A great example of that is the scene where Spike begins a Hawaiian war dance and is suddenly joined by the magician’s two rabbits. The rabbits enter the cartoon from the sides of the frame. On a big screen, it looks like they’re coming out of nowhere. It’s a real surprise, which makes it even funnier. The audience I was with—at least those who weren’t gabbing to themselves in the seats behind me—roared with laughter.
It takes the rabbits a quarter of a second (six frames) to jump in and dance. Here are the drawings.
Mike Lah, Grant Simmons and Walt Clinton are the animators in one of my favourite Tex Avery cartoons.
Saw it at the Carnegie Hall Cinema in 1978, as part of a Avery retrospective just after the post-47 MGM cartoons hit syndication. It killed more than any other short on the bill (though I really don't remember if they aired the uncut version -- WPIX had the MGM package and they cut out the Ink Spots gag from the outset).
ReplyDelete