The Golden Age of American Animation
I’ve recently been rekindling my appreciation for cartoons from “The Golden Age of American Animation.” Like most kids in the US, I caught these cartoons after school or on Saturday mornings. But my father was no different: always a huge fan of the Warner Brothers cartoons; he would bring us home VHS cassettes with hours’ worth of these shorts recorded on them. I think it’s remarkable that after almost 30 years, I can still laugh at these things the same way I did when I was a little kid. What’s even more remarkable is that so can my old man. The fact that these cartoons have held up and stood the test of time so wonderfully should be noted, considering that the movies they were shown ahead of largely did not.
Here’s 3 that were not only favorites of mine as a kid, but have also have placed within the top 10 of “The 50 Greatest Cartoons: As Selected by 1,000 Animation Professionals.” The first two “Duck Amuck” and “One Froggy Evening” both directed by the late, great Chuck Jones, were also selected to be preserved in the National Film Registry after being deemed “culturally significant” by the US Library of Congress. The third “Red Hot Riding Hood” is from the late, great Tex Avery, who is credited not only with being instrumental in the creation of Bugs Bunny, but also in being instrumental in giving cartoons of the time the “edginess” that had been lacking in the shorts of the past AKA Disney’s cartoons. Of Avery’s contribution, Wikipedia says “Avery’s style of directing broke the mold of strict realism established by Walt Disney, and encouraged animators to stretch the boundaries of the medium to do things in a cartoon that could not be done in the world of live-action film. An often-quoted line about Avery’s cartoons was, ‘In a cartoon you can do anything,’ and his cartoons often did just that.”
enjoy.
Duck Amuck
1953
Warner Brothers
Directed by Chuck Jones
One Froggy Evening
1956
Warner Brothers
Directed by Chuck Jones
Red Hot Riding Hood
1943
MGM
Directed by Tex Avery
Posted on July 01, 2008 at 11:11 AM | Previous Entry | Next Entry | Entry List | Email Entry | Digg
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