This is the one where the Big Bad Wolf is Adolf Hitler. He signs a peace treaty with two of the Three Little Pigs. Well, everyone in 1942 how trustworthy Hitler was.
The wolf uses a machine to blow down the first pig’s house of sticks. You know the story. The first pig runs to the second pig’s house of sticks. “The wolf’s coming,” he yells and points. (Note the dry brush to quicken the animation)
The pigs run off before the bomb hits the house. Avery uses a yellow colour card to emphasize the light from the explosion.
MGM’s effects department is at work here.
The flames burn out, leaving just charred sticks. They collapse, revealing the outhouse. After enough time for you to notice the burned outhouse, it collapses as well.
Preston Blair, Ray Abrams, Ed Love and Irv Spence are the credited animators.
You mentioned : "MGM’s effects department is at work here". Do we know the name of a specific animator (or animators) at MGM who handled effects animation ? Warner's had A.C. Gamer and Harry Love credited as effects animators. Disney had Cy Young and Ugo D'Orsi (and of course on the features , many , many more effects animators as the studio grew). Now that I think about it , I seem to remember reading that Al Grandmain was primarily an effects animator at MGM . He is not credited on this film , but do you think it was Al Grandmain who animated the explosion and fire in this scene ?
ReplyDeleteI don't know when he arrived at MGM or when he began doing effects. He was there in 1942, as he received a screen credit then.
DeleteAnd now after rewatching The Blitz Wolf (https://vimeo.com/63467857) I'm reminded that there are a LOT of effects animation in this short. Seems a shame that Al Grandmain (or whoever it was) did not get screen credit.
ReplyDeleteI did some poking around and found that the animator draft for The Blitz Wolf is posted on Cartoon Research , and the draft does indeed credit Al Grandmain as the animator of scenes with the various effects. Strange that he was not given screen credit for this effects-heavy cartoon. Although even on the draft there are scenes with effects animation where he is not credited , but I think he probably did the effects . For example the last scene in the cartoon where Adolph looks around anxiously saying: "Where am I ? Have I been blown to ... ?" then the quick pan over to the group of devils saying "It's a possibility!" . At the start of the scene there's an explosion and smoke efx, then camera pans down to the underworld to reveal Adolph surrounded by flames. On the draft the scene is credited to Preston Blair , but I expect Blair did the character animation of Adolph Wolf and the devils , but Al Grandmain probably did the effects animation. https://cartoonresearch.com/index.php/tex-averys-the-blitz-wolf-1942/
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