Favorite Cartoon Flattening?

[Matt Yorston]

This may sound like a silly idea for a thread but... what is your favorite scene(s) from a cartoon in which a character is forcefully flattened or compressed somehow?

My main picks are both from Road Runner cartoons, specifically the bit in "Ready, Set, Zoom" where the coyote sets up a 10,000 pound weight to fall on the bird but gets squashed by it himself squishing him, as Beck/Friedwald say, into the shape of a poker chip (who walks off glaring at us) and the scene in "Highway Runnery" in which the coyote's body is compressed into the shape of an accordian after enduring a landing from an 80 foot fall.

I also like the bit in the Herman & Katnip cartoon, "Mousetro Herman", in which Katnip's body is crushed into the shape of a record after he smashes into a gong. The mice then put the "record" onto a phonograph and play it (music is actually heard!) before tossing it out the window, shattering it leaving Katnip's body to resume its original shape.

Any thoughts?

[BugsandTweety]

Sylvester in "Satan's Waitin'" where he's flattened by a steam roller and his 2-D spirit
walks over to the others in hell and takes his seat beside them. Next would be Wile E. being steam-rollered in "Out and Out Rout". Other mentions would be the knight in "Knights Must Fall" (accordion-head) and Ralph Wolf in both "Steal Wool" and "A Sheep In the Deep". Sam sure had the knack of compressing Ralph.

[Jack]

Originally posted by BugsandTweety
Sylvester in "Satan's Waitin'" where he's flattened by a steam roller and his 2-D spirit walks over to the others in hell and takes his seat beside them.
I love that one, but then again, "Satan's Waitin'" is such a good cartoon all around (IMO).



Jack :D

[DarthGonzo]

I liked in Jerry and the Goldfish when Jerry feeds Tom's tail through the laundry wringer and Tom grabs the toaster and takes it through with him.

[Matt Yorston]

I almost forgot...

I also love the scene in both "The Bodyguard" and "The Duck Doctor" in which Tom runs head on into an anvil and ends up looking like a coffee table!

[lislebartman]

I love it when Renegade Sam gets flattened by Geronimo when the latter tries to crash through the doors of Fort Lariat with a log in "Horse Hare"...

"Boss...boss...wherum you go, boss? Uh, oh...me wouldn't want to be me tonight..!"

[Mibbitmaker]

Favorite cartoon flattening OUTSIDE of an animated cartoon...

That would be in the SCTV Quincy parody ("Quincy: Cartoon Coroner" I believe it was called). It's actually a post-flattening scene where Quincy(Joe Flattery) (Flatten-ery? :D ) describes the event in halarious detail. Nice parody of cartoon violence without being judgemental.

[Lonestarr]

Originally posted by Mibbitmaker
Favorite cartoon flattening OUTSIDE of an animated cartoon...


I'd have to go with Judge Doom (Christopher Lloyd) in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit". His dishonor soon reveals himself as a toon!

I can't think of any animated flattenings at the moment. Also, the guy's last name is Flaherty.

[Mibbitmaker]

As a big SCTV fan, I should be ashamed of myself for misspelling that name! And me(also classic SNL fan) getting annoyed when people spell Aykroyd "Ackroyd", too!

How does one highlight the darkened spoiler thingy anyway? I'm still not well versed on some internet doohickeys (or spelling, for that matter ;) )

[Thad Komorowski]

I like the scene in "Kitty Foiled", where the canary drops the bottom of the bird cage on Tom's head, forming the cat's head into a pokerchip.




-Thad

[Paul Penna]

One of the best-timed ones is in an MGM Tex Avery Droopy/Wolf/Girl cartoon, which of course I can't remember the title of. It's set out in the middle of the desert, no one around for hundreds of miles, and there's this highway, see? So the wolf looks both ways very carefully, right? Then he takes one step out and...

Actually, they're pretty much all like that, come to think of it, but that''s the one I always remember first. Now about that title...

[J Lee]

"Wild and Woolfy" (1945)

[Nelson]

In the cartoon "flattening" dept. would go to, 1932's "Touchdown Mickey"...The scene were Mickey catches the football and his teamate (a very big pig)rolls on the field literally (frame by frame)flattening the feline opponents, as well as Mickey gettin flattening by his own teammate by mistake.Then the paramedics have to pick up each player like sheets of paper and they use a very large key to roll up the other players, very funny scene. :D

[Larry T]

One of my favourites is in "Puss N Booty" when Rudolph smashes into the wall and falls on the floor in the shape of a Goro coin.

[Pietro]

I always liked the scene from "Haredevil Hare" when Bugs falls flat on his back in the rocket!:p

-Pietro:D

[Matthew Hunter]

Several:

The bit in "Horse Hare" where the big "Geronimo' guy flattens Sam against the wall.

There is one of those Larriva Roadrunner films ("Tired and Feathered" maybe? I forget) in which Wile E. gets trapped between two cliffs and a big log rolls him flat, then rolls up and down the hills and flattens him again.

"To Beep or Not To Beep" and "Adventures of the Road Runner": Wile E. pulls the rope on the rock, gets squashed, and makes an accordion noise as he walks offscreen.

Yosemite Sam on the stairs in "Hare Trimmed". Likewise, Sam gets flattened in "Honey's Money", after going to get a baseball that has landed on the highway. The ball's flat too!

That hippo in several early Harman/Ising Merrie Melodies. I think Both Foxy and Bosko encounter her, but in "Smile darn Ya Smile", Foxy 'deflates' her to get her into his train car.

-Matthew

[angilbas]

In "War and Pieces," Caninus nervous rex drifts gently to the road after being flattened by a hydraulic press.

-Tony

[Joe Tully]

Originally posted by Mibbitmaker


How does one highlight the darkened spoiler thingy anyway? I'm still not well versed on some internet doohickeys (or spelling, for that matter ;) )

Click your mouse, hold down on the button and move it over the box. It's the same way in which you select text for cut-and-paste, if you're familiar with that.

I don't think it's much of a spoiler since most people have seen Roger Rabbit, but I agree it would ruin someone's enjoyment of the film if they hadn't seen it...

A Tale of Two Kitties comes to mind for me, with the very first anvil gag.

[Howard Fein]

KNIGHTY-KNIGHT BUGS :
"Open up this drawbridge! Open it up, I say!"
**SLAM!!**
[In muffled voice] "CLOOSE it! Close it up again! OK, rabbit, ya forced me to use force!"
Dainty piano heard as Sam toddles away. :D

[Mibbitmaker]

Just did the Spoiler Space. Cool effect! :)

[DarthGonzo]

I forgot the name of the Tex Avery cartoon with the cat and the cuckoo clock. But there's a scene in this one where the cuckoo hit the cat's hand with a mallet. It gets flattened so wide it becomes transparent.

Unrelated question, but is there a reason why Scott Bradley's scores for Avery cartoons are always generic, never approaching the level his Tom and Jerry scores did?

[Matt Yorston]

I don't know if I quite agree with your statement, DarthGonzo. While Scott Bradley's T&J scores are indeed excellent (particularly those for "Baby Puss", "Mouse Trouble", "Tee for Two", "Quiet Please!", and quite a few others) and his scores for Avery may seem slower, I don't know if I'd go as far as to call them "generic". I find they certainly enliven Avery's cartoons the same everyone else involved in their production did. I particularly like the Bradley moment in "Half Pint Pygmy" where George and Junior approach the "information" octopus who tells them the pygmy "went THAT way" and points every one of his tentacles in a different direction in a manic fashion. The "Da-da-da-da-DA-da-da-da" music Bradley uses to accompany the scene is fantastic.

I also very much like his scores for "Doggone Tired", "The Counterfeit Cat", "Rock-a-Bye Bear", "Billy Boy", "Happy Go Nutty", and the sandwich-slicing scene in "House of Tomorrow". These are very much identifiable as Bradley scores.

But, to answer your question, I guess Avery wanted Bradley's scores that way. It is the director's job (if I'm not mistaken) to control the speed and tempo of the cartoon's score. For this reason, that may be why a Bradley score for Hanna/Barbera may be livelier than the same person scoring for Avery. But I still contend that Bradley's Avery scores are very good nonetheless.

[J Lee]

Mike Barrier's book on Hollywood cartoons contains a paragraph in which Bradley says he had fights with Avery over his scores and had to go to Fred Quimby to get things straightened out to his liking. Barrier doesn't go into any other detail about their disagreement, so I don't know if the "more sedate" scores you mention were an example of Scott getting his way over Tex or vice-versa.