In 1962, I could watch All This And Rabbit’s Stew over and over again. It wasn’t among the Bugs Bunny cartoons I liked because the antagonist was whiny and annoying. I didn’t mind another Tex Avery short for the Schlesinger studio that I saw innumerable times, but I was shocked when it came out on DVD years later because there was a gag I had never seen before. Whether my local TV station censored it or someone else did, I don’t know, but I suppose it’s irrelevant at this point.
In Cross Country Detours (1940), a pan over one of Johnny Johnsen’s layered backgrounds sets up a gag in a reedy swamp. A frog crawls onto a lily pad. Cut to a close-up. Narrator: “Here we show you a close-up of a frog croaking.” No sooner does Lou Marcelle finish his line than:
It takes 12 frames, most of the animation on ones, for the frog to enact the dialogue literally and shoot himself.
But Avery doesn’t stop there. We get a sign-gag topper.
Paul J. Smith receives the animation credit, but I imagine Virgil Ross, Sid Sutherland, Chuck McKimson and Rod Scribner worked on this as well.
Something else we don’t see today is the original credits because the release on DVD is from the Blue Ribbon print. The chopped music over the credits is “There’s a Long Long Trail” by Zo Elliott and Stoddard King.
This short isn't on HBO Max. I wonder if it has to do with restoration issues or if it's not allowed because of said suicide gag.
ReplyDeleteWho narrated this? imdb lists two different uncredited narrators- Lou Marcelle and Karlton Kadell.
I identified the narrator in the post.
DeleteActually, I didn't. Keith Scott did. Buy his book on cartoon voice actors of the Golden Age. Don't rely on sketchy on-line "databases."
I have the book-two volumes..Kindle editions for both, and read it almopst every night (hee-hee).
DeleteOnly about a third of the Warner cartoons are on HBO Max, and the service hasn't added to its selections since last year, so it's difficult to say why any one cartoon is available on the service and why another isn't.. I mean, whether it's restoration issues or just not making the cut.
DeleteOver on Disney, they haven't added to their library of Disney cartoon shorts in ages. I'm afraid HBO Max is going to do the same thing, and that what we've got is what we're going to get,
The Frog " Croaking " bit has me laughing as hard today, as it did when I first saw in back in the early sixties?.
ReplyDelete