Monday, October 10, 2005
Hiya cousin, what's buzzin'?
I was feeling crappy this evening, until I stumbled on this video of Tex Avery's Red Hot Riding Hood. That cheered me right up. It's incredible how fresh this film is today, more than 62 years after it was made.
Not that I'm a paragon of entertainment knowledge or anything, but I can't think of anybody (other than Walt Disney perhaps) who contributed more to the American popular cultural vocabulary than Tex Avery and his Termite Terrace retinue. Avery, who never intended his own films to be for kids, was sort of the anti-Disney; uncensored, unselfconscious, wild creativity.
I think we have Disney to thank for creating this weird universal sense that animation is only for children (a mistaken notion the company perpetuates to this day). The very word "Disney" has wriggled its way into most folks' brains as a synonym for "children's movies", and indeed among the less knowledgable, also a synonym for "animation" (it's still a very common mistake even in the media to credit almost any animated feature that comes out to the Disney studio). Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if Disney in the early years had done more adult animated films. We probably now wouldn't have shows like Family Guy, whose appeal seems to come from subverting the perceived "kiddie"-ness of animation. "You wouldn't expect this gay/disabled-person/80s-pop-culture/penis joke from a cartoon, would you, so it's funny, right, ha ha?"
Unfortunately, Disney's influence has apparently been too powerful. Or else Tex Avery's legacy would have rendered Family Guy unnecessary.
Not that I'm a paragon of entertainment knowledge or anything, but I can't think of anybody (other than Walt Disney perhaps) who contributed more to the American popular cultural vocabulary than Tex Avery and his Termite Terrace retinue. Avery, who never intended his own films to be for kids, was sort of the anti-Disney; uncensored, unselfconscious, wild creativity.
I think we have Disney to thank for creating this weird universal sense that animation is only for children (a mistaken notion the company perpetuates to this day). The very word "Disney" has wriggled its way into most folks' brains as a synonym for "children's movies", and indeed among the less knowledgable, also a synonym for "animation" (it's still a very common mistake even in the media to credit almost any animated feature that comes out to the Disney studio). Sometimes I wonder what the world would be like if Disney in the early years had done more adult animated films. We probably now wouldn't have shows like Family Guy, whose appeal seems to come from subverting the perceived "kiddie"-ness of animation. "You wouldn't expect this gay/disabled-person/80s-pop-culture/penis joke from a cartoon, would you, so it's funny, right, ha ha?"
Unfortunately, Disney's influence has apparently been too powerful. Or else Tex Avery's legacy would have rendered Family Guy unnecessary.
