Friday, January 21, 2011

TWO VERSIONS OF "PORKY IN WACKYLAND!"



Wow! I discovered this on YouTube: it's Clampett's original Wackyland cartoon, side by side with the later color remake by Friz, "Dough for the Do-Do." Many thanks to "wecanstopnwo1" for taking the trouble to post the cartoons this way. It makes it lot easier to compare and learn from.

Of course, the original black and white version is better, that's obvious. The reason for comparing the two is that the same mistake in BG styling that's in the flawed color version is still with us today, all these years later: The color backgrounds aren't funny. No doubt producers believe that it's not the BG artist's job to be funny, but that's a mistake. Producers need to know that funny people are needed in all aspects of production, including backgrounds. Come to think of it, I wish they'd undertake more projects that would require funny people.

The newer BGs are technically more polished, but they're too literal, too unimaginative, too lacking in humor. Also, the color version horizons are too high. Why all the wasted space in the foreground? It's more ignorant, and therefore more funny, to place the character lower in the scene in a graphic-intensive story like this one.

I also like the newspaper strip feel of the earlier backgrounds. I'm seeing hints of Sterrett, Gross, Seuss and even a little Smokey Stover in the original BGs.



I like the way B and W Porky's plane is lower (and more ignorant) in the frame when we first see it, and I like the demented row of B and W trees more than the colored mountain silhouettes in the next scene.  The first time we see the Wackyland sign on a long shot (above) works better in the B and W, and the path the B and W sign is sitting on is more dynamic and ignorant, as are the trees.



Check out the next scene, which is a close-up of the sign (above). The energetic lettering and tonal contrasts in the B&W version make the scene funny, even with no animation. The color sign, on the other hand, is simply information. What a pity that this film fell into the hands of a humorless designer!



Well, a full comparison would take up too much space. I'll just close with one more point, which has nothing to do with backgrounds: namely that black and white is easier to make funny than color. It shows off funny drawings better. You'd never wish that Clampett's "Coal Black" and "Great Piggy Bank Robbery" were colorless, but aren't you glad his "Porky's Surprise Party" (above) was done that way?  Good old Bob! He doesn't get credit for it, but he developed two successful styles, the first one for the better cartoons done by his B and W unit.

24 comments:

thomas said...

The color version just cribs from Salvador Dali, where the B/W is truer to its medium and more surreal.

That high horizon line does flatten things out. Whether they did it to have room to litter the background with more Dali junk, who knows.

Brubaker said...

Friz Freleng directed the color remake. It came out in 1949; Clampett left the studio by then.

John V. said...

There are a few bits missing from the B&W, probably to make the timing match up. For examle, "He says his mother was scared by a pawnbroker's sign" (About the three-headed stooge thing).

Steven M. said...

Great comparison. I never understood the point of remaking Porky in Wackland. It's like trying to remake Citizen Kane, it's pointless.

Craig said...

The close horizons and "In One" staging is a direct result of Bob's love for puppets and puppet shows.

The Jerk said...

i bet that they made the empty space in the foreground of the color one so years later when wide-screen tv's were invented, they could crop it for the dummies who can't stand black bars on the side of the screen. :-)

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

John V: Holy Cow! You're right! Well, Illuminatti did the right thing by shortening it. That way the two films sync up.

Brubaker: Thanks for the correction. I incorporated it into the article. And thanks again for the character design spinner. It takes something ignorant and makes it seem so ...scientific!

Stephen Worth said...

You'd think that having the B&W version to refer to it would make it easier to avoid compositional mistakes between the characters and the BG. But they keep putting background details in exactly the spot that makes you look beyond the action into the distance.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Steve: Good point!

Jorge Garrido said...

Whoah! Why did I neglect to watch this video comparison on youtube closely the first time I found out about it. I'm such a dope! Eddie got the jump! Your analyses are spot on, Eddie!

Brubaker said...

Hope you'll post results you got with the spinner. They oughta give a good laugh or two...

Unknown said...

I noticed that some of the scenes in the colored version are from another Bob Clampett cartoon: Tin Pan Alley Cats.

Maybe I'm wrong but see for yourself--> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8RvIGdgsOWg

Joshua Marchant (Scrawnycartoons) said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Ben W said...

The first thing I noticed about the B&W background in that clip is that it frames the characters, whereas the color background intersects with and interrupts them.

The Barker said...

Hey Eddie, did you have anything to do with Tiny Toons' version of the Dodo and Wackyland?

Lester Hunt said...

I thought using the "Sopranos" theme song for the sound track was a bizarre touch!

I'm a fan of Dali myself, but Eddie's right -- use of his not-supposed-to-be-funny style here simply misses an opportunity to add to the humor of the piece.

Anonymous said...

This is probably a bit too nsfw for your blog but you should send this pic to John K. I know he'd get a kick out of this http://tittygawker.com/2011/01/22/520/

thomas said...

Oh, I didn't notice Dali mentioned in the post; I'll have to go back and check!

Nick said...

Interesting post. Although he's uncredited the backgrounds in "Dough for the Do-Do" were painted by Paul Julian no doubt. Whilst impressive on their own, I agree that they don't really work in the context of the cartoon. It's interesting that you cite Julian as a humorless designer, seeing as he left WB for UPA. Weirdly enough, the composition of the frame in his other Freleng cartoons isn't as distracting and is more carefully considered. Perhaps Hawley Pratt didn't do the layouts for the Wackyland remake.

Here's some other examples of Julian's work.

http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com/2010/02/high-diving-hare-warner-bros-1948.html

http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com/2010/01/ballot-box-bunny-warner-bros-1951.html

http://animationbackgrounds.blogspot.com/2008/09/bugs-bunny-rides-again.html

http://one1more2time3.wordpress.com/tag/paul-julian/

Jorge Garrido said...

Interesting that in the B&W original, the trees outside of the clearly marked borders of Wacklyand are cartoony, but in the color remake the mountains are very normal.

It's almost as if Clampett's "normal" world is already cartoony, even compared to Wackyland.

Brubaker said...

It wouldn't surprise me if Hawley Pratt didn't do the layouts. I don't know if you meant to cite him in particular as a humorless designer, but let me make it clear that Pratt is not.

Hawley Pratt is one of the unsung animation artists. Not only was he a talented layout artist, he was also a skilled animation director. He directed the best and the funniest of the "Pink Panther" cartoons.

Pratt was probably one of the few people from the 1960s who could direct a low-budget, limited animation cartoon, and actually make it look good. Not even the best of the TV cartoons from Hanna-Barbera could touch that stuff.

Eddie Fitzgerald said...

Nick, Brubaker: I'm a big fan of Hawley Pratt, and Julian's done some real nice work. The Western BG in the link you posted Nick, was pretty impressive.

My guess is that the revised BGs were pawned off on lesser artists with only minimal supervision by the big guys.

Jorge, Sandra: Good points!

Chip: No, I didn't have nything to do with the TT version. I wish I had!

Anon: Holy Cow! What a link! I think John has already seen it!

Kali Fontecchio said...

Whoa I didn't know he remade this. Weird.

The last shot at the bottom of Porky's Surprise Party, that has to be one of my favs, still cracks me up, the bras and such being knit under his shirt is such a good gag!

Anonymous said...

It's worth noting that this was actually a project initiated by Art Davis, picked up by Freleng when that unit was shut down in 1948. The Julian BGs and new animation by Ken Champin and Gerry Chiniquy indicate Davis did just about no discernible work on the final film. I have always wondered though at why there are no credits on Dough for the Do-Do, save Mel Blanc and Carl Stalling. It was definitely a violation of studio contracts, but I guess nobody minded as it's obvious nobody's heart is in this remake.

Thankfully Clampett's original 1938 masterwork is readily available for all to fully appreciate.