I gather this interview with the famous cartoon man, Tex Avery, was made sometime in the 1970s or 1980s as he mentions his career with Warner Brothers "started about 40 years ago." The place where he and producer Leon Schlesinger began working was affectionately called "Termite Terrace," he relates to us in this short documentary.
Avery tells us his first two animators were Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett. Wow, those guys are legends in the animation business. Later, they show a picture of Tex and his animator friends all dressed up as women and having a lot of laughs. I would like to have been a "fly on the wall" and listened to all the jokes and ideas these guys discussed! "Some of our best material never made it on screen," Avery laughs.
Avery also explains that "I couldn't compete with Disney so I did things they wouldn't do, such as exaggeration in films, wild takes, distorted fairy tales and I laid off the fuzzy-wuzzy little bunnies. It wasn't my bag, being along the cute lines."
Well, speaking for fans of this man's work, this is a big reason why we love his cartoons - they ARE wild and unpredictable. He also played to the audience, to us, and that also is appreciated. Also, when asked if he did his cartoons for kids, he emphatically answered, "No, I never thought of them. If I got laughs from the people in the studio, I would go that route."
He gave examples of some of his work and why he exaggerated things as he did. That, and more, can be seen on this feature which is on disc one of the Looney Tunes Golden Collection Volume Two DVD.
