At MGM, Tex loaded up his cartoons with gags and fired them at the audience at a brisk pace. This cartoon for Warners has a slow (but steady) pace and sets up the final, satisfying gag after two similar situations.
There are a number of scenes where George’s fingers are twisted or crooked.
Here are some examples from a creeping cycle. Whether this is Bob McKimson's work, I don't know, but even the in-betweens are solid.
“Draft No. 6102” gets the animation credit (looking at the credit rotation, my guess is it’s Rod Scribner), with the story by “Draft No. 1312” (Rich Hogan, maybe?). Johnny Johnsen provides some lovely scenery.
The short isn’t full of the crazed humour you’d expect in an Avery cartoon. It’s more of a situational involving two characters, with a third interfering only when necessary.
I have to agree with you with Avery's cartoons in terms of the pacing. Some of his 40s WB cartoons take way to long to reach some sort of punchline, like with the pack-rat and baby bird gags in "Wacky Wildlife". Maybe Schlesinger was onto something when he cut down the cliff gag from "The Heckling Hare"
ReplyDeleteAs for Draft No. 6102, i heard it was the number given to Charles McKimson, not Scribner.
It could McKimson. That's just a wild stab on my part.
DeleteWacky Wildlife isn't all that wacky. There are several Avery spot gag shorts at Warners that really suffer.
Yknow this does make a really interesting topic of discussion. Why did Avery change his direction so drastically when he made the transition to MGM? Was he getting tired of situational comedies?
DeleteMy guess is he discovered along the way that a faster pace meant more gags and that meant more laughs. (That and more exaggerated takes).
DeleteHe certainly knew the meaning of the number frames at the start of his MGM career. That long pan up of the cannon in 'Blitz Wolf' would not have got a better response if he sped up the gag.