Another addition to the treasures piling up on Mike Barrier’s site is his and Milt Gray’s 1976 interview with Milt Kahl. Be forewarned that this is not for those who like dwelling in the land of softness, where everybody working in animation were friends and liked each others’ work. (I’d personally like to hear more substantiation of what I heard on the scuttlebutt level of Frank Thomas and Ollie Johnston always tattling to Walt, “Well you know what Milt just said,” resulting in Kahl getting stuck with all those lame, formulaic assignments. But all of the books are so sold on the Nine Old Men myth that they wouldn’t dare suggest that there was backstabbing going on amongst them.)
As I wrote on Mike’s site, there’s a certain irony to Kahl’s criticism of the exaggeration and caricature in the work of Ward Kimball (“a Chuck Jones with talent”) – Kahl’s own richest and most underrated work tends to fall in the same category. Song of the South (he rightfully takes credit for the animated segments’ success) is one of the few Disney works that’s equal to the best of Warner animation, his work in Pecos Bills and Ichabod is the ‘real’ human animation style done right, and he did do the best animation of Alice in the woefully underrated Alice in Wonderland (the animated film equivalent of pot-flavored frosting), as showcased in Michael Sporn’s postings here and here. There’s nothing inherently wrong with Kahl’s “Illusion of Life” work. Certainly it works extremely well in Pinocchio and Bambi, but the style overtook the whole studio and the price paid is about 60 years worth of Disney films that can’t be taken seriously. (Not that the fans and students have a problem with it, as Tangled‘s gargantuan success proves.)
Tiger Trouble, one of the “feature guys” shorts of the 40s, is another example of Kahl at his best. The opening with Goofy eating his pipe is just as successful a scene as any: Goofy’s fear is extremely caricatured but believable, the act of the pipe eating is not just hilarious but comes off as something natural, and every drawing is unique and funny. What more could you ask for? This also gets my vote for the best tiger in a cartoon ever. (Kinney and Jack Hannah reused the character with relative success in later Goofy and Donald Duck cartoons.) Certainly better than Shere Khan in every way.
“The opening with Goofy eating his pipe is just as successful a scene as any: Goofy’s fear is extremely caricatured but believable, the act of the pipe eating is not just hilarious but comes off as something natural, and every drawing is unique and funny. What more could you ask for?”
For it to not be over in only two seconds. I’ll admit straight away that I’ve never seen this cartoon all the way through and you led me to believe there was some major sequence of pipe eating going on at the beginning of this cartoon. Imagine my disappointment when Goofy eats his entire pipe in all of 2-3 seconds. I demand an entire short of Milt Kahl pipe-eating Goofy, dammit.
Oh and sorry to double post but many THANKS to Mike Sporn (and Thad for re-posting it since I otherwise wouldn’t have seen it) for identifying the Kahl animation in that Alice sequence. One of the few scenes in the movie where Alice acts and emotes like an actual cartoon character and not a stiff human being. Who animated Alice facepalming during the tea party at the trial? I love the way her hand runs up her face and squishes her nose.
According to the draft in Han Perk’s blog, Kahl actually animated that.
“I have done enough things in this medium, in our better pictures at the studio, which is enough of a showcase if I want to be egotistical.”
If only if more of his contemporaries had the same attitude.
I love almost all of Milt Kahl’s work , though his earlier work is more enjoyable for me than the later era Sword In the Stone – through- The Rescuer’s (Medusa) stuff he seems to be the most proud of. (for example: the amazing scene of Jiminy Cricket, late for work on his first day as Pinocchio’s Conscience , dressing himself as he runs . See here: http://www.michaelspornanimation.com/splog/?p=953 , or his work in Ichabod or Song of the South).
Kahl’s backhanded compliment to Kimball being “like a Chuck Jones , but with talent” raised my eyebrows , but remember that Kahl tended to insult those who were talented enough to threaten his own insecurities (except for his close friend Marc Davis who he always respected). Witness Kahl’s disparaging of John Lounsbery , who was a well-respected directing animator in his own right and known to be one of the few animators at the studio who had the drawing chops to match Kahl’s own work on Kahl-designed characters. Yet , somehow Kahl was threatened by Lounsbery , so he felt the need to put him down. Chuck Jones was no slouch as a draftsman , so Kahl’s put down of Jones says to me that he was jealous of Jones who could draw well AND got to work on truly funny stuff . Ditto Kimball.
Or maybe he had really convinced himself that since Chuck Jones didn’t work for Disney he couldn’t really be all that good. (otherwise he’d be at Disney’s, right ?) A lot of those old Disney guys seemed to have that attitude, as if nothing of value had ever been done with animation outside of Disney’s. Kimball was the only one who ever publicly indicated that he was aware of and appreciated any animation that was done outside of the Disney studio.
I’m surprised the “pipe eating” scene at the start of Tiger Trouble has survived. I’m sure that at some point the PC patrol at Disney Corp. will have the pipe digitally replaced by a granola bar or something.
I believe it was Reggie Jackson who once said “It ain’t bragging if you can do it,” which pretty much sums up Kahl and his animation abilities. But in terms of his feelings about other animators/cartoon studios, there’s no question that in the short subjects department, Leon Schlesinger and Jack Warner got more bang for his buck out of both the cost and talent level of their studio than Disney did from 1939 onwards.
That’s not Milt’s fault, but (going back to baseball again), it’s kind of like the Atlanta Braves having the far better team in the National League East for the better part of 20 years, but the Florida Marlins winning more World Series during that same span — it’s great to have a fantastic pool of skilled animators, but disappointing when you don’t make the most of them.
Who did the narration for the cartoon? His voice seems familiar, yet I can’t place who it might be.
This narrator is Fred Shields, who did many of the Goofy cartoons in the early to mid 1940s. In 1945 however, their were several interlopers turning up on the circuit, including Frank Graham.
Wonderful post. I’m with Mike Russo. That eating the pipe gag should have been longer! I’ve forgotten how good this cartoon is. Milt Kahl did hilarious animation here. I can almost recognize where it was Kahl, since the Tiger looked a bit like Shere Khan in those scenes. I think Milt seemed to be a natural caricaturist, like Bill Tytla or Kimball. Disney should have taken better advantage of that. Oh well, at least we still have these. From what I can see, Milt does especially well if he has material written by Bill Peet to support him. This cartoon and Song of the South are excellent showcases for Kahl, and they were written by Peet.
Does anyone have the draft for this short, so we know which scenes were Kahl?