Fish Fry Fun

Shamus Culhane didn’t worry too much about matching shots at times during his directorial stint at the Walter Lantz studio. Here are a couple of cases from Fish Fry, released in 1944 and nominated for an Oscar.

These are two consecutive frames. The action isn’t even close.



For some reason, Culhane decides to cut to a closer shot when the cat realises he’s about to club a bulldog. These consecutive frames look like they were done by two different animators. Darrell Calker’s soundtrack doesn’t emphasize the switch, the music just toodles along, which makes the change even more abrupt.



Emery Hawkins really does a great job in this cartoon. Here is his work (and his in-betweener, I imagine) earlier in the cartoon when the cat gets frustrated that he can’t trick Andy into giving him the goldfish. Lionel Stander does a terrific job voicing the cat.



Fish Fry lost to the Tom and Jerry cartoon Mouse Trouble. The other nominees: Swooner Crooner (Warners); How to Play Football (Disney); And to Think I Saw It on Mulberry Street (George Pal); Dog, Cat and Canary (Columbia) and My Boy Johnny (Terrytoons).

Daily Variety reported on December 8th, 1943 that Lantz had put the cartoon into production along with a Woody Woodpecker short called Snow Bird. My guess is it became Ski For Two.