Animator Highlight: Rod Scribner

“Biggest animator who ever lived” is a frightening title, but when anyone deserves it, it may be Rod Scribner (1910-1976). Within the already loopy universe of the Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons of the Nineteen Forties, Scribner’s animation stands out because the craziest of all. And in right this moment’s world of focus-tested blandness and homogenized AI sludge, watching Scribner’s boldly private weirdness is a breath of contemporary air.

Scribner animated for a lot of nice administrators, however he did his most memorable work underneath Bob Clampett, who sought to carry out the individuality of his animators relatively than have them conform to a standardized method. Collectively, Clampett and Scribner devised a wholly new method of animating that they dubbed “Lichty fashion.” Impressed by newspaper cartoonist George Lichty, whose brushwork was unfastened and spontaneous, Scribner wildly distorted his characters’ our bodies to seize a way of manic vitality that was worlds away from the Disney norm.

Have a look at the way in which Scribner restlessly performs with Daffy Duck’s physique and face in Clampett’s Child Bottleneck (1946). The jokes listed here are virtually all ’40s-era topical references, however the scene stays hilarious right this moment due to Daffy’s flamable performing.