Animators Go Looney Over Skiing When Cartoons Take a Run at Skiing, Mayhem Ensues
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Animators Go Looney Over Skiing When cartoons take a run at skiing, mayhem ensues. BY JEFF BLUMENFELD Goofy does not live up to his name in what might be the most realistic instructional cartoon on skiing. Part of Goofy’s “How To” oeuvre, The Art of Skiing shows viewers how to dress, load a chairlift and kick-turn, and even features an authentic yodeler on the soundtrack. hat is quickly Popeye crashes off ski jumps. inevitably are dropped on unsus- learned from Wile E. Coyote falls off cliffs with an pecting heads. total immersion ice machine on his back. The Pink And when viewed through 21st into the golden Panther is engulfed in a giant snow- century goggles, some animation age of anima- ball, while Homer Simpson hangs was so politically incorrect as to be Wtion, roughly the 1930s through the from a chair upside down and is downright cringeworthy, from Betty 1970s, is that when Hollywood ani- blasted by a frigid fan gun and fiery Boop resisting an unwanted suitor, to mators put characters on skis, they snowcat exhaust, to name just a few. Tom from Tom & Jerry panting over a suspend the laws of physics. From Each stunt is more gravity-defy- ski bunny, to poking fun at poor Mr. the earliest cartoon depictions to ing than the next one, often relying Magoo for his near-sightedness. a recent animated relaunch on on a host of products, usually from The sight gags are endless. There HBO, skiing is primed for slapstick the Acme Corporation, makers of are drunken St. Bernards, skiers on humor, visual punchlines and lots sticks of dynamite, intricate booby the wooden runners of a rocking and lots of long freefalls. traps, and anvils and bank safes that horse, a dachshund too long for a 24 | September-October 2020 SKIING HISTORY A natural fit for slapstick humor, skiing syncs up perfectly for the misadventures of Wile E. Coyote, perhaps the most hapless victim in animated history. On the flip-side, the Pink Panther (right), ends up the victor, of course, when working at a ski resort in Pink Streaker. A frequent foil in the Pink Panther universe, The Little Man attempts to learn the sport by reading an instruc- tion book. Predictably, he’s sent high into the bluebird sky off ski jumps, cliffs and moguls. It’s just another day on the cartoon slopes. single pair of skis riding atop two visual sport and people get it im- are from the Mutt and Jeff shorts. pairs of them, and characters sailing mediately,” Osborn says. “When Among the 292 animated cartoons off ski jumps with parachutes. someone is going down a hill on produced from 1916-1926 that depict You’ll often see one of the most skis, you don’t have to explain it. I skiing are On Ice (1918), Mutt and Jeff popular of all ski sight gags: down- never went skiing in my life, but I in Switzerland (1919), The Frozen North hill tracks on both sides of a tree, know what it is.” (1919), The Far North (1921), and Any as if the cartoon character went Hours viewing vintage cartoons Ice Today (1922). American cartoonist through unharmed. (A tip of the hat online reveals a world where ski- Paul Terry’s series of animated short to Charles Addams’ famous 1940 car- ing was considered glamorous and a subjects based upon Aesop’s Fables toon “The Skier” in the New Yorker colorful theme for all manner of cold- included ski scenes in On the Ice that set the gold standard.) But in weather comedy and conflict. Popu- (1924), An Alpine Flapper (1926), and cartoonland, no one is seriously in- larized in 1930 during the start of Cracked Ice (1927). jured. Like a classic clown bop bag, Hollywood’s golden era of animation, Those shorts are unavailable, they bounce back up for even more these short-form cartoons ran before so I wasn’t able to confirm their indignities in the next scene. main features, then were eventually ski content. The earliest cartoon Lucille Ball broke her leg skiing broadcast on TV. Many were inspired depiction I could confirm is Krazy while starring in a TV sitcom, and by vaudeville acts such as The Three Kat’s Snow Time (1932). When Krazy her real-world accident (and her Stooges and Laurel and Hardy, according tries to jump in his skates over a subsequent leg cast) was famously to Robert Ito writing in the New York row of barrels, he misjudges the written into that season. “But in Times (May 29, 2020). distance and crashes into the last cartoons, characters get hurt, you barrel, breaking it into slats, two laugh, and you move on to the PANDEMIC ANTIDOTE of which stick to his feet as skis. next gag,” A.B. Osborne, Professor Watching ski cartoons from a couch He slides uncontrollably down the of Animation at Georgia’s Augusta is the perfect antidote to a cranky pond, jumping over small snow University, explains. Covid-19 lockdown. According to mounds. A snowman unzips his What is it about skiing that ap- CartoonResearch.com, the earliest “snow” suit, revealing a skeleton peals to cartoon animators? “It’s a references in titles to ski themes inside, and tosses the snow back www.skiinghistory.org September-October 2020 | 25 at Krazy, who grows into a giant how to dress for the day’s activi- back, then feeding ice cubes into snowball. ties—including devising his own a meat grinder to create a strip of Betty Boop & Pudgy in Thrills and challenge of putting on trousers skiable crushed ice. It works great— Chills (1938) is one of the least circu- when his feet are already in skis. until he skis off a cliff. lated or known of all the Betty Boop Finally reaching the summit by way Back in the 1950s, any infirmity episodes. According to Cartoon- of a chair lift, he demonstrates a was seemingly fair game. In Magoo Research.com, Betty tries to get on kick-turn, and how to get up when Goes Skiing (1954) the opening sets a train to the mountains, but her fallen. He lands backwards and skis up a gag to follow, as the severely way is blocked by a freckle-faced in reverse, which, of course, even- near-sighted Magoo calls out to male doofus who demands, “Hey tually leads to him going off a ski a mountain peak with his best pretty girl. Give me a kiss and I’ll jump—except Goofy forgets to lace attempt at a yodel—but is disap- let you in.” He then stalks her for his ski boots, which separate his pointed to hear no echo. The fact more than six minutes. He eventu- skis from his feet shortly after take- that he’s serenading a picture on ally saves Betty and her dog Pudgy off. He manages to get hold of both the ski lodge wall rather than a real from peril. The dastardly interloper of them, using the skis as glider mountain is the explanation. Magoo finally gets his kiss—from the dog. wings to maneuver between moun- really intends to go skiing—but of Politically correct it’s not. tain peaks, then finally crash-lands course he picks up a St. Bernard Goofy’s The Art of Skiing (1941) is through the window of his own along the way (another ski resort one of the most definitive ski car- room at the ski lodge. Goofy falls stereotype) whom he thinks is his toons in animation history. This instantly sound asleep, to close out nephew Waldo. was the first in Goofy’s acclaimed the perfect day on the slopes. Skiing, and its alluring enthu- “How To” catalogue of shorts in One of the cleverest of all sight siasts, has always offered plenty which the character tackled a rec- gags, which channels Rube Gold- of opportunities for romantic en- ognized sport. Walt Disney Pro- berg, appears in Fast and Furry-ous tanglements. Incongruously, Popeye ductions animators even retained a (1949) a Warner Bros. Looney Tunes appears far from the sea in Ski- professional yodeler to provide an Road Runner cartoon that shows a Jump Chump (1960), jealous that his authentic soundtrack. resourceful Wile E. Coyote strap- sweetheart Olive Oyl is falling for In the cartoon, Goofy explains ping a full-size refrigerator to his Frenchman Gorgeous Pierre, the With Yogi Bear and buddy Boo-Boo Bear residents of “Jellystone Park,” having them slap on skis for an episode or two fits in perfectly with their winter There’s No Scooby Doo and the gang travel to a resort in the 2002 episode wilderness habitat. Creature Like Snow Creature, which features American Olympic bronze medalist Chris Klug playing himself. 26 | September-October 2020 SKIING HISTORY In Magoo Goes Skiing, the character faces many of the typical props in skiing car- toons, including mountain Wile E. Coyote frequently uses the services Tom and Jerry take their battles to the goats, going airborne and a of The Acme Corporation in Road Runner slopes for several episodes, including St. Bernard dog coming to the cartoons, in what inevitably turns into Rube Winter Wackiness and The Ski Bunny, rescue. Goldberg-inspired plots. which brings them to the Swiss Alps. greatest ski jumper in the world. fections of a female kitten dressed than any other category, according The sailorman, of course, eventually as a ski bunny. to Reelgood, a website that analyzes wins his sweetie back with the help No less of a show than The Simp- streaming viewer behavior patterns.