animation

Selections From Schlesinger Studio Holiday Reels

(1938-40) Life at the "Termite Terrace." -Warner Bros snuck in lip synchs saying "******** son of a bitch" -"make em, make em on budget, make em funny"

A Wild Hare:

(Avery,1940) The first Bugs Bunny cartoon with both the rabbit character and the standard Bugs-Elmer conflict fully developed.

Porky In Wackyland:

(Clampett,1938) Classic, surrealistic Wackyland sequence was adapted and reused for many later films.

A Corny Concerto:

(Clampett,1943) A parody of Disney's 1940 feature Fantasia --Elmer is the narrator, Porky Pig takes Elmer's place -uses Warner Bros sounds (full access to symphony and sound library)

A Gruesome Twosome:

(Clampett,1945) Last of the three original Tweety Pie films. -Orange cat is based on Duranty, a comedian from the time-guns and first appearance of Tweety Bird

I Haven't Got A Hat:

(Freleng,1935) Used Technicolor's two-strip process (red and green) instead of the three-strip process. This was the introduction of Porky Pig.

You Ought To Be In Pictures:

(Freleng,1940) Combined live-action and animation with studio personnel and classic cartoon characters.

The Hardship Of Miles Standish:

(Freleng,1940) Infamous excerpt of stereotypical Native American characters and some studio hijinks.

High Diving Hare:

(Freleng,1949) Considered perhaps the best of all Bugs and Yosemite Sam confrontations. -timed animation on music bar sheets -reference to "Open the Door, Richard" song

Porky's Hare Hunt:

(Hardaway,1938) Precursor to the Bugs Bunny character, pitted against Porky Pig as the hunter.

The Dover Boys at Pimento University or The Rivals of Roquefort Hall:

(Jones,1942) A parody of the Rover Boys, a popular early 20th century juvenile fiction book series. One of the earliest Warner Bros. cartoons to utilize limited animation and "smears.

Duck Amuck:

(Jones,1953) A pastiche on the animation process and a film that relied on the fact that animation can create characters with a recognizable personality, independent of their appearance, environment, or voice.

Duck Dodgers in the 24½ Century:

(Jones,1953) a parody of popular comic book character Buck Rogers. -Marvin the Martian -Cold War tensions, two people blow up the world for no reason

One Froggy Evening:

(Jones,1955) -hello my baby frog The cartoon has no spoken dialogue, in fact no vocals except singing by the Frog, relying instead on pantomime, fascial reactions and other visuals, timing, sound effects and, especially, music.

What's Opera, Doc?:

(Jones,1957) A parody of 19th-century composer Richard Wagner's operas woven around the standard Bugs-Elmer conflict. -considered the greatest single animated short made-lawsuit about creative trade against big studio pictures, making them sell theaters, now independent film animators too

It's Hummer Time:

(McKimson,1950) "Not Happy Birthday!" A sadomasochistic animated relationship, helmed by the "forgotten" Warner Bros. Director, Robert McKimson.

Peace On Earth: (1939, Harman)

-Arguably the first major studio cartoon about a serious subject-1939: year of great films as well as the beginning of WWII-Harman thought this film would win a Nobel Prize (it didn't) -started off cutesy and then transitioned to war scenes

The Fox and the Grapes (1941, Tashlin)

-Based on the famous Aesop's Fable. The film's basic premise and episodic structure were an influence on Chuck Jones's Road Runner cartoons. -Tashlin: came from Warner Bros to Columbia--the 1st one to make a main character-->eventually live-action director

Musical Moments from Chopin (excerpt) (1946, Lundy)

-Oscar-nominated Andy Panda cartoon, co-starring Woody Woodpecker, with music by Frederic Chopin. Dick Lundy directed all of Walter Lantz' classical music cartoons

Tubby The Tuba: (1947, Pal)

-Part of George Pal's Puppetoon series, and a good example of the stop motion technique Pal had developed.-wooden carvings--near the end of the series-afterward, Pal worked on live-action with animation as special effects

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937)

-The first "modern" animated feature. "Disney's folly" was a big gamble to move animation forward from one reel novelties to a legitimate art form. It was a smash hit.-re-released during WWII to make money since they lost European support-initially,$250k budget which turned into $1.5million budget; made $8million-The Goddess of Spring: film made to test animators ability to make this film--decided no due to rubber hose animation; hired Don Gram to train the studio animation tactics (overlapping action, anticipation and follow through, etc.)

The Milky Way (1940, Ising)

-The first non-Disney cartoon to win an Academy Award-3 little kittens; lot of pencil mileage, word play with milk1932: first year of academy awards for animation

Charlotte "Lotte" Reiniger

-The foremost pioneer of silhouette animation. Best known for directing and animating The Adventures of Prince Achmed (1926), the oldest surviving feature-length animated film, preceding Walt Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) by over ten years-she was the creative mind while her husband was the businessman; known as one of hte founders of animation-shadow puppets were backlit and only the silhouettes were seen; used a version of the multigram

Ub Iwerks

-co-created Oswald the Lucky Rabbit and Mickey Mouse with Walt Disney. -Iwerks was responsible for the distinctive style of the earliest Disney animated cartoons. -Iwerks opened his own studio in 1930.

Quirino Cristiani

-created the first feature-length animated film El Apostol (1917). Then in 1931 another breakthrough, Peludopolis, the first animated feature with sound-both films no longer exist-El Apostol was a political film-both featured the president of Argentina-applied the negative effect to films

Alexander Ptushko

-directed one of the world's first full-length animated features, The New Gulliver (1935) a stop motion/live action feature, also pre-dating Disney's Snow White by two years.-film was hybrid; political about Bourgeoise and Proliteriates

Mechanical Monsters (1941, Fleischer)

-is the second of the seventeen groundbreaking Superman shorts-Lois: first female in animation with some kind of personality besides damsel in distress

Smoked Hams (excerpt): (1947, Lundy)

-the 21st animated cartoon in the Woody Woodpecker series. A pretty standard example except that Woody gets his comeuppance at the finale.-first time Woody got what he deserved

Magical Maestro (1952, Avery)

A classic Tex Avery "one-off". Regarding the racial stereotypes: throughout the 1970s and 1980s the cartoon was often locally censored, depending on policy at the particular television station and the area where the film was being broadcast..

Kitty Foiled: (1948, Hanna/Barbera,)

An entry in the incredibly popular Tom and Jerry series.

Rabbit Seasoning: (

Jones,1952) The second entry in the "Hunting trilogy" directed by Jones and written by Michael Maltese. "Pronoun trouble!" -Daffy v. Bugs v. Elmer-Chuck Jones carried them more to humanity -Maurice Noble in charge of layouts-3 characters in one shot at one point

A Cold Romance (1949, Davis)

Mighty Mouse was an animated superhero mouse character created by the Terrytoons studio for 20th Century Fox. Mighty Mouse cartoons spoofed the cliffhanger serials of silent films as well as the classic operettas that were popular at the time.

Walter Lantz

Started his career at Bray, eventually starting his own studio. After Charles Mintz took Oswald the Lucky Rabbit from Disney, he gave the character to Lantz who, from 1935 until 1972, produced cartoons strictly for Universal. Woody Woodpecker was Lantz's most enduring character.

A Haunting We Will Go (1949, Kneitel)

The third Casper the Ghost cartoon and the last short before the character was green lit in a series of 52 regular theatrical shorts.

George Pal

a Hungarian animator and film producer, developing a form of replacement stop-motion animation resulting in the Puppetoons series of films.

Carl Stalling

a composer and arranger for music in animated films, most known for the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts produced by Warner Bros., but he also worked with Disney. His conversations with Disney led to the first Silly Symphonies cartoons

Friz Freleng

animator, director and famous for his work on Warner Bros. Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies shorts. Freleng directed more cartoons than any other director in the studio (total of 266).

William "Bill" Hanna

animator, director and producer whose career began with Schlesinger/Warner Bros, then MGM, partnering with Joe Barbera for the next 60 years, developing the Tom & Jerry characters and later, groundbreaking cartoons for television.

Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery

did his most significant work for the Warner Bros. and Metro-GoldwynMayer studios, developing not only a recognizable, idiosyncratic style but also many of the studios' most influential characters.

Leon Schlesinger

film producer, founding Leon Schlesinger Studios, which later became the Warner Bros. Cartoon Studio

Cartoon Powerhouse

is an animated montage edited to Raymond Scott's "Powerhouse" score.

Myron "Grim" Natwick

was one of the few classically trained artists working in the earliest days of animation. He is best known for designing the Fleischer Studio's character, Betty Boop, and was a lead animator on Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Burt Gillette

was one of the main directors at the Disney studios, with two Academy Award winners, Flowers and Trees and The Three Little Pigs, to his credit