Noise!!

Tex Avery fans seem to have their own favourite “Noise!” cartoon, where a character shouldn’t be disturbed, while an antagonist character tries to force a third character to make noise to disturb the first character. (You followed that, did you?).

One is Rock-a-Bye Bear, gagged by both Heck Allen and Rich Hogan. Or maybe they just nodded their heads and said “Sounds great, Tex” when he came up with ideas. Regardless, one scene sets up the ending of the cartoon. Spike quickly moves to stop a picture on the wall from falling and making noise. But then he looks at the picture.



There’s plenty of heterosex in Avery’s output at MGM. This time, the action’s muted. Spike whistles gently at the picture of the girl. Avery’s patented overreaction wouldn’t work here. A sedate reaction sets up the violence to follow. Spike even tries to protect himself with the picture frame, to no avail.



The best part is the picture comes back at the end of the cartoon for the antagonist character to make the noise and get bashed by the first character (the bear) to provide a satisfying ending. Justice has prevailed.

Mike Lah, Walt Clinton and Grant Simmons are the animators. Lah liked diamond-shaped teeth and I believe he’s the animator of the above scene