The Sneeze

“Yowp, several years ago, you wrote about the catnip scene in Cat Happy. But what about ‘the sneeze’?”

A good question. Let’s give you some random drawings from this 1950 Terrytoons short starring the forgettable Little Roquefort and Percy the cat. Tommy Morrison’s story tosses in the worn-out pepper-makes-the-character-sneeze gag. But see what Jim Tyer does with it.

Tyer times his animation so some drawings are held on three frames, some on two, some on one. Percy's head goes back, then forward, then back some more, then... well, you get the idea... before letting go. For a sneeze, this is perfect. And Tyer eschews cycle animation in this scene.



You’ll see this at Lantz, MGM and elsewhere. The background changes to a solid colour to emphasize the violence.



Tyer is entrusted with the scene before this when the mouse shakes the pepper (the label simply says “PEP” close-up in the cat’s face. There’s another fun bit of animation where Little Roquefort turns into swirls when he skids up to Percy’s face.

The Exhibitor rated this short “fair.” But if you’re a fan of Tyer’s straight-ahead outrageous animation, he’s all over the place in this one. Cat Happy is for you.