Bow down to Tex Avery, one of the greatest Hollywood animators ever.He created Daffy Duck for Warner Bros., a character that represents in a nutshell Avery’s sense of humor and visual style: absolute anarchy.
Avery’s influence on the popular culture has been immense, from Ralph Bakshi to “Ren & Stimpy” to “SpongeBob SquarePants.” Not to mention “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” and “The Mask.”
(Remember the sight gag where Jim Carrey’s eyeballs fly out of their sockets, then snap back into place? That’s a Tex Avery move.)
Today’s cartoon is “Magical Maestro,” a 1952 short that Avery directed for MGM, where he spent many productive years after leaving Warner Bros.
“Magical Maestro” is brilliant in every way. Indeed, it’s part of the National Film Registry, a collection of “culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films” being preserved by the Library of Congress.
According to Wikipedia, some of the racial gags in “Magical Maestro” have been edited out by the Cartoon Network. Embedded below is the uncut version.
Bonus trivia: Later in life, Tex Avery got paid making Raid commercials featuring cartoon roaches. He also animated the “Frito Bandito.”
Tex Avery knew how to draw hot chicks, that's reason enough to love him.
ReplyDeleteNow, there's a name that I've seen a billion times, but never gave much thought.
ReplyDeleteSmokin'!
It's probably worth noting that even though it's natural to associate Tex Avery with Ren & Stimpy (since they're both well-known examples of really exaggerated cartooning), R&S creator John Kricfalusi is actually a hopeless Bob Clampett nut.
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