Bugs as Groucho Smear

The mid-‘40s seems to have been the era of smear animation at Warners. It was one way to get characters to move quicker. Bobe Cannon did smear drawings for the Chuck Jones unit and Virgil Ross did it in the Friz Freleng unit (with the help of their assistants).

Here’s a set of consecutive drawings from “Slick Hare” (1947), a cartoon with all kinds of stuff going on, some of it having nothing to do with the plot. It takes place amongst the stars in West Hollywood’s Mocrumbo restaurant. At one point to hide from Elmer Fudd, Bugs Bunny dresses up as Groucho. But when the rabbit realises Elmer’s onto him and coming after him from behind, he turns his Groucho lope into a run. These are five consecutive drawings.







Freleng’s usual mid-‘40s coterie of animators is here—Ross, Ken Champin, Gerry Chiniquy (with another dance sequence) and Manny Perez.