Tex Avery
Frederick “Tex” Avery (1908–1980) was an American animator and director of iconic pre-television US “cartoon” animation, back when animated shorts ran ahead of feature films for seven minutes, and had broad audiences: children and adults. Avery was better than Disney at pleasing both with anarchic creativity: lots of action on a fairly high budget, and savvy metatheatre.
His first official credit for direction, as Fred Avery, came after he’d left Walter Lantz and started working at Warner on “Gold Diggers of ’49” (1935). Some prefer his later work at MGM, under Fred Quimby, starting with “Blitz Wolf” (1942).
At each studio, Avery was doing serial production, though there is no name for his series at MGM. Many of the films have characters in common, but no plot serialization. At Warner it was Friz Freleng’s Porky Pig, Avery’s own Daffy Duck etc. At MGM his main character was Droopy, who got cuter and cheaper to animate by the film.
Reviewed work
- “Gold Diggers of ’49” (1935 entry) Director
- “Don’t Look Now” (1936 entry) Director
- “I Love to Singa” (1936 entry) Director
- “I’d Love to Take Orders from You” (1936 entry) Director
- “Milk and Money” (1936 entry) Director
- “Page Miss Glory” (1936 entry) Director
- “Plane Dippy” (1936 entry) Director
- “Porky the Rain-Maker” (1936 entry) Director
- “The Blow Out” (1936 entry) Director
- “The Village Smithy” (1936) Director
- “A Sunbonnet Blue” (1937 entry) Director
- “Ain’t We Got Fun” (1937 entry) Director
- “Egghead Rides Again” (1937 entry) Director
- “I Only Have Eyes for You” (1937 entry) Director
- “I Wanna Be a Sailor” (1937 entry) Director
- “Little Red Walking Hood” (1937 entry) Director
- “Picador Porky” (1937 entry) Director
- “Porky the Wrestler” (1937 entry) Director
- “Porky’s Duck Hunt” (1937 entry) Director
- “Porky’s Garden” (1937 entry) Director
- “Uncle Tom’s Bungalow” (1937 entry) Director
- “A Feud There Was” (1938 entry) Director
- “Cinderella Meets Fella” (1938 entry) Director
- “Daffy Duck & Egghead” (1938 entry) Director
- “Daffy Duck in Hollywood” (1938 entry) Director
- “Johnny Smith and Poker-Huntas” (1938 entry) Director
- “The Isle of Pingo Pongo” (1938 entry) Director
- “The Mice Will Play” (1938 entry) Director
- “The Penguin Parade” (1938 entry) Director
- “The Sneezing Weasel” (1938 entry) Director
- “A Day at the Zoo” (1939 entry) Director
- “Believe It or Else” (1939 entry) Director
- “Dangerous Dan McFoo” (1939 entry) Director
- “Hamateur Night” (1939 entry) Director
- “Thugs With Dirty Mugs” (1939 entry) Director
- “Blitz Wolf” (1942) Director
- “The Early Bird Dood It!” (1942) Director
- “Dumb-Hounded” (1943) Director
- “One Ham’s Family” (1943) Director
- “Red Hot Riding Hood” (1943) Director
- “What’s Buzzin’ Buzzard?” (1943) Director
- “Who Killed Who?” (1943) Director
- “Batty Baseball” (1944) Director
- “Big Heel-Watha” (1944) Director
- “Happy-Go-Nutty” (1944) Director
- “Screwball Squirrel” (1944) Director
- “Jerky Turkey” (1945) Director
- “Swing Shift Cinderella” (1945) Director
- “The Screwy Truant” (1945) Director
- “The Shooting of Dan McGoo” (1945) Director
- “Wild and Woolfy” (1945) Director
- “Henpecked Hoboes” (1946) Director
- “Lonesome Lenny” (1946) Director
- “Northwest Hounded Police” (1946) Director
- “The Hick Chick” (1946) Director
- “Hound Hunters” (1947) Director
- “King-Size Canary” (1947) Director
- “Red Hot Rangers” (1947) Director
- “Slap Happy Lion” (1947) Director
- “Uncle Tom’s Cabaña” (1947) Director
- “Half-Pint Pygmy” (1948) Director
- “Little ’Tinker” (1948) Director
- “Lucky Ducky” (1948) Director
- “The Cat That Hated People” (1948) Director
- “What Price Fleadom” (1948) Director
- “Bad Luck Blackie” (1949) Director
- “Doggone Tired” (1949) Director
- “Little Rural Riding Hood” (1949) Director
- “Out-Foxed” (1949) Director
- “Señor Droopy” (1949) Director
- “The Counterfeit Cat” (1949) Director
- “The House of Tomorrow” (1949) Director
- “Wags to Riches” (1949) Director
- “Garden Gopher” (1950) Director
- “The Chump Champ” (1950) Director
- “The Cuckoo Clock” (1950) Director
- “The Peachy Cobbler” (1950) Director
- “Ventriloquist Cat” (1950) Director
- “Car of Tomorrow” (1951) Director
- “Cock-a-Doodle Dog” (1951) Director
- “Daredevil Droopy” (1951) Director
- “Droopy’s Double Trouble” (1951) Director
- “Droopy’s Good Deed” (1951) Director
- “Symphony in Slang” (1951) Director
- “Magical Maestro” (1952) Director
- “One Cab’s Family” (1952) Director
- “Rock-a-Bye Bear” (1952) Director
- “Little Johnny Jet” (1953) Director
- “T.V. of Tomorrow” (1953) Director
- “The Three Little Pups” (1953) Director
- “Billy Boy” (1954) Director
- “Dixieland Droopy” (1954) Director
- “Drag-A-Long Droopy” (1954) Director
- “Homesteader Droopy” (1954) Director
- “The Farm of Tomorrow” (1954) Director
- “The Flea Circus” (1954) Director
- “Cellbound” (1955) Director
- “Deputy Droopy” (1955) Director
- “Field and Scream” (1955) Director
- “The First Bad Man” (1955) Director