who took control in 1944 when Schlesinger sold the studio to Warner Bros., renamed “Warner Bros. Cartoons, Inc.”) – described by Chuck Jones as humorless and more intervening – came to respect the instincts of the animation directors and gag men.

‡ Disney animator Dick Huemer on Warner Bros. animated shorts: “It was like admiring the kind of dame that you couldn’t introduce to your mother.” 

[littlegoldenbooksandco]

BUGS BUNNY / 72

by Tom McKimson & Al Dempster

illustrated by Warner Bros. Cartoons

1949

[dailylooneys]

Happy 70th Birthday Speedy Gonzales

Another one of the most famous cartoon characters of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies series of short films, and the second most prominent foreigner character of the WB cartoon cast next to Pepe Le Pew.

First appeared in Robert McKimson’s “Cat-Tails for Two” of the prototype Speedy......

......while his first official was in Friz Freleng’s 1955 Academy Award winning short of the same name, featuring a more refined and familiar Speedy.

Speedy proved to be successful and starred in several more cartoons with Sylvester, by either McKimson or Freleng. Despite these cartoons being one of the most famous and most memorable offerings of the Looney Tunes short film series, Friz Freleng would later admit he found the character to be too inflexible, eventually growing tired of him and wanted to put his focus on Slowpoke Rodríguez instead, which didn’t come about due to the amount of film it took to have Slowpoke doing pretty much anything.

While the character enjoyed the enduring popularity of the other Looney Tunes characters, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck and Porky Pig, he would later star in a rather infamous series of shorts where Daffy is paired with Speedy during the WB cartoons dark period during the DePatie-Freleng Enterprise and Warner Bros. Seven Arts era of the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies, and would later (along with another foreigner LT character, Pepe Le Pew) attract controversy due to perceived racial stereotypes. One of these stories involved Cartoon Network’s banning of the Speedy cartoons when the network had required the exclusive airing rights to the classic WB cartoon library 1999. Later, the network would include Speedy films in their schedule from then on.

Another story included a Tiny Toons character, Lighting Rodriguez being a Speedy Gonzales clone that Tom Ruegger didn’t use to avoid any sort of controversy. 

Regardless, Speedy was a fine character who provide some great memorable moments and diversity in the Looney Tunes cartoons.

[ducktracy]

I’d assume your favorite director is Clampett, so what are your favorite shorts from the other directors? (Chuck, McKimson, Freleng)

YOU ARE CORRECT!! LET'S SEEEE.. it's so hard to reduce down to just one, but

Jones: My Favorite Duck, Tom Turk and Daffy, A Pest in the House, A Bear for Punishment, You Were Never Duckier

McKimson: Daffy Doodles, Easter Yeggs, Daffy Duck Slept Here, Rebel Rabbit, One Meat Brawl

Freleng: Yankee Doodle Daffy, Slick Hare, You Ought to Be in Pictures, Three Little Bops, Golden Yeggs

Tashlin: Porky Pig's Feat, The Stupid Cupid, Nasty Quacks, Porky's Romance, Tale of Two Mice

Davis: The Stupor Salesman, Riff Raffy Daffy, Dough Ray Me-Ow, Holiday for Drumsticks, Two Gophers From Texas

McCabe: Daffy's Southern Exposure, Confusions of a Nutzy Spy

Ben Hardaway/Cal Dalton: Bars and Stripes Forever, Ben Hardaway didn’t direct this one but i am also including Katnip Kollege as well

ALL A VERY SELECT FEW! but my favorite for each is probably the first one i listed for each director. i normally don’t include Norm McCabe or Hardaway/Dalton in these because they have much shorter filmographies (though i wonder.. i can’t imagine McCabe’s filmography is that much shorter than Art Davis’? i certainly react to less of his than i do Davis’)

[geekbroll]

Golden Story Book #10 - Bugs Bunny’s Treasure Hunt - by Warner Bros Cartoons Inc. - Pictures by Warner Bros Cartoons Inc. - Adapted by Tom McKimson - 1949 A Golden Story Book - Simon and Schuster (Western Publishing) - 128 Pages In Full Color The one and only Bugs Bunny decides to hunt for hidden pirate treasure. His friends Petunia and Porky Pig go with him on the long boat trip to the spot marked on their map. And when they arrive—well, there are surprises! 1- Bugs Finds A Way - pg 7 2 - The Missing Map - pg 21 3 - The Start - pg 35 4 - Through The Gates - pg 53 5 - The Mysterious Stranger - pg 68 6 - On The Spot - pg 79 7 - B. Bunny, Movie Star - pg 87 8 - A Big Night - pg 96 9 - Missing Treasure - pg 109 10 - Homeward Bound - pg 121 GS1 - Herbert’s Zoo and Other Lively Tales GS2 - The Magic Wish and Other Johnny and Jane Stories GS3 - Christopher Bunny and Other Animal Stories GS4 - The Boss Of The Barnyard and Other Barnyard Stories GS5 - The Stagecoach Robbery GS6 - Train Stories GS7 - Walt Disney’s Mystery In Disneyville GS8 - Circus Stories GS9 - The Penny Puppy and Other Dog Stories GS10 - Bugs Bunny’s Treasure Hunt GS11 - M-G-M’s Tom And Jerry GS12 - Walt Disney’s So Dear To My Heart GS13 - Chatterly Squirrel and Other Animal Stories GS14 - Crazy About Horses and Other Horse Stories GS15 - The Merry Piper - 70 favorite poems GS16 - The Cat Who Went To Sea and Other Cat Stories GS17 - Gene Autry And Red Shirt (Became Sandpiper Young Readers Book) GS18 - Walt Disney’s Donald Duck And The Hidden Gold (Became Sandpiper Young Readers Book) GS19 - The Magic Pot and Many Other Favorite Tales (Cancelled?) GS20 - Christmas Book (Became Big Golden Story Book) #looneytunes #looneytunesbooks #bugsbunny #bugsbunnybook #bugsbunnystreasurehunt #treasurehunt #goldenstorybook #westernpublishing #littlegoldenbooks #littlegoldenbook #porkypig #bookstagram #booksofinstagram #cartoons #cartooncharacters #cartoonbooks #petuniapig #bugsbunnybooks #ciceropig #piratesofinstagram #piratetreasure #piratebooty #pirates #treasure #vintagechildrensbook #pirateadventure (at Portland, Oregon) https://www.instagram.com/p/BxXTA0ihS8p/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=s9t2dyakcxet