The City!

Charlie Dog’s most famous moment in Warner Bros. cartoon history came during his “towers” speech in “Often an Orphan” (released in 1949). You know the one. Charlie goes into a panicked monologue describing being sent back to the claustrophobic city and ends as he imagines some skyscrapers falling.

Everyone talks about the “towers” part but I really like the animation at the very start of Charlie’s ersatz paranoia. Here’s a smear from one pose to the next.



Then Charlie drops down to a crazy-eyed look. The eyes poke out to the right; Jones used this effect in other cartoons.



Now, Charlie swoops into the next pose.



Lloyd Vaughn, Ken Harris, Phil Monroe and Ben Washam get on-screen animation credits (in that order). The animation is fairly intricate. There are times in this scene when there’s just a slight snout or nose movement on Charlie so the character isn’t static.