One of his one-shots is The Foxy Duckling (1947). The premise sounds like something from a Buzzy the Crow cartoon. A fox can’t sleep. A book gives him advice. He needs a pillow filled with
Enter a one-shot, super-confident (and silent) one-shot duck character. This cartoon really moves along in places; the fox’s failures are quick and it’s on to the next gag.
Don Williams, Manny Gould and Bill Melendez are the animators. There’s dry brush and silhouettes.
The duckling indicates to the fox he is now almost over a cliff. Time for a Tex Avery-inspired take.
The duck spins in mid-air and follows with a quick ka-pow!
There’s no story credit. I wonder if the writer was George Hill, who was originally hired around February 1945 to help Warren Foster in Bob McKimson’s unit. When Davis took over Bob Clampett’s unit two months later, Hill was assigned to it as a writer. Hill was soon fired after a drunken encounter with studio boss Ed Selzer. Dave Monahan, who had been reassigned by the military from the East Coast to write Snafu cartoons on the West Coast, supplied stories to Davis as well. The invaluable Warner Club News suggests Lloyd Turner and Bill Scott didn’t become Davis’ writers until July 1946.
This isn’t really the most appealing of Davis’ cartoons. The combination of one-time-only characters and the lack of dialogue may be the reason. Carl Stalling’s fine score and Treg Brown’s familiar effects help tremendously; try imagining it with a Screen Gems score by Darrell Calker. Davis made a terrific fox-duck cartoon with Daffy (and Elmer Fudd) in What Makes Daffy Duck (1948).
Not counting his work finishing Bacall to Arms, this was Davis’ third cartoon behind The Goofy Gophers (Production 1021) and Mouse Menace (Production 1028). The Foxy Duckling (Production 1031) was reissued as a credit-less Blue Ribbon in November 1954.
You mentioned Carl Stalling. I especially liked his repeated use of "I'd Be Lost Without You".
ReplyDeleteCal Dalton animated on it as well. There are a few scenes where the characters look very different from in the rest of the cartoon. Observe the duck dancing to "Swanee River", the fox emptying out his pillowcase at the start of the cartoon, and various shots during the closing sequence.
ReplyDeleteThat really is an Avery take. You can even see the veins on the eyeball (at first glance it reminded me of a John R. Dilworth take).
ReplyDeleteDavis had a short yet impressive run as a director at Warners.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to own a Davis Blu-ray collection.
ReplyDeleteDavis always made funny cartoons. There's very few you can say have that kind of run!
ReplyDeleteGould seemed to animate this specific sequence. I especially love his animation in the Davis shorts because of how more loose it is compared to McKimson and maybe Clampett.
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