Greatest Man In Siam

Before I get into the post I have to thank Thad K. for hooking me up with this one. I love the Lantz Swing Symphonies, there's never really much of a story just gags, dancing and jazz but I think they're just so damn entertaining. "The Greatest Man In Siam" has some really great dancing animation in it. Particularly Pat Matthews (one of my all-time favorites) animation of the Sultan's daughter. Here's Grim Natwick's model sheet for "Miss X" (I had erroneously credited it to Matthews. Steve Worth commented that it was really by Natwick) and two clips from the cartoon. The first clip picks up at the best part of the film when the "hottest man in Siam" enters through the end of the short. The second clip is part of the same clip but of an incredible dance sequence by Pat Matthews in which I've slowed it down to see each drawing in action. Fantastic animation, done without live reference! This is really great cartoon with some nice experimenting going on. The backgrounds are flat colors and even made from colored paper and there's some nice cutting throughout the cartoon. I think these thing typify a lot of Shamus Culhane's Lantz cartoons, he had a great unit working with him.

Greatest Man In Siam

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Siam-Pat Matthews

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P.S.-My pal Andy Latham is on the lookout for demostration videos featuring animators. Please check out his blog and let him know if you know of any other videos online that he can link to. Thanks!

Wags To Riches-Bobe Cannon

Bob Cannon, along with Pat Matthews and Michael Lah, is one of my all-time favorite animators. He's an excellent draftsman and I love his use of smeared inbetweens (is that what they're called?). I've been practicing drawing from his scenes in Tex Avery's "Wags To Riches" and thought I'd share some screenshots along with a clip of the actual scene.

Bobe Cannon-Wags To Riches

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Texas Tom Layouts

Here's some layouts from "Texas Tom". I would love to see a book similar to Patrick Brion's "Tex Avery:Les Dessins", that was just loaded with Tom and Jerry layouts and model sheets.

Tex Avery - "The Cuckoo Clock"

Here's two model sheets from Tex's "The Cuckoo Clock" along with the cartoon itself and some screen shots. The part where the cuckoo bird shoots himself in the head with his finger cracks me up every time. This is just a great cartoon. I've always loved this cat character he used for a handful of cartoons, great design.

Great background

Cuckoo Clock

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Chuck Jones- The Three Bears

Here's some model sheets of Chuck Jones' Three Bears.

Billy Boy Boy Boy Boy Boy

Here's some animator's sketches from Tex Avery's "Billy Boy". I have nothing to add other than to say these are awesome drawings.