Animators Go Looney Over Skiing When Cartoons Take a Run at Skiing, Mayhem Ensues
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.
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