Describing how I’d found and bought a copy of Leonard Maltin’s Of Mice and Magic, I wound up mentioning some particular old cartoons I was now more interested in watching, including Tex Avery’s work for MGM. Then, not all that long after that, I happened on a notice some of those shorts would be released on a Blu-Ray. While I did implicate myself to the point of ordering the disc from Amazon rather than seeking out some other, less overwhelming source, I was ready to start watching it.
This new interest hadn’t sprung just from Maltin’s enthusiastic descriptions. In my cartoon-consuming childhood, the Tom and Jerry block I watched on the TVs at my grandparents sometimes included shorts without the cat and mouse. After a while (and with previous trips through a library copy of Maltin’s book back then), I sorted out MGM hadn’t just employed William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, but also a director who’d worked at Warner Brothers before now downplaying recurring characters and pushing the classical gag formulas to their utmost.
( Leading off and results )
This new interest hadn’t sprung just from Maltin’s enthusiastic descriptions. In my cartoon-consuming childhood, the Tom and Jerry block I watched on the TVs at my grandparents sometimes included shorts without the cat and mouse. After a while (and with previous trips through a library copy of Maltin’s book back then), I sorted out MGM hadn’t just employed William Hanna and Joseph Barbera, but also a director who’d worked at Warner Brothers before now downplaying recurring characters and pushing the classical gag formulas to their utmost.