There was another female character, albeit a one-shot, in another Willie cartoon. Whether Natwick was responsible, I don’t know, but this more realistic, sultry female was certainly within his ability to animate.
She’s in Stratos-fear (1933), in which Willie floats to a mysterious planet full of cool futuristic mechanical designs. She dances out of what resembles a coffin, kisses Willie, and the two walk up a flight of stairs when a door opens.
So much for stairs. The cut in the scene reveals they are coming out of an elevator.
The woman walks like an Egyptian, stops, then reveals herself to be the alien whom Willie is trying to avoid.
Iwerks’ name is the only one on this short, so we don’t know who animated it, who created the story or who was responsible for the settings. There’s imagination aplenty in this cartoon and it’s a shame few other of the Willies matched it.
Gag of elevator doors opening to reveal a staircase is kind of a cartoon mini-trope. Here at least it's got the added slant of being on the otherwise super-technologically-advanced planet.
ReplyDelete"She dances out of what resembles a costume...." I think you mean "coffin", not costume. If she had danced out of her costume -- well, that sort of thing did happen occasionally in those pre-Code days.
ReplyDeleteMaybe there's no concrete proof that the alien woman was animated by Grim Natwick, but if not him, whom?
Paul, yes. Can't blame that on spell-check as I don't use it. The problem is a lack of sleep and not reviewing posts due to other things. Thanks for catching that.
DeleteI don't know who else was animating at Iwerks then so I'm not certain who did these scenes. My impression is Natwick was at Iwerks through the entire Willie Whopper series.