Tuesday 14 November 2023

Hammered On the 20-Yard Line

One of Tex Avery’s spot-gag cartoons starts off with a silhouette-enhanced gag behind the opening titles.

Screwball Football (1939) opens with rotoscoped gridiron action going on in the background.



This is a little tough to see, but there’s a standard tackle—then Avery changes direction and has one player wallop the other on the head with a mallet.



Tubby Millar is the credited writer this time, with Virgil Ross getting the rotating animator credit. The narrator on this short is Reid Kilpatrick, who also voiced Friz Freleng’s Sports Chumpions.

2 comments:

  1. Some prints out there are even darker looking, making the whole gag hard to see (those are the ones I grew up viewing; all I heard was the thud sound effect).

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    1. I've seen several versions and they're all worn and murky. This isn't one of Avery's best so I don't see it being a priority for restoration.

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