I have recently been watching clips of Tex Avery shorts in order to learn more about methods of exaggeration in 2d animation, alongside good comic timing.
Many of Avery’s films focus around the character of a wolf, recycling old fairly tale stories into a ‘contemporary’ 1940s and 1950s setting. Stylistically, Betty Boop is visible in the characterisation of the female characters such as little red riding hood, however the wolf himself is exaggerated so far beyond the realms of reality in order to achieve comic effect.
For instance, in one Tex Avery short, the idea of a ‘wolf whistle’ is played on to ludicrous exaggerations. The wolf himself is distorted with extreme squash and stretch, whilst Avery uses exaggerated double takes, and smears the wolf to get the impression of rapid and animalistic movement.
Ghost outlines and wiz lines are also clearly used, alongside further extreme distortion, and an excellent double take where the eyes not only pop out, but the pupils leave the wolf’s body altogether.
In this scene, when the singer (Little Red Riding Hood) shouts at the wolf, the wolf’s body fully distort as if being pulled apart by the force of the shout.
I intend to watch more Tex Avery shorts in order to gain more ideas of how characters can be exaggerated in order to gain comic effect, and also make the action and story clear to the audience.