Sunday, July 29, 2007

"Foiling the Fox" - Jim Tyer in action

This is part one of the new weekly series of posts dedicated to the unique and fascinating work of Jim Tyer, perhaps the wildest and most original animator of the golden age. I will post more details about Tyer and his career next week. For now, here's one typical example of his work, just to wet your appetite.

"Foiling the Fox" (1950, Terrytoon) is a rather average, routine cartoon enhanced with several incredible scenes animated by Tyer. The main character, a bird named Dingbat has appeared before in several Terrytoons, most notably Dingbat Land (with Gandy Goose and Sourpuss).
This is Dingbat, folks:



Here are some of my favorite moments from this cartoon:






























What follows is one of the coolest cartoon explosions ever! Pay attention to the way Tyer plays with the body parts and proportions of the fox character. Incredible!

















And these were examples of relatively sane animation by Tyer's standards. If you want to see Tyer in one of his most radical editions, check these screenshots from Mighty Mouse cartoon "A Cat's Tale", posted on excellent Inspiration Grab-Bag blog:

  • A Cat's Tale (1951)


    • Another great example of Tyer's crazy art on the same blog:

  • Mother Goose's Birthday Party (1950)


    • Jim Tyer was also a highly accomplished comics artist. Don't miss these wonderful examples of his funny animal comics (including a Heckle & Jeckle story), posted at ASIFA Hollywood Animation Archive:

  • Jim Tyer Comic Books
    • at

    6 comments:

    1. Anonymous7:37 pm

      You got to admit, that dynamite painting gag was very original.

      Did Jim Tyer animate any Gandy Goose and/or Sourpuss cartoons besides "The Barnyard Actor"? I ask this because those two are my favorite Terrytoon characters and got me interested in this studio in the first place.

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    2. Hammerson12:09 pm

      >> Did Jim Tyer animate any Gandy Goose and/or Sourpuss cartoons besides "The Barnyard Actor"? <<

      Yes, I think so. You can find Tyer's scenes in majority of Terrytoons made from 1947 to 1959. There are several Gandy Goose & Sourpuss cartoons from that period, and I guess they all have Tyer's animation... sadly, I don't have any of these cartoons with me right now, so I can't check.

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    3. Anonymous2:38 pm

      Tyer seemed to do his wildest work working under Connie Rasinski, who by the late 1940s liked to bounce his roundish characters from position to position anyway, which fit in perfectly with Tyer's squash, stretch and mangle style of animation.

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    4. Kevin Langley1:26 am

      Weekly Tyer posts, what a great idea. Thanks for posting shots from this Dingbat short I can't remember how long it's been since I've seen it.

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    5. Eshniner Forest 2:02 am

      The drawing style changes as the cartoon, moves forward. It looks amazing!

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    6. JohnK11:29 pm

      Except for the last drawings of the fox, most of that animation is not Jim Tyer, it's Carlo Vinci, but it's all great!

      ReplyDelete