Cartoons that look older/younger than they actually are

[Argus Sventon]

Can anyone think of any cartoons that look older than they actually are, or look younger than they actually are.

The early Little Audrey cartoons by their music, and film quality look older than they are, while the Casper cartoons of the early 50's, look newer.

Anyone else want to cite examples.

[Thad Komorowski]

How about all of the Disney animated shorts/movies in the 1940s? All of them look like they were made in the 50s. Also, most of the Fox and Crow cartoon backgrounds are VERY advanced for their time.


-Thad

[DarthGonzo]

Since I'm the resident Tom and Jerry nut around here, I feel it's my duty to pull them into everything...

There are a few T&J shorts which really look like they were made yesterday! Nit-Wit Kitty is a good example

The old MGM/UA video releases from about ten years ago had several cartoons (Little Orphan, Cat Napping, Jerry's Cousin) which looked like they were in serious need of being remastered. I really hope someone puts out another DVD of stuff we havent seen on video before.

[J Lee]

Disney cartoons, expecially in the late 1930s and early 40s, always look like they are newer than they are because their animators' work was more fluid at the time that at other studios. Warners finally caught up around 1943 or so.

Of the WB cartoons I can think of, here are some in the 'new' and 'old' cataegory, by director.

New:

"Page Miss Glory (1936)" -- None of the other MM or LTs at that time were as precise in their drawing as Avery's crew was during the art deco sequence. Most of the other WB animation was slow and lumpy (including the start and finish of this cartoon) at least until early 1938.

"Wholly Smoke (1938)" -- Not so much for the animation or design, but for the story, which came out 16 years before the first official anti-smoking studies came out and 26 years before the Surgeon General's report linking cigarette smoking and cancer (cigs were already being called "coffin nails" at the time, so people did know at least off the record what they were all about).

"Porky In Wackyland (1938)" -- Considering they could remake this 11 years later with very little alteration in the pacing of Clampett's original animation and design is pretty impressive. Feels like a 1940s cartoon in a way Clampett's other 1930s LTs don't.

"You Ought To Be In Pictures (1940)" -- Friz takes Daffy out of the Looney bin and takes his personality all the way up to 1950 or so. The drawing style is also a lot lighter and freer than what the other WB directors were doing at the time, which may have come from Freleng's stay over at the higher-budget MGM studio (at least he got something out of it).

"Wakkiki Wabbit (1943)" -- I know, I know, The Dover Boys and The Aristo-Cat had the same type of modern design revisions, but the backgrounds and character lay-ous (especially on the tall Ken Harris/Tedd Pierce castaway) really scream out 1950s UPA style, or at tyhe very least a guest visit to the studio by Maurice Noble.

Old
"Aviation Vacation (1941)" -- Looks and sounds like a 1939 Avery cartoon. That doesn't mean it's bad, but by then Tex's other cartoons looked a lot better after the arrival of McKimson and as Ross and Scribner continued to improve.

"The Sour Puss (1940)" -- Freleng once said Ben Hardaway just put Tex's 1937 Daffy Duck in a rabbit suit for Porky's Hare Hunt. In this one, Clampett sticks the 1937 Daffy in a fish costume, which might have been OK in 1938, but this is late 1940 for gosh sakes, after both You Ought To Be In Pictures and A Wild Hare already had come out. What was he thinking?

"Plenty of Money and You (1937)" -- Better animation, but it feels like a 1934-35 Freeleng Merrie Melodie as far as plot and design goes (Special note: If there's an ostrich in a WB cartoon, odds are it stinks).

"Toy Trouble (1941)" -- The first MM to get the new opening and closing music, but the 1939 theme would have fit better -- like Friz' cartoon above, it feels like Jones could have made this two years earlier without any problem. And like Clampett's cartoon, it came at a time when the other WB directors (including Bob) were headed in the other direction.

"Porky's Double Trouble" -- Really, Tashlin didn't do any cartoons that actually felt older than they were (the opposite of Hardaway and Dalton), but I stuck this one in only because he kept using the damn fat version of Porky way after everyone else had dropped it (Trivia note: The lobby card artwork for this cartoon uses Tashlin's thin Porky, so someone finally beat some sense into Frank about the design before the cartoon was released).

[Mibbitmaker]

When I first saw Kitty Cornered in 1988, I hadn't yet seen Clampett's wilder work yet, so I was shocked (pleasantly) when it came on. It also looks to me like what cartoons should have evolved into in the modern era (particularly when I 1st saw it in the pre-Tiny Toons/Ren & Stimpy/etc. days). It still seems odd that the cartoon with its perfectly rendered, exaggerated drawing/animation style was made in the 1940s; the same '40s where most films were in b&w, where we just finished beating Hitler, before there even WAS rock'n'roll, and all kinds of stuff like that there.