Tail Vs Penguin

Tex Avery made two cartoons with Chilly Willy and they’re both very good. The first is I'm Cold (1955), where Chilly tries to steal a fur coat (or just any old fur) from a warehouse being guarded by a watchdog with a real deadpan Southern accent (Daws Butler).

Along the way, Willy gets the idea of chopping off the dog’s furry tail. When he first tries to do it, the dog is a step ahead of, and has it crammed in a milk bottle.



In this scene animated by Don Patterson, the penguin’s attempt to cut off the tail is thwarted by the dog blowing into his thumb, which rolls and unrolls his tail like one of those party favours with the paper that unfurls like a snake when you blow into it.



“This is a lot of fun, man,” says the dog to the audience.



Chilly holds down the tail but gets caught in it. The dog then blows into his thumb, unfurls the tail and Willy zips into the milk bottle.



The gags flow into each other very nicely in this cartoon. Clarence Wheeler’s score is also a plus. He uses musical effects in time with expressions and has a little flute piece for when Willy is running. There are places where there is silence except for an observation from the dog. Everything on the soundtrack fits together.

Ray Abrams and La Verne Harding join Patterson as animators on this short.