This was the second time McKimson and Pierce got together to foist on us the plot of a lost reel of film from the caveman era being discovered. The first was in the extremely unfunny “Pre-Hysterical Hare” (1958). At least this cartoon has the benefit of a nice score by Milt Franklyn featuring a couple of tunes by Raymond Scott. Layout man Bob Gribbroek and background artist Bill Butler got together on this one (Dick Thomas had left for Hanna-Barbera by this time). Here are some of the character designs.
The stone skyscrapers are reminiscent of Tex Avery’s “The First Bad Man” at MGM a few years earlier.
Cary Granite?! What about Stoney Curtis? (“Cary Granite” is such an obvious pun, I suspect it’s a coincidence it was later used in “The Flintstones.”)
McKimson’s credited animators in this one are Warren Batchelder, George Grandpré, Ted Bonnicksen and Tom Ray.
Clampett also used Dino Saur as a pun on "Beany & Cecil". There must have just been something in the water in the late 50s-early 60s.
ReplyDeleteThe end sign gag nowadays is only fathomable to people over 40 or so or coffee history aficionados (and who leaves that much of a gap between the elevator and the elevator opening? If I saw that big a space up there, I never would have gotten in the thing in the first place).
At least I liked it (perhaps they ought to bring back "Good til the last drop" again).
DeleteIt still was way better that Pre-Hysterical Hare, I think someone in the dubbing studio in my country must have thought that Bugs short was so awful it didn't deserved to be dubbed, so it didn't had a Spanish version until 1998!
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I think the best joke in this one is when a caveman pass a cave-like department store, takes a look to some cavewoman mannequin with a "fashionable" leopard fur dress, and just said "Eeaaghh!" It's not clear whatever he thinks is tacky or sexy, but the way he said it when grimacing always cracks me up.