- Byname of:
- Frederick Bean Avery
- Born:
- February 26, 1908, Taylor, Texas, U.S.
- Died:
- August 26, 1980, Burbank, California (aged 72)
- Notable Works:
- “Red Hot Riding Hood”
Tex Avery
-
Who was Tex Avery?
Tex Avery (1908–1980) was an influential American director of animated cartoons for Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM). At Warner Bros., Avery led a team of animators, including Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett, and strived to make the funniest and best-written cartoons, increasing their pace and filling them with outrageous gags. He redesigned Porky Pig, created Daffy Duck, and gave Bugs Bunny his definitive personality and catchphrase in A Wild Hare (1940).
After a dispute with Warner Bros., Avery headed MGM’s animation unit in 1942, creating 67 cartoons until 1954, including Who Killed Who? (1943) and King-Size Canary (1947). His films often featured a showgirl, a paranoiac wolf, or the dog Droopy, using them to explore themes like survival and fear. Avery's animation style celebrated cartoons as drawings come to life, using exaggeration and irreverence, and targeting adults rather than families.
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What kind of work was Tex Avery known for?
Tex Avery was known for his anarchic animation style. After joining Warner Bros. cartoon studio, he recognized the talent of artists like Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Bob Cannon. Together, they injected speed and snappiness into Warner Bros. cartoons, starting with Gold Diggers of '49 (1936). With Frank Tashlin, Carl W. Stalling, and Mel Blanc, they created cynical, wisecracking, and violent cartoon characters, including Bugs Bunny in Avery’s A Wild Hare (1940). Other characters included Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety and Sylvester, Pepe LePew, Foghorn Leghorn, Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote. Avery later joined Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1942, where his work became even wilder in films such as Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) and Bad Luck Blackie (1949).
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Which famous cartoon characters did Tex Avery help create?
Tex Avery was a key figure in the "Termite Terrace" at Warner Bros. studio, where he recognized the talent of artists like Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Bob Cannon. Together, they injected speed and humor into Warner Bros. cartoons. Avery helped create cartoon characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Tweety and Sylvester, Pepe LePew, Foghorn Leghorn, Road Runner, and Wile E. Coyote. In 1942, Avery moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, where he continued to produce wild cartoons such as Red Hot Riding Hood and Bad Luck Blackie.
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At which animation studios did Tex Avery work during his career?
Tex Avery's animation career included work at multiple studios. He left the Walter Lantz studio at Universal to join Warner Bros., where he directed Gold Diggers of '49 (1936) and helped develop iconic characters like Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Porky Pig. In 1942, Avery moved to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), creating even wilder cartoons such as Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) and Bad Luck Blackie (1949).
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What made Tex Avery’s cartoons different from others at the time?
Tex Avery brought a distinctive and anarchic style to animation, setting his work apart from others of the time. After joining Warner Bros., Avery, along with artists like Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett, introduced a new level of speed and snappiness to their cartoons. This shift began with Gold Diggers of '49 (1936). The team, including Frank Tashlin, Carl W. Stalling, and Mel Blanc, developed cynical, wisecracking, and often violent characters, culminating in Bugs Bunny in A Wild Hare (1940). Later, at MGM, Avery's work became even wilder, exemplified by films like Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) and Bad Luck Blackie (1949).
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How did Tex Avery influence the world of animation and comedy?
Tex Avery significantly impacted animation and comedy by injecting anarchic energy into his work. At Warner Bros.' "Termite Terrace," Avery, along with artists like Chuck Jones and Bob Clampett, introduced a new, fast-paced style. This team created cynical, wisecracking, and often violent characters, most notably Bugs Bunny in A Wild Hare (1940). Other famous characters include Daffy Duck and Porky Pig.
Moving to MGM in 1942, Avery's style became even wilder, exemplified in films like Red Hot Riding Hood (1943) and Bad Luck Blackie (1949).
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Tex Avery (born February 26, 1908, Taylor, Texas, U.S.—died August 26, 1980, Burbank, California) was an influential American director of animated cartoons, primarily for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studios.
(Read Martin Scorsese’s Britannica essay on film preservation.)
Avery’s only formal art training consisted of a three-month course at the Art Institute of Chicago during the late 1920s. He began his animation career in 1929 for cartoon producer Walter Lantz at Universal Studios. For the next six years he worked for Lantz and freelanced his drawing and gag-writing services to other studios. In 1936 he was hired by Leon Schlesinger, the head of the Warner Bros. animation unit, who put Avery in charge of a team of animators that included such notable names in the field as Chuck Jones, Bob Clampett, and Bob Cannon. As Warners did not have the resources to compete with Disney studios on a technical level, Avery endeavoured to make his cartoons the funniest and best-written in the business. He increased the pacing of the films and filled them with outrageous gags. He also redesigned Porky Pig—then the studio’s star character—and created Daffy Duck, whose personality of unmotivated insanity was unprecedented in cartoons. Most important, he gave a definitive personality to Bugs Bunny in his fifth film, A Wild Hare (1940), and was responsible for Bugs’s immortal catchphrase “What’s up, Doc?”
After a heated dispute with Schlesinger over the editing of the Bugs Bunny short Heckling Hare (1941), Avery left Warners and worked briefly for Paramount Pictures before being hired to head MGM’s animation unit in 1942. From 1942 to 1954 he created 67 cartoons for MGM, including several masterpieces of the genre such as Who Killed Who? (1943), Batty Baseball (1944), Screwball Squirrel (1944), and King-Size Canary (1947). A number of his films feature a curvaceous showgirl in revisionist fairy tales (Red Hot Riding Hood [1943], Little Rural Riding Hood [1949]), a paranoiac wolf (Dumb-Hounded [1943], Bad Luck Blackie [1949]), or the slow-talking dog Droopy (Northwest Hounded Police [1946], Droopy’s Good Deed [1951]), who served as foils for the director’s brilliant takeoffs on such themes as survival, control, fear, and the film medium itself.
Avery’s attitude toward animation was opposite that of Walt Disney, who favoured straightforward storytelling, classic draftsmanship, realistic narratives, and a live-action approach to the staging of action. By contrast, Avery celebrated the cartoon as a cartoon; his work never pretended to be anything but a drawing come to life. His films exhibited a love of exaggeration in his use of absurd gags presented at breakneck speed. An irreverence toward cinematic conventions pervades most of his animated films, as when characters comment on the action happening around them, sometimes by holding up a sign (“Silly, isn’t he?”) or by addressing the audience directly. Avery’s self-reflexive, modernist approach emphasized parody and satire, and his layered gags were held together on the screen by sheer manic energy. He brought brashness and an adult sensibility to animation that was aimed not at the family audience but toward amusing himself and his fellow animators and, by extension, all adults.
MGM eliminated Avery’s animation unit in 1954, and he spent most of the rest of his career directing television commercials. During the last two years of his life, he developed gags and characters for the Hanna-Barbera Studio. Avery is second only to Walt Disney in terms of his influence on American animation.