Wayward Pups Backgrounds

Furious movement highlights the MGM cartoon The Wayward Pups (1937). There are perspective drawings, too (it is a Harman-Ising cartoon, after all), though the cat at the centre of the story has a neck that’s way too long at times and a voice that sounds like Donald Duck.

It also has some very nice and effective backgrounds. Here are some from the night scenes in the second half of the cartoon where the guilt-ridden cat goes looking for the title characters and eventually protects them from a pack of vicious dogs.



Was this the work of Bob Gentle? It could be. He was at Harman-Ising at the time. Unfortunately, none of the artists are credited, other than Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising. Gentle’s the only person I can identify in a list of H-I employees for 1937 as a background artist. He deserted the studio that year when Fred Quimby decided to open up his own animation operation on the MGM lot.