Wednesday, June 06, 2012

Mickey Rooney in The Autograph Hound (1939)

The above model sheet is courtesy of Amid Amidi of Cartoon Brew, who wrote in the comments for The Autograph Hound,
"In [animator Paul] Allen's defense, the Mickey Rooney design he was working from is one of the clunkiest and most poorly constructed Disney models of all time. I don't know what Joe Grant was thinking when he approved that one."
I certainly have to agree with Amid.  The design is flat from both the front and side views. The only three quarter view on the model sheet doesn't work and is ugly to boot.

As I mentioned earlier, caricature is difficult for a still, but even harder for animation where the likeness has to be able to turn.  Given this design, Paul Allen had a near impossible job.

3 comments:

John V. said...

Does anyone know why Mickey Rooney did all that generic wacky stuff in "The Autograph Hound" and what it has to do with him?

Mark Sonntag said...

This Mickey Rooney caricature and the performance in the film is based on his character in the then released MGM movie BOYS TOWN.

Ladytink_534 said...

Do you know if any of the stars ever caricatured in this or other Disney films ever remarked on it? I'd love to know what they thought about it.