An old-timey farmer leaps into the air and runs off after the crow. These are consecutive drawings, animated on twos. They’re nice poses, nothing elaborate, but you don’t see them because the animation zips quickly along.
McKimson decided to hire actors other than Mel Blanc for his cartoons. Jim Backus (pre-Magoo), Sheldon Leonard, Lloyd Perryman and Herb Vigran only worked with McKimson at Warners. The crow in this one is played by Pat Patrick, who was Ircil Twing on Edgar Bergen’s radio show. It was likely the only cartoon he ever made.
Bill Melendez, Rod Scribner, Phil De Lara, John Carey and Chuck McKimson animated this short, released in 1951 and reissued in 1961.
Oddly voiced and paced cartoon, which featured a lot of time just walking between locations, as if McKimson was trying to do parts of the cartoon in real-time. Feels more like something Columbia would have done a few years earlier (also makes you wonder if having to do stories like this is why Foster was happy to flee at this time for the Freleng unit).
ReplyDeleteFoster didn't "flee" to Friz's unit - as Senior Director, Friz made a power play and had Tedd Pierce transferred over to the McKimson unit as he was unhappy with Pierce's stories (Pierce was a drunk)
DeletePat Patrick seems like a pretty good guess for the voice of that Beanie capped crow, but some sources state Stan Freburg as the crow, also Pat would pass away sometime around 1956 even though there appears to be another person named Pat Patrick responsible for being one of the producers along with Jymm Magon behind the Disney children's favorites albums starring Larry Groce & the Disneyland Children's Sing-a-long Chorus.
ReplyDeleteNo, its Pat Patrick. The crow uses all of his catch phrases from the Bergan show, including the "Good bye -eye -eye" at the end.
ReplyDeleteCorrect. Jerry Beck even mentioned it on rec.arts.animation.warner-bros on Usenet around 20 years ago, and that's how I found out..Patrick;s son or daughter Harley later emailed me, saying that Pat had committed suicide around 1954.I'm aware of Disney'/s Pat Patrick (and Paul Whitehead, not to be confused with a certain legend of showbiz with an orchestra, who'd already passed as the Pat Patrick of radio had..:)) Steve C
DeleteEXCEPT "Good morning friends, and you are friends".
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