Tex Avery - The King of Cartoons!!

This Friday, February 26th, will be the 102nd anniversary of the birth of Fred "Tex" Avery! Maybe the single most "cartoony" cartoon director of all time!

Tex came into animation in the early 1930's right as everyone was trying to figure it all out. Over at Disney they were looking for more and more realistic ways of animating figures. Everywhere else they seemed to either be imitating Disney or just going through the motions animating figures to musical tracks to exploit the new sound medium. Tex stepped in to seemingly remind everyone that they were cartoonist first and foremost.

Why would you spend all your energy emulating realistic movement? Cartoon movements are better!

Tex stretched the boundaries of what cartoons would be and most of the exaggerated movements are humor we associate with cartoons, all came from the direction of Avery.

That's him on your left below:

After showing the boys at Termite Terrace over at Warner's how to do it, Tex accepted a job offer at MGM to come make cartoons for them starting in the early 1940's.

During his tenure at Warners he truly defined Bugs Bunny's character as well as developing Porky Pig and Daffy Duck. At MGM he created George & Junior, Screwy Squirrel, Droopy and did a whole slew of non-regular character cartoons.

Tex at his drawing board at MGM with producer Fred Quimby over his shoulder trying to look like he understands or gives 2 shits:

I could go on forever describing and naming the great cartoons that came from this man's mind over the 30 years he worked in theatrical animation...the best way to celebrate him on his birthday though, is to sit back and watch a few of his cartoons...

The first cartoon he did for MGM...his take on Hitler from 1942..."Blitz Wolf":



The sexiest cartoon character ever created...um, I might call a toss up between her and Betty Boop:



A trilogy of life in tomorrow from the man...

"The House of Tomorrow":



"The Farm of Tomorrow":



"The Car of Tomorrow":

For those of you who want to get even more in-depth with this modern day genius...here's a great documentary about the man. This is the link to part one, follow the links at the end of the video to see the whole thing. It will be time WELL invested!

Thanks Tex! For letting cartoons be cartoons. Nobody did it better!