Thursday, 21 February 2013

I Hope It's Funnier Than This One

“The Early Bird Dood It!” (1942) is one of Tex Avery’s cartoons where the parts are funnier than the whole. It’s full of typical Avery gags, but I just can’t handle the main characters (the Lou Costello whistle of the worm gets annoying after a while).

The bird chases the worm as a Scott Bradley cacophony plays in the background. They stop at a billboard. It’s advertising the cartoon they’re in.



The bird turns to the worm:

Bird: Say, I hear that’s a pretty funny cartoon.
Worm: Well, I hope it’s funnier than this one.

The worm leaps up and the chase resumes.



Here’s the title card. It’s a different colour. I don’t know if it’s the original card or from a Gold Medal reprint.



Irv Spence, Preston Blair, Ed Love and Ray Abrams get the animation credit. Frank Graham plays the bird.
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4 comments:

  1. top cat james21 February 2013 at 13:40

    And of course, main feature "Mrs. Minimum" starred Green Garbage and Walter Pigeontoed.

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  2. J Lee21 February 2013 at 19:43

    This was also one of the cartoons where they had to re-do not just the visual titles, but also Scott Bradley's opening music to replace the 'Tiger Rag' MGM opening Avery concocted following his move to Culver City (you can hear the transitional fade between the slightly higher quality recording of the new title music and the original orchestration during the fade-up to the card following the opening credits).

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  3. Pokey22 February 2013 at 17:50

    The Famous Studios cartoon of the 1950s "An Inch in Time" heavily borrows from this, right to the ending [inchworm with trumpet playing taps and then jazzing it up]. I'm surprised that MGM didn't sue.SC

    [AND it was NOT funnier than this one, the original is the best!]

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  4. Bobby Bickert22 February 2013 at 20:06

    And the Terrytoon "Eliza on the Ice" borrows quite a bit from Avery's "Uncle Tom's Bungalow".

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