Saturday 12 November 2011

Dog Trouble

There are no credits on the version of the Tom and Jerry cartoon ‘Dog Trouble’ (1942) on DVD, save the directors and producer, but Irv Spence was hard at work. A few frames from one of his scenes.





In showing these to animator Mark Kausler, he says “Don't forget the masterful skill of the cel painters and inkers, who took a pencil scribble and made a colorful smear that supports the action.”

George Gordon, Jack Zander and Pete Burness also animated on the earliest Tom and Jerrys but Spence has the reputation of the most uninhibited animation of the group. You can see why.

7 comments:

  1. Well, this was one of Spence's trademarks - with the craziness and looseness in his animation.

    It's very nice animation here, and I didn't know Spence did those scenes. But it does really looks like Irven here.

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  2. Mark says he could tell more from the bulldog than the cat.

    I'm sure I've seen the first expression used by Spence elsewhere.

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  3. The slanting in crossed eyes Tom sports in the first image were used by Spence in several Warmers cartoons for Avery (the exasperated wolf locked out of Red's house in "Little Red Walking Hood" and various poses for The Ratz Brothers in "A Sunbonnet Blue".).

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  4. I should just go with my instinct. I wrote 'Little Red Walking Hood' then erased it because I wasn't sure if it was there or in one of the MGM Reds.

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  5. Some of Spence's animation in "Dog Trouble" was reused for the scene of Tom running up the pole at the end of "Puttin' on the Dog".

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    1. Irven Spence animated the scence when Spike broke the cuckoo Clock and also the following scene when Tom was running away from Spike. The scene when Tom was running up the lamp was actually animated by Cecil Surry. He fave Tom shorter whiskers than Irv did.

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  6. If these frames appeared at HB studios with limited animation as clearly visible frames, by me it would made more fun in combination with HB sound effects - these sounds make me big enjoy - therefore I like Huckleberry Hound or Yogi Bear and similar. but also hardly made full animation is magical

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