Friday 7 October 2011

Yosemite Smash

If Friz Freleng had a best-timed moment in a cartoon, this one from ‘Bugs Bunny Rides Again’ may be it.



Yosemite Sam rides his small horse into a tunnel and the scene fades to black. There’s nothing but black for 12 frames, then this drawing flashing onto the screen, and a fade back to black in three frames. Just perfect.

Friz had a string of winning Bugs cartoons through the mid to the end of the ‘40s and this is one of the best. So many great things are going on, it’s hard to pick one over another. Bugs and Sam’s buck-and-wing, the smiling horse chase, Sam a-thinkin’ (“And my head hurts”), the list goes on and on.

Credited animators are Ken Champin, Gerry Chiniquy (who handled the energetic dance scene), Virgil Ross (Bugs leaning against a doorway, rolling a cigarette) and Manny Perez, with J.C. (Bill) Melendez’ name initialled in one of the backgrounds by Paul Julian.

1 comment:

  1. Like all the well-timed Friz moments from the late 1940s, the animation around this is by Gerry Chiniquy. I like the timed scene of Bugs stacking bricks to the chase music.

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