Monday 9 January 2017

More Bad Luck

Another gag from Tex Avery’s great Bad Luck Blackie. You know the premise—black cat crosses the dog’s path. Dog gets hurt.

Here’s the telephone pole gag. The kitten races up the pole from the last gag. Nice layout here. And notice how Johnny Johnsen varies the colours on the wood slats on the fence. And there are shadows, too. Lots of attention to detail that you’d expect in a 1940s MGM cartoon.



As soon as the cat reaches the top of the pole, the wires on the left start to move slightly. The cat notices. Pan to the left.



The kitten blows the whistle. How are Avery and gag man Rich Hogan going to get the cat up there to cross the dog’s path? They find a way. I like how the cat is showing how casual it is about the whole thing by having its eyes closed.



The dog gets ready to grab the kitten. Failure. Avery cuts to a close-up for the explosion. Note the sense of balance on the dog.



Just so the last scene isn’t static, Avery has the burned head outline around the dog vibrate a little bit.

Louie Schmitt, Preston Blair, Walt Clinton and Grant Simmons animated the cartoon; Schmitt designed the characters.

No comments:

Post a Comment