Today’s Changing Lesson

You’ll sometimes see in cartoons when a character has an expression and then the director cuts to a different shot and the expression isn’t the same.

It happens with backgrounds, too.

Here’s an example in the Ub Iwerks cartoon Mary’s Little Lamb. The lamb escapes from the old crone teacher by jumping into a stove. The teacher pulls out the lamb covered in soot. Look at what’s on the blackboard.

Cut to a different shot of the pair. Look at the blackboard now. The stove has conveniently vanished and there is now part of a map on the wall.

The cartoon comes to a less-than-rollicking end by the crone spanking the lamb. The soot is now transferred from Mary’s lamb to the teacher. That’s the gag.

Mary’s Little Lamb was one of ten ComiColor shorts released independently in 1935. Carl Stalling scored it. No animators are credited.