Friday 30 September 2016

Shrinking Duck

The gang gets together in the second half of the cartoon to vanquish the villain? Harman and Ising did it in the early ‘30s. An animal’s handicap turns out—in the climax scene—to be a blessing? Sounds like Dumbo, right? Put them together and you get the 1952 Terrytoon Flat Food Fledgling.

But what they didn’t have (besides the Terry Splash™, heard three times in this cartoon) was the shrink take. Observe Dinky Duck as a squirrel and a chipmunk try to stop a weasel from catching him (accompanied by a nice score by Phil Scheib). Notice how he shrinks before exiting from the scene. And notice how the weasel shrinks when he goes around the rope.



Now, a stretched, angular exit.



The old denture gag. Notice in the fifth drawing how the fur on the weasel lifts up.



All the animals have sped-up voices. Including a chipmunk! Oh, Paul Terry, if you only had them release some songs on Liberty Records....

8 comments:

  1. Yowp:

    I love the little (tm) you placed after 'The Terry Splash' - that made me laugh - you heard it in virtually every Terrytoon!!

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    1. I do,too! Yowp's used the TM at least ONCE before...

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  2. Along with the Terry Splash™, there was also the Terry Chomp™, which occurred when one character was chasing another one while trying to bite them. Not quite as ubiquitous, but still heard enough to be permanently embedded in the minds of at least a couple of TV generations of children.

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    1. J.L., there's also the Terry Brake Squeal, but it's actually from a transcription of sound effects. The Jack Benny radio show used the same one.
      I don't know if I want to learn how the Splash was made.

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  3. Liberty didn't exist until 1955. Ross was with the company almost from the outset (note "The Trouble With Harry"). He did both novelty and "straight" music.

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  4. This is all Jim Tyer's animation, Yowp.

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    1. Hi, Mark. I didn't notice until I did a few more stop-frame pieces but Tyer used the fuzzy-fur take a number of times. I have it in at least one post banked for the new year.

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  5. Now, to be fair, the "Fleischer Splash"(TM) was just as commonplace, and even more incongruous. That hushed whooooooosh - one of animation's oddest sound effects IMO.

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