A Right Purdy Leg of Lamb

Mike Lah inherited Tex Avery’s Droopy and southern drawling wolf when he was handed a unit at the MGM cartoon studio. But he and designer/layout man Ed Benedict came up with their own characters, too. Like this leggy female lamb in “Sheep Wrecked.”



The chorus girl lamb is revealed after the wolf pulls off her wool with a toilet plunger attached to a cord.



Notice the two background drawings are different. They’re the work of Fernando Montealegre. Animating on this were Ken Southworth, Irv Spence, Herman Cohen, Bill (Victor O.) Schipek and Jim Escalante, who had been an effects animator. The cartoon was released in February 1958. By then, the MGM cartoon studio was but a memory. Lah, Schipek and Monty were working at Hanna-Barbera, making Ruff and Reddy.