Monday, June 28, 2010

Tendlar Tongues

There are a handful of drawing earmarks that help to identify Tendlar's style - one has Popeye sticking out his tongue for expression. Dave was the only Popeye animator I'm aware of that used the tongue in that manner. (excluding those who used it to express appetite or hunger)

Did anybody spot the other earmarks of Dave's style from last week's clips??







This frame grab was taken part way through a cross dissolve.

7 comments:

Unca Jeffy said...

I'm really enjoying your in-depth studies of these great cartoons. Keep up the great work!

The Crazy HR said...

Thanks!
I never noticed the tounge!
It's great that Tendlar animated in 1946, I don't remeber any Fleischer/Famous animation director that countinued to animate a lot of years after his promotion.

Bob Jaques said...

Jeff - thanks. As long as someone is interested I'll keep them coming.

Mr.Cro - Tendlar did animate well into the forties though the amount of footage he did tapered off drastically compared to his earlier Popeye cartoons.

J Lee said...

IIRC Tendlar also liked long, borderline-cragly fingers on Olive during his time as head animator on the Popeyes while the Fleischer Studio was still in New York.

Bob Jaques said...

I'll check that out.

Bob Jaques said...

I got this email from Robert Bickert:

"Stuff I've noticed in Popeye cartoons animated by Dave Tendlar's unit. (I'm not sure if Tendlar himself was directly responsible for all of them.)

1. Popeye's hat turned sideways.

2. An extra curved line added to Popeye's and Olive's eyes, so they look like a hybrid of a "dot eye" and a "realistic" eye with white and pupil. I've noticed this as late as "All's Fair at the Fair", when Olive is in the balloon.

3. Popeye's torso is longer, compared to the other units."

Bob Jaques said...

The hat turned sideways is one of Dave's earmarks. For whatever reason he did not like to draw the hat in a front on view and cheated it slightly to the side whenever Popeye turned toward camera. I will put up some frame grabs in an upcoming post.