And This Blog Loves Robert McKimson

In this blog's numerous postings about Warner Brothers cartoons, it's amazing that this is the first post devoted to the one, the only, the peerless animator and director Robert McKimson (October 13, 1910 - September 27, 1977).

McKimson worked with Warner Brothers Animation directors Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, Frank Tashlin, Friz Freleng and Chuck Jones and had much to do with the transition of Bugs Bunny from the chortling buck-toothed grotesque of Porky's Hare Hunt (1938) to the Oscar-winning rabbit and comedy powerhouse that debuted in A Wild Hare (1940).



Robert McKimson goes back to the first Warner Brothers cartoons. His animation is all over those early Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies. Bob is the guy who was there at Warner Brothers Animation for the entire run, as Friz Freleng left for a brief time to direct Captain & The Kids cartoons for MGM.

After short stints with Walt Disney Productions and Romer Grey, Bob was cranking out animation for Hugh Harman and Rudy Ising when they were producing cartoons for Leon Schlesinger as independent producers in 1930-1933.



Shall, of course, be posting a slew of cartoons directed by Robert McKimson in today's post.

After all, he directed several of this writer's all-time favorite cartoons!



These include Hillbilly Hare, French Rarebit, What's Up, Doc? and Gorilla My Dreams.









The two Robert McKimson cartoons directed featuring Bobo the elephant rank high atop the list of favorites.



Love the lesser known albeit genuinely charming Hobo Bobo (1947).



Another classic cartoon we are particularly fond of is The Hole Idea (1955), which was animated as well as directed by Robert McKimson - and much enjoy Anthony's Animation Talk's take on this inventive Looney Tune.



The book by Robert McKimson, Jr. about Bob and his brothers Charles and Tom looks FANTASTIC, as well as a fitting tribute to the many contributions the McKimson brothers made to Warner Brothers cartoons.

Robert and ace film historians Michael Barrier, Jerry Beck, Mark Kausler and Mark Evanier all turn up in the documentary Behind The Tunes - Drawn to Life: The Art Of Robert McKimson.



Since he was on the same staff with Tex Avery, Frank Tashlin, Bob Clampett, Chuck Jones, Friz Freleng - and at one point animated for all of them, to some extent Robert McKimson's directorial efforts receive short shrift, as do the WB cartoons helmed by Arthur Davis; both developed an original spin on the Termite Terrace style. The Robert McKimson cartoons emphasize personality animation in a unique way, different from his contemporaries, Jones and Freleng.



Mike Barrier conducted an interview with Robert McKimson, which was posted on Cartoon Brew. Kamden Spies' piece Remembering the McKimson’s: A Chat with Robert McKimson Jr. is just one of many terrific Cartoon Research posts, along with an excellent article by the late, great Jim Korkis, In His Own Words - Bob Clampett Talks About Robert McKimson.



No doubt Bob Clampett knew very well the incredible, creative and original animation Robert McKimson, Rod Scribner, Manny Gould, Bill Melendez, Izzy Ellis, John Carey, Norm McCabe, etc. contributed to his directorial efforts.



Robert hit the ground running when he started directing cartoons with Daffy Doodles (1946).

He followed this classic with a series of very funny cartoons featuring Daffy, Bugs Bunny, the Tasmanian Devil and other WB characters.


























In particular, we are big time aficionados of Grover Groundhog in One Meat Brawl (1946). He has tons of personality!



Bugs Bunny subbing for a sourpuss rabbit as the Easter Bunny always gets big laughs.



As does the Peter Lorre caricature in the following Daffy Duck cartoon, Birth of a Notion (1947).



And McKimson's spoof of The Honeymooners!



Loud-mouthed rooster Foghorn Leghorn, Bob's favorite Warner Bros. cartoon character, made his silver screen debut in Walky Talky Hawky (1946).



Always in a tit-for-tat reciprocal destruction bargain with a dumb barnyard hound (with a wiseguy voice by Mel Blanc), Foghorn Leghorn would be the popular character favored most by Robert McKimson's production crew. Here are a few of the loud-mouthed rooster's 30 starring vehicles.







One of the funniest of the Robert McKimson directorial efforts from the studio's final year was Banty Raids (1963). The beatnik rooster is a hoot!



Thanks for the laughs, Bob, Chuck and Tom McKimson!







Also extend respectful Fred Astaire top hat tips to key McKimson brothers collaborators Manny Gould, Herman Cohen, Rod Scribner, Bill Melendez, Phil DeLara, John Carey, Izzy Ellis, Emery Hawkins, Ted Bonnicksen, Keith Darling, George Grandpre, Cornett Wood, Richard H. Thomas, Warren Foster, Tedd Pierce, Sid Marcus, Mel Blanc, Sara Berner, Bea Benaderet, Arthur Q. Bryan, June Foray, Stan Freberg, Carl Stalling, Milt Franklyn, Treg Brown, etc.



And, last but not least, must thank Vimeo, Devon Baxter, Archive.org, Cartoon Research and the very knowledgeable Warner Bros. cartoon buffs at Anthony's Animation Talk for making this post possible. In closing, here's Rebel Rabbit, our favorite of the cartoons Robert McKimson directed and among the all-time best from Warner Brothers. And, yes, Daily Motion's policy of embedding ads before videos, while also not letting posters tweak with the embed code (NO AUTOPLAY, thank you very much), is annoying - just click through and then enjoy this fabulous cartoon.

Happy Birthday, Bob Clampett

I'm raising my soon to be significantly less than half-full glass to Bob Clampett. He's definitely among The Beatles of cartoon directors (with Tex Avery, Chuck Jones and Frank Tashlin - perhaps with Friz Freleng as either "5th Beatle" Billy Preston or Pete Best). I am proud to have worked, in collaboration with animator, filmmaker and historian Mark Kausler, on one of the first published filmographies of his work way back when (uh, I was a zygote at the time, really).



For a bit of background on Bob's career, check out this superb post on David Germain's blog.

Then take a gander at this remarkable scene, by ace animator Robert McKimson, from one of Clampett and crew's masterpiece Book Revue. This is followed by the complete cartoon.

Bob Clampett is very important to me personally. On the same day when I met Bob in the 70's, I bought my first 16mm films. He was uncommonly nice and generous with his time to me, then a goofy 17 year old long-haired guitarist obsessed with music and old movies (now I'm the same thing, only 51). He was also very supportive of my efforts to get recognition for animation as an art form - at that time, cartoons and comedy in particular got the full Rodney Dangerfield treatment.

At least to me, Bob was absolutely effusive in his praise of other artists, more interested in talking about stuff that inspired him - whether it was the exciting swing music of Duke Ellington or the novels of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Willis O' Brien's innovative stop-motion animation in THE LOST WORLD or Tex Avery's cartoons - than about his own work. He loved his collaborators and mentors; his eyes lit up whenever I said the words Rod Scribner, Manny Gould (for non-animation buffs, these were just two of the brilliant animators who contributed virtuoso work to Bob's cartoons) or Tex Avery. He was also the only "Golden Age Of Cartoons" icon I heard praise lesser known but important animation directors as Hugh Harman, Rudy Ising and Sid Marcus. All of this was in stark contradiction to a lot of things that were said and written about Bob during his lifetime.

Raise your glass and enjoy any one of the amazing WB cartoons directed by Bob Clampett, one of the greatest animation visionaries and comic minds who ever lived.