Today's entertainment comes to us through the courtesy of our talented friend Austin Kelly, who has produced, among many other delightful and informative videos on animation and animators, this compilation of the frightfully underrated work of Michael Lah in the earliest days of Hanna-Barbera (known at the time simply as "HB Enterprises").
His lively and spirited work (all the more amazing within the limitations of Hanna and Barbera's newfangled "planned animation") made many a cartoon from the first season of THE HUCKLEBERRY HOUND SHOW (1958) that much more memorable.
Among them "Pie Pirates"...
..."Cousin Tex"...
...and "Lion Tamer Huck"!
One final observation on the video you are about to see... Lots of folks can edit together a video compilation. The extra step of genius in what Austin does here is set it to appropriate HOYT CURTIN (later and very familiar) Hanna-Barbera music cues, vs. the stock music that was used in the original cartoons before a "regular composer" could be worked into the budgets.
So, you've literally never seen this familiar animation set to these familiar cues!
Take it away, Austin and Michael Lah... HERE!
Austin also has a YouTube channel, to which I've subscribed. If you like Warner Bros. and early Hanna-Barbera cartoons, and want to know more about the folks who made them so great, you should all do the same!
...And do it quick before an animated Lah-lion gets you!
10 comments:
THANK YOU, JOE!!!!!
Believe it or not, this was whipped up during a boring night in about 6 hours time. I'm still very proud of it, though. It's such a shame that Lah only worked on so many cartoons with Yogi and Mr. Jinks (and only ONE Huck!)
Since this post was written so long ago, I'll give it a bit of an update (And some shameless self-promotion): I've done many, many other videos featuring the Warner and HB animators!
Kenny Muse at Hanna-Barbera: https://youtu.be/aj_CK3YCQCc
Carlo Vinci at Hanna-Barbera: https://youtu.be/Mg2jRpc9IY4
And some of the Warner guys:
Rod Scribner's Work: https://youtu.be/CONGQohc13w
Cal Dalton's Work (animator on many of Frank Tashlin's best cartoons):https://youtu.be/4Hn5-M-bWm0
Izzy Ellis's Work (worked on the black-and-white Clampett cartoons): https://youtu.be/5fGasWXC988
Austin:
Shameless self-promotion is okay ‘round here… but only IF the product is worthy of it… and these are definitely worth it… even if I have to create five more links to make them easier to access.
Kenny Muse at Hanna-Barbera
Carlo Vinci at Hanna-Barbera
Rod Scribner's Work
Cal Dalton's Work
Izzy Ellis's Work
…And, for me to create five new links in the morning, without coffee, they MUST be worth it!
Great job, Austin. I love the idea of compiling representative clips of a given animator's style and setting them to the music most associated with the studio they worked for.
Seeing the Mike Lah clip reminded me that Hanna-Barbera's "limited animation" was initially not as "limited" as it would later be. It makes wonder what would have happened had Hanna-Barbera opted for maintaining the quality of its early efforts rather than becoming a quantity powerhouse. Could Hanna-Barbera have avoided becoming "illustrated radio" (to borrow Chuck Jones's derisive phrase)?
Thanks for sharing this, Joe.
Sergio:
While it’s true that Hanna-Barbera's "limited animation" was initially not as "limited" as it would later be – and as much as I respect Chuck Jones as one of the top three cartoon directors who ever lived, perhaps even number one – I’ve never bought into his "illustrated radio" comment.
It’s not fair to compare Hanna-Barbera's early efforts with the full-budgeted product of which Jones was such a master. The only true comparison to withstand scrutiny would be to OTHER contemporary television productions.
Strictly animation-wise, if you compare H-B (1958-1965) to Jay Ward; Total Television, “Tom Terrific”, “Calvin and the Colonel”, and the like (let alone things like “Clutch Cargo”), H-B was truly the class of the field. The only one to really come close (but still fall short) might have been the UPA “Dick Tracy” and “Mister Magoo” cartoons.
I actually have a “private label” DVD of “early sixties cartoon shows”, which contained one episode each of “The Bugs Bunny Show” (ABC, 1960), “Top Cat”, “The Bullwinkle Show”, and “Calvin and the Colonel” – and (taking “The Bugs Bunny Show” out of the mix – being comprised of theatricals), in terms of animation and design, “Top Cat” looked like a Disney feature by comparison.
Yet, seventies and eighties H-B, is far worse than the other sixties shows I cite (...okay maybe not “Clutch Cargo”). I think much of that later product drags, Scooby-Doo excepted, drags down their overall reputation.
And, Austin REALLY does a great job, doesn’t he?
Well, Mike Lah DID do the end of The Cuckoo Clock when the Tex Avery Cat character thought he killed the cuckoo bird! (And That Was The End of The Cuckoo! However.. in respect to his memory , I wished him one last moment of silence.)
I may have an eye for who drew static comic book images, as well as one for identifying different writers' patterns, but I have no eye for differentiating one animator from another. My hat's off to you and those who do.
Joe,
You’re right that it’s grossly unfair to compare Hanna-Barbera’s output to the theatrical cartoons directed by the likes of Chuck Jones, Tex Avery, Walt Disney, or even Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera themselves. I also agree that it really only makes sense to compare H-B TV cartoons to the work of other studios making cartoons for TV at the same point in time.
I confess I’m not familiar with most non-H-B TV animation of the mid-20th century. Somehow, I’ve never really taken an interest in it. The reason for this is twofold. First, Hanna and Barbera (unlike Ward and Scheimer) were very famous animators during the Golden Age of Animation, and so my interest naturally gravitated to their “big names.” Second, I’ve always been something of a crusader on behalf of people I feel have been vilified unfairly. As “the sultans of Saturday morning,” Hanna and Barbera have been the targets of more vilification by certain animation connoisseurs than any of their peers in limited animation. (By the way, is there a Silver Age of Animation? I’ve never really seen that term used, except in a limited way, in reference to Disney’s output during the 1950s and 1960s).
I wish I could say more about the difference between H-B and other contemporary TV animation, but with my exposure to non-H-B limited animation being, er, limited, I’m afraid I can’t. The only non-H-B limited animation cartoons I can recall ever watching are DePatie-Freleng cartoons: “The Pink Panther,” “The Inspector,” “The Ant and the Aardvark,” and “Tijuana Toads,” all of which I like, yet all of which (except, of course, “The Pink Panther”) are inferior to the most iconic H-B shows. Given that, for the most part, H-B shows compare favorably to their DePatie-Freleng counterparts, your assessment that H-B was “the class of the field” rings true to me.
Did Chuck Jones have a point in referring to limited animation as “illustrated radio”? It depends on the specific limited animation we’re talking about. Certainly, his comment doesn’t apply to the early H-B cartoons. It is a much more apt descriptor of many H-B shows from the seventies and eighties… this is the case even with shows from this period that I happen to like, such as “Sealab 2020.” The animation and character designs from the early H-B period are clearly superior to those of their later eras. But a cartoon done in limited animation need not have rich expressions and vivid poses like those Mike Lah drew to avoid the “illustrated radio” moniker. The clearest proof of that is “The Pink Panther.” It’s limited animation, but since it does not feature any dialogue, there is no way it it can be described as “illustrated radio.”
Still, I can’t help but wonder whether H-B animation would have remained as visually interesting as it was in its early days, had the studio placed less emphasis on quantity and more on quality.
Sergio:
Growing up when I did, it was impossible NOT to know of "H-B and non-H-B TV animation of the mid-20th century". And, with that perspective, I can say that “Ward and Scheimer” would not be regarded as contemporaries of the same eras of H-B.
Jay Ward was contemporaneous to Huckleberry Hound and The Flintstones, which Lou Scheimer and his Filmation Studios was contemporaneous to Wacky Races and The Perils of Penelope Pitstop. Those are two very different eras of Hanna-Barbera, and two very different competitors. But, strictly in terms of animation and character design, in both cases, H-B was “the class of the field”.
I think the way H-B animation went would have been inevitable regardless of the quantity of it. Those earliest H-B cartoons were more experimental in nature because there was no plan to settle into. That plan WAS the result of those earlier experiments. The economics of TV production would have eventually brought it to that point anyway.
Happy Easter, Joe, from we of the Ennead of the Eigengrau Easter Eggs! Now, if you'll excuse us, we're off to spend the day hiding from egg-hunters and listening to brand-new Easter poems at the headquarters of the peace-loving Society of the Rhyming Dove! Please forward all of our messages!
EotEEE:
I’d really *like* to forward something to the Society of the Rhyming Dove on your behalf… but I just can’t think of anything that rhymes with “Eigengrau”!
But I’ll keep trying… Highbrow? Lowbrow? Golly-wow? Bow-wow? Snow plow?
Gosh, it’s great to be “back-now”! Hey, that’s it! “BACK-NOW!”
Thanks, fellas!
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