The Country Cousin (1936) Breakdown + Mosaics

 

This month I was fully invested with classic disney media. I love alot of the characters, and love the entire style of it. Makes you feel sweet and heartwarming inside.

These are without a doubt the most creative, most pleasing character designs I ever seen in animation history. 

These model sheets helped me improve as a better artist. You'll be excited about the next drawing post. 

I love these models of Pete. While I normally have no opinion on his personality, he's very interesting to look at especially in his 40s cartoons. 

He's useful whenever I draw Ox Fisher.

Find this kid to be cute and well-drawn.

Today's cartoon of the day is The Country Cousin (1936) didn't think it was worth the academy award, but it's still a solid and interesting cartoon.

I'm not entirely going through all of this cartoon because I was investigating something new, called mosaics. These are really cool and worth exploring to see what animators did which scene. 

These pictures are discovered on this website. Here's the link to the original post where I downloaded these amazing pictures.

https://babbittblog.com/2013/03/30/country-cousin-draft-mosaic/

It's extremely fascinating and unique to see what people like best from cinema. The animation and scenery in this cartoon is gorgeous. 

The reason as to why I made this specific topic in the first place is the placement for the dates each animator was assigned to make a scene for. 

The Silly Symphonies were well known for having some complexity and creative ambition literally a few years before they were popular for their movies. 

While yes, short films are not as complicated or driven as feature-film making, it's still alot of work, and a good cast of animators.

In the beginning of the short, Marvin Woodward and Les Clark mostly take action to animate all of the frames. That's it. They are not credited in any of the last 30 seconds. In fact I love the final 30 seconds of this short the best. 

I dunno there's a right way to create a cartoon about a mouse exploring in a normal living house. But here it kinda doesn't work. It's still got some moments though so I wasn't too bored. 

This mouse is inspired by my own mouse, Giggles. It's very interesting. He has such a captivating and overlooked design. 

At least he has some likeabilty. He had a few merchandising efforts. Like this vinylmation figure I find genuinely cool.

Before I leave it here, here's 2 pictures I find pleasing and sure has a vibe to them.

The Best MGM Animator

When it comes to classic animators, I love alot of them. Rod Scribner, John Sibley, Ward Kimball, Preston Blair you name it. 

But is there someone that I feel forced and influenced to the most? 

Yes. 

I was on a spree watching animation reels, Kenneth Muse astounded me the most. He animated most of the 40s Tom and Jerry shorts and was a master of tone and expression in his drawings.

Tom and Jerry may not be the most flawless cartoon in my personal opinion but it's definitely the most witty and lively of the bunch. There's so much unique techniques and principles to the characters. 

What makes Ken Muse's work so much fun is how expressive and action-packed some of his scenes are. He first worked at Disney's. He animated the best Mickey Mouse shorts in my opinion. It's cinematic yet fast and rubbery.

After he left Disney, it was his big chance to prove his animation skills at MGM. He animated more of the slower, dramatic and methodical scenes of the Tom and Jerry shorts. That's what makes him utterly enjoyable and entertaining. When it comes to wacky animators like Rod Scribner and Ward Kimball, they're more or less always funny the way you look at the frames. 

Ken Muse had such maturity to his scenes. 

I think it's important to learn about these people, it's not easy as it sounds but it was completely staggering and geniuely a work of art. It's strength, it's extreme emotion, the way characters interact, Muse is perfect at that.

I'm going to watch Anchor's Aweigh next week. It's 2 hours and 20 minutes. Honestly all I'm here for is some good fun and of course Gene Kelly. He's one of the best dancers of all time.

I love this spin dance Gene does in this movie.

These will always be funny to me. Whenever Tom hits Jerry, Jerry does a funny face and lays flat. It's comedic to the max.

I've seen this in The Cat Concerto and it was also funny too.

Ken Muse is the best MGM studio animator. His animation skills are beautifully influential. He's definitely well loved by other people, and I'm one of those fans. 

There's this unique video of a guide to identifying animators. Tom's design is so cute in one of these clips from the video. While not all of it speaks "special" or convincing, it's still cool to experience for yourself. 

The channel who made this video is one of my favorites. 

Go to the channel. 

https://m.youtube.com/@ibcf

Professor Ratigan - The Perfect Villain

 

Ratigan is the main antagonist in Disney's The Great Mouse Detective. Everything about that movie is stellar and impeccable.

Ratigan himself is an incredibly powerful and evil villain, he's one of the most underrated and most vicious characters in film. 

His expressions are utterly unforgettable. You can already tell he's cruel and dark in terms of his design but those additional menacing facial expressions definitely make him more engaging. 

His poses, his preciously talented singing, his overall plans to dominate the entire plot of the movie is seriously one of the most fascinating things I ever seen in Disney history. 

His early concept designs are insanely outstanding for it's time. 

Someone like Hades, or Shere Khan may look threatening, but they didn't left me on a good impression. Hades talks way too much, and Shere Khan is way too laid-back to be a villain. It's very hard to make a somewhat watchable and lovable baddie. 

I haven't made "real" villains yet, the more complex and temperamental characters I truly created so far is Ox Fisher. 

This was a go at creating a Pete/Bluto type persona, only without the action of kidnapping innocent women like they do in their old cartoons. I've been creating this guy for about a year and is one of my more timeless characters I made.

  

The Great Mouse Detective was a bronze age movie and that era had some really fantastic and incredible cast of characters. Basil, Bernard, Dodger, freaking Winnie The Pooh you name it. Not a single boring villain or bland Disney princess in sight. 

The final battle Basil vs Ratigan himself is easily one of the best defeat scenes in Disney. 

The most disappointing thing is that he isn't talked about enough. He's definitely the most appreciated and most flawless characters. 

I really hope this entire movie is willing to gain an audience sometime in the future. 

Easter Fun

 

Happy Easter, fellas. Hope it's been a good one so far. 

This gives off pastel color palette vibes. Kaoru Yamada is an artist I'm completely not aware of but I like the art alot. It's very lively just like with other painters I enjoy.

Next is my favorite Easter styled cover from The Saturday Evening Post. Kenneth Stuart must've had alot of inspiration from the classic cartoons because it works perfectly from that range. Still has some great colors though. 

I've been obsessed with these lately.

This is the first shot from Silly Symphonies Funny Little Bunnies (1934). This is fantastic. One of the best 30 second openings to a cartoon. Has some really happy n' gay type music in it which is easy to appreciate.

Here's something tasty. Remember these? 

Last month I talked about Bugs Bunny's Easter Yeggs (1947) feel free to check it out here

https://sngexplorationblog.blogspot.com/2025/03/easter-with-bugs-bunny.html?m=1

Pure nostalgic bliss. 

Well, hopefully you find a few of these images interesting. Happy Easter here's a 3 minute short film I genuinely like

Peter Cottontail (1951)