Bob Clampett Animation Direction Spotlight

Hey! Information about the D -D -D -Dodo! Quick!

Tell me, where does he live? What's he like?

Where'd he go? Which way? That way! Hello and

welcome to Tooncast Beyond. This is the animation

direction spotlight. I am your host, TFJ1Mike.

Joining me once again is TV's Mr. Neil. If they'd

just let me, I'd give them the void. Yes. Tonight,

in the animation direction in the hot seat, we

have Mr. Bob Clampett. A man who is... Both revered

and reviled. Yeah, there's that we'll get into

that But his style is On some of his cartoons

his style is unlike any of the other Looney Tunes

directors Not saying they're all the same, but

there's only so many times you can see Bugs Bunny

and Elmer Fudd chasing each other There's only

so many different things you can do with a chase

scene between those two The majority of his work

was with Porky, actually, though, for Bob Clampett.

I love a lot of his cartoons. I really do. I

think the main reason why he worked with Porky

so much is because he was one of the earliest

animators. And so because Porky was the first

real breakout star. So that's that's kind of

what he was mostly what he would have been working

with. I don't think Bugs came around until like

1939, 1940 or somewhere around there. Yeah, and

Porky was the first Porky one, according to Wikipedia,

take it with a grain of salt. Uh, 1937 Porky's

bad time story. Um, there's a lot in here. There's

a lot in his, in his shorts and stuff that I

absolutely, I mean, absolutely love the man himself.

Um, as you said, both revered and reviled, um,

I did not know he went on to do Beanie and Cecil.

Yep. I never knew that. I used to love that cartoon

growing up because my mom showed it to me, but

I had no idea until I started doing research

on him that he was one of the people behind Beanie

and Cecil. Absolutely. His name is in the theme

song. Like every single episode, it's like a

Bob Clampett cartoon. Oh, I haven't seen Beanie

and Cecil. in 35 years, probably, while I'm 34,

so in at least 25, 30 years. I haven't seen Binnie

and Cecil since I was a little kid. Yeah. But,

you know, he... Let's just go ahead and get the

controversy stuff out of the way first. He started

with Looney Tunes. In his own words, so enchanted

by the new medium of sound cartoons that he instead

joined Harmon Ising Studios in 1931 for $10 a

week, Schlesinger viewed one of Clampett's 16mm

films and was impressed, offering him an assistant

position at the studio. And then the controversy,

basically he's an egotist. He thinks that he

created Bugs Bunny all by himself. And he objectively

he did not. No. I mean we know pretty much where

Bugs Bunny came from. It was a mix of Tex Avery

and basically all the other guys put together

except for Bob. Yeah, pretty much. You know,

I love Bob's stuff with Bugs. I think I love

Bugs Bunny Gets the Boyd. I love Wabbit Trouble.

I love the Big Snooze. You know, I do love when

he did use Bugs Bunny. I will say that I am more

of a fan of the quote unquote classic style,

like the... I don't want to say... good versus

bad but some of those early bugs cartoons he

hadn't quite taken his quote -unquote classically

known design yet like he was really dark gray

the ears were a little lopsided at times and

his face kind of looked like a rat's face a little

bit it's a lot more rubbery yeah He's a lot more

of a troublemaker, too. I mean, later Bugs is

just kind of like very calm and just not taking

shit from anyone, whereas early Bugs is just,

he is just like, he's basically Woody Woodpecker.

And he's almost, not quite indistinguishable

from Daffy, but they're much closer in personality

in those early years. They are, yeah. Which is

so funny because I wonder if they created Daffy

to basically make fun of Bob Clampett. Um, I

don't know. I think that, I think that Daffy,

oh, you mean like later Daffy where he's an asshole?

Later Daffy where he's all about himself. Yeah.

Yeah. Layton, not the early Daffy. Yeah. Cause

early Daffy is totally Bob Clampett. The whole

hopping around on the, on the lake and that is

totally Bob Clampett. Yeah, yeah. You know, I'm

actually gonna put the links that you sent me

in the post so everybody can see some of the

examples of what we watched to prep for this

episode. One of the ones I watched was the Corny

Concerto, and it's basically a... Don't want

to say fat, but it's it's little mini version

of Fantasia almost well it is but You've got

Elmer there, but he's not the fat Elmer and he's

not the the skinny kind of Elmer that we would

know later He's kind of in the middle. He's kind

of His his whole you know shirt thing is coming

up and his pants are coming down and whatever

else because he's he's introducing these clips

I'll be honest, I kind of skipped a little bit

through the first one because I know what the

Corny Concerto is because it has Blue Danube

in it and I love Blue Danube because it's basically,

at least for me personally, it's kind of like

Trumpet of the Swan. It's really kind of like

Trumpet of the Swan because you've got this Swan

mother and her three children and you've got

the classic Vulture is the villain and you've

got... little daffy and little daffy is he could

almost give plucky a run run for his money like

if you put little daffy up against plucky duck

it's like they would be brothers i mean because

the way and i know most people in animation don't

see it this way i see plucky as his as daffy's

son i know it's not daffy's son it's supposed

to be a but the way that you know the tiny tunes

people put that together you know you kind of

could allude to it even though buster and babs

you know have no relation um it's just one of

those things um you know you know you see you

see 90s daffy pop pop in you know These glasses

with spotlights dealing, whoa, it's just my luck,

you know? I swear. But Blue Danube, you've got

little Daffy and he sees these swans and he goes

along and they're honking along to the instrumental.

There's a love when Daffy comes in cuz the swan

mother just stops the babies run into her and

she turns around and basically just swat some

money Oh My god, I I love that one. I love the

Blue Danube part of the corny concerto um Clip

it did some damn good work. I mean first part

of that cartoon. I believe that's like one of

three times that Bugs Bunny and Porky appeared

in the same cartoon together. That was an extremely

rare thing to happen. But anyway, yeah. Well,

you know, yeah, it was because it was either

Bugs and Daffy or it was Daffy and Elmer or Bugs

and Elmer or later Bugs and Yosemite Sam and...

Porky was kind of off doing his own thing I mean

sure there are plenty of porky and daffy cartoons

where they're interacting with each other, but

I Mean seeing that with with bugs and porky.

It's like hey Let's flash to 1989 and have bugs

and Mickey on the screen. You know It really

was one of those very rare occasions You know

he Clamp it did stuff like Horton hatches an

egg. I Didn't even need to go back and watch

that I've seen that so many times and it's again

one of those musical episodes and I'm Generally

not a fan of live -action musicals For the most

part, but if it's in a cartoon, I don't really

doesn't really matter that much to me What else

do we want to say about about clamp it Well I

mentioned last time that he's John Chris Felucci's

favorite animator and I said it's really appropriate

because the two of them are just alike. Basically

they both have monstrous egos and both kind of

left the industry in a huff and nobody really

noticed that they were gone. It's like... Okay,

Bob Clampett wasn't the first animator to leave

Schlesinger Studios, that would be Tex Avery,

and Tex Avery left in an even bigger hub, but

we'll get to that. But, you know, it's like,

at least Tex went on and did a whole bunch of

stuff, whereas Clampett, he went on to Republic

Pictures and he did one cartoon, and then, as

you said, later he went on to BD &C, so it's

like, it's like he... moved the industry so fast

when he was working with Slussinger, and then

as soon as he was gone, he just faded away. And

that's kind of what Chris Felucci did. And it's

just kind of weird that these two guys are so

alike. They even met each other. And the story

that Chris Felucci told, it kind of confirms

a lot of what we've been hearing. Bob is basically

a huge prankster and easily gets under people's

skin for no reason whatsoever. Although Chris

Felucci was amused by it, but still you could

tell from the story he's kind of a dick. I suppose

we could get into that. Like we said, he took

credit for the creation of Bugs Bunny and in

particular it was... Chuck Jones and frizz freely

who both Disliked him the most and even no blank

kind of said, you know, this guy took way too

much credit for things that he didn't really

do and it was it was such a Chuck almost Chuck

almost took it too far because he did a he did

a Special later on in life. It was called like

the but it was the Bugs Bunny Roadrunner movie

It was a TV special, and he gave credit to every

animator except for Bob Clampett. Just like,

wow. Now, a lot of the ones that I watched in

preparation for this have him listed. A lot of

the earlier ones have him listed as supervision.

They don't have him listed as director. What's

the difference? There may not be one. It may

have been just like... an industry term at the

time I don't know I didn't I didn't really look

into that but it could just be that they had

a different word for that and they changed it

in later cartoons I don't know or sometimes it

may not be the case here but sometimes you know

other other directors would leave halfway through

a production and you know he'd have to go in

and Finished like that happened twice and back

when Tex Avery left and another animator left

finished cartoons for them So, I don't know maybe

he only had like a partial credit or I don't

know yeah What are some of your favorite clamp

it tunes oh my god the I'm trying what was the

one with the falling hair. That was that's the

one with the gremlin Yeah. There was the gremlin

in the airplane. Yeah. There were like three

that I didn't actually send you. It was like

the one where Tweety is paired up with the two

goofy cats, the two that came before Sylvester.

It's like it was clearly an homage to one of

those names. of the those two Two comedians from

like from like the 30s and 40s. Yeah, I can't

remember the name. Oh Yeah, those are the precursors

to Sylvester and you can in fact going back Chris

Felucci if you look at Stimpy He's got like the

big bulbous nose and the little pointy ears Stimpy

is basically a big ripoff of every cat that that

Clampit had ever designed. So, yeah. Let's see.

Drafty Daffy was kind of a, one that I thought

was really funny when I was a kid, just because

he's trying to, I didn't even realize what it

was, but he's like trying to escape the guy in

the draft board. There are a lot of wartime cartoons

they did. I mean, most of these came out during

World War II. You know, you've got bugs doing

the Warbond ads and stuff like that. I like Drafty

Daffy. I thought that was a really cool cartoon.

It was interesting. What's the one where... Crap,

there's... There's a cartoon where Daffy gets

Rejected it has nothing to do with the military,

but it makes a military joke he gets rejected

and they basically you know Give him a stamp

for F which basically means you're you're Screwed

there's no way you're gonna get in the military

God I watched it too, and I can't remember which

one it is I don't remember so that You know,

there's that, and what I find so hilarious in

my offline life, back in high school, even though

I am physically disabled, I have mild cases for

repalsy, I was born with it because a doctor

decided to hit the booze that night before delivering

me, but anyway, that is a true story, I'm not

lying about that. I had army recruiters and military

recruiters trying to recruit me so I would fill

out all these damn tests in like junior and senior

year and basically it came back as 4F so I'm

just a reject just like Daffy was. You know you

look at stuff like I mean Porky and Wackyland

that was amazing. Yeah, that one, even though

it's in black and white, that's kind of like

the first modern Looney Tunes cartoon. Just because

it's pretty much the standard porky at that point.

And it's got the comedy timing of what we would

normally associate with Looney Tunes. It's not

like the other black and white porkies. Right,

yeah. Because the other black and white porkies

are so, oh my god, I cannot stand old porky bit

cartoons. As long as you don't say a word, a

bad word about you, it ought to be in pictures,

we'll be alright. That one's perfectly fine.

This one was really when the Looney Tunes style

took off. In a way, I've got to give Clampit

some credit, he basically invented this style

that would be Looney Tunes. No, but I love Porky

and Wackyland because that's where, you know,

the dodo starts and all is I can think of, and

I know I've already mentioned the show once or,

well, I mentioned one show already by Spielberg,

but the only thing I think of every time I think

of Porky and Wackyland, I think of Heskel and

Egbert from Critical Condition and Animaniacs.

I love that. But Porky and Wackyland was interesting.

I know that a lot of people, and it's even on

several of the Golden Collection DVDs, say that

some of the jokes in the Looney Tunes cartoons

were racial slurs and stuff like that. I would

have to think that the most blatant one of all

is in Porky and Wackyland. Dark Africa, Darker

Africa, Darkest Africa. Yeah. Although, I've

heard the term Dark Africa. Darkest Africa and

it I don't know that there's actually a racial

No, I mean as far as the as far as the visual

when porky's flying over Africa and the colors

consistently change But no porky and wacky land

is is awesome I really do enjoy that one But

really his his books bunny tunes are really Really

what would make me enjoy clamp it as a director

and you cannot go You know the entire short once

you know once bug says I reiterate such a serene

scene you know in big snooze and They did such

detail on this that he you know he says it would

be such a catastrophe if something were to happen

here and he brings in the nightmare paint and

the paint can actually says nightmare paint on

it oh god um yeah clamp it like i now that i've

watched a lot of the stuff you know for this

episode Honestly, I didn't remember a lot of

this stuff because I did once I saw it and obviously

everybody knows Porky and Wackyland Everybody

knows that but like Wabbit Trouble and The Wacky

Wabbit You know, I didn't even remember that

Bugs Bunny Gets the Boy it was Clap and I thought

it was one of the other ones one of the other

guys but like Wabbit trouble in the wacky wabbit.

I didn't remember those because honestly right

now in 2014 Boomerang only shows like a lot of

Chuck Jones Roadrunner not that there's anything

wrong with that and they show they've been showing

a lot like Right now on Cartoon Networks Boomerang

Looney Tunes runs at 2 a .m. And 12 noon Which

is kind of a travesty to me. But anyway They

show like everybody I don't ever I think I've

seen a clamp it cartoon on that block I Honestly

do not think I've ever seen a single one Most

of its McKimson not that I have any against McKimson.

I like a lot of his foghorn leghorn stuff And

we'll get to him down the line Um, but yeah,

I mean those those blocks now, I guess I don't

know if cartoon or it doesn't have the rights

to them or or what the deal is but I'm pretty

sure they have the rights to show anything they

want. It's just that maybe they feel mckimson

is Maybe they feel clamp it as a little racier,

but I can't really think of too many offensive

cartoons. He's done other than cold black I mean,

I think we'll just kind of skip over that one.

Yeah, let's do You know the thing about Clampit

is that I think more than any other director

he had like this sense of volume and that means

like the characters look like they take up space.

Which is pretty cool. Absolutely. I think it

was... I'm trying to think if it was the wacky

Wabbit or if it was Wabbit Trouble. Which is

the one that Elmer is camping. Oh God, I'm gonna

have to look talk about clamp it for a second.

Oh Well, like I was saying the oh it was rabbit

trouble Okay Yeah, yeah, it was rabbit trouble

if you look at that one the sheer brilliance

of bugs like bugs isn't even be Bugs is being

himself, and this is slightly early, Bugs with

Wabbit Twouble. But if you just look at it, where

he's constantly agonizing, and Wabbit Twouble

is Fat Elmer. Not that there's anything wrong

with that, but it is Fat Elmer. And the jokes,

like the, like the clothe, like the, like the

clothe guy, like, you know, pulling his, you

know, pantsing him and stuff, they don't really,

like... Those kind of comedy gags on that on

fat Elmer don't really appeal to me that much

but if you look at what bugs does to him in that

he Basically makes him think that an entire day

and night has passed And I can just see him saying

he doesn't say this in the cartoon, but I can

see him saying this What am I gonna do to this

guy next? What's that? You know I I can just

see him doing like a screwball squirrel. Oh god

Yeah, I was gonna say that's more of a Tex Avery

gag, but Yeah, oh god, I cannot wait until next

week when we talk about Tex because Tex, as much

as I love Clampit stuff, I love Screwball Squirrel.

He's amazing. I almost started going into a story

about that, but I can't do that right now. No,

not yet. Wait till next week. But I love that

cartoon in Wabbit 12 because, I mean, Elmer doesn't

even know he's there until a little bit later

after he pulls that gag with the glasses and

he paints over his glasses makes him think it's

nighttime and and you know you He Bugs does this

really really bad impression of foghorn leghorn

And he's holding the towel with a branch it's

just It's just such a good good cartoon. Yeah,

i'm you know what i'm looking at the credits

here one thing one thing about leon sussinger

is he always made the directors, you know Credit

themselves under their like full name. So it's

like it was never chuck jones. It was always

like it was always charles m jones m jones Yeah,

but looking at this He let bob clampett credit

himself as warburg clampett And I think yeah,

I think that might have been like something else

that might have uh bit of sticking point with

the other animators is that clamp it was kind

of like the special boy so you seem to get away

with a lot more yeah and that's you know chuck

jones pointed that out at least that's what it

says here on wiki but like but if you look at

that on one wabbit 12 they're all it's not just

him if you look at that credit scene they're

all i noticed that when i watched it they're

all like Spelled and pronounced as if you know

Elmer was was gonna say their names. Yeah So

it's not just I know but it's like, you know,

right? This would only like happen with a Bob

Mappet cartoon. It's like anyone else they would

never allow that to happen I guess it was just

a gag for that one, because that's the only one

that I noticed it ever happening, and even the

other Klamathic cartoons I watched, it was just

regular writing. Bugs Bunny Gets the Boyd, I

love that. So hilarious. That that's a cartoon

that I can watch over and over again and never

not Never not laugh at it because it's just so

hilariously good The things he does to that poor

fault for buzzard And he actually you know, I

mean the buzzard does catch on but the whole

time that you know he's like bugs goes down in

the hole the whole time the buzzard is up and

you know waiting you you hear bugs singing a

buzzard is two -faced oh god um but bob clampett

has an amazing body of work he did accomplish

a lot of really cool things for being one of

the first early directors of Looney Tunes. It's

just amazing what he accomplished. I mean, the

guy even has his own award named after him. I

don't know how many other ones have that, but

that is kind of a... Rare thing but according

to this Since 84 the Bob Clampett humanitarian

award is given out each year at the Eisner Awards

Clampett's Tin Pan Alley Cats was chosen by the

Library of Congress as a prime example of the

music and mores of our times and And a print

was buried in the time capsule in Washington

DC so future generations might see it Porky and

Wackyland was also inducted into the National

Film Registry of the Library of Congress in 2000,

deemed culturally, historically, or aesthetically

significant. That's amazing that we can put,

you know, cartoons in a Hall of Fame or, you

know, National Film Registry. Right. That really,

really is amazing. Was there anything you didn't

like? Was there any? Bomb clamp it stuff that

you didn't really care for I can't really think

of any Maybe Jeepers Creepers because that was

kind of one of those early musical cartoons or

even though it was after After porky and wacky

land. It was so kind of I don't know the the

timing was kind of weird and You know stuff that

really wasn't funny would go on way too long

and There was the joke at the end where the ghost

was standing there and porky jumps in the car

and drives away and there's a blackface joke,

you know? Yeah, yeah. Again, product of the time.

Yep, exactly. Yeah, there's not really that much

that I don't like about Clampit's stuff. Like

I said, I prefer his... His bug stuff to his

porky stuff, but I mean I still love porky and

wacky land I will always love that cartoon. I

Really wish that they would have at some point

Had the dodo from porky and wacky land meet gogo

the dodo oh Come on you gotta love gogo come

on now. I don't know it's you know what he That

character has, I'm trying to think, Frank Welker.

He has Frank Welker's kind of gummy voice, you

know, the one that, it's kind of like Scooter

or one of those annoying voices that he does,

like Orbit -y from the Jetsons. And I can't stand

that voice. I still love the joke from the very

first episode though in the loony beginning when

they kick him to wacky land. Home, surreal, home.

I still love that joke. I think we're going to

take a quick break, come back with kind of final

thoughts on Clamp It, and close out the show

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is the ultimate weapon. We are back final thoughts

on mr. Clampett sir, um really talented guy kind

of Wasted in his later years just because He

left the industry and never really did anything

except for beanie and Cecil Yeah, it's kind of

a kind of a shame because you know of the of

the five major directors he's like the one who

evolved the most, I think. And unlike Avery,

he never really did anything after he left. So,

yeah, it's kind of like a bittersweet thing.

And it's too bad that he had to be such an ass,

because he was clearly one of the most talented

in the entire studio. Yeah, absolutely. You know,

I love the ones I love as far as the ones that

he's done. Yeah, you're right, it is kind of

a shame that he never, like, everybody else,

you know, you always saw, you know, later in

life and wherever else, you know, the others

have... I mean, Chuck Jones was doing stuff till

God knows when. You know, I mean, but Bob Clampett...

your cartoons are remembered well most of them

anyway um and next week the wackiness will continue

here on Tooncast Beyond's animation direction

because we are going to go to the house of the

future with tech savory um wait did he do house

i know i know he did house and car of tomorrow

but who did house of the future That's the one

with the two mice and they go into the house.

I don't remember We'll have to figure it out.

We'll see if we can find that next week. So Where

can people catch up with you online and stuff

sir? Hello, I have a superhero webcomic called

to see in and That would be at the CN calm also

no super pants calm although that Your role will

probably go away at some point But in case you

can't spell it. There you go. Also It's on Facebook

Facebook .com slash to see and dot or I'm sorry

Facebook .com slash to see and comic also animation

efficient Animation aficionados calm. I can't

talk tonight for some reason It's really troubling.

Yeah, I'm having Elmer issues here. That's basically

it. Twitter is Neil Sama. Awesome. Yes. You can

find me, TFG and Mike on Twitter and Facebook.

You can go to geekcastradio .com, find all our

other social network stuff there. And like I

said, we'll be back next week for Tech Savory.

So that's going to be interesting. We will catch

you later. if perchance harm were to befall this

serene scene.