As you’re reading this, I’ll be in Columbus, Ohio at the Columbus Moving Picture Show — Thunderbean has a table here. But I’d come here, table or not. It’s a great little convention with collectors and film enthusiasts. with lots of films all shown in 16mm, and a dealer’s room that serves as a good place for conversations as much as outside the ‘theatre’ room. There used to be shows all over, but they’re few and far between now— but happily this one still exists. If you’re in the area over the weekend and love these sorts of events, come on by!
And — this week’s topic: What are your best “years” in cartoons?
I thought it would be interesting to see what people’s favorite years are in animated films. Knowing the crown here, I’m sure there will be a lot of overlap in terms of people’s favorites. After chatting with our host, Mr.Jerry Beck, I thought it might be fun for both Jerry and I to list some of ‘Our’ favorite years to kick off the post — then let you folks take over.
Here are a few of my favorite years, and why:
1937
After teaching animation history for a bunch of years, I’ve found that 1933 to 1937 hold such an important place in the history of character animation, with The Old Mill as a good milemarker, reaching a new type of American animated short. It’s also the year Snow White was completed of course. Warner Brothers cartoons started to come into much sharper focus in their humor and direction as well. Porky’s Duck Hunt, Porky’s Garden and Porky’s Railroad are some of my favorites for interesting direction and great gags. Columbia’s Let’s Go also gets a mention here — it’s such a bridge between the old and new styles about to emerge.
1951
This year is a favorite of mine because of one film: Rooty Toot Toot. It’s an unlikely watershed moment in the history of animated shorts, and I think a nearly perfect film. The reason the year is important is that so much influence comes from this short — mainly, at first, influencing design at UPA and commercials, then lot in the late 50s in TV and commercial animation. Seeing this film and year as revolutionizing cartoons would be wrong though- influential, not a turn in what cartoons looked like or story work. I think it still remains unique in so many ways.
Ok— Jerry — YOUR turn — and, make sure to put YOUR years in the comments.
Jerry here: Okay Steve – I’ll take you up on this challenge.
My problem is that I can find a lot to admire in almost any year between 1928-1958. But if I narrow it down to two… I think I’d pick…
1941
What a year. Every studio strikes gold. Look at what came out: The first two Fleischer Superman cartoons, the Raggedy Ann and Andy two reeler, and the feature length Mr. Bug; Over at Disney you got the drunk Mickey’s The Little Whirlwind and The Nifty Nineties. The Goofy “How To” films begin with The Art of Skiing and The Art of Self Defense (not to mention How To Ride A Horse); my favorite Disney feature Dumbo – and a personal fave, the entire feature, The Reluctant Dragon; At Warners they’ve finally established their trademark humor – and nail the personality of Bugs Bunny – in such classics as Wabbit Twouble, Hollywood Steps Out, Rhapsody In Rivets, The Heckling Hare, Tortoise Beats Hare, Joe Glow The Firefly, and so many more. At MGM Tom and Jerry gain their footing in The Night Before Christmas and The Midnight Snack. Barney Bear in the magnificent The Flying Bear, Rudy Ising’s Dance Of The Weed, Hugh Harman’s The Little Mole. Even the low-budget studios come through with some of their best. Tashlin’s at Screen Gems introducing The Fox & the Crow (in The Fox and The Grapes), while Scrappy says goodbye in The Little Theater; at Lantz, a new series commences with Woody Woodpecker; and even Paul Terry’s films hit a new height in production quality. Cartoons like What Happens at Night, Good Old Irish Tunes, and The Bird Tower have better than Terry average character animation, Mississippi Swing is particularly lively (unfortunate racial stereotypes keep this one from public view). 1941 – everyone is operating on all cylinders. A great year.
1957
If I had to pick another outstanding year – I would go to the other end of the spectrum: 1957. UPA had fully entrenched the look of animation. There was a sophistication to the art – and it permeated every studio. Let’s start at the bottom: Terrytoons is in the midst of the Gene Deitch takeover with Topsy TV, Gaston Le Crayon and Clint Clobber introduced in CinemaScope. And Flebus. Paramount’s shorts are particularly handsome: look at the backgrounds (and angular character designs) in Spooking About Africa, Fishing Tackler, Ghost Of Honor, Jolly The Clown, Boo Bop. Even Lantz released some outstanding cartoons: The Bongo Punch, The Plumber of Seville, Goofy Gardner to name but a few. At Warners you have What’s Opera Doc?, Birds Anonymous, The Three Little Bops. Need I say more? I will: Ali Baba Bunny, Boyhood Daze, Greedy For Tweety and Show Biz Bugs – classics all. UPA has some great Magoo’s, and MGM’s scope Tom and Jerry’s (and the Mike Lah Droopy’s)… all-in-all, a very good year for all the studios.
As Steve asked… it’s YOUR turn. What was animation’s best “golden age” year – in your opinion?
Steve Stanchfield is an animator, educator and film archivist. He runs Thunderbean Animation, an animation studio in Ann Arbor, Michigan and has compiled over a dozen archival animation DVD collections devoted to such subjects at Private Snafu, The Little King and the infamous Cubby Bear. Steve is also a professor at the College for Creative Studies in Detroit.
1943: “Der Fuehrer’s Face”, “Education for Death”, “Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs”, “Tortoise Wins by a Hare”, “Professor Small and Mr. Tall”, “Red Hot Riding Hood”, “The Wise Quacking Duck”, “The Hungry Goat”, “The Yankee Doodle Mouse”, “Porky Pig’s Feat”, “Tin Pan Alley Cats”, “Reason and Emotion”, “A Corny Concerto”, “Boogie Woogie Man”, “Way Down Yonder in the Corn, “Imagination”, “Falling Hare”, “The Marry-Go-Round”, “Little Red Riding Rabbit”, “Chicken Little”, “Who Killed Who”…
I literally could go on–Greatest cartoon year ever.
Here are my two picks:
1934. By then cartoons had attained a high level of technical sophistication, yet still retained all the inventiveness and vitality of early animation, and had not yet been spoiled by the imposition of the Hollywood Production Code. Highlights: “Red Hot Mamma”, “The Flying Mouse”, “Jack Frost”.
1949. Tex Avery was turning out masterpieces like “Bad Luck Blackie” and “Little Rural Riding Hood”. At Warner Bros., all four units were going gangbusters; many of the funniest Bugs Bunny cartoons, like “Bowery Bugs”, “High Diving Hare”, “The Grey-Hounded Hare”, and “Long Haired Hare”, were released. Chuck Jones in particular established himself as a cartoon director of the highest order, winning his first Oscar and introducing the Road Runner and Coyote. “Cinderella” (copyrighted 1949, though not released until early 1950) gave the Disney studio a new lease on life and proved the continued viability of animated features. And the first cartoon series made for television, “Crusader Rabbit”, made its debut. All in all, a very good year.
I totally agree that the imposition of the Hays Code completely killed off all the creativity and humor of the cartoons of the time, and was a real catastrophe for the world of animation.
What’s more, 1934 was the last year in which the rubber-hose style of animation still dominated the industry. Unfortunately, this very attractive style was replaced the following year by the more realistic style imposed by the Disney studios, which I find much more bland.
I rather disagree as something new for animation was about to happen right around the corner.
For me, it’s every year from the late 1940’s and early 1950’s. Warner Bros. and MGM (especially the former) absolutely peaked in those years with consistently great cartoons year after year after year.
1939, the banner year for feature films, also produced a bumper crop of noteworthy animations. Donald Duck in “Donald’s Lucky Day,” “The Hockey Champ,” “Donald’s Cousin Gus,” “The Autograph Hound,” and “Sea Scouts,” Goofy in “Goofy and Wilbur,” Mickey Mouse in “Society Dog Show” and “The Pointer,” plus the final Little Pigs short “The Practical Pig,” and the final Silly Symphony cartoon “The Ugly Duckling.” On the Warners side were Daffy Duck in “Daffy Duck and the Dinosaur,” plus Porky Pig in “Old Glory.” MGM produced “The Bear Who Couldn’t Sleep” and “Peace on Earth.” From Fleischer came “Small Fry,” “Christmas Comes But Once a Year,” Popeye in “Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp,” plus the feature cartoon “Gulliver’s Travels.” Great stuff!
Oh, this is a hard question! Like Jerry Beck, I would say that anything produced between 1930 or 1931 (the dawn of the sound era) in 1961 are absolutely among my favorite years. So many innovations and probably cartoons of the highest order both for theaters and for television! Animators were hungry to innovate and create! As far as animation in general, I always remember those festivals because that dictated in a sense to me just what the public deemed their finest years in animation. When I was reacquainted with so many childhood favorites, I knew that animation was still in a golden year in the early 1980s. Like you, Steve, my favorite year is indeed 1937 because just look at what MGM created in that year as the last gasp of the Happy Harmonies series. I think they just let every bit of creative energy squeeze out before MGM finally decided that the cost of each cartoon was far too much. Just look how lavish those things are! Of course I still like the early 1940s as well, because MGM was still sailing when they got their own animation studio, and they were still further lavish, animated cartoons going on. My favorites, of course are “the alley cat“, although still a standard cat and dog cartoon, something that Tom and Jerry would do as well, but I like this one. I like this one, despite the scratchy voice of the male lead who can’t sing a note! However, it is the closest thing. I guess they could come up with too, a cat yelling on the fence at night for loves sake. I think I like the MGM cartoons most of all just to look at. Again, you have to go to 1937 and just get a look at some of those cartoons, even the cartoons that can no longer be shown on television, which is where I found out about them. I am sad to say that I never got the chance to see them in the theater before I lost my site completely to glaucoma. I wanted so badly to see a BOSKO cartoon on the big screen, something like “circus daze“ which seemed to have so much moving in every corner of the screen at once. Man, I know I bring that cartoon up a lot, but it had to be the most expensive film that Hugh Harmon ever created for MGM Studios. It certainly deserves to really be seen and that’s why I push for it constantly!
Maybe 1977, there was the Rankin / Bass Hobbit, Race for Your Life, Charlie Brown, the Rescuers, Deitch’s Charlie Needs a New Cloak and Strega Nona, and Bakshi’s Wizards. Not really my favorite of Bakshi’s, but I tried to see all of his. The internet list I saw said there was also a Pink Panther which I have to admit, I haven’t seen, but I’m generally down for anything Pink Panther.
1940: Pinocchio, Fantasia, Puss Gets the Boot, A Wild Hare, Knock Knock. The first two represent Disney at the height of its powers; the other three mark the debut of the three characters — Tom and Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker — who would dominate the next two decades and define the type of humor we now associate with classic cartoons.
1988: Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Land Before Time, Oliver & Company. This is the point at which the animation renaissance begins in earnest.
1989: The Little Mermaid, All Dogs Go to Heaven, The Simpsons. Official starting point of the Disney Renaissance, the zenith of Don Bluth’s directing career, and the premiere of one of the greatest TV shows ever.
1999: Tarzan, The Iron Giant, Toy Story 2, Fantasia 2000, Ed, Edd N Eddy, SpongeBob SquarePants. Closing out the Millenium in style.
You missed South Park, also in 1999. At least the movie
A valid question for animation fans. And a nice departure from the Thunderbean norm, no doubt!
Regardless, I do have a couple of “best years” when it comes to animation.
First, I’ll go with 1940. What a year. Walt Disney gave audiences two feature films this year, those being Pinocchio and Fantasia, while shorts like Mr. Duck Steps Out, Mr. Mouse Takes a Trip, and Goofy’s Glider keep audiences satisfied. But in that department, Disney was growing a bit stale compared to the rise of snarky anarchists like Bugs Bunny, Woody Woodpecker, and the Tom and Jerry people DO remember, all of whom debuted this year. Even Terrytoons had a few ounces of quality in them, primarily in the Gandy Goose and Sourpuss catalog.
Second, I’ll go into the Renaissance period and say 1999 will be as remembered as some of these years in the animation community. Let’s go over the list of new cartoons: SpongeBob SquarePants, Futurama, Ed, Edd, n Eddy, Family Guy, Mickey Mouse Works, Courage the Cowardly Dog, The New Woody Woodpecker Show, Sabrina: The Animated Series, Totally Tooned In, Crashbox, Cybersix, Redwall, and Japan got One Piece, too. As for movies? Toy Story 2, South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut, The Iron Giant, Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost, Dexter’s Laboratory: Ego Trip, and even sending this millennium off with Fantasia 2000, the long-awaited continuation of a film with one of the highest reappraisals in animation history.
But that’s just what I think.
Batman Beyond also hails from that year.
1946 had some great releases that year: The Talking Magpies, Book Revue, Baseball Bugs, Quiet Please!, Lonesome Lenny, Baby Bottleneck, Hair-Raising Hare, Kitty Kornered, Trap Happy, The Great Piggy Bank Robbery, Northwest Hounded Police, Walky Talky Hawky, John Henry and the Inky-Poo, Racketeer Rabbit, The Big Snooze, Henpecked Hoboes, Frank Duck Brings ‘Em Back Alive, Rhapsody Rabbit, Double Dribble.
Frank Welker, Bill Plympton, and Steven Spielberg were also born that year!
I’d argue 1950. 1950 brought Disney back into theatrical financial success with Cinderella and animation changed forever with the release of Gerald McBoing Boing. Everybody was influenced by UPA probably more than any studio other than Disney and Gerald was it’s most successful film.
Plus Rabbit of Seville, The Scarlet Pumpernickel, What’s Up Doc?, Hillbilly Hare, Saturday Evening Puss, Cue Ball Cat, etc.
I’ll add to the list with the year 2010 – Disney Animation came into it’s 2nd renaissance with the release of Tangled. Dreamworks Animation released what would be their best film up to that time and the 1st in their best trilogy, How To Train Your Dragon. Pixar would release Toy Story 3, the first animated film to reach a billion dollars at the box office and only the 3rd animated film to be nominated for the Best Picture Oscar. On the television side a new era in serialized storytelling, which began with the earlier Avatar- The Last Airbender, really took off with Cartoon Network’s surreal Adventure Time. Various staff members would go on to create multiple shows for CN, including Julia Pott, ‘Summer Camp Island’; Patrick McHale, ‘Over the Garden Wall’; and Rebecca Sugar, ‘Steven Universe’. Other networks and streaming would soon follow the example.
Personally, I thought “The Princess and the Frog” from the year prior (2009, which I considered a great year for animated features) was the start of “Walt Disney Animation’s comeback.
1996 is really personal to me because my mom and I saw Space Jam and Beavis and Butt-Head Do America in the movie theaters, and they bring back good memories.
1948 will always be, to me at least, the high water mark of ANIMATION in the USA short cartoon. The three greatest Tom and Jerrys were released in 1948, Kitty Foiled, Old Rockin’ Chair Tom and Mouse Cleaning, Irv Spence, Ken Muse and Ray Patterson did animation that’s both beautiful and funny, Walter Lantz produced The Mad Hatter, Wacky-Bye Baby and Wild and Woody, with Fred Moore, Ed Love, Les Klein and Verne Harding doing beautiful stuff with lines of action and timing that are the equal of and superior to (sometimes) most of the industry fare. Screen Gems did (1947) Up n’ Atom, Swiss Tease and Boston Beany, directed by Sid Marcus, with story input by Bob Clampett and some of the best character animation of the Screen Gems ’40s. Warner Bros. Cartoons had the great Art Davis directing What Makes Daffy Duck, with very funny animation by Emery Hawkins of the rubber duck suit, worn by Elmer Fudd, Dough Ray Me-Ow, again with first class Emery Hawkins stuff, with the great nutcracker scene in which Louie the Cat nearly crushes his head, and the great Danny Kaye take-off in Bob McKimson’s Hot Cross Bunny, animated by Manny Gould. I could go on and on, but there is a whole lot of inspired comedy that escaped from the animators’ pencils in that golden year, 1948 (some 1947.
1940: Pinocchio, Fantasia, A Wild Hare, Piss Gets the Boot, and Knock Knock. And all this was before Citizen Kane!
I might add some of 1941 to the mix for Dumbo and The Fox and the Grapes, both influential.
I would say 1991 for a few reasons: 1. Both Warners Bros. TV Animation and Walt Disney Television Animation were riding sky high with their animated shows (the latter seeing the debut of “Darkwing Duck”). 2. Nickelodeon introduced their first three “Nicktoons” series, which would change the landscape of animation television as well as cable television. 3. Last but not least, the release of Walt Disney Animation’s “Beauty and the Beast” which would become the first animated feature to be nominated for the “Best Picture” Academy Award.
Granted there were one or two bruises such as NBC’s Saturday Morning line-up (which would be their last one with cartoons as a result), but still it was an important year.
1940, as per Tony Ginorio’s comment above. Disney at its artistic and technical peak, with Pinocchio and Fantasia, plus a bunch of epoch-making debuts.
1995: Neon Genesis Evangelion, Ghost In he Shell, and my favorite American animated series ever: MTV’s The Maxx.
1997: Princess Mononoke, Evangelion Death and Rebirth / The End of Evangelion, and Perfect Blue. Hard to beat this line-up.
I really like 1935. Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Silly Symphonies were at their peak (and a lot of experimentation), with stellar entries like The Band Concert, Mickey’s Service Station, Who Killed Cock Robin, The Tortoise and the Hare, and many others. The Fleischer had come upon Popeye, and the series was truly off and running. Warner Bros was starting to figure out what Looney Tunes would eventually become with Porky Pig, and Tex Avery getting his first cartoon to direct, Gold Diggers of 49. Even Van Bueren and Ub Iwerks had mostly moved to color. Lots of great cartoons that year!
1936 1.) Somewhere In Dreamland. 2.) I Love To Singa 3.) Popeye Meets Sinbad the Sailor 4.) Bottles 5.) To Spring 6.) Christmas Cones But Once A Year 7.) The Cobweb Hotel
1966, the year Walt Disney passed away. Those were the waning days of theatrical animation, but still there were quite a few highlights: Disney released the first Winnie-the-Pooh featurette, which would eventually become one of their most successful franchises. DePatie-Freleng were in full swing with the Pink Panther and The Inspector shorts, besides launching their first made-for-T.V. series, The Super Six. At Paramount, Shamus Culhane reinvigorated their animation unit with some creatively remarkable shorts (even if Paramount would close the studio one year later). Terrytoons was also experiencing an interesting period under the leadership of Ralph Bashki with such creations as The Mighty Heroes. The New Adventures of Superman put Filmation on the map. At M.G.M, Chuck Jones created the all-time classic How the Grinch Stole Christmas. And Hanna-Barbera, besides dominating the Saturday morning market with Space Ghost and Frankenstein Jr. & the Impossibles, made the theatrical feature The Man Called Flintstone and the two memorable hour-long specials Jack and the Beanstalk (live action/animation with Gene Kelly) and Alice in Wonderland (or What’s a Nice Little Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This?).
Wow, this is a “toughie”! Since some of my favorite years have already been picked, I guess I’d have to go with 1938 as being a memorable year for animated cartoons. For Disney, you’ve got THE BRAVE LITTLE TAILOR, FERDINAND THE BULL, MICKEY’S TRAILER etc. For Warner Bros., you can’t go wrong with PORKY AND DAFFY, THE DAFFY DOC and WHOLLY SMOKE. Over at the Flieischer’s, some of the last truly great POPEYE cartoons were produced that year like: GOONLAND, THE JEEP, A DATE TO SKATE, THE HOUSE-BUILDER UPPER, I YAM LOVE SICK and the last of the BETTY BOOP cartoons: SALLY SWING. I’m sure with a little more research, I could find more memorable cartoons!
This was a fun exercise to mull over, thank you Steve and Jerry- and all the commentators for your insights.
The years I would have picked have already been mentioned (such as 1943), so I’ll just comment on a couple of the years already discussed-
1937: Warners really came into their own this year, and Fleischer was pumping out Popeye classics like no tomorrow. But, the year truly belonged to the Disney studio in many respects. I’ve always thought that this was the release year (and 1938) that their films were at their most “posh” and “polished”. Not only did they release the seminal “Snow White” feature, but the shorts produced around the same time were second to none. “The Old Mill”, “Clock Cleaners”, “Hawaiian Holiday”, “Lonesome Ghosts”- absolute classics. AND Pluto and Donald got their own brand new series thanks to the move to RKO in the fun films “Pluto’s Quin-puplets” and “Donald’s Ostrich”. Think about that for a moment, in a historical lense- Disney put out the FIRST official Donald Duck short hardly a week before the debut of the first American animated feature, a series that would be a mainstay of movie houses for another 20 years. Disney was absolutely on top of the world heading into 1938.
1957: I commented on an X post from Devon Baxter surrounding “Ali Baba Bunny” just a day or two before this blog stating that 1957 was a strong year for the Chuck Jones unit. So, I was pleased to see it listed here. 1957 was pretty much objectively the best year the entire studio had post-shutdown. All three units were absolutely COOKING- yes, even McKimson with fun films like “Tabasco Road” and the Taz shorts. And yes, Terrytoons had an out of left field phenomenal year (and in 1958) thanks to the inspired creative leadership of Gene Deitch, and UPA and MGM were pumping out fine series pictures as stated above. What a year it must’ve been to be a theater goer.
I’m sure that my favorite year in all the history of animation is 1943, because it has all the Studios at their peak quality, even though for Disney and Paramount the better year must be in the ‘30s.
At Warner Brothers all the 4 units produced some of the greatest cartoons in their history, and we have 5 directors because there was the switch between Norman McCabe and Frank Tashlin. I’ll just say my favorite title of the 5 directors: Falling Hare for Bob Clampett, Wackiki Wabbit for Chuck Jones, Daffy – The Commando for Friz Freleng, Confusion of a Nutzy Spy for Norman McCabe, Porky Pig’s Feat for Frank Tashlin.
At MGM Tex Avery had one of his best years, 1949 is another one, but in 1943 we essentially have 5 Tex Avery that are all classics, the greatest one is obviously Red Hot Riding Hood. Tom & Jerry are in their best year also, with my favorite cartoon of all time in their series: The Lonesome Mouse. The third unit was great in that year also, with the peak in The Stork’s Holiday by George Gordon, lots of East Coast style in this short because of the New Yorker past of Gordon.
At Disney the only bad point is that there is just a Mickey Mouse cartoon that is essentially a Pluto cartoon: Pluto and the Armadillo. For all the other characters is a great year, Der Fuehrer’s Face is their masterpiece with the One-Shot Chicken Little. There is the shortest Disney Classic also: Saludos Amigos with some great and longer shorts packed in a propaganda movie for the allies in South America.
At Paramount we have the last 4 Superman, all great but I am a great fan of The Underground World, it’s an epic short. It’s the last black and white year of Popeye also, with 9 great cartoons and Seein’ Red White and Blue as my favorite, plus the first two “official” color cartoons. It’s the beginning of other two series for which I am a fan also: Little Lulu and Noveltoons.
At Lantz we have 3 great Woody Woodpecker, the last ones with the old Woody, lots of great Swing Symphony like Boogie Woogie Man Will Get You If You Don’t Watch Out (what a long title!) and Andy Panda in a very patriotic mood.
At Screen Gens we have a great year also, with very good The Fox and the Crow titles and Room and Bored as my favorite one. Best of all we have great cartoons directed by John Hubley: Professor Small and Mr. Tall, The Vitamin G-Man and the mid-lost He Can’t Make It Stick, a very great short.
Even for Terrytoons 1943 is a marvelous year, with lots of classics of Mighty Mouse (Super Mouse at the time), Gandy Goose and One-Shots. My favorites of the three categories are Pandora’s Box for Mighty-Super Mouse, Somewhere in Egypt for Gandy Goose and Sourpuss and Scrap for Victory for the One-Shots, a great masterpiece of propaganda.
At the end we MUST NOT forget the works of George Pal, with lots of classics and masterpieces with his character Jasper and other great shorts. Bravo Mr. Strauss is the greatest of all in my opinion, it’s poetic, and we have Jasper’s Music Lesson and The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cummins also.
I’m sure that 1943 is the greatest year in the history of animation, if I have to save just one year for a desert island this is the right one, with more than 120 cartoons and some of bests.
I think my favorite years are the war years 1943-1945 for their unmatched wildness
It’s hard for me to say which years during the Golden Age were the best, but most of them come down to the later Depression years through the end of World War II.
For Disney, I’d have to say the ten-year period between 1933 and 1943 were the best because of how much Walt and his team really strived to push the art of animation to new heights. You could tell they were eager to experiment with character and effects animation, story structure, color, camera and editing techniques. The peak was from around 1939 to 1942, when the studio had cracked the code for making feature-length cartoons and explored how other popular tales (or art forms, in the case of a certain concert feature) could be translated to the screen, while the shorts gained a familiar yet unyielding feel thanks to the the characters reaching the peak of their development and the staff’s eagerness to take them to new places. And of course, they were open to collaborations with other artistic figures like Sidney Franklin, Leopold Stokowski and Salvador Dali. If it weren’t for the strike and war, who knows what else they could have accomplished?
For WB, I’d say their best years were from 1937, when Avery, Clampett and others REALLY began pushing the Warner cartoons into a unique style of humor they could call their own, through the end of the Schlesinger era and Clampett’s departure (around 1945-46).