Tuesday 11 February 2014

The Flying Glasses

Animator Mark Kausler once pointed out director Jack King used a shock take where a character’s hat would fly off someone’s head, turn 360 degrees in mid-air and land back on the head. King did it with something else in the 1935 Warners cartoon “Hollywood Capers.”

Oliver Owl’s glasses do a leap and dive. Here are some of the drawings.



You’ll notice Oliver’s chair is not an inanimate object. Alas, the idea of random articles being alive that made a lot of early ‘30s cartoons so much fun was a dying breed.

Chuck Jones and Ham Hamilton are the animators. Jones would soon escape to the Avery unit.

3 comments:

  1. Wonder if Tashlin was in King's unit at the time. He may have been with Hal Roach at the time, but it still makes me wonder.

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  2. Variety says:
    * Tish Tash, syndicated cartoonist, joins Roach studio writing staff as gag man. He has been assigned to Charles Chase unit. (November 12th, 1935)
    * Frank Tashland, cartoonist known Tash, is off the Roach payroll, where he has been for the past year as staff writer. (February 13th, 1936) (no reason given)
    * Frank Tashlan (Tish Tash) comic strip artist for Consolidated Fea tures has been engaged by Leon Schlesinger to work on 'Loonie Tunes' and 'Merrie Melodies.' Tashlan recently was a gagger at Roach.(April 4th, 1936)
    Wasn't he at Iwerks before going to Roach?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, he was. Evidently, he was a very fast animator there. He would animate in the mornings, then take the rest of the day off (which including working on the VAN BORING comic).

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