tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589696115267272664.post6510633288737402082..comments2024-03-06T00:01:06.897-08:00Comments on Likely Looney, Mostly Merrie: 1939 leftover...Steven Hartleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13825398324719609394noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1589696115267272664.post-54983683826617475892013-04-30T07:41:39.870-07:002013-04-30T07:41:39.870-07:00The stories weren't good in '39 -- and con...The stories weren't good in '39 -- and continuing into the early part of 1940 as well -- but artistically, the period was important as a learning time for the studio. <br /><br />You can see it most obviously in the determined efforts of the Jones unit to figure out the Disney drawing style, but in 1940, when you get the shifts in animators and the return of Freleng to the studio, you first start to see cartoons that don't feel inhibited by the limitations of the studios drawing style. Avery's efforts really pick up in both look and movement once McKimson arrives, and Friz brought some of the animation lessons from the higher-priced MGM efforts with him back to Schlesinger's.<br /><br />So the cartoons of the period aren't all that great, just like the studio's mid-to-late 1960s efforts weren't anything to shout about. But at least the 1939 shorts were creating the building blocks for much greater things to come, while the 60s were just the dying gasps of a cash-starved department.J Leehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15175515543694122729noreply@blogger.com