Frederick Bean "Tex" Avery was an American animator, cartoonist, director, and voice actor. He was known for directing and producing animated cartoons during the golden age of American animation. His most significant work was for the Warner Bros. and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studios, where he was crucial in the creation and evolution of famous animated characters such as Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Porky Pig, Elmer Fudd, Droopy, Screwy Squirrel, The Wolf, Red Hot Riding Hood, and George and Junior.
Charles Dawson Butler, professionally known as Daws Butler, was an American voice actor. He worked mostly for the Hanna-Barbera animation production company and the Walter Lantz cartoon studio. He originated the voices of many familiar Hanna-Barbera characters, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Auggie Doggie, Loopy De Loop, Wally Gator, Quick Draw McGraw and Baba Looey, Snooper and Blabber, Dixie and Mr. Jinks, Hokey Wolf, Elroy Jetson, Peter Potamus, The Funky Phantom and Hair Bear. While at Walter Lantz, he did the voices of Chilly Willy, Smedley, Maxie the Polar Bear, Gooney, and Sam in the Maggie and Sam series.
Droopy is an animated character from the golden age of American animation. He is an anthropomorphic white Basset Hound with a droopy face; hence his name. He was created in 1943 by Tex Avery for theatrical cartoon shorts produced by the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. Essentially the polar opposite of Avery's other MGM character, the loud and wacky Screwy Squirrel, Droopy moves slowly and lethargically, speaks in a jowly monotone voice, and—though hardly an imposing character—is shrewd enough to outwit his enemies. When finally roused to anger, often by a bad guy laughing heartily at him, Droopy is capable of beating adversaries many times his size with a comical thrashing.
Red Hot Riding Hood, also known as Red and Miss Vavoom in the 1990s, is an American animated character, created by Tex Avery, who appears in several MGM short films and Tom and Jerry films. She is a fictional nightclub singer and dancer who is usually making all men in the room crazy, especially a Wolf character who—in vain—tries to seduce and chase her. Red debuted in MGM's Red Hot Riding Hood, a modern-day variant of the fairy tale "Little Red Riding Hood".
Screwy Squirrel is an animated cartoon character, an anthropomorphic squirrel created by Tex Avery for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Red Hot Riding Hood is an animated cartoon short subject, directed by Tex Avery and released with the movie Dr. Gillespie's Criminal Case on May 8, 1943, by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. In 1994, it was voted number 7 of The 50 Greatest Cartoons of all time by members of the animation field, making it the highest ranked MGM cartoon on the list. It is one of Avery's most popular cartoons, inspiring several of his own "sequel" shorts as well as influencing other cartoons and feature films for years afterward.
Tom & Jerry Kids is an American animated television series co-produced by Hanna-Barbera and Turner Entertainment Co., and starring the cat-and-mouse duo Tom and Jerry as toddlers. It premiered on Fox on September 8, 1990, airing as the first program of the children's programming block, Fox Kids, and was the second Tom and Jerry TV series to be produced by Hanna-Barbera following The Tom and Jerry Show in 1975.
The Tom and Jerry Comedy Show is an American animated television series produced by Filmation for MGM Television featuring the popular cartoon duo Tom and Jerry. The show first aired on September 6, 1980 on CBS and continued until December 13 the same year. Its episodes were eventually added to syndicated Tom and Jerry packages in 1983. Episodes of the show also occasionally appeared on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.
ToonHeads is an American animation anthology series consisting of Hanna-Barbera, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Warner Bros., and Popeye cartoon shorts, with background information and trivia, prominently about animators and voice actors of the shorts. ToonHeads was originally broadcast on Cartoon Network from October 2, 1992, until November 23, 2003.
Ed Benedict was an American animator and layout artist. He is best known for his work with Hanna-Barbera Productions, where he helped design Fred Flintstone, Yogi Bear, and Huckleberry Hound.
The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio was an American animation studio operated by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) during the Golden Age of American animation. Active from 1937 until 1957, the studio was responsible for producing animated shorts to accompany MGM feature films in Loew's Theaters, which included popular cartoon characters Tom, Jerry, Droopy, Butch, Spike, Tyke, and Barney Bear.
Michael Richard Lah was an American animator of Slovene origin. He is best remembered for his work at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio, primarily as a member of Tex Avery's animation unit. He first worked on Tom and Jerry shorts before going to work on Droopy/Tex Avery shorts.
Cartoon Alley is an American animated children's animated anthology series which aired on Turner Classic Movies on Saturday mornings from 2004 to 2007. It featured classic animated shorts.
Blitz Wolf is a 1942 American animated propaganda short film produced and distributed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. A parody of the Three Little Pigs told via a World War II perspective, the short was directed by Tex Avery and produced by Fred Quimby. It was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Short Subject: Cartoons but lost to Der Fuehrer's Face, another anti-Nazi World War II parody featuring Donald Duck.
Wild and Woolfy is a 1945 animated cartoon short, one of six cartoons in which Droopy was paired with a wolf as his acting partner. It is one of a very few cartoons in the series where Bill Thompson did not voice Droopy, instead Tex Avery himself provided the voice.
Northwest Hounded Police is a 1946 American animated short film directed by Tex Avery, produced by Fred Quimby, and featuring Droopy and Avery's wolf character. A remake of Droopy's first cartoon Dumb-Hounded, the short revolves around the wolf on the run from Droopy, who is trailing the wolf in order to capture him. The title is a play on words on the film North West Mounted Police (1940).
Dumb-Hounded is a 1943 American animated short film directed by Tex Avery and written by Rich Hogan. It was the first cartoon to feature Droopy. The film was released on March 20, 1943 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
Butch is an animated cartoon character created by Tex Avery. Portrayed as an anthropomorphic Irish bulldog, the character was a recurring antagonist in the Droopy shorts, and appeared in his own series of solo shorts as well. His name was changed to Butch in 1955's Deputy Droopy to avoid confusion with Spike from the Tom and Jerry cartoons. All of the original 1940s and 1950s shorts were directed by Avery and Michael Lah at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer cartoon studio. Butch would not appear in new material again until Tom and Jerry: The Magic Ring in 2002.
Tex Avery Screwball Classics is a series of single-disc Blu-ray and DVD sets by Warner Bros. Home Entertainment's Warner Archive unit collecting various theatrical cartoons from animation director Tex Avery during his tenure at the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio's cartoon division between the years of 1942 and 1955. It is the first comprehensive collection of Avery's MGM shorts to be released on home media in North America since The Compleat Tex Avery series of laserdiscs in the 1990s, with many of the shorts having been previously unreleased on DVD or Blu-ray.
