I'm a teacher at 13!

[Emmanuel Cruz]

My dad thought of an idea that afterschool, I could teach my fellow pupils about the classic theatrical cartoon history. I would talk about the history of the old studios, I would ask questions, and I would screen 2-3 cartoons. I asked my principal about it and she green-lighted it. But, the art teacher at my school said that since she's teaching her students about animation, she thought that my class would be a great idea. She wants me to teach the history of the WB cartoon studio on Wednesday to 7th graders and Friday to 8th graders. I'm gonna talk about each decade of the studio, from the 1930's to the 1960's. And I would screen 3 cartoons. My principal said that if I receive positive feedback, I could do this afterschool. Now, I have some questions. Since the two test classes I'm gonna teach are in the school day, I only have 40 minutes to present. I wanna do 20 minutes on history and questions, and twenty minutes on screening. First, what stuff should I speak about for each decade? And what cartoons should I show? I want to show a cartoon from Clampett, Jones, Avery, Freleng, Tashlin, and if I can, 1 from either Davis, McKimson or Hardaway and Dalton. Any suggestions, fellas? And also, I don't wanna give too much detail about each decade because of my time restriction and that the kids will get bored.

-Emmanuel :bosko:

[Do-Do]

Cool! I wish I could do that!
Anyway, about which cartoons you should show, I'd go with:
Clampett: "Porky in Wackyland"
Jones: "Fresh Airedale" or "What's Opera Doc?"
Avery: "Cross Country Detours"
Freleng: "Three Little Bops"
Tashlin: "Porky's Romance"

[Jon Cooke]

Originally posted by Do-Do
Cool! I wish I could do that!
Anyway, about which cartoons you should show, I'd go with:

That is cool. I'd go with... (keeping your intended audience in mind):

Avery: "A Wild Hare" -- Show it for historic reasons, it is Bugs' first cartoon.

Clampett: "A Corny Concerto" --- An art teacher may like it, since it's a spoof of Disney's Fantasia.

Jones: "One Froggy Evening" --- Because almost everybody loves this cartoon.

Tashlin: "Plane Daffy" --- This could be shown as an example of WB's wartime cartons during the '40s.

Freleng: "Birds Anonymous" --- Mention that this cartoon was an Oscar winner.

McKimson: "Devil May Hare" --- Or some other Taz cartoon.


Those are just my suggestions. :)


-Jon

[Thad Komorowski]

That's cool! Wish I could do that...

You could also teach them about the other cartoon characters of other studios, and quiz them on it. Imagine seeing this question on a cartoon quiz:

1. What was the first cartoon in the Herman & Katnip series? :p



-Thad

[Tintin]

It's my suggestions:

Avery: "Porky's Hare Hunt" - The first prototype Bugs Bunny
Jones: "Hare Tonic" - mention this Bugs/Elmer short
Freleng: "Bugs Bunny Rides Again" - mention this Sam/Bugs short
McKimson: "Rushing Roulette" - mention this RR short and also Sugar and Spies also directed by McKimson
Tashlin: "Porky's Poultry Plant" - mention this Porky cartoon
Clampett: "Wabbit Twouble" - mention this cartoon starring the Elmer big fat

[Emmanuel Cruz]

I would like to show "Plane Daffy" but the problem is that I don't have it!

[Billy]

Well whaddya know,I'm 13 too!

Yes,I've only seen Plane Daffy once,and that was on the BBC in about 1998. (The BBC used to show classic WB and MGM shorts until Cartoon Network bought the rights-pretty much the UK counterpart of ABC except I can't remember any editing as I hardly had time to watch them)

[BlueAngelGal]

That's really awesome! :) Might I make a suggestion, though...maybe integrate the toons into your lecture more? If you lecture first, they might get bored, and if you show a chunk of cartoons, they might quit paying attention halfway through. I'd suggest giving a brief intro/overview, then playing a toon by, say, Avery, giving them specific things to look for (style points of Avery's animation, or maybe trivia on the particular toon, inside jokes, etc.), then moving to the next toon the same way, so you're breaking up the lecturing and toons. Giving them something to look for in each toon will make them pay attention better -- and while I wouldn't suggest a quiz, I might hand out a list of questions and have them fill it in as they go along, so they have to pay attention to fill it in.
Good luck, and be sure to let us know how it goes! :)

[Emmanuel Cruz]

My class has been moved to next week! But, still, the show must go on!!

-Emmanuel :p