What's Cookin' Doc? - Bugs waits for award

Here's a phenomenal scene from "What's Cookin' Doc" (1944).

It has many interesting points in it.

It's one of those scenes that's part McKimson and part Scribner.

It starts with Mckimson, becomes Scribner when Bugs turns around and walks to the screen and pulls it down, then turns back into McKimson.


The McKimson stuff as usual is really solid and full of great subtle human acting, but also has a few really cartoony parts-when Bugs yells "STOP!", when Bugs does a take and says "Gasp!", and at the end when he is at screen right and he takes a step-his legs stretch out twice as long and he slides over.

In this long long scene there are no animation "cheats"- no overly squash and stretches, no avoidance of clear poses, no extra head bobs that don't mean anything, no drastic overshoots that distract from the poses. The timing is perfect and natural, you can read everything.

The scene looks effortless yet it took unbelievable skill and talent to pull it off. I don't know anyone alive that could do anything this perfect.
This period of Bugs from 1942-1945 in Clampett's cartoons is the best he was ever drawn and animated and acted. It's this stuff that makes him such a real living character that made him last another 15 years or so with lesser work and depth.

I'll post more scenes from the period later.

And hey! Here's some Amazon links to VHS tapes that have this cartoon on it! Buy them and make Warner Bros. happy!








***VERY INTERESTING FACT! - This cartoon was made by Clampett to poke fun at Friz. Anyone know or want to know the story in a later post?