If He's Not The King of Cartoons, Who Is?

Tex Avery Switched On For Blu-Ray

Since when did we dub Tex Avery King of Cartoons? This, I believe, is the first time an animation director has had a Blu-Ray compilation dedicated to him. Avery was not modernly discovered till the 70’s, only barely then. His shorts weren’t televised intact before a Tom, Jerry, and Friends package went into mid-70’s syndication, having been prior-shown via network (mostly CBS), and shorn of main titles. Tex was sometimes credited as Fred Avery, and whilst at Warners, had his name left often off openings where cartoons were reissued. A favorite WB of mine was Hollywood Steps Out, which I bribed off a TV station employee and showed often at college, but who had directed it? Credits did not tell because there weren’t any, just a title. For me in the 70’s, and certainly the audience, that was enough. Rental catalogues were no help. Films Inc. distributed the MGM backlog, but did not make capitol of Avery cartoons. Their Rediscovering The American Cinema, which presumed to list all of classics within Films Inc. grasp, left animation off distinction’s plate, while UA/16, controlling pre-49 Warners, offered two, and only two, cartoon “Parades” dedicated to Tex Avery. These could be rented in 16mm, and on Eastman stock, subject to color fade or tilt toward red. To collect Warner cartoons was to scale a tall hill, MGM’s the Matterhorn. My best score was a pink, spliced-as-in-footage-gone, Tom and Jerry called Tee For Two, which I thought great because by then (1945), Hanna and Barbara were photostatting Avery pace and gags in their cat-mouse reels.

Word-of-mouth was what taught me of Tex. A NY collector showed up at an NC western con (early 80's) and tempted us with Leo lunacy the likes of which we’d not dream MGM capable of. Where had these howlers been hiding --- let alone from staid site of neutered Tarzans and de-humorized Our Gangs? It became imperative to have more of Avery … no, all of Avery, since it seemed no clucks emanated from this artist’s easel. Any short bearing Avery name was surefire. Movie nights rang upon thrill of cartoons all new to us and fresher than fresh. Were there ever seven so outlandish minutes as Red Hot Riding Hood? Outlaw 16’s ran generally to $35 per OK dupe, a bargain for laughs to surpass cartoons we collected before. Legit sources stayed unmindful of how great Tex Avery was. His work was long out of theatres, or so it seemed, but one 1979 night I did encounter Rock-A-Bye Bear as support to an Ursula Andress steam-bath about headhunters, the local venue having come by the 1954 cartoon who-knows-how, but no worry, it was a first, if inadvertent, exposure to Tex Avery in 35mm, and come to think of it, my last.

We too often forget that cartoons were once made for everyone, kids sure, but grown-ups too, and it was very much a mass and general audience that made stars of Mickey, Popeye ... and Red (Hot) Riding Hood, starring in a a white-hot series of naughty cartoons that everyone understood to be Tex Avery’s creation, not just industry-folk, but Mr./Mrs. Public plus offspring teeming through lobbies and seeing displays like this one on the left, Avery the prominent name and guarantor of corks-out laughter. He might have been MVP for MGM animation but for powerhouse team of Tom and Jerry, bona fide crowd-getters doing so over and over, eight at least to a year, while Avery, who got no closer to Hanna/Barbara than Droopy as a sustaining character, had to prove himself each time out with one-offs, or efforts at star-making that yielded nothing on the order of T&J, however much we enjoy George and Junior or Screwball Squirrel today. Status disparity between himself and H/B was said to rankle Tex, even as he passed them daily in Metro animation hallways.

Mentor and legend Moon Mullins, he of many past Greenbriar expeditions, used to get 2000’ reels snuck out of Charlotte exchanges made up of IB Tech Warner cartoons in 35mm with tunnel openings snipped off, the better to disguise ownership, he said. These were gorgeous, some Avery-made, this by way of saying that cartoon collecting was in those days catch and catch can, snatch and grab, pinch or pilfer, whatever got the goods quickest. To think nineteen Averys can today be had for $17.97 from Amazon … pure science-fiction in piratical days, which I’m frankly glad are past, whatever the thrill of ill-had gains. Not that fans prospered better in a past forty-five (at least) years, despite home video on quality up and up. Avery was till now absent from DVD, other than singles as extra with a feature here/there, or an odd Droopy collection where the pooch was emphasized over his creator. Laserdisc, once thought an acme of home-view splendor, hosted a complete Avery-MGM group spread over five record album-sized discs, but close inspect found some incomplete (cut for sensitive content), all analoggy and well below standard we insist upon today. There is point at which one is spoiled by perfection, and we've reached it.

Here’s what took bloom off Tex Avery rose since 70’s discovery: Copycats who would be Tex, a breed born in the 40’s when even Disney aped Avery to reach a same level for laughs. Watch Roger Rabbit, not just the feature, but any of short cartoons 80’s-made, or miles of Tiny Toons, Animaniacs, the bagatelle. I’d call Tex Avery hands-down the most influential animation director the business ever knew, as much a model today as eighty years ago. Remarkable thing about Avery was being ahead of his time in the 30/40’s, being still ahead thirty years after that. It took animation even longer to catch up with him, and that was only by way of slavishing every technique he introduced. Avery won’t seem as revolutionary today for his style having been so appropriated by others who’d call it theirs. I wish Tex Avery had lived longer (d. 1980) to fully know what a giant he’d been. By all account he was self-effacing, no credit hog or bragger, so fans had often to drag reminiscence from him, plus there was much sadness in his later life. A book was out in 1975, Tex Avery: King Of Cartoons, much of it oral history with the Master and some of co-workers. Frame captures were cloudy but accurate as to shape the films were in at the time. We are fortunate beyond measure to have Avery looking so rapturous via this Blu-Ray.