Wacky-Bye Baby Backgrounds

Here’s some more of Fred Brunish’s work, this time of the Wally Walrus mansion in “Wacky-Bye Baby,” a 1948 cartoon made during Walter Lantz’s United Artists release. It’s a shame I can’t snip together some of the long interiors from this cartoon (characters get in the way and there are colour matching problems). Wally must have spend a fortune on floor wax.



Brunish was only 49 when he died on June 25, 1952 of cirrhosis of the liver.

Destination: Supermarket Window

Here’s the opening shot of the Woody Woodpecker cartoon “Destination Meatball.” Fred Brunish was the background artist, though Woody is on cels and I suspect one of the animators put the line-up looking in the window on a cel as well.



The cartoon was released on December 24, 1951 (even though Boxoffice reviewed it six weeks earlier). Brunish was dead six months later.

Walter Lantz' Secret Ad

Walter Lantz gets in a plug for his comic books in “Well Oiled” (1947).



Background painting by Fred Brunish.

No Vacancy

Here’s Fred Brunish at work in the opening of “Woody the Giant Killer.”



Bugs Hardaway (Woody), Harry Lang (Buck Beaver) and Jack Mather (Giant) supply voices.

A Brunish Banquet

It’s been a while since we visited the work of Fred Brunish, who exclusively provided background drawings in the Walter Lantz cartoons through most of the mid to late ‘40s (before that, Lantz also employed Phil De Guard and Terry Lind, though Brunish began at the studio in the ‘30s). So let’s look at the opening of “Banquet Busters” a 1949 release where Lantz and director Dick Lundy rely on Brunish to set the scene. And save money, because the first 33 seconds of the cartoon consist of camerawork across Brunish’s drawings, with the exception of a candle burning (by Sid Pillett?). It’s cheaper than animating.



The cartoon opens with a pan down some skyscrapers with the camera resting on a shot which shows a decrepit building between the towers. The layout artist isn’t credited, but the concept could have come out of the Ben Hardaway-Jack Cosgriff storyboard.



Here’s Brunish’s next background. Lundy dissolves to it and the camera trucks in and stops to allow us to read Hardaway’s attempt at humour on the window.



Finally, there’s a left-to-right pan across a very long background drawing, finally resting on a hungry Andy Panda. Actually, the drawing eventually continues to a table where we find Woody Woodpecker and a mouse.

Lantz had the foresight to donate many of the production materials from his cartoons to the UCLA Film and Television Archive, including backgrounds. I hope these are in the collection.

Well Oiled Backgrounds

It’s been a while since we looked at some of Fred Brunish’s backgrounds for the Walter Lantz studio, so let’s check out some from “Well Oiled” (1947). They’re not as sharply detailed as you’d find in, say, Paul Julian’s work at Warners, but they’re certainly effective enough for the Lantz cartoons.



Every once in a while, Brunish threw in something for the boss. Here, he’s advertising Lantz’s comic books.




The backgrounds are part of the gag, as Officer Wally Walrus (voiced by Jack Mather) screams after gas-thief Woody Woodpecker (voiced by Bugs Hardaway). Their cars do a loop-de-loop, then screech off the side of a cliff.



Time for one of Hardaway’s sign puns. “Tukar Garage.” If Hardaway were writing cartoons today, he’d use it for the name of a rapper.



Brunish has light reflecting of the hood of Wally’s car.




Parts of a longer background. Brunish has part of the fence closer to the foreground; it’s in pastel shades of pink and white.



Some of the Lantz artwork is stashed away at UCLA and it’s too bad it’s not scanned and put on line. Then you’d be able to see Brunish’s backgrounds unobstructed. There are several paintings of various buildings on the service station lot that are quite enjoyable. Here’s part of one with Woody in the foreground.

The Lantz studio closed down temporary at the end of the 1948. Brunish was back when it re-opened in 1950 but not for long. He died of cirrhosis of the liver on June 25, 1952, age 49.

Wet Blanket Policy Backgrounds

The Oscar-nominated ‘The Woody Woodpecker Song’ made its debut in “Wet Blanket Policy” (1948), and that’s why the cartoon has achieved a level of fame. But the rest of the cartoon is enjoyable; the late ‘40s Lantz shorts benefited from what you could arguably call other studios’ castoffs. Setting aside Bugs Hardaway’s flat delivery as Woody, the voice work is first rate; Buzz Buzzard was never better than when he was supplied with an evil growl by Lionel Stander.

And then there are the distinctive backgrounds of Fred Brunish. They’re far sketchier than you’d find at other studios but they always seem to work. Brunish always exhibits a good grasp of light, highlight and shade as well. Here are a few of his cityscapes from “Wet Blanket Policy.”





Brunish would occasionally work in a cross-promotion for the Lantz comics in his backgrounds. You can see it in the final drawing above. Whether he worked on the comics, I couldn’t tell you—it doesn’t appear he ever drew characters—but it wouldn’t have hurt his relationship with the boss.