Author Topic: Animation Education  (Read 23775 times)

DarkeningHumour

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Re: Animation Education
« Reply #80 on: July 06, 2017, 05:27:07 AM »
I am all for dark and bloody, but I don't want a world where Beauty and the Beast does not exist.
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goodguy

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Re: Animation Education
« Reply #81 on: July 06, 2017, 12:19:27 PM »
I don't want a world where mentioning Beauty and the Beast is met with the assumption one is talking about the Disney franchise.


pixote

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Re: Animation Education
« Reply #82 on: July 06, 2017, 12:22:20 PM »
I don't want a world where mentioning Beauty and the Beast is met with the assumption one is talking about the Disney franchise.

Don't worry. Everyone knows it's a tale as old as time.

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DarkeningHumour

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Re: Animation Education
« Reply #83 on: July 06, 2017, 12:35:20 PM »
We were talking about Disney animated movies, but I will keep in mind next time I compare Beauty and the Beast to Alice to clarify that I am not in fact drawing a parallel between Cocteau and Tim Burton.
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oldkid

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Re: Animation Education
« Reply #84 on: July 06, 2017, 12:44:17 PM »
I need to revisit The Black Cauldron, but there is no way I could have appreciated it those long decades past.  Since sixth grade I have been a huge fan of the Lloyd Alexander Prydain series, and there is no way Disney could have done a proper adaptation, it was guaranteed to disappoint me. 

There would have to be similarities to other high fantasy stories, since Prydain was based on some of the same source texts as Tolkien used for Lord of the Rings, although Tolkien focused on the Nordic and Alexander focused on the Celtic.   Still, there's a lot of overlap.

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pixote

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Re: Animation Education
« Reply #85 on: July 09, 2017, 04:33:22 AM »


Puss Gets the Boot  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1940)

This Oscar-nominated animated short introduced a cat named Jasper and a mouse that the creators knew as Jinx. The success of the short quickly led to a franchise, and Jasper and Jinx morphed into Tom and Jerry. Familiarity with many of the later entries in that franchise perhaps dulled my enjoyment of this original film, but it's still interesting to see where it all started, with Jasper being furrier and rounder than Tom, and Jinx being a bit more cherubic than Jerry.

Grade: C





The Midnight Snack  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1941)

The second short in the Tom & Jerry franchise (though the first to use those names) offers a few more smiles than Puss Gets the Boot, but pacing still seems to be an issue, with many of the gags feelings drawn out and often repetitive.

Grade: C+

















The Night Before Christmas  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1941)

The Christmas backdrops are really warm and creative, with a surprising pastel hue to them that I find very appealing. The overall animation here is of a much higher quality than I'd expect from a 1941 short. I might have been happy spending nine minutes just watching Jerry explore every gift under the tree, but some nice moments do arise from the typical cat-and-mouse antics, and I'm a sucker for the Christmas spirit that infuses the ending. The kiss that Tom and Jerry share under the mistletoe is almost sweet and demonstrates how Tom is really the more tender of the two characters at this point — like an older brother who's constantly hazing his sibling but really cares about him. Jerry, on the other hand, is just a hedonic sadist.

Grade: B





Fraidy Cat  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1942)

There's very little to recommend this short, a definite letdown after The Night Before Christmas. Tom gets super scared after listening to a scary story on the radio, and Jerry, seeing an opportunity for torment, tricks Tom into thinking their house is really haunted. There's not much cleverness on display, and Tom makes a couple fearful noises (not quite words) that don't fit his character at all.

Grade: C





Dog Trouble  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1942)

Even just five shorts in, the basic framework of this comic universe feels rather limiting. The introduction of Spike (the bulldog) in Dog Trouble seems like a great way to shake things up, creating a common enemy that unites Tom & Jerry. In this particular instance, though, Spike doesn't really change anything; the same old chase dynamics hold sway. At this point in their careers, Hanna, Barbera, and company seems to lack the inventive gags and basic comic originality of the great silent comedians or their contemporaries over at Termite Terrace. They are fine animators, though, especially adept at rending the whirlwind motions of their characters — motions that form the very core of these shorts. I look forward to when they find the writing to match.

Grade: C

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« Last Edit: July 09, 2017, 07:46:48 PM by pixote »
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pixote

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Re: Animation Education
« Reply #86 on: July 09, 2017, 08:54:06 PM »


Puss n' Toots  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1942)

Mammy Two-Shoes agrees to catsit a cute kitty, and Tom is instantly smitten to the point of turning wolfish (literally, for a second). The promising setup hits its high point as Tom uses Jerry as a prop in a series of slight-of-hand magic tricks (after the visitor turns down offers of a fish and bird as snacks), but then the premise is largely forgotten as standard chase antics ensue.

Grade: C





The Bowling Alley-Cat  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1942)

Why are Tom and Jerry all alone in a bowling alley? I couldn't tell you. But it's not a bad change of pace, once I got used to it. There's a minute in the middle of this short where I thought, "Okay, cool, this is finally working," but then I returned to my usual nonplussed state. In my favorite animated shorts of this type, I often feel the legacy of Keaton, Chaplin, and the Marx Brothers, but so far Tom and Jerry seem to have a far greater kinship with the Three Stooges. I wonder if the title of this one has ever been a Before & After puzzle on Wheel of Fortune.

Grade: C





Fine Feathered Friend  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1942)

A barnyard setting this time as Jerry gains the protection of a mother hen (by extension of her protection of her brood of chickadees). I fear I'm grading these shorts too harshly — none of them is without its merits — but even watching at home, without the benefit of a theater audience, I should have laughed aloud by now. And I haven't.

Grade: C















The Lonesome Mouse  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1943)

They speak! Jerry gets Tom thrown out of the house and at first enjoys his freedom but soon discovers that he's bored without his frenemy around. As his inner voice says, "You never thought you'd miss that cat, did you? Feeling kind of lonesome? Look at him. You can't live with him, but there's no fun without him." Jerry and Tom then hatch a plan to get Tom back in the house, communicating in whispers that, surprisingly, are actual words. This new element isn't as jarring as it seems like it should be, neither adding nor subtracting from the short as a whole, except to add some nice differentiation. What does more to elevate The Lonesome Mouse over many of the proceeding shorts is there's actually a narrative framework to the action and not just two characters endlessly chasing or torturing each other. The highlight here, for me, is when the two have a random little jam session under the sink. That continues the trend of my finding more delight in these characters when they're at play rather than at war.

Grade: B-

















Puttin' on the Dog  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1944)

Puttin' on the Dog provides the most sustained humor of any Tom & Jerry short to date, largely thanks to the absurdity of Tom's doggy disguise. It's the gift that keeps on giving, and the animators do well to make the most of it. Tom and Jerry have already broken the fourth wall in these shorts a few times, with the occasional reaction or glance to the audience, but Jerry's "Yes, stupid, it's a cat" sign is the first real bit of anarchic humor that redefines the logic of this world — a positive first step, I think. Puttin' on the Dog may prove to be the film that represents when this franchise finally hit its stride.

Grade: B-

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« Last Edit: July 10, 2017, 03:49:15 AM by pixote »
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pixote

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Re: Animation Education
« Reply #87 on: July 09, 2017, 11:08:48 PM »


The Mouse Comes to Dinner  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1945)

The most viciously violent entry to date, with Tom and Jerry each trying to stab each other with a knife and with Jerry setting Tom on fire. Tom gets very anthropomorphized here, using the telephone to invite his crush over to dinner, eating with utensils, and smoking a cigar and a cigarette. I appreciate the series' attempt to expand the limits of what's possible in this world, but this particular attempt feels like a misfire, with the characterization caught too much in between the animal and human spheres. I suspect that some of the choices here were inspired by what the Warner Bros. cartoonists were doing around the same time, but the imitation doesn't seem to befit these characters. The best part is hearing Mammy Two-Shoes sing a couple bars of "I Got It Bad (and That Ain't Good)".

Grade: C



















Mouse in Manhattan  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1945)

A real showcase for the animators, who seem to have put particular time and effort into this short. Jerry's solo adventure in the big city is largely just an excuse for some rather wonderful backdrops — many more than I'd expect to find in an eight-minute short from this era. Even with no good gags to its credit, Mouse in Manhattan is almost worth seeing for the artwork alone. Almost. A highly predictable and unfortunate blackface gag helps tip things away from the film's favor. The greater problem is that these films have failed to give Jerry (or Tom) any real concrete persona. He's playful, mischievous, and a bit gluttonous (not to mention psychotic), but that's not quite enough a comic foundation for his character. It'd be interesting to marathon some Wily E. Coyote/Road Runner cartoons for comparison. They're obviously not defined with any great depth either, but my hunch is they remain more constantly true to a small set of traits, and that constancy creates inevitability which adds to the humor. (Or maybe their gags are just better.) At any rate, there's a moment in Mouse in Manhattan when Jerry whistles at some attractive human females. That not only surprised me, but it made me realize how ambiguous his character remains at this point and how that ambiguity creates an obstacle to comedy.

Grade: C+





Springtime for Thomas  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1946)

Love-struck Tom isn't interested in trying to kill Jerry, which makes Jerry bored. (These shorts are wonderfully twisted conceptually, I must admit.) Jerry enlists a wolfish alley-cat to steal Tom's love interest so that Jerry can get his frenemy back. The musical score might be the highlight of this short, adding some nice jazzy energy to the usual antics, and the alley-cat's humming of "Over the Rainbow" adds some pop cultural interest. But I'm still having trouble getting on board with these largely repetitive shenanigans.

Grade: C





Trap Happy  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1946)

Tom phones an exterminator to help him kill Jerry. The exterminator turns out to be another cat (they get listings in the yellow pages, too!), which allows for a doubling of the traditional goings-on. There are a handful of promising gags, but overall this is another ho-hum effort. I'm beginning to worry that I've now steeled myself against these cartoons and will no longer recognize a good joke when I see it. I hope that's not the case.

Grade: C





Part Time Pal  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1947)

Here's my new theory: these animators seem to correlate how funny something is with how difficult it is to animate. They often seem to pass up simple, elegant jokes for completely manic action that's impressively rendered but lacking in comic timing. Puttin' on the Dog has been one of the rare exceptions to this trend and, by no coincidence, one of the funniest shorts so far. In Part Time Pal, Tom falls into a barrel of fermented cider and emerges completely drunk. I was instantly smiling just from the comic potential of a drunken house cat — but that potential is only hinted at by the rest of the film. The highlight here is Jerry's effort to keep Tom out of trouble with Mammy, even though Drunk Tom wants to kick her in the seat of her pants and put a lit match under her heel. I don't fully understand why these moments of friendship are so much more appealing than the natural-enemies moments, but I suspect it's because those are the times when the characters exhibit the strongest personalities. When they're just chasing each other around, you could substitute two completely different characters and not lose much. And that's part of the problem here: if Tom had a more clearly defined persona, then Drunk Tom would have a norm to play against. But that's not the case, and the film suffers as a result.

Grade: C+

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« Last Edit: July 10, 2017, 03:57:33 AM by pixote »
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pixote

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Re: Animation Education
« Reply #88 on: July 10, 2017, 11:09:07 PM »




Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Mouse  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1947)

Tom doesn't want to share his milk with Jerry, but Jerry is so sneaky that the only solution is to poison him. But Tom's concoction is actually mouse steroids, turning Jerry into a beefy cat-killer. Tom is at his most evil here, and the animation reflects that, at times giving him a very sinister, very devilish look. It sounds better on paper than it actually is. The best moments are all at the very end, when the potion backfires on Tom, setting up Jerry's best fourth wall break so far.

Grade: C













Old Rockin' Chair Tom  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1948)

Mammy Two-Shoes is central to the story for the first time, which is great because it provides us with the most voice-work we've heard yet from Lillian Randolph (who was so delightful playing another maid, Annie, in It's a Wonderful Life two years earlier) but not so great in that Mammy is an unfortunate racial stereotype. In the earliest of these cartoons, Puss Gets the Boot, she somewhat famously tells Jasper, "Now, understand this, Jasper, if youse break one more thing, youse is going out - O-W-T, out!" That sort of dialogue and dialect has always defined her character, who is almost always seen from the waist down, at most. Old Rockin' Chair Tom represents the second time we've seen Jerry gleefully interested in terrifying Mammy, which seems like an odd character choice for him, in some ways, but I have to remind myself that the terrified Negro was a comic staple for a time, one which these cartoons certainly aren't above. (It also makes sense to think that, since mice are always scaring humans, maybe they're doing it on purpose and enjoying it, but I'm not confident that that's the angle the writers had in mind.) Anyway, when Tom proves ill-equipped to get rid of Jerry, Mammy brings a second cat into the house (one looks oddly like Tom wearing a Lorax costume). Tom and Jerry conspire to get rid of this intruder, and there are no real surprises to be had (except maybe throwaway line where Mammy refers to Tom as Uncle Tom).

Grade: C











Professor Tom  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1948)

Tom shows a younger cat the cat ropes. Whenever the young pupil's playful innocence is at the center of Professor Tom, it's at its most enjoyable. It's maybe the first time that a guest character has arrived with a clearly defined and appealing comic persona. His lighthearted alliance with Jerry is particularly satisfying. Once again, though, Hanna-Barbera have trouble sustaining a story's charm, and even at seven-and-a-half minutes this short feels drawn out. I did like hearing the The Wizard of Oz score quoted at the end (the second such reference).

Grade: C+









The Cat and the Mermouse  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1949)

Even in an underwater setting, the series' standard rhythms remain in full effect. I laughed mockingly when an angry shark appeared on the screen because he seemed such a clear modulation of the angry bulldog from other films. The props are new but the gags remain the same. Tom's perfect emulation of a turtle's swimming is the definite highlight.

Grade: C











Polka-Dot Puss  (William Hanna & Joseph Barbera, 1949)

Jerry convinces Tom that Tom has the measles and then tortures him with various treatments, including baking him in a hot over. Possibly the most mean-spirited of these shorts so far. If the gags were better, I'm sure I'd be more forgiving, but, as is, Polka-Dot Puss is rather off-putting.

Grade: C-

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oldkid

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Re: Animation Education
« Reply #89 on: July 11, 2017, 01:56:19 AM »
I remember all of these cartoons from when I was young.  I'm kind of afraid to re-visit them.
"It's not art unless it has the potential to be a disaster." Bansky