Gift Wrapped Backgrounds

One of the real enjoyable Christmas cartoons is Friz Freleng’s “Gift Wrapped” (1952). It used to air all year round; appropriate, I guess, considering it was originally released to theatres in February. This is the title card artwork.



This time, Irv Wyner came up with the background art from Hawley Pratt’s layouts. His use of light is very much like Paul Julian’s work in the Freleng unit.



And here’s the “censored” ending that was used in cartoons at several different studios.



Ken Champin, Art Davis, Virgil Ross and Manny Perez were the animators; Gerry Chiniquy was out of the business for a bit at this point.