As there are only 359 days until Christmas, this seems like the appropriate time for this mosaic. The information on the animator draft, courtesy of Mark Kausler, can be found here and here. Click any of the images below to enlarge.
it was mostly guesswork of course, and now I see I got Gordon and Zander's animation the wrong way around! I also was unable to identify Bill Littlejohn's animation, I'll need to check if that's the same style I assumed was his in "Bowling Alley-Cat" and "Fine Feathered Friend." Finally, it's great to have a name for the "mystery animator" which had been bugging me and Mike Russo so long - Cecil Surry!
Wow, thank you. It's hard for me to ID animators in some of those early T&J cartoons. This definitely helped out a lot. Cecil Surry? That's a new name for me.
And I'm going to go on record as saying I loved Littlejohn's animation in the Peanuts specials. His style stood out among the stiffer animation of animators who didn't really seem to have much of an individual style. It's funny how you can see his distinct style as far back as the earliest Tom and Jerry cartoons.
Incredible that he was still animating Peanuts specials pretty much up until they starting shipping the stuff overseas.
Oh WOW! I posted an animator breakdown for this on Thad's blog a few years ago...
ReplyDeletehttp://thadkomorowski.com/2006/12/23/the-night-before-christmas/#comments
it was mostly guesswork of course, and now I see I got Gordon and Zander's animation the wrong way around! I also was unable to identify Bill Littlejohn's animation, I'll need to check if that's the same style I assumed was his in "Bowling Alley-Cat" and "Fine Feathered Friend." Finally, it's great to have a name for the "mystery animator" which had been bugging me and Mike Russo so long - Cecil Surry!
Bill Littlejohn's animation is a far cry from his work on the Charlie Brown specials, but the curved apendages are still there.
ReplyDeleteSomeone made a real mess of the IMDb page for this one.
I'm stymied... So what's been ID'ed as Zander's in the past is really Gordon's, and Gordon's is Zander's?
ReplyDeleteIt surprised me, too.
ReplyDeleteI think it may have all stemmed from a Gordon drawing of Jerry (from LONESOME MOUSE) identified as one of Zander's in Maltin's book. Thanks, Mark(s)!
ReplyDeleteI always love these early, "chubby" Tom and Jerry Character designs.
ReplyDeleteWow, thank you. It's hard for me to ID animators in some of those early T&J cartoons. This definitely helped out a lot. Cecil Surry? That's a new name for me.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm going to go on record as saying I loved Littlejohn's animation in the Peanuts specials. His style stood out among the stiffer animation of animators who didn't really seem to have much of an individual style. It's funny how you can see his distinct style as far back as the earliest Tom and Jerry cartoons.
Incredible that he was still animating Peanuts specials pretty much up until they starting shipping the stuff overseas.
Thanks for taking the time to do this.
ReplyDelete