Phil De Lara & Manny Gould

 

I make no secret that I absolutely admire alot of the Looney Tunes cartoons and I will always love them no matter what. 

When first knowing about certain animators and discovering animation reels for the first time, the first studio that came to me was Disney. I love alot of them like Ward Kimball, John Sibley, Hal King, Hugh Fraser, you name it. I was pretty aware of animators until I knew the name "Rod Scribner", and then had to know a few more Warner Bros. animators that made one of my favorite scenes from the cartoons. 

My favorite Looney Tunes director as of now is Robert McKimson mostly the late 40s-early 50s era. He made some of the best cartoons I ever seen like The Windblown Hare, The Prize Pest and The Grey Hounded Hare, all are truly underrated classics.

From what I gathered, Manny Gould and Phil De Lara are among my favorites.

While I tend to like Clampett's zany and wacky exaggerated essence, they weren't always a promise. In my opinion, Clampett is a great director to study and experience I'll give it that, but maybe I like something less wildly cartoony and random to really get invested in a more coherent premise. Chuck Jones and McKimson I feel more drawn towards when it comes to mild but still entertaining cartoons.

Anyways, here is what animators I chose best.

Phil De Lara is underrated for alot of reasons, he's got excellent force, you could literally pause a frame of his, and it would be a great individual drawing piece.

I find his character designs to be really likeable.

I also like when a character stays as a still frame, but the only thing that's moving is the lip-syncing.

I'm not kidding by the way, I noticed that in some of these cartoons. Its a good way to not have too much exaggerated movement and keep the conversation focused. 

What I also love about the McKimson cartoons is the one-off characters. They're fun designs and very complex. The other directors have character designs that looked too round and simple, not to say that's bad at all, but something about these characters, they're more tough and interesting.

My second and final choice is Manny Gould. I mentioned him before, but now it's time for me to talk more about 'im.

Just like Rod Scribner, his animation is very vivid and wacky. While working with Clampett, him and the other animators had more freedom and less limitations, so this meant the drawings were more stretchy, and bizarre almost like Jim Tyer at Terrytoons. While I really like it, its not always useful as an illustrator and future animator myself.

But I really like Manny Gould, he's definitely a loved animator by most fans. There's alot more energy and wit to his animation in the McKimson cartoons in particular. Heck, he animated that one dance sequence from Hot Cross Bunny (1948).

Other notable favorites is that funny walk Daffy does in Draftee Daffy (1945), his expression when he glimpses at the piggy banks in The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946) and the unnamed cat noticing Tweety resting his nest in Birdy And The Beast (1944).

I have talked about McKimson and other animators and directors from other animation studios like Ken Muse, who worked for Disney and the Tom and Jerry cartoons, and Jack Kinney who directed the How To cartoons starring Goofy. 

I could just list like 50+ more animators I like but it would take all day honestly. I would like to keep my inspirations fairly low level.