THREAD: In 1937, the Nazis exhibited art they deemed “Degenerate” in order to mock it. I was looking through a list of these amazing artists the Nazis hated, and I was ashamed at how many of them I didn’t know, so let’s look at their work together! Here’s Alexej von Jawlensky.



All of these artists were targeted by the Nazis because they were "modernist." In other words, they were pushing boundaries and making experimental work that went beyond straight realism. These boldly colorful works by Arnold Topp are a good example.

I couldn't pick my favorite films from 2023, so instead, here are my favorites from 100 years ago!

Best movie of 1923: SAFETY LAST. Harold Lloyd's masterpiece is just as funny and thrilling as it was a century ago. Best Animated Short of 1923: BEDTIME. These Ko-Ko the Clown cartoons from the Fleischer studio blow my mind whenever I watch them. So much creativity popping out all over the place. This print comes from @cartoonsonfilm.

I love old movie insults. 🧵 More old movie insults I compiled.

I was introduced to so many of these classics from Turner Classic Movies. #SaveTCM

THREAD: Anybody have a favorite bit of water animation?

The best for me might be Disney’s PINOCCHIO from back in 1940. Amazing mix of stunning realism and painterly abstraction. You could only get a look like this in animation. Aleksandr Petrov’s paint-on-glass water in THE OLD MAN AND THE SEA is absolutely gorgeous.

THREAD: One of my favorite movie periods is the Pre-Code Era (1929-1934), the racy period before the Hays Code kept movies of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s under strict moral guidelines. Here are some of my favorite Pre-Code lines, like this one from 1933's MYSTERY OF THE WAX MUSEUM. One of the harshest of all movie insults, delivered by Joan Blondell in the great 1933 musical FOOTLIGHT PARADE.

THREAD: What’s the most bizarre entry in your favorite cartoon series? I thought I’d highlight shorts with popular characters that stand out as particularly weird.

For Bugs Bunny, it’s 1946’s THE BIG SNOOZE, where Bugs hops into Elmer Fudd's head to give him a surreal nightmare. For Daffy Duck, it’s hard to get more nuts than this early entry - 1938’s THE DAFFY DOC - where Daffy goes ballistic at a hospital and chases Porky with a saw to perform surgery. The dialogue that doesn’t match with the mouth movements only strengthens the oddness.

I feel like I should weigh in on the Dr. Seuss controversy: Seuss used ignorant racial stereotypes typical of the period in his early work, but grew more progressive over time. He was drawing staunchly anti-racist cartoons during WWII, a very bold move in the early ‘40s. Even as he was fighting for equality for black Americans in this period, he still indulged in racist depictions of the Japanese. This was, again, extremely common for the period, but it goes against the forward-thinking views expressed in his other political cartoons.

THREAD: Lots of us learned classical music from watching old cartoons, so I’m going to identify the pieces that frequently popped up.

One of the most recognizable is Franz Liszt’s “Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2,” performed by those great piano virtuosos Bugs Bunny and Tom & Jerry. I don’t know who can listen to the famous opera “The Barber of Seville” by Gioachino Rossini without thinking of Bugs Bunny. The way director Chuck Jones synchronizes the slapstick action to the soundtrack is flat-out masterful.

THREAD: Old movie stars caricatured in classic cartoons.

One of the actors most frequently parodied in old Bugs Bunny cartoons is Edward G. Robinson, the gangster movie icon famous for his "yeah, see, yeah" lingo. Side-by-side comparison of the real Edward G. and the cartoon. Hard-boiled Humphrey Bogart, star of CASABLANCA and THE MALTESE FALCON, frequently popped up in Looney Tunes. There's a running gag in 8 BALL BUNNY where Bogey keeps asking Bugs Bunny for money, a reference to his panhandling in THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE. See for yourself:

In honor of the 100 year anniversary of Buster Keaton’s classic short ONE WEEK, which features one of the earliest meta-jokes in film, I’m doing a thread on the history of fourth wall-breaking and self-referential humor in movies and cartoons. Many of the earliest films had actors address the audience, as in a magic act. Perhaps the first to use awareness of the camera for humor were comedians Charlie Chaplin and Fatty Arbuckle. Arbuckle acknowledges that he’s in a “two-reeler” (short film) in a 1918 clip below.

Who is everybody's favorite cartoon character that only appeared in one cartoon? Definitely Joe Bear from Tex Avery's ROCK-A-BYE BEAR is up there for me. Michigan J. Frog, from 1955's ONE FROGGY EVENING, is probably the most beloved and iconic character to only appear in one cartoon. (There was a follow-up in 1995, but he only appeared once in the original run of Warner Bros. cartoons.)

Thread of the top 20 weirdest endings in old cartoons.

20) HA! HA! HA! (1934) This uber-bizarre cartoon climaxes with Betty Boop unleashing laughing gas onto the live-action world, with hilariously disturbing results. I love the way the inkwell’s haunting death is drawn. 19) THE HASH SHOP (1930) The Oswald the Lucky Rabbit cartoons by Bill Nolan, the king of rubberhose, are begging for rediscovery. Only in a cartoon could force-feed a man a horse.

THREAD: Looking for some classic comedies to watch while quarantined? Here are some of my favorites.

You can't go wrong with the slapstick antics of Laurel & Hardy. They bounced off of each other beautifully. Here's a hysterical clip from their film BUSY BODIES. #LaurelAndHardy The Marx Brothers are my heroes. Their brand of anarchic surrealism inspired everything from the Looney Tunes cartoons to the movies of @edgarwright. Their masterpiece is the war satire DUCK SOUP, which includes this legendary sight gag:

THREAD - Live-action footage of classic cartoon voice actors.

Side-by-side comparison of the wonderful Mae Questel - voice of Betty Boop and Olive Oyl - in both animated and live-action incarnations. Mel Blanc was undoubtedly the king of cartoon voices, giving us Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Tweety, and thousands of others. He even used to gladly call kids on their birthdays in their favorite cartoon characters’ voices. This footage of him is brilliant.

The new Tex Avery blu-ray set is INCREDIBLE. Tex Avery is a god, and the restorations are stunning. This classic, nearly 80-year-old scene has never looked better!! Buy it here! And kudos to @WarnerArchive and @jerrybeck for finally making this happen.
wbshop.com/collections/wa…

In honor of Jeff Fowler making his feature debut with SONIC THE HEDGEHOG, I’m doing a thread of animators-turned-live-action directors. One of the earliest is Frank Tashlin, who went from making Looney Tunes cartoons to eye-popping live-action satires. Side-by-side comparison: Possibly the first animator to direct live-action films was Charley Bowers, who made Chaplin-esque comedy shorts loaded with visual invention and incredible stop-motion effects all the way back in the 1920s. This guy’s mind-blowing stuff is begging for rediscovery.

100 YEARS OF ANIMATION. One second of cartoons from every year from 1920 to 2020. #cartoons #animation The compilation covers old masters like Chuck Jones and Tex Avery, as well as modern-day greats like @plymptoons, @funonmars, @CrackMcCraigen, @BradBirdA113, @doiion, @jonniphillips, @pramsey342, @rodneyrothman, @philiplord, and @chrizmillr.

There are few things better than classic cartoons trashing Nazis. (THREAD) A great scene of Bugs Bunny imitating Hitler from 1945's HERR MEETS HARE. The U.S. Marine Corps actually officially inducted Bugs into the force as a private, complete with dogtags. He was discharged at the end of the war as a Master Sergeant.

Thread: All-time great cartoon freakouts.

Humpty Bumpty the camel should've gotten an Oscar for this amazing breakdown from the 1938 Looney Tune PORKY IN EGYPT. My favorite cartoon freakout is Daffy Duck completely losing it in DUCK! RABBIT! DUCK! So much pent-up frustration from years of getting his beak shot off.

Hey guys! It seems like Twitter has gotten pretty depressing lately, so I’d like to liven things up with some LOONEY TUNES. Starting today, I’m going to be posting my thoughts on all 1000 of the original Warner Bros. cartoons, with a gif from each short to go along with it. As an animator, the @WBLooneyTunes cartoons are my biggest inspirations, so I thought it would be fun to take a look at all the great films that brought us Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Wile E. Coyote, etc.