Okay, let's kick this off with a discussion question.

[mac56]

List your top ten animated theatrical shorts. Add the director and the studio if you care to.

Mine:

1. "One Froggy Evening" - WB - Jones
2. "The Dover Boys" - WB - Jones
3. "Bad Luck Blackie" - MGM - Avery
4. "Three Little Bops" - WB - Freleng
5. "Little Rural Riding Hood" - MGM - Avery
6. "The Great Piggy Bank Caper" - WB - Clampett
7. "Magical Maestro" - MGM - Avery
8. "Bimbo's Initiation" - Paramount - Fleischer
9. "Corny Concerto" - WB - Clampett
10. "Little Red Riding Rabbit" - WB - Freleng

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

1. Ok - off trhe top of my head

1- Creature Comforts - Aardman
2- Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers - Aardman
3 - Wallace & Gromit: A Close Shave - Aardman
4 - Wallace & Gromit: A Grand Day Out - Aardman
5 - the Animatrix - Matriculated - Peter Chung
6 - the Animatrix - Program - Yoshiaki Kawajiri
7-the Animatrix - Kid's Story - Andy Wachowski
8 - Tom & Jerry - the Zoot Cat - William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
9 - Tom & Jerry - Mouse in Manhattan - William Hanna, Joseph Barbera
10 - Inside Out - Eric Feng (http://www.feric.com/inooo.html)

[mac56]

2. cool -

Wasn't thinking about Aardman. "Creature Comforts" made me laugh maniacally when I first saw it. And "The Wrong Trousers" is my favorite W & G.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

3. I love the lion with the spanish accent in Creature Comforts

"I need e-space and to e-swim"

[Forkboy]

4. Watch Creature Comforts again

and know that the dialogue is actual recordings of elderly people living in a housing project for them.It really puts the whole thing into a totally different perspective.It's still funny,but there's also a lot of sadness once one realizes where the dialogue comes from.

It's total genius.

[Lorien]

6. I thought they were "on the street" interviews

I know the guy who did the Puma voice was a cabdriver from Brazil who had only been in London a few years.

[Forkboy]

7. I guess that's possible

I read it in a book about Nick Park,but that could be wrong.

Damn,now I need to know what's right or not :)

[Lorien]

8. Well, that child who did the baby polar bear's voice

probably wasn't in a nursing home, lol!

Good chance that the person who voiced the potto (or whatever the creature with the bad eyesight was) was in a retirement home. Maybe a studio employees grandmother? Some of my friends have contacts at Aardman, and I just remember them saying that they had gathered random recordings by asking various people "how would you feel if you were an animal at the zoo"? then they chose the most interesting ones to animate to.

[Forkboy]

12. I have to bow to your knowledge

I'm just glad to know the actual deal:)

Thanks!

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

9. I know - its incredible

[Forkboy]

5. No list

but all of the old Daffy Duck cartoons are a major inspiration to me and were a huge influence on me,even to this day (as many of my posts probably indicate).

I also love the Fleischer Superman and Popeye cartoons.

And of course,as already mentioned Wallace and Grommit are just the coolest :)

[starroute]

10. No list here either

But yes, "Bimbo's Initiation" is a classic. And so is the Fleischer "Snow White."

Warner Brothers -- those all tend to blur together, so that I remember isolated moments instead of entire cartoons, especially when it comes to Roadrunners. But some that particularly come to mind are:

Daffy as Duck Tracy
Daffy doing early Danny Kaye
Porky in Wackyland
Bugs going up against the department store manager
Bugs making the chicken dance for the shipwrecked sailors

Hmmm. Looking at this list, I get a feeling I tend to go for the bizarre moments rather than the laugh-out-loud funny ones. Interesting . . .

[moggie]

11. No list from me

I'd only forget all the best ones. But haven't you forgotten "What's Opera, Doc"? It may not be belly-laugh funny like a lot of Chuck Jones's other work, but just the idea of it is genius, and visually it's stunning.

[mac56]

13. Flame me if you will

but I was never that impressed with "What's Opera, Doc?"

Visually stunning, to be sure, but just not funny. And too cutesy by half. Jones worked the same vein with "The Rabbit of Seville", and much better, I think.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

14. Jones did better on the Grinch IMO

[mac56]

15. Chuck Jones is an enigma to me.

Made some of the greatest animated films in history, including my two all-time favorites...but then could turn around and make dreck like "Gay Purr-ee" and "The Phantom Tollbooth". And don't get me started on what he did with Tom and Jerry.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

16. Yeah - I must agre, despite my dedication, what he did to T&J is

just wrong!

[mac56]

17. He did something that Hanna & Barbera couldn't even do:

He made Tom and Jerry not funny.

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

18. see my T & J thread!

:)

[mac56]

19. Been there!

:thumbsup:

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

20. Damn that timing!!!