Real Gone Brushwork

A bunch of things go into making “Real Gone Woody” (1954) the best cartoon made by Paul J. Smith. Mike Maltese’s story helps. So do some neat backgrounds by Ray Jacobs. Woody’s pretty attractively drawn in the first scene (though the action isn’t all that exaggerated). There’s some great use of brush strokes to indicate speed. Here’s the fight scene with Woody and Buzz. The characters go in a spin cycle with outlines and brush lines.



Then Woody zooms over to Winnie.



The characters become nothing but lines in the climax at the end when Woody and Buzz each grab Winnie and pull her into their cars. Here are a few examples. I like the surprised reaction of Woody in third drawing below. He has his leg up.



The action moves faster and faster and so does Clarence Wheeler’s score. Smith has the camera pull in and then things stop for the plot twist.

The animators are La Verne Harding, Bob Bentley and Herman Cohen. Harding stayed with the studio for many years, the other two were journeymen.