The Great Piggy Bank Robbery Scene 1

(this link was flagrantly stolen from John Kricfalusi's blog.)


While taking screenshots for this scene it became obvious to me just how good of a draftsman Scribner was. Some people think that Robert McKimson was THE great draftsman at Warner Brothers. And while no one is doubting that McKimson was a great draftsman I feel like Scribner gives him a run for his money. For evidence of this, look no further than every single hand drawn in this scene. Each one is confident, solid, simple, clearly composed, and perfectly synched up to the energy of the character. Draftsmanship like that is part of the reason Scribner's animation is so succesful, it has a real weight and volume behind the manic energy. In fact the solidity and weight that describes the majority of the characters features is a big part of the reason that Scribner's animation is so exciting. Keeping the rest of Daffy's body unexaggerated, brings forward that one distorted feature tenfold. Not only that, but the whole time, even the exaggerated features are solidly drawn, and thus, believable. This is why, on some levels, Scribner suceeds where another hero of mine, Jim Tyer, fails. With Tyer's work every part of the body is manic, the arms are out of control, the body is out of control and the head is out of control. This comes out to be thrilling to watch, but with that kind of animation the star is the animator. However, in Scribner's animation, the character was always the star.

Great Hands:












Distorted Features Vs. Solid Ones:













Huge distorted eye and fingers vs. normal arms and body.













Distorted head and hands, normal body and legs

Here is an example of some Jim Tyer animation where everything is out of control, and the characters is somewhat weightless, hurting the characters believability.

Here is what Animator/Animation Expert John Kricfalusi had to say about this scene. (It's a post 2/3rds of the way down called "Specific Acting- Scribner, Clampett, Blanc, Foster")

So there you have it, our first scene analysis. Disagree? Have something to add? Send any and all notions on through to the comments section. And for those of you who are fans of previous comments sections, the Rod Scribner who posted a comment several days ago isn't of known relation to our main man Rod Scribner. Which is a little sad, but it kind of makes me want to start digging around in the library to find Scribner's relatives because the thought of interviewing one was greatly exciting to me. Anyway, that's all for now.