Classic Cartoons #12 - King-Size Canary

Today's Classic Cartoon is a classic of one of the all-time great American animators, Fred "Tex" Avery. Avery, best known as the genius behind Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny, also later developed Chilly Willy for the Walter Lantz studio. Some of Tex's best work, though, was for MGM's cartoon studio. At MGM, Avery created Droopy, as well as a stream of hilarious short films, including this one, King-Size Canary.

Cat and mouse, cat and bird, and cat and dog pairings are pretty common in animation, but this is something pretty special. The hilarious animation lends the short a sense of freedom that we rarely see in modern animation.

Avery's legacy is his zany, larger-than-life animation - animation we may be seeing a resurgence of, in CG; just look at Hotel Transylvania - and that animation is on full display in this critically acclaimed short from 1947.

Bitesized Biographies #5 - Joseph Barbera

Barbera (left) with Hanna (right) with an assortment of their famed creations, including Fred Flintstone, Tom and Jerry, Yogi Bear and Top Cat, and some of their many Emmy Awards.

Our recent Facebook exclusive poll (to make sure you don't miss out on future polls, be sure to like us on Facebook) to decide who our next Bitesized Biography would be about returned an interesting draw: a split between the two halves of Hanna-Barbera, William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Following through the logical order of Hanna-Barbera, we started with a Bitesized Biopgraphy (and accompanying Classic Cartoon) of William Hanna, and today, we look to complete that by covering the life and accomplishments of Joseph Barbera.

Bitesized Biographies #4 - William Hanna

Hanna (left) with Barbera (right) with two of their creations, Tom and Jerry.

A few weeks ago we ran a poll on our Facebook page asking you who you wanted our next Bitesized Biography to be about, the results were a 50/50 split between the two halves of Hanna-Barbera: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera. Hanna-Barbera, not that I need explain as I'm pretty sure everyone has seen some of their shows at some point in their lives - or you've led a deprived childhood - was the animation studio that created some of the most famed and beloved cartoon series of all time. The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Top Cat and Wacky Races are just some of the huge shows that Hanna-Barbera churned out during their over 30 year history, as well as later helping create shows like Dexter's Laboratory for Cartoon Network.

So to follow the order that the studio's name suggests, we're starting our poll influenced Bitesized Biographies with William Hanna.