Tex Avery -
the Enfant Terrible of Cartoons
Some could find Avery's interpretations of fairytales somewhat
sacreligious. Picture from the film Red Hot Riding Hood (1943).
Daffy Duck, what a chap
Soon after Porky the characters turned into the anarchic creatures Daffy Duck represents respectively. Cheeky Bugs Bunny became well-known for his continuous sayings "What's up Doc?". In the beginning both Daffy and Bugs, however, behaved so insanely that the audiece found them almost off-putting.Probably the best-known of Avery's characters is the melancholic hound Droopy. Avery created Droopy and most of the other important characters while working at the MGM studios 1942-1957, where his touch was apparent in all the productions.
Who's afraid of the big bad Wolf?
Some could find Avery's interpretations of traditional fairytales somewhat sacreligious. His Red Hot Riding Hood was a saucy redhead, ran after by the lusty Wolf, and is not exactly like the innocent cartoon types by Disney.Some of Avery's cartoons were actually too racy for the sensitive cencors and the Wolf's Riding Hood-inspired erection-like movements were shown in complete only to some troops in the Second World War.
End's well all's well
Avery was even an Oscar nominee for his first film at MGM, a nazi satire Blitz Wolf in 1943. By the end of 1950s Avery got fed up with his film career and turned to advertising.The value of Tex Avery's work was not fully recognized before 1970s when schools swearing by his name sprang up here and there. He was turned into a mad genious, Chaplin of cartoons, Disney who has read his Kafka. Avery himself had the pleasure of enjoying his position as a respected guru for some ten years before passing away in 1980.
© pomot 1998