After beating Epic Mickey, I decided to watch over a bunch of old Disney cartoons which I haven't done in a few years. Lately for me, the only old cartoons I've been watching were Tex Avery MGM ones and colored Looney Tunes shorts.
Disney, Warner Brothers, and MGM all had a different way making cartoon shorts.
Disney
Warner Brothers
These were just a few ideas I wrote out about them, since I've been watching more Disney, their points are still fresh in my mind. I would have to look over a bunch of WB and MGM shorts to get a clearer idea of how to compare them.
But which of the companies did you prefer? And if you want to be specific, which directors did you prefer?
For me, while I love the Disney characters more than anything, and their ability to sync to so many musical beats, I think I enjoyed more later Warner Brother shorts just because of how entertaining they were. WB probably has Mel Blanc to thank, but I liked a lot of the one-shot characters and their personalities more than I liked Disney's one-shot characters. The two cats in A Tale of Two Kiitties make me laugh each time. I know they're a parody of some old comedian actors, but even without knowing that, they still make me laugh.
Disney, Warner Brothers, and MGM all had a different way making cartoon shorts.
Disney
- Disney was a bit more focused on frame-by-frame animation and art details, some of their movements would be more long animated than the other companies (Like, a slapping sequence might take a few more seconds to play in their shorts than others).
- They also animated more landscapes, having entire mountains move or a giant train moving about with human characteristics (There was a short with Mickey, Goofy, and Donald driving with a trailer attached that really impressed me animation wise).
- Most of Disney's mascot character-based shorts usually involved parodies or exaggerations on real world activities. Like how most of their Mickey, Donald, and Goofy shorts usually involved 8 minutes of them trying to build a boat and funny gags they could do inside of that, or trying to fix a car. I think they began to slowly make a change in their story-telling around the 1940's when they would start telling fable-like cartoons and have their mascot characters in an actual plot rather than a string of long gags.
- Disney seemed more music-syncing focused than the other companies. While all animation back then followed beats, Disney really followed the beats to the point where not a finger was pointed or a footstep was taken where there wasn't a musical beat syncing to it.
Warner Brothers
- WB shorts looked like they were more intended for directors to be given a shot at making their own cartoons, so as a result, a lot of their stuff was different. But even then, the directors had a bunch of similar qualities that contrasted from the Disney way of doing things. Their animation and movement was a bit faster and the art seemed more focused on being stylistic or "what looks good in the directors eyes" rather than "lets impress the audience with vast amounts of detail".
- WB's shorts seemed to mostly be about plot, usually a chasing plot (Character A tries to capture wise-cracking Character B) rather than a string of gags based around an idea.
These were just a few ideas I wrote out about them, since I've been watching more Disney, their points are still fresh in my mind. I would have to look over a bunch of WB and MGM shorts to get a clearer idea of how to compare them.
But which of the companies did you prefer? And if you want to be specific, which directors did you prefer?
For me, while I love the Disney characters more than anything, and their ability to sync to so many musical beats, I think I enjoyed more later Warner Brother shorts just because of how entertaining they were. WB probably has Mel Blanc to thank, but I liked a lot of the one-shot characters and their personalities more than I liked Disney's one-shot characters. The two cats in A Tale of Two Kiitties make me laugh each time. I know they're a parody of some old comedian actors, but even without knowing that, they still make me laugh.