Animation Appreciation: The Legend of Rockabye Point (1955)

I was re-watching this Woody Woodpecker/Walter Lantz DVD boxed set I’ve owned for 20-odd years by this point, and was struck by a short called The Legend of Rockabye Point. It reminded me of an idea I had for this blog, just ’cause at this point I’m not entirely sure what I should be posting here. Not all that long ago, I thought about doing a feature on here where I talk about some old cartoons I enjoy, both popular and on the more obscure side, and highlight some specific moments from them.

Rockabye Point is an optimal short for such a thing. It’s the second (and final) Chilly Willy cartoon that was directed by the great Tex Avery, so naturally it’s a lot of wild fun. In particular, the main thing I was drawn to was a polar bear character featured within it. His design is a personal favorite of mine… it’s fairly simple-looking, but he’s constructed in such a way that makes him so wonderfully malleable and expressive. Rubbery designs will always hold a soft spot in my heart.

The following screen grabs aren’t of the *greatest* quality– I don’t know where my USB-DVD player for my laptop is at the moment (somewhere around here for sure), so I took these frames off of a somewhat low-res copy of the short from YouTube— but I feel like they’re enough to get the point across. If you’re a fan of this type of animation like myself, I think you’ll have a good time here.

His eyes can shift subtly but effectively around his skull when need be. Wouldn't you like to be able to do that?

He looks like Scooby-Doo’s long-lost uncle here (and in a few other drawings).

I love the guard dog’s design as well. How does he stand up? More importantly-- how can I achieve such a physique?

This is a pretty simple drawing but the energy and direction in it is great.

There are a couple of moments in the short where he tiptoes over the dog. This is the aforementioned malleability he possesses at its peak.

Smears!

This is a great angular pose and expression. He looks so relieved, yet so frazzled at the same time, like he’s been through the wringer. Which, by this point in the proceedings, he has.

His face looks like a sock puppet from this angle.

Like his eyes, his mouth is able to shift placement just a little bit, whenever it serves the drawing.

Scooby-Shmoo?

This is the crappiest-quality screengrab I’ll put in this post. If you're not bothered by the resolution here, then that's good news for you! It doesn't go any lower than this.

Yogi?

This is such a fun, fluid pose. You’ve gotta have real control over your drawing to successfully pull off something like this, even though it might look simple at first glance. Screwing something like this up, making it look too messy or janky, is pretty easy to do.

Love this expression/alternate angle we get here. Again, malleable: remember, his mouth wasn’t quite like this in the front-facing pose a few images above (the one where I said he looked like a sock puppet).

More malleability in full force!

Now, my purpose in posting this sort of thing isn’t to merely give all us cartoonists some eye candy– okay, that’s a large part of it– but I’ve always strongly felt that analyzing frames/drawings that appeal to you, just lookin’ at them for a while and taking them in, is a constructive practice. You should try to figure out why exactly they appeal to you.

What’s going on here that draws you to such a thing, and how can you incorporate it into your own art? You can refine your own style by Frankenstein-ing bits and pieces of other artists’ work together and seeing what makes you happy. I'm not suggesting we start using other artists' ideas as a crutch-- my point is that we all start out copying the artists who inspired us in the first place, but eventually you’ve mixed and matched different sensibilities from all sorts of different people, and run them through your own personal filter and points of view, that in the end you end up developing something uniquely you.

This doesn’t just apply to cartoons– even if you’re a cartoonist! I urge everyone to try and broaden their horizons, give yourself your own little personal arts education. You can look at paintings, architecture, frames from films… trust me, it’s beneficial (to your soul!) to branch out. (And I’m not suggesting animation is a “lesser” art form that needs to be supplemented– I have an Honors Bachelors in Animation, obviously I don’t feel that way– I think this principle applies to any kind of artist or creative person, regardless of what kind of medium or genre they’re working in. Try to look beyond your frame of reference.)

Anyways! What exactly drew me to this character, his poses and his expressions so much? The obvious answer would be a term I used earlier on here: malleability. But what of it? He’s heavily shape-based, there’s consistent energy to the way he moves, there’s a kind of looseness to his form that allows him to look how he needs to be, like some kind of art amoeba. But these seem like very broad and vague terms– everyone likes shapes and energy. What specifically gives this bear that? I think the answer seems to be two main things: an emphasis on silhouettes, and a strong line of action with each pose. Keeping those two ideas in mind leads to the dynamic drawings we looked at above. These are fairly basic principles, absolutely– but there are so many principles to keep in mind when it comes to this sort of thing, it’s easy to mistakenly let some crucial ones take a backseat in your mind when you’re working. I could certainly stand to really emphasize those two in my art, to keep reminding myself not to lose sight of it– sometimes I feel as though my poses are too stiff and a bit cluttered/messy; this would be the obvious solution. Something fundamental, but something I’ve often gotten easily distracted away from.

Anyone out there, if anyone at all– thoughts? Do you have anything to add about this? I’d love to hear it.