Tex Avery, Literally Speaking

Tex Avery’s literal masterpiece is Symphony in Slang (1951), where idioms were visualised naturally. A year earlier, Tex tried out the concept in The Cuckoo Clock (story work had begun by early 1948).

There’s a great opening, reminiscent of Avery’s Who Killed Who (1943) with a dramatic narrator who loses his echo chamber when he’s revealed to be a house cat with the standard Avery design. The kitty narrator tells us..



There was a ringing in my ears.



I kept seeing things.



My eyes were big as saucers.



I couldn’t keep a thing on my stomach.



I didn’t know whether I was coming or going.



I was down in the dumps.



I kept blowing my top.



I felt myself going to pieces.



I had to pull myself together.



Here’s a great drawing of the cat declaring he is going mad.

I believe Avery changes animators during the sequence with the last three drawings handled by Grant Simmons. Mike Lah and Walt Clinton are the other animators with Rich Hogan helping with the gags, Johnny Johnsen providing backgrounds and Daws Butler as the cat.

One of Those Corny 'B' Pictures, Eh?

Screwy Squirrel is about to clobber Meathead the dog when his cartoon is interrupted.



In another great routine, Red Riding Hood and the wolf come out of nowhere to interrupt the action. Screwy explains to the wolf he’s in the wrong cartoon—with the assistance of the previously-seen title cards pulled out of nowhere.



The whole routine is topped when Screwy and Meathead briefly inhabit the world of Red Riding Hood, with none of its characters anywhere to be found.

Heck Allen helped Tex Avery with the story in this one.

M Is For the Million Laughs Tex Gave Me

“Lucky Ducky” features the great “Technicolor Ends Here” gag, but Tex and writer Rich Hogan fit in a bunch of quick gags during the extended chase scene.

Here’s one. The duck’s on the run through a pair of trees.



The dogs are in pursuit (in their motorboat on dry land).



The big tree protects the little tree, as Scott Bradley plays “Mother” on the soundtrack.



Tex liked surprising his audience from beginning to ending of his pictures. Unfortunately, re-issue prints of “Lucky Ducky” have the original ending chopped off. Film collector and researcher Jim Tucker came across an original print and reported his findings to fellow historian Jerry Beck. Read about it HERE.

Hungry For Horse

The Southern Wolf tries to get rid of the insatiably-hungry Billy Boy by putting him on a horse and sending him on his way. Billy eats the horse’s fur. Turnabout follows.



Ray Patterson and Bob Bentley work with Tex Avery regulars Grant Simmons, Mike Lah and Walt Clinton as animators on this one. Designs by Ed Benedict.

Chasing a King-Size Canary

Who has time to open doors or go through windows when you’re a gigantic cat chasing a king-sized canary? That was Tex Avery’s philosophy in “King-Size Canary.” The chase inside the house goes so quickly, Avery accommodates it simply by changing the background during the chase.



Johnny Johnson was the background artist.

Pepper Makes Him Sneeze, You Say?

Was there even one cartoon studio which didn’t use the pepper/sneeze gag? (Besides maybe UPA). It goes back at least as far as “Felix Gets Broadcasted” (1923). Here’s an MGM version of the old routine in “Sufferin’ Cats” (released in 1942).



The layout in the last frame is unique. I wonder if Harvey Eisenberg is responsible.

Receiving animation credits are Ken Muse, Jack Zander, Pete Burness and George Gordon.

Missing Mouse

“I didn’t go back and still-frame it,” said animation writer and historian Earl Kress, “but it looked to me like Jerry disappeared for a frame.”

He’s talking on a commentary track for “Puss Gets the Boot.” Well, let’s still frame it for Earl.



Say, he’s right. Earl usually was. We miss you, Earl.

Oh, and here’s the missing drawing of Jerry from earlier in the walk cycle.