Acme Hour - 11/6/01

[Jon Cooke]

"She Was an Acrobat's Daughter"
"Rhapsody in Rivets"
"Chips Off the Old Block" (MGM)
"Flying Circus"
"Gold Rush Daze"
"Little Dutch Plate"


-Jon

[DR. BELCH]

I got to wondering while watching this short if the cat was based on some celebrity--possibly a boxer, judging from that lumpy forehead and cauliflower ear, and probably one who kissed a lot of canvas in his career. :rolleyes:

[Dub]

I moreso noticed the cats voice. It was probably an imitation, but to the untrained ear it sounded almost similar to Clarence Nash of Donald Duck fame ^___^

[J Lee]

"Chips" qualifies as definitely one of the more percular MGM cartoons, both with the voice selection (Warners stopped using Clarence Nash imitations in 1938), the lumpy, heavy design of 'Butch' -- more realistic as a fat house cat, but not good for animating the end chase scene -- and of course the decision to use the rotoscope on the cat's owner, which looks partcularly weird during the ending chase.

I'm not quite sure what Robert Allen was thinking when he did it, but it seemed like he was trying to do an Avery style cartoon while still holding onto the Ising unit's pacing and design. And as far as the voice goes, someone may have thought that giving Donald's voice to a cat whose .... um .... illcit relationship and resulting consequences were the starting point of the film might get ol' Walt's blood boiling a bit (a subtile shot at the origins of Huey, Louie and Dewey), if he happened to stop into a nearby Lowe's theater to catch "Meet Me In St. Louis" or some other MGM feature and this cartoon came on.