{"id":56081,"date":"2020-01-15T00:01:29","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T08:01:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/?p=56081"},"modified":"2020-01-15T08:24:54","modified_gmt":"2020-01-15T16:24:54","slug":"animation-ski-trails-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cartoonresearch.com\/index.php\/animation-ski-trails-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Animation Ski Trails – 2"},"content":{"rendered":"

Return with us to those exciting days of yesteryear. (Wait a minute…Wrong show!)<\/em> Again we ascend the peaks of Hollywood\u2019s golden era for more frozen frolics with the champion winter athletes of Toontown, as even more of the classic pen-and-ink franchises explore for the first time (while a few revisit) the perilous pastime of skiing. <\/p>\n

Continuing from where we left off, Fifth Column Mouse<\/strong> (Warner, Merrie Melodies, 3\/6\/43 – I. (Friz) Freleng, dir.), includes a throwaway skiing gag<\/a> in the introductory \u201cmice will play while the cat\u2019s away\u201d sequence, set to the tune of \u201cAin\u2019t We Got Fun\u201d. A mouse wearing toothpicks for skis slides down the seemingly snow-covered slats of a Venetian blind, into the box that reveals the source of the snowy covering – soap chips.<\/p>\n

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\"\"<\/a>Plenty Below Zero<\/strong> (Columbia\/Screen Gems, Fox and Crow, 4\/23\/43 – Bob Wickersham, dir,) – Often cut from current prints, this film<\/a> opens with a \u201cFOREWARD. The notion that all birds must fly South for the winter is erroneous. A bird remaining in the North can satisfy the most ravenous appetite by dining on a few acorns and a dried leaf.\u201d Just don\u2019t tell this to Crow, or he\u2019ll swear the writers are dopey! Arriving in apparent solution to the food problem comes Fox, fancy-skiing through the mountains and yodeling in carefree fashion, with a knapsack of choice goodies strapped to his back. The scene is set for a classic battle of wits over the portable banquet. Crow hitchhikes on the back of Fox\u2019s skis and relieves Fox of his backpack. Disappearing into his tree (complete with built-in elevator shaft), Crow spreads out the feast on his dinner table (adding to his coffee a rationed lump of sugar he keeps hoarded in a locked safe). From below, Fox scales the tree in his skis, using his ski points to climb by inserting them into window holes in Crow\u2019s elevator shaft. Crow counters by riding the elevator down, the cab catching the points of Fox\u2019s skis and vibrating him so that he \u201cpecks\u201d a large wedge out of the tree trunk. Fox falls to the snow below, but the damaged tree partially collapses, tipping the knapsack and the contents of Crow\u2019s dinner table out his window-hole and neatly back onto the Fox\u2019s back – with the exception of a cake, which slides onto Crow\u2019s head. Fox continues on his ski jaunt, but Crow catches up to him by tunneling under the snow (the snowy limp extending an identifying sign to the audience reading, \u201cIt\u2019s me again!\u201d) Once more Crow rides the back of Fox\u2019s skis – but Fox sees his shadow against snowdrifts to the side of the trail. In a clever bit of skullduggery, Fox deliberately skis over a small tree stump – just Crow\u2019s size. POW! Crow gets his beak firmly planted through the tree stump. Fox laughs hilariously in taunting fashion – but forgets to watch where he\u2019s going, and skis over a cliff, winding up suspended by his skis upside down from a small branch out of the cliff side. Now Crow gets to chuckle, though his beak is still stuck in the tree stump. <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>The next blackout finds Crow with a bandaged beak as Fox passes by again. Standing in the middle of the tracks left by Fox\u2019s skis, Crow packs a snowball, and rolls it after Fox as if on a bowling lane. It of course grows to huge proportions and bowls Fox over with the sound effect of bowling pins. To complete the metaphor, Crow produces a score sheet and chalks up a strike before pursuing Fox. Climbing up the snowdrift left by the snowball, Crow finds what appears to be one of Fox\u2019s feet, still in ski, sticking out upside down from the snow. The other \u201cfoot\u201d is about six feet away! Crow tries to right things by scooping up a large chunk of snow under one \u201cfoot\u201d and placing it next to the other one (after correcting for at first placing one foot in reverse direction to the other). But suddenly a specter rises from the snow – the icy silhouette of Fox, with its arms looming out to menace Crow. Crow turns green and faints on the spot. Shaking off the snow, Fox is revealed, retrieving his loose ski-boots from where Crow thought his legs were, and happily continuing on his way.<\/p>\n

\tFinally, Fox stops on a mountain ledge to enjoy his well-earned meal. Crow scales the summit, popping up in the snow behind Fox. In super-speed action, crow inserts about a hundred matchsticks into the sides of Fox\u2019s skis, then, striking a match, announces to the audience, \u201cLadies and gentlemen, you are about to witness the hottest hotfoot since Nero put the heat on Rome!\u201d Fox flies into the air, then downward like a crashing plane past the cliff – but is again saved by an overhanging branch. Crow begins making a sandwich, while Fox climbs back up and pokes his head through the snow under Crow\u2019s sandwich. Oblivious to Fox\u2019s return, Crow liberally applies mustard to Fox\u2019s face, encases him in two slices of bread, and bites – but can\u2019t chew through. As Crow tries to sharpen his beak on a nearby tree trunk, Fox substitutes a roman candle for the contents of the sandwich. Now Crow shoots into the air jet-propelled. But on his way down, he severs a portion of the cliff side on which the entire picnic rests. Despite their best efforts to catch the goodies, all the food falls into a ravine hundreds of feet below, as the duo watch helplessly from above. In the final scene, the two share a meal together – of a dried leaf and a few acorns, leaving both of them with a case of hiccups and a recipe for instant indigestion. <\/p>\n

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Ski For Two<\/strong> (Lantz\/Universal, Woody Woodpecker, 11\/13\/44 – James Culhane, dir.) – What would get Home-Sweet-Homeloving Woody Woodpecker out of his comfy abode into the snow? A travel brochure for the \u201cSwiss Chard Lodge\u201d, promising \u201cExcellent Food\u201d. The train he travels on is abruptly snowed in, leaving him staring at a sign indicating remaining distance to the lodge: \u201c40 miles as the crow flies – But who wants to ride with an old crow?\u201d. Woody takes a skiing \u201cshort cut, musically set to a masterful singing rendition of \u201cThe Sleigh (a la Russe)\u201d by Richard Kountz, vocally performed in speeded-up recording by Lee Sweetland. Photography is innovative, with Woody bank-turning into the camera in forward perspective, diving up and down hillsides in rapid succession, losing his skis to ice skate across a frozen pond, only the meet up with his skis again on the opposite bank, diving through multiple snowbanks, and climaxing with an attempt at three-dimensional first person perspective as he nears the lodge between snowdrifts – without the benefit of the luxury of a multiplane camera. The sequence is brief, but exceptionally memorable – and repeated at faster tempo for a finale as Woody makes away with what he thinks is a bundle of food – only to find it\u2019s proprietor Wally Walrus inside, to administer a stranglehold on him while mimicking Woody\u2019s laugh.<\/p>\n