The Coolest Cowboy In Films : Pecos Bill - Melody Time (1948)

 

I cannot think of a single unique and expressive character that has so much style, facial expressions and wit like Pecos Bill. He's truly an amazing and fascinating hidden gem of a protagonist.

What makes him special is that he only appears in one overlooked movie. He was one of the best parts of that movie alongside Blame It On The Samba.

When I ranked all the war-time era Disney  movies, I didn't give enough credit to his scenes. Coming back to them now I was instantly influenced by them. They are quick, sharp and well drawn like most Disney films and other classic animation studios. 

I love this close-up shot of the horse and Pecos himself. 

Most of these scenes were animated by Ward Kimball who is easily the best of the 9 old men at the Disney headquarters back then. The rubbery and playful antics in these is truly unforgotten and appealing to the max.

I really miss when Disney made original stories even smaller ones so seeing stuff like this made back in the 40s feels dreamy and calm even though some of the moments feel challenging at times.

Notice how his expression is the same for a few seconds.

Disney is known for being less cartoony than the other animation studios, but I really like it that way. Now Warner Bros, MGM and especially Fleischers made amazing and timeless films but you can't beat Disney with it's impact. The scenery, the style, the amount of things happening, even in movies I dislike they still have something to like about them.

Look at this drawing. That's stellar. 

 The late 40s was full of distinctive moments in particular. All of the elements felt natural, understandable and logical. It wasn't too keen on repetitiveness, and too simple character designs. 

I love all of these animated frames of Pecos Bill especially with his single eye closed to be doing something rowdy.

This seems so hard to animate in particular, but it looks so clean and confident. There's alot of realism and personality for each of the characters.

Animation is also a useful tool for observation. My favorite tool for animating something is to have some fun animated characters and visually pleasing backgrounds. Also I'm not too keen on too much dialogue so having a straightforward and simple story is always key even if your starting out animating like me.

Almost every Disney character especially from the golden age has memorable and interesting designs that fit the movie very well. While Melody Time is a package film, it still has a ton of unique variety to those short films especially the ones that feel more abstract. 

I want to closely observe this singular scene of Pecos Bill silently minding his business with his lasso. It's a perfect 5 seconds of your time. 

It's really expressive and neatly drawn.

Then after all that he shows us another facial expression.

I love when people have different interests on characters they feel drawn to the best.  

Pecos Bill might not be one of my favorite characters, but he's definitely got alot of fascinating qualities to him. I'm always on the go exploring new characters and stories. That's why I buy DVDs and explore the media of art. Heck you all are probably doing it too with my entire blog. 

Autograph Hound Ritz Brothers

 

Previously, I talked about Caricatures in cartoons, and while on that, I mentioned I would talk about a scene from a Disney cartoon I enjoyed more than I used to. 

The Autograph Hound (1939) is my favorite of the old hollywood cartoons. It may not have a ton of celebrity appearances, but the way these people are animated, is definitely the best.

My favorite scene from this cartoon is when Donald meets with The Ritz Brothers, which I never heard of. They're somewhat talented here.

It starts with Donald watching the silhouettes of the dancing women. 

While they walk and dance, we get to peek at the legs. Yeah, you know where this is heading.

They weren't women doing egyptian dances after all.

I love these designs so much. They have stretchy arms and legs, and simple facial expressions. 

I want to talk about something, these are what the Ritz Brothers actually look like.

The reason why not alot of people watch stuff like this is that they would probably not get the references, which kinda bugs me. I never heard of these guys until I watched this cartoon.

Now we get into Ward Kimball who is one of my favorite animators. I love how they move, they change to different hats.

Definitely has some good smears here and there.

I'm actually stunned that for such an unwanted group of entertainers back in the 30s, had respect somehow in this particular cartoon.

And just like that the hats change.

I love the expressions in this scene. Whenever I think of Disney nowadays, I don't just think about the good animation, I think about the expressive details with one of these characters.

Compare Disney's cast of characters like Aurora, Lady, and Shere Khan to more entertaining characters like Riley Thomson's Mickey Mouse, Pecos Bill and these three men. 

Disney wasn't only about angular princesses and fancy fashioned pets, there was a time in the 30s to 40s when Disney was considered appealing and funny in every sense of the word.

I was overthinking too much that Disney was kinda boring. I mean true, there's those Pluto cartoons and those useless educational shorts, but man, these were fantastic, especially with such talented animators.

This was the start of the cartoony aspects. I love the acting with these parts. 

This guy's singing and flapping animation is funny. They're all singing about taking an autograph from Donald. 

Cartoons nowadays don't have this much exaggeration, and I'm one of those people who wants to see this concept of animation come back. 

Ward Kimball was special in the animation industry. He wasn't afraid to make funny drawings. He was like the Rod Scribner of Disney.

The intensity of the music cue in this is amazing. 

Man, these guys love to be stylish. 

Donald says it all with that face.

Coming back watching this cartoon, this short is just full of memorable designs and rubbery action. 

Donald Duck's cartoons were the best during it's Golden Age run in my opinion, Donald was such a relatable character in these shorts, he faced off against his nephews, he battled with an ostrich, and his design was so goshdarn cute. 

He was truly the first cartoon character to have such human emotions and relatable cartoons. 

Start Of 2025 Drawings

 

Since January is half way over and 2025 has just started, I wanted to send over lots and lots of drawings.

Enjoy.

These are my new recent characters I worked on. It's my own versions of The Tortoise and The Hare. Apparently, I planned my first cartoon that I ever finished involving these guys.

But you'll have to wait for another post to see it. 👀 

Another character I made recently is named Bren McGee. He's the smallest bully in the world.

He's supposed to be like Speedy Gonzales who I find annoying. Hopefully you guys don't think this character can make you turn off the TV. 

I made this funny drawing of Mike and Dotts and here Dotts holds up a sign similar to the Tex Avery MGM cartoons that I'm obsessed with.

Szac and Dredd in 20s fashion

My boys Dutcher and Ben Obvious out in town.

Apparently they have a nephew who is supposed to be a Ward Kimball caricature but more anthropomorphic.

I admire this guy's animation alot. He animates the characters so smoothly and the designs mostly involve big heads and rubbery dancing skills.

This is the first time I drew Roger Rabbit and I was having so much fun with it. 

I got into the Preston Blair book and man I been learning new things about animating immediately.

I did a mouse and I traced the final product.

I also did the dog too. I try to not copy all the designs on the book but I think it's important to note that the characters easily fit my style.

Mike The Dog sketches I did. I mostly looked up random thumbnails of Pluto cartoons on YouTube to get inspiration and study. 

My recent love lately has been The Jazz Frogs cartoons. I have a guilty pleasure for those since they involve music and good energy. 

These are probably the best celebrities as animals cartoons I ever saw. 

People can't take a rest when they say that  these are racist because I don't get easily offended by them. I mean come on, they are spoofs of famous black people. What's so stereotypical about it?

Szac and Dredd work decently in show-biz. I wouldn't say it works perfectly but honestly they are a piece of entertainment after all.

Szac is one of my favorite characters, I can imagine him being normal and reserved because he is, but he's also calm and cares about others needs. I learned about this, just because someone may look tough or hard to get to know, you might know they are good people.

I think Artmania should have one-shot cartoons just like Looney Tunes and MGM do.

I made a character named Muriel who is a young burro who wants to be ready to see the real world around him.

I made a model sheet helped by the Preston Blair tutorials.

Of course more human designs. 

《 CARICATURES 》

I always wanted to draw caricatures. I just admired how well-drawn they looked. I remember going to a baseball game with my parents once when I was little and I got a caricature of myself and I was just mind-blown someone could do something like that in less than 20 minutes. And when I was watching those old hollywood cartoons, I wanted to draw some myself. 

Well... except for these types of designs.

YUCK.

First, I made a Peter Lorre drawing. I haven't experienced this guy besides the multiple inspirations from it like Ren Hoek, and in Looney Tunes cartoons like Hair Raising Hare and Birth Of A Notion. But I do like his face. It's easy and fun to draw.

For Elvis's 90th birthday, I drew my own caricature of him. Apparently it's not the best but it does look like him. He's iconic for alot of reasons so that's why I took part in it.

I haven't sketched The Three Stooges in a long time and I wanted to redraw them because they're the funniest people in entertainment. 

While I think The Three Stooges are the the funniest people on Earth, Bing Crosby is the most attractive person in entertainment. I cannot stop thinking about this guy's laid-back faces he throws us on screen. 

Of course I seen a few movies and a documentary on him and it always puts a smile on my face when he just looks reserved as ever. 

I'm one of those people who respects Bing and his soothing music because I seen he's done alot of good deeds and impacted people for many decades.

Frank Sinatra was always a decently good singer to me.

This is supposed to be a model sheet for a music video I wanted to make.

Here's a finished version of him, looking fresh as ever. 

And finally, some random people I wanted to draw. These are pretty obvious. 

Clark Gable, Walt Disney and Chuck Jones. 

The other one is Caddicarus because he's one of my favorite Youtubers. Apparently it's a channel not for everyone but I certainly love his humor. It's hard to say he's got inappropriate content when your easily distracted by the weird and funny editing and dialogue.