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Re:Who is Tex Avery?

Tex Avery was a cartoon director for Warner Bros. in the Thirties and early Forties, and for MGM in the Forties and Fifties. He was nicknamed "Tex" because he was born and raised in Dallas, and came to Hollywood to work in cartoons in the mid Thirties. When hired by Warner Bros, he helped organize the group at "Termite Terrace," which included Chuck Jones and Friz Freleng and Bob Campbell. In 1940 he took a rabbit character used in two earlier cartoons and created the personality of Bugs Bunny, giving him the line "What's up, Doc?" etc. in the cartoon "A Wild Hare."

In 1942 he moved to MGM, where he did his best work. If you have a laserdisc player I recommend the MGM laserdisc set "The Compleat Tex Avery." Here his work centered on refining the American short cartoon to what many consider its zenith, and he was a major influence on fellow MGM workers Hanna-Barbara's work on their "Tom & Jerry" series. If you have seen the "Droopy" cartoons from the Forties and early Fifties, you have seen examples of this work.

In the Fifties he suffered a breakdown from overwork and exhaustion and when he returned to MGM, he saw that the handwriting was on the wall as far as the salad days of the short cartoon. He left MGM and after a short stint working for one last company, organized his own advertising company, making cartoon commercials. If you ever saw the bugs scatter when they heard the word "RAID?!!" you have seen more of Avery's work. In the late Sixties he was asked to animate a commercial using Bugs Bunny and was asked if he knew anything about the character!

Using the guidelines you provided for "10 favorite directors" Avery is one of mine, regardless of the fact that he was an animation director. His cartoons are simply amazing and hold up well today, because he didn't draw them for small children...he made them for himself (his cartoons about wolves lusting after exquisitely-drawn dancing girls will prove that)!

If you have access to programs that show cartoons of the Thirties and Forties, here are my recommendations:

A Wild Hare (1940)
Dumb-Hounded (1943)
Red Hot Riding Hood (1943)
What's Buzzin' Buzzard (1943)
King Size Canary (1947)
Bad Luck Blackie (1949)
Doggone Tired (1949)
Rural Little Riding Hood (1949) my all-time favorite Avery film!
Rock-A-Bye Bear (1952)
The Three Little Pups (1953)

Here is a link below to a site with more information on Avery.

This may not be like Victor comparing Dohzhenko to Pudovkin, but great film is great film!

And if you have never seen an Avery cartoon, I urge you to look for them! Bug-eyed double takes, expressive use of sound effects, etc...just amazing work all the way around!

Sorry I could not answer sooner. My internet connection is only intermittently working for the next week!




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