The Dog's Still There

Tex Avery and Mike Maltese both knew how to let gags talk without dialogue. Here’s an example from The Legend of Rockabye Point (1955). When a polar rushes into a locker full of frozen fish, a door closes revealing a sign reading “Beware of Dog.”

There’s a reason for the sign.



The dog taps the bear on the back. A look. A take.



A zoom skyward. End of scene. On to the next gag.



Don Patterson, La Verne Harding and Ray Abrams are the credited animators. This was the last cartoon Avery and Maltese worked on together. Maltese went back to Warner Bros. Avery made one more cartoon for Lantz and was preparing others when he walked away from theatrical animation for good.

More fun frames from this cartoon in this post, this post, this post and this post.