Friday Night Fab Five: Sometimes Its Good to be Droopy

Being a big believer in "background noise" I started playing "The Long Long Trailer" with Lucille Ball and Desi Arnaz. Looking at the (teeny tiny amount of) special features, I came across "Dixieland Droopy". A Droopy cartoon?! SCORE! I may not have been around when Tex Avery's Droopy first hit the scene but when I was a kid, I couldn't get enough of this slow, quiet, clever little pup. Come to find out what I really couldn't get enough of was anything created by the amazing Tex Avery.

From his entry in Wikipedia:

"Frederick Bean "Fred/Tex" Avery (February 26, 1908 – August 26, 1980) was an American animator, cartoonist, voice actor and director, famous for producing animated cartoons during The Golden Age of Hollywood animation. He did his most significant work for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, creating the characters of Daffy Duck, Bugs Bunny, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, and developing Porky Pig and Chilly Willy (this last one for the Walter Lantz Studio) into regular cartoon characters. His influence was found in almost all of the animated cartoon series by various studios in the 1940s and 1950s.

Avery's style of directing broke the mold of strict realism established by Walt Disney, and encouraged animators to stretch the boundaries of the medium to do things in a cartoon that could not be done in the world of live-action film. An often-quoted line about Avery's cartoons was, "In a cartoon you can do anything," and his cartoons often did just that. He also performed a great deal of voice work in his cartoons, usually throwaway bits (e.g. the Santa Claus seen briefly in Who Killed Who?), but Tex did fill in for Bill Thompson as Droopy, although the individual cartoons where Avery did this have never been specified."

Seeing his work now is even better, now that I am old enough to catch most of the jokes that flew over my head as a child. *grin* So for this week's Friday Night Fab Five, I thought I would pick 5 of my favorite Tex Avery cartoons. And believe me, picking only 5 was a pain in the butt. Big time. I highly suggest a further Tex Avery search on You Tube. His cartoons never fail to make me happy. So without further ado...

1. Deputy Droopy

Holy crap, when the two bad guys go running up the hill over and over in an effort to keep from screaming and waking up the Sheriff, I still laugh till I cry.



2. House of Tomorrow

Any of Avery's "of Tomorrow" cartoons are priceless in my mind. It was hard to pick just one.



3. The Cat That Hated People

Sometimes I'd loved to blast myself into space to get away from it all. hee hee But not if it meant going to this planet straight out of Wonderland.



4. Billy Boy

I love this good 'ole boy of a wolf. When I was a kid, this is what got me believing that goats ate everything in site.



5. Little Rural Riding Hood

No Avery collection is complete without his infamous Red Riding Hood...



I hope you enjoyed watching these and that they brought a smile to your face! Have a great weekend everyone!