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FOUR
GREATEST CARTOON CHARACTERS |
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I
wanted to call this the Five Greatest Cartoon characters but could only
find four. I was looking for those animated characters that will be
forever fresh as long as cartoons are enjoyed. These are not
one-dimensional characters as are most cartoon characters. Three of
these are animals acting like humans, and the fourth is a human who
often acts like an animal. Here are my candidates for greatness in order
of appearance on movie and TV screens. 2.
DONALD DUCK:
Pure anarchy onscreen, the unsung Marx Brother. Often compared to Daffy
Duck, but Daffy was just screwy. Donald was mean. It wasn’t enough to
win, you had to make your opponent suffer. Fighting back when oppressed
was common in many cartoons but Donald was the oppressor! In many
cartoons everything is fine until Donald decides to pick on some weaker
character, be it an ant, a bee, a bird, Chip and Dale or some other
creature just minding its own business as Donald doesn’t mind his own.
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3.
BUGS BUNNY:
In 1988
we were all mesmerized by the concept behind WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT,
that cartoon characters were real toons who went to work and had lives
outside the confines of the cartoon film. We had seen it before,
however, in the person of Bugs Bunny, who always seemed to be a real
movie star acting his role.
Peter Adamakos is an animation producer and director who founded an animation company 31 years ago. Peter has also been a collector of original animation artwork for over 35 years. His collection has formed the basis of major museum exhibitions in cities like Montreal, New York, Toronto, Tampa, Paris, Atlanta, Brussels and many more. He also teaches in animation. Peter can be reached by e-mail at peter@disada.com or by snail mail at:
Peter Adamakos
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Mickey’s films were fast and
We all know people like Donald, and hope that their meanness will
turn against them as Donald’s does on him. Donald has only himself to
blame. He can dish it out but he can’t take it. Greedy like Daffy
Duck, self-centered like Daffy, but out to harm where Daffy is out to
overcome or humiliate when confronted. Donald never believes in “live
or let live and when his plans backfire, he is incensed and
usually into a blind rage. “I want to fight!” he yells in one of his
earliest films. Truly ahead of his time, Donald is one mixed-up
character, totally selfish and above all, mean. He was an antidote to
all the other characters of his time. As Trevor Howard says in the
1945 film BRIEF ENCOUNTER, in discussing the drabness of post World War
Two existence, “Thank heaven for Donald Duck!”
Starting off, as Tex Avery who directed
Bugs’ first real cartoon has said, a copy of Max Hare in
Disney’s THE TORTOISE AND THE HARE, Bugs soon developed into his own
rabbit in the capable hands of Tex Avery, Bob Clampett, and then with
the best cartoon director of them all, Chuck Jones. Bugs befriends the
weak against people who are like Donald Duck, or defends his own rights.
When they are attacked he responds with panache-- “Of course you know
this means war.” Once his code permits him to retaliate, he does it
with style and relish, knowing each character’s psychological weakness
rather than their physical one, since they are usually bigger and
tougher characters exaggerated into everything from huge
lumberjacks to lumbering sumo wrestlers from Japan that he would
seem to have little chance of defeating. But, unlike other cartoon
characters in the movies, Bugs Bunny has read the script. This allows
him to get mad, then get even, his way, which often means exploiting
the opponent’s psychological weakness with absurdity. This can mean
dressing up in disguises (yes, even in dresses!) as opponents defeat
themselves and Bugs remains in total control of the situation. His
appeal to audiences may have been partially explained by Chuck Jones
when he said that he likes to think he’s Bugs Bunny, but knows he’s
really Daffy Duck..
He
can find the worth of the world in something as simple as a donut and
his advice to his children in his day is the equal to that of other
great philosophers in theirs: Don’t try too hard so that when
you fail you won’t be too disappointed. He’s no eternally
optimistic Ralph Kramden with his crazy schemes. He knows they may well
fail but half tries anyway, thus expressing true nobility, at least
for our times. Obviously his wife sees the good in him, burdened as that
is with all the baggage that goes with it. He doesn’t ask much
from life, so why does it ask so much from him? Television
cartoons come and go with deserved regularity but the Simpsons march on.
It’s gone from Bart’s show to Homer’s. If you want proof, see how
many times in a week someone quotes Homer, or mentions one of his
escapades to sum up the human condition. Last week three different
people did this talking to me on three different occasions, without my
prompting or even mentioning the series. The Simpsons has
become a parable for our times, with Homer as the main focus. Thanks to
Homer and The Simpsons, we know there can be greatness in television
animation, and there’s room for much more of it. There’s
now no excuse.