Monday 16 April 2018

Wacky Wabbit Backgwound

May 2, 1942. There’s a war on. As you are reminded at the start of the Warner Bros. cartoon The Wacky Wabbit, released on that date.



I suspect this was the last Warners cartoon released with backgrounds by Johnny Johnsen. He was working in Tex Avery’s unit when Bob Clampett took it over after Avery’s departure in mid-1941. Johnsen soon joined Avery at MGM and stayed there until his retirement.

Disney had his multiplane camera, Fleischer had his “setbacks” but Warner Bros. managed to simulate 3-D depth in a cartoon simply by taking background overlays and moving them at different speeds during a pan shot. The Wacky Wabbit is one of those cartoons (Clampett and Johnsen did the same thing at the start of Wabbit Twouble in 1941). You can play the clip below and see there is a foreground overlay and another one with the bare rock peaks in the near foreground.

1 comment:

  1. Hmm...Obviously painteed over when rereleased latert (though of course not with a blue ribbon open). We're still reminded of the war by Elmer's song.....still good to remember the war and what it did for mour country and yours (Canada)... This is the cartoon that started the slightly off key take on the closng theme. That version wound up in "Booby Hatched","Peck up your Troubles","Tick Tock Tuckered", and some other Blue ribbon reissues.
    Steve C

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