Patterson and Avery definitely got the most out of the Lantz studio's reduced budgets of the mid-1950s. Taken individually, the drawings could fit in with any of the studio's even more reduced budget product of a decade later, but it's the number of drawings and the change in poses that make them effective.
Yeah, J.L., the timing helps. These would never go over with that early '40s slower pacing because the poses would register a bit too much. They're funnier as a swirl of action.
There was a 'sweet spot' that Lantz hit about 1954-56 and that the Al Eugster unit over a Famous found around 1956-57, where they went to highly stylized UPA-like poses, but the budgets were still high enough to where you could do either multiple drawings with those poses or transition from the stylized poses to more traditional, fluid-looking animation.
The contrast was able to use the new look for comic effect, but it required enough drawings to pull it off. Once the budgets were really cut (and Patterson, Avery and Eugster were no longer directing at their studios), the basic designs became abstract even when not in motion, and the number of drawings were slashed to the minimum, the cartoons lost the ability to draw humor out of the sudden changes in look and timing.
One of the memorable lines of this short, is: "Oh! Qui adorable woodpecker!" (said by Ga Ga Zoo - which's a prank made with the Zsa Zsa Gabor's name [and voiced by Grace Stafford - a.k.a. Mrs. Walter Lantz])
Patterson and Avery definitely got the most out of the Lantz studio's reduced budgets of the mid-1950s. Taken individually, the drawings could fit in with any of the studio's even more reduced budget product of a decade later, but it's the number of drawings and the change in poses that make them effective.
ReplyDeleteYeah, J.L., the timing helps. These would never go over with that early '40s slower pacing because the poses would register a bit too much. They're funnier as a swirl of action.
ReplyDeleteThere was a 'sweet spot' that Lantz hit about 1954-56 and that the Al Eugster unit over a Famous found around 1956-57, where they went to highly stylized UPA-like poses, but the budgets were still high enough to where you could do either multiple drawings with those poses or transition from the stylized poses to more traditional, fluid-looking animation.
ReplyDeleteThe contrast was able to use the new look for comic effect, but it required enough drawings to pull it off. Once the budgets were really cut (and Patterson, Avery and Eugster were no longer directing at their studios), the basic designs became abstract even when not in motion, and the number of drawings were slashed to the minimum, the cartoons lost the ability to draw humor out of the sudden changes in look and timing.
One of the memorable lines of this short, is: "Oh! Qui adorable woodpecker!" (said by Ga Ga Zoo - which's a prank made with the Zsa Zsa Gabor's name [and voiced by Grace Stafford - a.k.a. Mrs. Walter Lantz])
ReplyDeleteI believe that is Gladys Holland, not Grace Stafford.
ReplyDelete