King of Excellent (according to Scaryduck)

Wednesday, September 12

Being Animated

This week I are mostly going to be childish. Cartoons were once not the exclusive domain of children. Tom and Jerry would repeatedly win Oscars in the 1940s, and entire cinemas full to the brim would be riotous in laughter. MGM studios survived solely on the success of this cat and mouse partnership, and today Warner Brothers are most famous for their cartoons. What would the world be like without Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, my father's favourite Wile E. Coyote, or my favourite Marvin the Martian. The quality of the roadrunner cartoons has never been surpassed in my opinion, and the inability of Wile E. Coyote to capture this bird is the sheer comic genius of one man, the director Chuck Jones. A true inspiration amongst animators, he sadly passed away 5 years ago. I quote from his official website...
After hearing that Jones had died, a four-year-old child asked her mother, between sobs, "Does this mean the bunny won’t be in the barber chair any more?" The answer is, "No, the bunny will be in the barber chair forever."
More recently if we're honest, there hasn't been much in the way of 'good' animation. Pixar have done some gems, my personal favourite being "for the birds." Nick Park and Aardman Animations have obviously made the Wallace and Gromit Series. Also, unknown but just as funny if not more so, is a Welsh animation called Gogs (named after the South Welsh nickname for North Wales Residents, short for Gogledd, the welsh for north). Gogs is one of the funniest, most childish animations I've ever seen. I cry with laughter at each and every episode, even though I know what's coming. Oh, and watch out in this episode for a true Scaryduck-ism, as one of the sons is sick-inna-hedge.



The influx of computer animations means that the field is once again opening up. Pixar were first, but now Dreamworks have got in on the fun, and in recent times introduced us to Scrat. Scrat is a cross between a squirrel and a rat. His one purpose in life is to store acorns, presumably for the hard winter that is the ice age. If he finds an acorn, it is too much of a treasure to lose. He will do anything to capture it again. So for this week's pleasure, being a mindless comedy, I present to you from Ice Age 2, Scrat.

Enjoy