Animated Films Essay Research Paper American animation — страница 5

characterization, and the unassuming dog Droopy, the quiet eye in a hurricane of gags, was the only long-running character Avery developed at M-G-M. But he was a genius at constructing and pacing gags, and made some of the funniest cartoons of all time: Dumb-Hounded (1943), Red Hot Riding Hood (1943), Who Killed Who? (1943), Hound Hunters (1947), King-Size Canary (1947), The Cat That Hated People (1948), Bad Luck Blackie (1949), Little Rural Riding Hood (1949), Dare-Devil Droopy (1951), Drag-A-Long Droopy (1954). Walter Lantz oversaw cartoon production at Universal, where director Alex Lovy had begun making cartoons starring Andy Panda. In 1940 Lantz directed one of the series, Knock Knock, in which Andy is tormented by a crazed woodpecker. The character became a star the

following year, when Lantz made Woody Woodpecker. Lantz became more involved with production in the '40s, and turned over the character first to Lovy, and then to James "Shamus" Culhane (The Barber Of Seville, 1944; Woody Dines Out, 1945) and Dick Lundy (Bathing Buddies, 1946; Banquet Busters, 1948). In the '50s, some of the best Woody cartoons came from Don Patterson (Termites From Mars, 1952; Alley To Bali, 1954) and Lantz himself (Wicket Wacky, 1951; Stage Hoax, 1952). Tex Avery briefly joined Lantz in the mid '50s, but made only a few cartoons, most notably two 1955 efforts starring the penguin Chilly Willy, I'm Cold and Chilly Willy In The Legend Of Rockabye Point. Lantz would continue producing Woody Woodpecker cartoons until 1973, an amazing longevity for an

animated character.At the end of the 1940s, Columbia agreed to distribute cartoons made by the independent UPA studio. Director John Hubley, a former Disney animator, began making more shorts in Columbia's "Fox & Crow" series, but kept to UPA's more original and stylized brand of animation. Hubley's 1949 Ragtime Bear introduced the character of a nearsighted old man, voiced by Jim Backus; the "Mr. Magoo" series became a major hit with the public, thanks to such delightful cartoons as Hubley's Fuddy Duddy Buddy (1951). Director Pete Burness took over the series and made such favorites as Captains Outrageous (1952), When Magoo Flew (1954), and Magoo's Puddle Jumper (1956). The studio clinched its popularity with a second series, launched with director Robert

Cannon's Gerald McBoing Boing (1950), about a little boy who speaks in sound effects; Cannon also made Madeline (1952), based on Ludwig Bemelman children's story. UPA's other noteworthy cartoon shorts include A Unicorn In The Garden (1953), adapted from James Thurber by director Bill Hurtz, and Ted Parmelee's stylish version of Poe, The Tell-Tale Heart (1953), narrated by James Mason. In 1959 UPA starred Mr. Magoo in a feature, 1001 Arabian Nights, directed by Jack Kinney, but the box-office was weak and only one other feature followed: Gay Purr-ee (1962), a Magoo-less musical of French felines, written by Chuck Jones and his wife Dorothy, and directed by former Jones prot?g? Abe Levitow. It too fared poorly, but by then UPA had switched to making cartoons for television. The

switch from theatrical to television cartoons was common in the '60s. M-G-M failed to recognize the potential market of the tube, and closed its animation department in 1957. (A few years later, the studio unsuccessfully tried to revive Tom & Jerry with theatrical cartoons, directed first by Gene Deitch and then by Chuck Jones.) Hanna and Barbera began working on television with their own company. Their success was meteoric, and children grew up watching such limited- animation series as "The Flintstones," "Huckleberry Hound," "Yogi Bear," "Top Cat," "The Jetsons," and "Johnny Quest." Some of these shows even led to theatrical animated features: Hey There, It's Yogi Bear (1964); A Man Called Flintstone (1966),

Jetsons: The Movie (1990). In 1960, Warner Bros. started showing its cartoons on television with "The Bugs Bunny Show," for which Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng provided new, linking animation; the studio closed its animation department in 1963, but the show is still on the air after more than 36 years! (Both men later made theatrical features combining their old cartoons with new sequences: Jones with The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie (1979, aka The Great American Chase), and Freleng with Friz Freleng's Looney Looney Looney Bugs Bunny Movie (1981), Bugs Bunny's 3rd Movie: 1001 Rabbit Tales (1982), and Daffy Duck's Movie: Fantastic Island (1983).) Freleng formed DePatie-Freleng Enterprises with David H. DePatie in 1963, and had a star almost immediately with the wordless