tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6956070.post1244213814695343442..comments2023-11-03T11:37:13.579-04:00Comments on Something Old, Nothing New: Freleng and FosterJaime J. Weinmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15128500411119962998noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6956070.post-20685573629224855882008-07-07T06:23:00.000-04:002008-07-07T06:23:00.000-04:00What's interesting is that Warren Foster never wro...What's interesting is that Warren Foster never wrote a cartoon for Chuck Jones, who either worked with Pierce or Maltese throughout most of his career. Freleng had all of the three main writers working for him at various points, and even McKimson had Maltese contribute a few stories for him in the late '50s.<BR/><BR/>Your comments make the idea of a Jones-Foster collaboration a fascinating "what if" possibility.Nickhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07672531047074305268noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6956070.post-69837060146127662682008-07-06T13:48:00.000-04:002008-07-06T13:48:00.000-04:00While it's inarguable his best shorts were with Ma...While it's inarguable his best shorts were with Maltese, Freleng's cartoons were usually as good as he himself wanted them to be. Freleng and Tashlin's successes weren't nearly as dependent on a writer like Jones (Maltese), Clampett, and McKimson (Foster) were. So in essence, what we see is a few years of Freleng just collecting a paycheck.<BR/><BR/>There is competent stuff throughout the whole Sylvester and Tweety series, regardless of how many others were business as usual. I can at least name one a year from the series that is a great cartoon. Post shutdown wise, I like "Tweety's Circus", "Sandy Claws", "Tweet and Sour", "Birds Anonymous", "A Pizza Tweety Pie" (Blanc's overblown Italian accent kills me), "Trick or Tweet", "Tweet and Lovely", "Hyde and Go Tweet", and "Last Hungry Cat". A pretty dazzling success rate, IMHO.<BR/><BR/>As much as I like Yosemite Sam, I can't offer that series the same defense, besides the obvious fact that the earliest ones were best. (I really like "From Hare to Heir" though.)Thadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04443425643665474645noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6956070.post-53672331204723374712008-07-05T20:35:00.000-04:002008-07-05T20:35:00.000-04:00Pierce's work, post split-up with Maltese in inter...Pierce's work, post split-up with Maltese in interesting in that, like McKimson, he's brushed off as almost an after-thought, yet still had his name on some good cartoons -- not just for Friz in the 40s and Bob at the start of and in the mid-50s, but also for Jones when Mike Maltese was gone ("Broomstick Bunny", "The Abominable Snow Rabbit").<BR/><BR/>His work was a little more adult than Foster -- the endings for "Broomstick Bunny", "Mixed Master" and "Boston Quackie" have his fingerprints all over them. But in a lot of the cartoons from that period with McKimson, the main body of the shorts feel padded, in the same way Mike Barrier said his early 40s shorts with Jones felt padded.<BR/><BR/>(The Freleng-Foster cartoons on the other hand are straight-ahead gag cartoons that do their job most of the time, but only rarely try to stretch things, as with something like "Three Little Bops". It worked with a writer as talented as Foster, but in the 60s and early 70s, those same types of cartoons done for United Artists at D-FE are usually pale copies of Friz's original work, with only a handful of new gags that can stand equally with the originals.)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com