Here’s a reconstructed background that was panned to open the cartoon.
Some random backgrounds.
Let’s overlay a cel with tree on top of the background.
How’s this for design and colour? This is the background at the end of the cartoon.
This cartoon stars two lazy Mexican-stereotype crows and a grasshopper with no personality. For some reason, Tedd Pierce wrote this. It could be Warren Foster, who was creating stories for Freleng before and after this according to production numbers, was tied up with other duties. The same for animator Gerry Chiniquy, who is not credited as an animator on this short, but is on the cartoons begun by the unit before and afterward. (Abe Levitow directs several shorts with the Chuck Jones unit about this time).
Carl Stalling has the music credit, but the score sounds more like Milt Franklyn’s to me. And the score is mostly original, as opposed to plenty of sampling of familiar Warners-owned music.
Backgrounds are literally the backbone of animation.
ReplyDelete"Carl Stalling has the music credit, but the score sounds more like Milt Franklyn’s to me."
ReplyDeleteI think some parts sound like Stalling and some parts sound like Franklyn. If SABAM is to be believed, Franklyn did 3 minutes worth of material. So it's possible Franklyn did some uncredited compositions in this one, but I don't want to take this as 100% gospel.
"And the score is mostly original, as opposed to plenty of sampling of familiar Warners-owned music. "
Most of the cartoons in this period were. Both Stalling and Franklyn started to use less and less cues from licensed music after the '53 shutdown. Lower budgets for music rights maybe?
Later, inveterate ""borrower" Friz turned these two into amphibians for DFE's "Tijuana Toads" theatrical series.
ReplyDeleteGrowing up, this always reminded me of a Mexican flavored Hop, Skip and A Chump (1942).
ReplyDeleteDon Diamond (later in F TROOP) and pre-Marvel Comics/ONWARD Tom Holland star.
ReplyDelete