Pinocchio Part 26

We're back inside Monstro, with Walt Kelly animating Geppetto, Eric Larson doing Figaro and John McManus handling the tuna. Carl Barks was known as "the duck man" and I have to wonder if poor McManus wasn't known as "the tuna man" for a period of time.

Walt Kelly, to his credit, gets a tremendous sense of weight and effort into Geppetto pulling on his fishing line in shot 1. There is also a great combination of camera moves, background animation on the ship and water animation in shots 1 and 2. The Disney artists were always great at creating a sense of objects moving through a three dimensional space. That and the fast cutting create a visceral sense of excitement.

Larson's animation of Figaro is a comic battle, with Figaro only tentatively in control of the fish. The cut between shots 5 and 6 is a little rough, though the numbering doesn't imply any deleted shots between them. The cut would have worked better if it was on some of Figaro's action.

It's typical of Disney to include comedy, like Figaro's tuna tussle, in action/suspense sequences so that the suspense doesn't get too intense. A higher level of intensity will be saved for the climactic escape from Monstro, where comedy will be completely absent.