interview question

[Jack]

Did anyone ever do an interview with Robert McKimson? If so, where would it be found, if it can be found?

I'd love to hear McKimson's thoughts about WB cartoons, his takes on the characters' personalities (I doubt they are the same as Jones' "everyone wants to be Bugs, but we really are loser Daffy" opinion) and his thoughts about the decline of the studio, or even his own unit after the 3D shutdown.

I know he isn't thought of as the best director, but I think he needs to have an in-depth piece written about him his work as an animator, and his unit just once, I think he deserves it.

I wouldn't mind a Freleng interview too, for the same reasons I'd like to read an interview with McKimson. I'd just like to hear a different take on the studio, one that's different from that of Jones, who only really talks about his post 1954 cartoons in any real depth (completely ignoring 99% of my favorite cartoons done by him), making his interviews somewhat unsatisfying. It was great reading that Avery interview in Adamson's book, I learned quite a bit. Same with the Maltese and Allen interviews.




Jack:D

[PlopKat]

The only interview with Robert McKimson I can recall reading is from the bookThe American Animated Cartoon: A Critical Anthology (Gerald Peary & Danny Peary, editors; E.P. Dutton, publishers, 1980). McKimson's interview is only eight pages and two and a quarter pages are taken up by a lobby card forRaw Raw Rooster, a drawing of the Tasmanian Devil, and model sheets for Speedy Gonzales and the Goofy Gophers. It's interesting, but I wish it was longer; Joe Adamson's interview with Chuck Jones gets 13½ pages.

A few points that stood out upon just rereading it:

1) McKimson says, "The reason I turned down the director job for seven years was that I felt that, to be a director, you had to know every phase."

2) McKimson didn't think much of the quality of the Fleischer studio animation. In particular, he calls Popeye cartoons "horrible."

3) Nor does he give Tex Avery much credit for Avery's drawing ability. McKimson says:

When I worked with Tex, he never drew too well. And I would take his rough characters and make them work. At MGM, it seems he did a lot of drawing himself. A lot of it is crude and overdone. That's the way Tex always thought. He always wanted everything overdone. It works fine for some things, but not for everything.


4) On Warners' decline, McKimson says:
It's towards the end of the fifties and into the early 1960s, just before we closed down, that things got too subtle, with everything underplayed. (Bugs Bunny) became too much of a suave character. I thought that was bad. You know, you have to progress, and this underplaying was a different way of doing things. Sometimes you don't always progress in the right direction.

5) McKimson did not have good feelings about the cartoons he did for DePatie-Freleng:
Well, what I'm doing now is putting things together as a director, except that I do very litte drawing. There's not much pride in doing it. I'm just concerned with getting the things out. I put them together as best I can and try to make them as funny as I can…Yeah, it's a cut above (other Saturday morning animation), but it's still close to limited animation. I'm not really creating anything.

-PlopKat
although the real credit should be given to Mark Nardone who interviewed Robert McKimson

[Jack]

Thanks for the little tidbits PlopKat, eight pages of McKimson's thoughts must be neat, though.

Darn, I don't think that book is still in print.

I agree with some of his sentiments, not those on Fletcher and Avery, but those on the "underplaying." I always thought Avery's cartoons were some of the best looking ever made, but I guess it's a matter of opinion, especially because McKimson was a very good drawer.


Jack:D

[PlopKat]

According to Bob Clampett, it sounds like McKimson's drawing ability was legendary. Clampett says McKimson did not begin drawing a figure with circles and slashes; he would just start with the head and draw a finished figure. j

In addition to drawing like that, he was fast. Clampett says McKimson was in a car wreck and that when he recovered he began drawing even faster because McKimson said he "could see things more clearly" (!!!).

Here's another quote from that interview (the last as I'm afraid of breaking any more copywright laws) where McKimson speaks of his artiistic training:
…I had been drawing since I could hold a pencil and I had been painting even before I had any training. Then I studied anatomy for ten years just as a doctor studies it. I got so that I could spend three hours on an index finger. I painted portraits on the side at the time, and this fits nicley into animation because all of the characters are actually based on human figures. I went to Don Graham during the 1930s, before he went to teach at Disney, and studied with him for one semester just to see what he had to offer. Actually he was so enamored with my training in anatomy that he spent all his time with me. He was saying, "If only the other people could have such a basis…"

That helps to explain how he was able to do such a remarkable job on Uncle Sam in Old Glory. Sometimes, I wonder how McKimson would have fared at another studio, like Disney's.

I don't agree with McKimson's comments on the Fleischers and Avery either. But I can understand his opinions better considering the background he had as an artist.

-PlopKat

[Jack]

Makes one wonder where all his artwork is now. It would be neat to have an "Art Of Robert McKimson" book.

To a person who spent years studying anotomy, the wobbly movements of the Fletcher characters and far out reactions and movements seen in Avery cartoons would most likely come off as crude.

Perhaps the whole being able to see clearer after the accident thing relates to those people who drill holes into their sculls for enlightenment. Maybe it just mixed up some of his wiring, only for the better.


Jack:D
thanks for more information!

[Larry T]

I always knew Bob McKimson was an extremely talented draftsman- it's obviously visible in his work, plus, that famous Bugs Bunny pose where he's leaning against a tree we see everywhere was done by him for an Easter card!!

I always liked McKimson's Bugs Bunny. He was sturdy, well-proportioned, and easily definable- I heard that apparently all three of the McKimsons were good artists, all having been educated in very reputable art schools, and liked to work "by the art book". It's no wonder he didn't like the heavily stylized freehand characters by Tex Avery.

[Matthew Hunter]

I agree, he didn't get near enough attention. Robert McKimson was great, both as an artist and director. He tends to get shoved under the rug by many fans, maybe because they know little about him. His influence may be one of the biggest in the studio, however, because he not only created one of the most popular characters ever (Taz) and the famous Bugs Bunny pose, but he also worked in nearly all eras of the studio, just as Friz Freleng did, and when he did a good one, boy, it was a classic (see "Hillbilly Hare"!) In fact, his early 50's Bugs practically IS Bugs. Chuck Jones did him well, but McKimson was definitely right up there with the best when it came to Bugs. I have read that much of "The Unexpected Pest" was animated by McKimson himself, and it really shows. His Sylvester work is unparallelled.
As for the DePatie/Frelelng cartoons, I think both of his Road Runner cartoons are quite good, although they are not Chuck Jones. Maybe it was the same problem Jones himself was having with Tom and Jerry about the same time, you can do someone else's characters, but they won't be the same as when their creator did them. That could expplain Daffy's meanness in the Daffy/Speedy cartoons, the Daffy he was using is a Jones-inspired version, and notice that when McKimson used Daffy, he usually did him differently than Jones or Freleng, (who used the greedy version) and just used the new Jones design with a nutty personality, although played down. McKimson's Daffy was greedy ("Ducking the Devil") but you can tell he didn't want Daffy to be that way. The 1950's Daffy was indeed a Jones creation, and McKimson was obviously pushed into using the mean and greedy version in the 1960's. Part of it could also be attributed to the fact that Daffy had to be mean to be a good foe for Speedy. McKimson seemed to have been pushed into that, too. Still, these cartoons aren't really THAT bad, and neither are any of his earlier works. There DOES need to be a book about him.
-Matthew

[Jack]

I like McKimson's Daffy, he never got as quite as mean spirited and murderous as Jones' Daffy. He also used a more appealing design, more of a mix between the Jones version and his own version, which bears more of a resemblance to bowling pin Daffy. He also had that thick beak that I associate with McKimson (he used an even thicker beak on female ducks, just watch "Mussle Tussle") He kept silly Daffy alive the longest.

His roadrunner cartoons are pretty good, though it would be hard to really foul up that particular series because there really isn't as much depth or interaction between characters like there in Tom and Jerry cartoons. They really suffer from crude artwork (though, they are pretty good looking when compared to the other stuff at the time).

He was there really from the beginning to the end continuosly.

I don't know what was with Freleng and Jones when they gave McKimson a bunch of mediocre animators after the temporary shutdown. McKimson's cartoons come off as wooden after that, with crude animation. I wonder what McKimson thought about these later efforts. And a few people who did excelent work for other units started doing not-so-great work. Tedd Pierce did some great stuff in the 40s like "The Dover Boys," but he is usually thought of as the weakest of the three major writers. Ditto with Robert Gribbroek, who (IMO) did the best looking Jones cartoons, but did some mediocre stuff for McKimson until later when he stopped trying to do wierd abstract stuff.


Jack:D

[Larry T]

That's right- after Art Davis exited stage right, McKimson was lucky enough to inherit Don Williams, Rod Scribner, and Emery Hawkins. This recognizable talent really helped give Bob the edge in defining his style. One of my favourite McKimson Bugs Bunnys (besides Hilbilly Hare, of course) is "Hurdy-Gurdy Hare". That one's a really good vehicle for his direction talents, and the artists got to really showcase themselves. Plus, Bugs Bunny is his fun, brash self. But now that I think about it, it's hard not to like "Rebel Rabbit", "Easter Yeggs", or "Fractured Leghorn" (even though Bugs isn't in the last one, it's a great cartoon!)

[Rob]

I'm a BIG BIG fan of McKimson's Bugs. I think his early cartoons using the shorter, squat version of Bugs are probably the best of anybody's. These would include HURDY GURDY HARE, THE GREY HOUNDED HARE, HOT CROSS BUNNY, REBEL RABBIT, A LAD IN HIS LAMP, and THE WINDBLOWN HARE. Oddly enough, I find his Daffy/Porky films from the same period hard to watch, forced and mostly unfunny (last time I brought this up here, I was nearly tarred and feathered!). His later Daffy cartoons MUSCLE TUSSEL, DESIGN FOR LEAVING and QUACK SHOT are much better, and among the Duck's best.

Around the time of 1950's WHAT'S UP, DOC?, McKimson started using a more conventional "slimmer" design for Bugs, and made some great cartoons like HARE WE GO, BUSHY HARE, and the hilarious HILLBILLY HARE. I just saw NO PARKING HARE for the first time in at least 15 years, and I thought it was terrific!

Later, his films did go into a decline (as did everyone else's), but I think a lot of that was beyond his control. But at his peak, he delivered some outstanding cartoons

[Maxie Zeus]

I always thought the early McKimson cartoons achieved a perfect balance of all that was good in the WB cartoons. Jones had the personality animation; Freleng the vaudevillian's timing; Clampett the dynamic animation. In McKimson toons like "Hurdy Gurdy Hare" and "The Windblown Hare" all three are blended perfectly.

[PorkyandDaffy]

I really like McKimson's work and he's my second favorite director at WB (Clampett's my favorite). He made a lot of great cartoons from 1946-1954, epsecially his Porky and Daffy cartoons. I don't really care for his post-55 stuff, though, but that was the studio's fault and budget cutbacks