Wednesday 7 September 2011

A Pat (Ventura) on the Back

Hollywood, if you ever find time to stop and listen to people talking instead of money, here's some much-needed advice -

If you're still sure that reviving old-school cartoons will reel the ca$h pigs in, please...at least find the right people to do the job properly - who know the characters inside out - who know how to handle them carefully - who know what makes them say or do stuff that's actually FUNNY.

And hopefully the right people who won't stuff them into unnecessary, clichéd-to-death feature-length movies. Seven-minute cartoons. Short but sweet, that's what Warner Bros. taught us in the Golden Age. Is that so much to ask??


Pat Ventura is one of many, many cartoonists who still respect the squash-n-stretch, slapstick style we've all grown up with "back in the day". He's literally worked everywhere with everyone in writing, directing and designing whatever's given to him - Disney's Aladdin and Roger Rabbit, Hanna-Barbera's Tom and Jerry Kids, even The Baby Huey Show produced by Film Roman from '95 - and in each he's done a very good job in the entertainment section, especially keeping each character faithful to their style of humour while injecting plenty of his own.

When Hanna-Barbera launched their What A Cartoon! showcase series, Pat was of the young cartoonists given a chance to have some fun and make a name of himself. Next to creating Sledgehammer O'Possom and Yucky Duck, he also created two animated shorts featuring Tex Avery's memorable characters George and Junior. While Pat's style may not be to everyone's taste, at least the cartoons Pat helped to create have done what they were made for - to make me laff =D


Check out Pat's George and Junior cartoons below - then visit his blog to view more of his work. Including character sheets, storyboards and billions of sketchbook pages!!


1 comment:

  1. Wow, I was just transferring a couple of his shorts from the "What A Cartoon Show!" from VHS to DVD while I was making the rounds on my favorite blogs. What a weird coincidence.

    ReplyDelete