Customer Reviews

Tex Avery, King of Cartoons (Da Capo Paperback)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Written more than a decade before "Who Framed Roger Rabbit" made it okay for adults to enjoy animated cartoons, Joe Adamson's labor-of-love tribute to cartoon pioneer Tex Avery is a must-have for any scholar of animation. Containing perhaps the only extensive interview with Tex Avery before his death before 1980, the book looks back on the illustrious career of a shy, quiet man whose only ambition was to make people laugh. Walt Disney and Chuck Jones are the two most famous names of the Golden Age of cartoons, but they both owe a debt to Tex Avery. In addition to the personal look at Avery's life, the book contains a complete filmography of Avery's theatrical cartoons, plus interviews with the people Tex worked with over the years. While the 1996 book "Tex Avery" by John Canemaker provided a look at the more tragic side of Avery's career (as well as a wealth of background and behind-the-scenes material), Adamson's book is still the definitive look at the fun-loving, innocent personality of the creator of Droopy Dog, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and the man who broke the shackles of "realism" in animation by declaring, "In a cartoon you can do anything!"

Adamson presents a wealth of information on Avery's work. The only two criticisms I kind find, would be the lack of color photos showing Avery's amazing animation and Adamson's feeble attempts at being critical of Avery's films. I like reading about Avery and the history of animation, I couldn't care less about his personal opinions of the shorts he examines.

This book is worthless because :
- it offers little insight into Avery's genius
- it's short on the man's biography
- it focuses too much on the cartoons
- a large portion of it is made up of interviews with Avery and others; it's easy to write books that way, using text that's already written
- every picture is in black and white; not a single one in colour; would you like to watch Avery's cartoons in b & w ?
- it is printed on mediocre paper; when you're reading a page you are very much aware of the pictures printed on the other side of the page
- it's grossly overpriced