Joe Bear hires Spike for a nice, cushy job—keeping his house quiet and not waking him during hibernation time. A jealous beagle tries to make a racket and pin it on Spike so he can get the comfortable job. The situation builds to where the beagle blows up the house—but the bear doesn’t wake up. Here’s the little dog’s take when he sees his plan failed. One frame per drawing.
Ah, if only the cartoon was restored and released. You’d be able to get the effect of the take better.
The credited animation crew is Walt Clinton, Grant Simmons and Mike Lah. Avery revisited the idea again at the Lantz studio in “The Legend of Rockabye Point” (released in 1955), a fine cartoon even though the animation’s a few steps below his work at MGM.
IIRC, this was the last cartoon done by Avery prior to his overwork-induced sabbatical, and Dick Lunday's arrival at the studio. If nothing else, it shows that "overworked" did not equal "out of ideas", since Tex and others would take this idea and run with it -- or, the characters would run with it -- several more times in the future (Hanna-Barbera would even borrow it before MGM closed for "Royal Cat-Nap", though they didn't have the desire to break the Two Mouseketeer format and completely commit to the gag).
ReplyDeleteTex Avery had a substantial fan base even before magazines such as Film Comment started publicizing his work (and Jones') in the 1970s. I saw this cartoon in a Montreal cinema in 1969 (main feature was "The Gypsy Moths").
ReplyDeleteThis is by far the funniest Drooper cartoon ever made. Unfortunately, it is the most difficult to find on video. MGM did so well with this, Avery remade it. I have seen both versions, but the first is the funniest.
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