February 26th, 2008 marks the centennial anniversary of the birth of Fred "Tex" Avery.
I don't think it's any kind of an exaggeration to say that Avery was probably the most influential of all the animated filmmakers in the comedy genre. While Disney was frequently refining his studio's craft, they got bland awfully quick in terms of humor. Avery brought forth a hybrid of sophisticated drawing and the kinds of edgy gags and story structures that make animated cartoons fun.
Animation historian Milt Gray recently wrote an article on what he felt Bob Clampett's contributions to the Warner Bros. cartoon style were. (John K. has posted some of it, and may post the rest.) Milt claims in his piece that Clampett was more responsible than Avery was for giving the Warner cartoons their anarchic uniqueness.
But let the cartoons speak for themselves. Here are the kinds of cartoons Avery was contributing to at Lantz in the early 1930s...
... Meanwhile, here's the kind of cartoon Clampett and Chuck Jones were contributing to around the same time at Schlesinger's.
Here's Avery's arrival at Schlesinger's, with those crazy boys Bob and Chuck animating... (Jones animated Porky's happy dances... Clampett does the Scottish terrier, and the scene at the end with Porky finally handing the bomb over.)
So, sorry, it was Avery (and very shortly after, Tashlin) who got the ball rolling in the Warner cartoon universe. By the time Clampett became a director, the idea that Looney Tunes were going to be wild and crazy was established.
You need to look at Avery's work at Schlesinger's in a certain context, like the level of acting Disney was achieving in the mid-1930s, to realize how important it was. Yes, Jones, Clampett, Tashlin, and Freleng had higher peaks than Avery did at Warners, but the kinds of things Avery was doing just weren't being done elsewhere at the time.
I don't think I have to wax on any further, because by now we've come to that inarguable pinnacle of the 7-minute art form, the MGM Tex Avery cartoon. I think they're the finest examples of what Manny Farber called "termite art" (art that's created out of unedifying and "popular" materials as opposed to self-important "white elephant art") animation has to offer. Enjoy. And thanks for everything, Tex.
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